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Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

demand

How many times the word 'demand' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

balustrade

How many times the word 'balustrade' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

male

How many times the word 'male' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

c.p.

How many times the word 'c.p.' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

better

How many times the word 'better' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

joan

How many times the word 'joan' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

branches

How many times the word 'branches' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

voice

How many times the word 'voice' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

its

How many times the word 'its' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

renown

How many times the word 'renown' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

attacked

How many times the word 'attacked' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

writing

How many times the word 'writing' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

fi

How many times the word 'fi' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

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How many times the word 'left' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

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Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

known

How many times the word 'known' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

regrets,--i

How many times the word 'regrets,--i' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

unanswerable

How many times the word 'unanswerable' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

amok

How many times the word 'amok' appears in the text?

Bamboozled 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 Bamboozled by Spike Lee BLACK SCREEN We HEAR the voice of MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X (V.O.) You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, run amok. You've been bamboozled. His followers ROAR. CUT TO TITLE: "BAMBOOZLED" CUT TO CRAWL: WHITE LETTERS ON BLACK WE HEAR the VOICE of PIERRE DELACROIX. DELACROIX (V.O.) Satire. 1a. A literary work in which human vice or folly is ridiculed or attacked scornfully. B. The branch of literature that composes such work. 2. Irony, derision or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity. INT. APARTMENT - MORNING WE are in the living quarters of PIERRE DELACROIX. The windows overlook the Brooklyn Promenade and the majestic lower Manhattan skyline. DELACROIX (V.O.) Bonjour, my name is Pierre Delacroix. I'm a television writer, also a showrunner, a creative person. We see a tall figure move in and around the space. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I'm one of those people responsible for what you view on your idiot box. CLOSE ON Monogrammed cuff sleeve - the initials P.D. 2. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) The problem is not enough of you have been watching. CLOSE ON Monogrammed shirt pocket - the initials P.D. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) With the onslaught of the internet, video and interactive games, nine hundred channels to choose from and whatnot, our valued audience has dramatically eroded. CLOSE ON Razor cuts a path through a white foam on a black face. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) To put it in much more simple terms... Delacroix YELLS. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. CLOSE ON The handsome face of Pierre Delacroix. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) People tuning out by the millions. Delacroix turns to the CAMERA and addresses US. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Which is not good. EXT. TENEMENT - LOWER EAST SIDE - MORNING The tenement building is boarded up, condemned, bombed out, but a home, a shelter nonetheless. INT. TENEMENT - MORNING People to our surprise live in here. It is a commune. The homeless, people who have been left out, forgot about, written off, and don't matter. The fringes of society. CHEEBA, a skinny Puerto Rican male, tries to wake a slumbering body under a mass of old newspapers. 3. CHEEBA Yo, let's get to it. You don't dance, we don't eat. Simple as that. The mass begins to move. CHEEBA (CONT'D) That's right. We slow. We blow. We snooze. We lose. INT. CNS TOWER - MORNING MANRAY, a young African-American dread-lock male, and Cheeba are getting set up in front of the entrance to the CONTINENTAL NETWORK SYSTEM building. CNS is one of the fledgling, upstart new networks, trying to battle with ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WB, and UPN. ANGLE ON Entrance. Cheeba is putting the portable floor down on the sidewalk. Manray sits on the curb, taking the sneakers off and putting on his tap shoes; bottle caps are on the soles of the shoes instead of real taps. CHEEBA Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I know everybody is in a hurry to work, ready to begin another day in this rat race. But don't sleep us. I'm Cheeba and I introduce to you the world renown MANRAY, the man with the educated feet. Manray takes a small bow. A few, not many, people have stopped to look. CHEEBA (CONT'D) As we continue our world wind tour, we would like to give you a little somethin', somethin' before you go off to make that money. I give you Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, who starts to do his thing, and when he starts doing his thing attention must be paid. ANGLE ON Crowd, as Manray gets busy, people gather to watch. ANGLE ON 4. Delacroix, he is about to walk into the CNS building but stops to check out Manray. CLOSE ON Manray, he pounds out some intricate steps and freezes at the end of the move. ANGLE ON Crowd, who applaud as Cheeba unfolds a brown shopping bag and holds it out in front of them. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Thank you very much but please don't go without giving us some cheddar, cheese, money. We prefer two's than fews. People are digging into their pockets. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I would like to add that both of us are homeless. Not that it means anything. A WOMAN is about to dump some change in the brown paper bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) I said homeless. Ladies and gentlemen. Senorita, do you know what that means? Cheeba looks at her and she quickly pulls out a 5-spot from her purse and drops it into the bag. CHEEBA (CONT'D) Muchos gracias. Cheeba works his way over to Delacroix. DELACROIX Good morning, Cheeba. CHEEBA Good morning to you, Mr. Delapot. DELACROIX De-la-croix. CHEEBA Y'know what I mean. Got a gig yet for Manray and I yet? 5. DELACROIX Not yet. Delacroix hands Cheeba a ten dollar bill. CHEEBA Gracias. Delacroix moves towards the revolving doors of CNS. DELACROIX Manray, Sloan says you're too talented to be dancing on the street. MANRAY Well do something about it. INT. ELEVATOR - MORNING Delacroix is the lone person of color in the elevator. INT. CNS - MORNING Delacroix gets off the elevator, takes out his ID, slips it through the scanner and enters the reception area of CNS. DELACROIX Good morning, Marie. MARIE It's not gonna be a good morning for you if you don't get into Dunwitty's staff meeting. DELACROIX What staff meeting? MARIE The staff meeting that started 30 minutes ago. INT. CONFERENCE ROOM - MORNING Delacroix walks, or better yet, slithers into the staff meeting that is already in progress. TWENTY WRITERS sit around an oval table, all are Caucasian except Delacroix, again he's the lone person of color, the "fly in the buttermilk." DUNWITTY, Senior V.P. of the Entertainment Division of CNS looks at Delacroix and waits for him to sit down before he continues. 6. DUNWITTY Monsieur Delacroix, this very important meeting commenced... Dunwitty looks at his Rolex Chronograph - Daytona Model. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) ...exactly thirty-two minutes ago. DUNWITTY I'm sorry I'm late. DUNWITTY Do you know how much information can be dispensed in one minute alone? DELACROIX I didn't find out about this very important staff meeting until... Delacroix looks at his Jaeger-LeCoultre. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Four minutes ago. DUNWITTY So are you telling me everyone knew about this get-together except you? DELACROIX I wasn't told about this until Marie informed me as soon as I got off the elevator. All eyes are on Delacroix and he feels it. DUNWITTY People, you can attempt to pull a Rodman like our friend Delacroix, but I guarantee you'll be sent packing just like him. Dunwitty via remote turns off the lights and turns on an overhead projector. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) These are the standings. Read 'em and weep. As you can plainly see the Continental Network System is languishing. CLOSE ON Ratings charts. 7. DUNWITTY (O.S.) (CONT'D) Look at 'em people. We are BOOTY, CA CA. We are DOO-DOO. Doo-doo on a stick, if you will. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I do not like to be the laughing stock of the broadcast industry. I have pride and people, you better start getting some too. These numbers have to go up. Dunwitty turns on the lights. JOAN, one of the writers, raises her hand. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Question? JOAN So what do you want us to do? DUNWITTY What I want everyone to do is write some material that is FUNNY. The junk you've been writing is about as funny as a dead baby. It's not funny, it's not new. It's not sexy. It, it, it... CLOSE ON Fish. FISH Sucks. ANGLE ON Conference room. DUNWITTY SUCKS. Thank you, Fish. This meeting is over but I want everyone to seriously think about what I said and how you can deliver. People scurry out. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) Monsieur Delacroix, in my office now. 8. INT. HALLWAY - MORNING The writers, beat down, come out of the conference room and move past SLOAN HOPKINS, a highly attractive African- American "sistuh." Delacroix sees Sloan and holds her arm as they walk. He talks under his breath. SLOAN How was it? DELACROIX Why didn't you tell me about this staff meeting? SLOAN Nobody told me anything. DELACROIX What good are you if you don't tell me stuff like this? SLOAN It wasn't my fault. If I would have known, I would have known. INT. DUNWITTY'S OFFICE - MORNING Delacroix enters his corner office, which has huge action photos of ALI, JORDAN, GRIFFEY, TYSON, AARON and JABBAR on his walls, it is also decorated with African art throughout. ANGLE ON Office. Dunwitty looks at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking mid-town Manhattan. DUNWITTY Do you know what C.P. Time is? DELACROIX C.P. Time is Colored People's Time. The stereotypical belief that Negroes are always late. That Negroes have no sense of time - time except when it comes to music or dance. They both laugh. DUNWITTY Let's sit down over there. 9. Dunwitty and Delacroix sit on the sofa. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I'm sorry about my blowup but I have to have a whipping boy every meeting. DELACROIX I understand. But again, in all honesty I was not informed. DUNWITTY Forget it. I believe you're my most creative person I've got on staff. You're hip. You know what's happening. I got some corny white boys and girls writing for me. Delacroix doesn't join him in his laughter because he doesn't know how to take that comment or where Dunwitty is headed with it. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) I understand Black culture. I grew up around black people all my life. If the truth be told I probably know "niggers" better than you, Monsieur Delacroix. Please don't get offended by my use of the quote-unquote N word. I got a black wife and three bi-racial children, so I feel I have a right to use that word. I don't give a damn what Spike says, Tarantino is right. Nigger is just a word. If Dirty Ole Bastard can use it every other word so can I. DELACROIX I would prefer you not use that word in my presence. DUNWITTY NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. NIGGER. Delacroix pounces on top of Dunwitty like a cat on a mouse and gives him a quick BROOKLYN BEAT DOWN. DELACROIX Say it again. C'mon, say it again. CLOSE ON Dunwitty. He's a bloody pulp. 10. CLOSE ON Delacroix. He straightens his tie. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Who's a nigger now? POW. This is a fantasy in Delacroix's mind. We go BACK TO REALITY. Everything's how we left it. DUNWITTY The material you've been creating is too white bread. White people with black faces. The Huxtable's, Cosby, revolutionary. But that's dead. We can't go down that road again. DELACROIX I don't agree. The Negro middle class does exist, and it's rich material for a dramatic series or sitcom. DUNWITTY I'm telling you it's not. He goes to his desk, picks up Delacroix's scripts and starts throwing them one by one against the window. DUNWITTY (CONT'D) The middle class black family moves into a white suburban enclave. The middle class black family moves into a small Southern town that is run by the KKK. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black father raises his teenage daughter. The middle class single black mother raises her teenage son. And so on and so forth. It's too clean, too antiseptic... DELACROIX ...to white? I still feel all of my scripts would make good shows. 11. DUNWITTY Delacroix, wake up, brother man. The reason why they didn't get picked up was because nobody - and I mean NOBODY - niggers and crackers alike wants to see that junk. DELACROIX I've never been given a fair shot. DUNWITTY You got your head stuck up your ass with your Harvard education and your pretentious ways. Brother man, I'm blacker than you. I'm keepin' it real and you're frontin', trying to be white. DELACROIX I'm an oreo, a sell out? Because I don't aspire to do HOMEBOYS FROM OUT OF SPACE, SECRET DIARY OF DESMOND PFEIFFER, A PJ's or some as you might put it, some "nigger" show? I'm a Tom? I'm whiter than white and you're blacker than black? Is that what you think? DUNWITTY That's exactly what I think. I want you to create something that people want to see. Let's be honest, the majority of the people in the country are deaf, dumb and blind and I'm including 35 million African-Americans. You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water. DELACROIX I'm not sure if I can deliver what you want. DUNWITTY You will or you'll be back at BET so quick you'll never know what hit you. I need a mid-season replacement and pronto. It will be on the fast track. 12. DELACROIX What is it you want from me? Some plantation follies? Some sitcom that takes place on a watermelon patch? Some show that follows four nigger generations of junkies and crackheads? You want me to go back to the ante bellum days? DUNWITTY Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a show that will make headlines, that will have millions and millions of households tuned in, glued to their televisions every week. I want advertisers dying to buy on this show. I'm gonna squeeze this show out of you if it kills you. EXT. TENEMENT - NIGHT WE SEE a street lamp, and coming out of it are some wires. WE FOLLOW the wires into a tenement building. The residents have tapped into a street light courtesy of CON EDISON for power. INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT Cheeba stands in front of the makeshift kitchen, which includes a hot plate, and prepares a gourmet meal of a tasty Spanish dish. The clean apartment is furnished with stuff people have thrown out that they picked up on the street. MANRAY I'm starvin' like Marvin. CHEEBA My world famous, famous world Arroz con pollo will be ready very soon. MANRAY Hurry up, I wanna watch HBO. CHEEBA Did we get our bill yet? They both laugh. MANRAY I guess that will come with the rent, gas, and Con Ed bills, too. 13. CHEEBA Ahh, the luxuries of life. MANRAY Yo, check it. This is good and all that but one day soon I want to have much Benjamins so I can have a nice crib and pay all my bills. You hear me. CHEEBA Chill, I'm the brains behind this outfit. MANRAY And I'm the feet. CHEEBA Yo, you gotta show some patience. You want me to snap my fingers and presto chango - you're an overnight sensation. Son, there is no such thing. MANRAY I'm tired of waiting. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT He sits in front of a large flat-screen television, watching the Yankee game and eating his takeout Chinese food. On top of the monitor, he has attached a sign that reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT She sits in front of her television, hand on remote, flipping channels and eating takeout Chinese food. INT. CHEEBA AND MANRAY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT They both are devouring the chicken with rice, as they watch bootleg HBO. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Delacroix sits at his desk, a ream of white bond paper in front of him, a box of number-two pencils and an electric pencil sharpener. DELACROIX (V.O.) I was never good at performing under the gun. 14. CLOSE Pencil after pencil gets inserted and sharpened to a knife like point. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Well, this wasn't a gun, it was a bazooka and it was pressed dead blank right against my dome. CLOSE ON Delacroix, staring at the blank ream of paper. It is very intimidating. CLOSE ON Monitor. Bernie Williams is at the plate for the New York Yankees. CLOSE ON Sign atop monitor. Again, it reads "FEED THE IDIOT BOX." INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT She too is blank. A screen saver bobs and weaves on her laptop. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix grabs a pencil and put it to paper. CLOSE ON Paper. He doodles. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray screws out the bare light bulb which is the sole source of illumination and lays down onto his mattress on the floor. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT Sloan closes her laptop and jumps into her bed. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT Delacroix is already in the bed, the lights are out. CLOSE ON Delacroix, who's wide awake. 15. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Manray and Cheeba are both sound asleep. CLOSE ON Cheeba, he has a sheet pulled over his head. CLOSE ON Manray, who's sawing logs, snoring loudly. OFF-SCREEN, WE HEAR A RUCKUS, A BIG COMMOTION. VOICES yelling. Police sirens, cars and trucks. ANGLE ON Apartment. Cheeba and Manray run to the window and look out. THEIR POV The street is filled with police cars, vans and wagons. Helicopters hover overhead with their searchlights on the building. CHEEBA Oh snap! It's a raid! Cheeba and Manray jump into their cloths. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cops in riot gear storm into the tenement. A police chief barks over a speaker system. POLICE CHIEF Please evacuate this building. All of you are illegal residents of this condemned building. Please leave immediately, by order of the Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani. INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Stairwell. It's bedlam. The hundreds of SQUATTERS who have been living here all making a bad dash trying to flee the NYPD as they "bumrush the show." ANGLE ON Floor. Cheeba and Manray try to push against the crowd. 16. CHEEBA Not this way. Out through the fire escape. The COPS are running up the staircase. People try to escape with as many of their belongings that they can hold. MANRAY My tap shoes. INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT DELACROIX EUREKA!! He jumps out of bed. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT SLOAN Oh my God!!! She too jumps out of bed. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING It is a MADHOUSE, BEDLAM. It's PANDEMONIUM. The Squatters are being seized as soon as they come out of the tenement. Searchlights go back and forth, as the cops make their arrests and fill the "Paddy" wagons. ANGLE ON Street. The Squatters are like ROACHES in a dark kitchen at night, scrambling as the lights turn on. Do you remember those old "RAID" commercials. "Let's scram, IT'S RAID!!!" INT. DELACROIX'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The phone rings. CUT TO SPLIT SCREEN CU OF DELACROIX AND SLOAN Delacroix picks it up. They yell in unison. DELACROIX Manray! SLOAN Manray! 17. DELACROIX How did you know? SLOAN It hit me like a ton of bricks. DELACROIX How can this be? You and me at the same time, the exact same thought. It's scary. SLOAN The idea was out there in the universe. Now what? INT. TENEMENT BUILDING - NIGHT Cheeba and Manray run down the fire escape and just elude a group of cops. ANGLE ON Fence. They lay still as the Fuzz run past them. MANRAY We ran out without my shoes and the floor. I gotta get my stuff. What about our savings? CHEEBA Are you crazy? The joint is crawling with cops now. You wanna go to Rikers? Go to the hoosegow? Manray looks at his friend, he knows he is right, at least this time. EXT. CNS BUILDING - EARLY MORNING Delacroix and Sloan sip hot coffee as they stand in front of their office building. DELACROIX Manray was under our nose the whole time. SLOAN Do you know how you will use him? DELACROIX Not yet, but this thing will never get made. 18. SLOAN You lost me. DELACROIX Dunwitty wants a Coon show. And that's what I'm going to give him, it's going to be so racist, so negative, he won't have the balls to put it on the air. Hence I'll prove my point. SLOAN What point is that? DELACROIX The point being that him, the networks don't want Black people on television unless they are buffoons. SLOAN Sounds risky to me. DELACROIX You getting cold feet? SLOAN I'm in till the end. DELACROIX Good. I'm going to need your support. SLOAN Can't you just quit? Walk away? DELACROIX And lose out on my money? The only way I get paid is if I get fired. And that's what I intend to do. EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEW DAY It is pouring rain and Delacroix and Sloan huddle under an umbrella. DELACROIX (V.O.) Everything was going according to plan. I was working on the outline. Dunwitty was off my back for now. CLOSE ON Delacroix. 19. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) But there was a catch. A big catch. CLOSE ON Sloan. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) Manray and Cheeba were nowhere to be found. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL STATION - DAY Manray and Cheeba are soaking wet. They stand together in a doorway, trying to stay out of the elements. ANGLE ON Street. They run in the downpour. DELACROIX (V.O.) It was like they had disappeared off the face of the earth. CLOSE ON Cheeba. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) I had no contact numbers, no address, no beeper. CLOSE ON Manray. DELACROIX (V.O.) (CONT'D) No nuthin', no clues... EXT. CNS BUILDING - NEXT MORNING It is a sunny and pleasant morning. Again, Sloan and Delacroix hold vigil. SLOAN Maybe something happened to them. Maybe they're lying in an alley bleed to death. DELACROIX Manray better not be bleeding to death. I need him. After we're done he can do whatever he wants to do, until then, he's ours. 20. SLOAN You're beginning to sound like Dunwitty. EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING - MORNING Manray and Cheeba stand across the street from their former residence. All of the doors and windows have been boarded up and two cops stand watch. They both look defeated, dirty and hungry. INT. CNS LOBBY - NEXT DAY Sloan gets off the elevator and sees a skirmish. TWO SECURITY GUARDS are trying to escort Manray and Cheeba out of the building. CHEEBA His name is Delapoint. SECURITY GUARD #1 WE have no one by that name. CHEEBA Delapot. Dela-something. SECURITY GUARD #2 De La Soul ain't here either. Let's go. Out. Off the premises. Manray turns around and sees Sloan. MANRAY Sloan! She knows us. The security guard stops. SLOAN It's alright. They are associates of Mr. Delacroix. SECURITY GUARD #1 Sorry, Ms. Hopkins. They both walked in off the street without an appointment. SECURITY GUARD #2 Do you need an escort? SLOAN That won't be needed. 21. INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY He sits in front of his TV and watches a tape of the old "Amos 'n' Andy" show. Sloan leads Manray and Cheeba in. DELACROIX Eureka! Where've you been? He hugs them both. DELACROIX (CONT'D) Sloan and I have been looking all over for you. CHEEBA You'd take no offense if we called you DeLa for short? DELACROIX No offense. CHEEBA Manray needs a job. Delacroix smiles at Sloan. MANRAY We got evicted from our home. We've both been on the streets for the last week. CHEEBA We was coming to see you. MANRAY If it's not too much trouble could you order us some food? CHEEBA We're starving. DELACROIX I apologize. What would you like to eat? Anything you want. TIME CUT INT. DELACROIX'S OFFICE - DAY A feast of McDonald's is taking place. Cheeba and Manray are stuffing Big Macs, Fish Deluxes and large french fries into their mouths. They were famished. 22. DELACROIX I have this concept for a TV pilot. There's no guarantee it will get made but regardless, you'll still make some money. CHEEBA How much? DELACROIX First things first. I have to know if Manray is up for this. MANRAY What do I have to do? DELACROIX Some tap dancing, some singing. MANRAY Where do I sign? CHEEBA What kind of show is this gonna be? DELACROIX Different. MANRAY How different? DELACROIX Trust me. Of course I still have to pitch it to my boss, but we'll have an answer one way or the other. MANRAY DeLa, I'm aboard. As long as I get to hoof and get paid too!!! DELACROIX That's right. Money turns the wheel. CHEEBA What about in the mean time? Not the in between time? DELACROIX You'll both get an advance and you can stay with me. MANRAY Bet. 23. DELACROIX I would like to change your name. MANRAY To what? DELACROIX You're now Mantan. MANRAY Mantan? I don't even care as long as I'm dancing. Which reminds me, I need some new kicks. EXT. BROADWAY - DAY Manray holds two Capezio shopping bags of shoes as he walks next to Sloan. MANRAY I never had a really real pair before. SLOAN You've never had any formal training, either? MANRAY Not a class, not a thing, just picked stuff up by myself. SLOAN I wish I had your natural talent. God only makes that visit once in a while. MANRAY You sing and dance? SLOAN A little. I just graduated from NYU film school. Cinema studies. MANRAY So what's up with you and DeLa? SLOAN What do you mean? MANRAY Are you and him kicking it? Knocking boots. Y'knowwhatI'mtalkin'bout. 24. SLOAN No, we're not knocking boots. I got this internship while I still was at NYU, DeLa was impressed with my get up and go and hired me to be his assistant. MANRAY I'm sure that was the only thing he was impressed with. You look beautiful like that. SLOAN If that was suppose to be a compliment, I thank you. MANRAY You're welcome. You shouldn't give up on performing. SLOAN Why do you say that? You've never seen me. MANRAY I think that would probably make you the happiest. When I'm hoofing, I mean really doing my thing, hitting it, nothing compares to that feeling in the world. SLOAN I envy you. That's the way I want to feel about my work. EXT. HARLEM STREET - NIGHT Sloan walks from the subway to her block. ANGLE ON Street. A huge black Chevy Suburban follows her, all the windows are tinted jet black, you cannot see it all into it. She notices the vehicle and starts to walk faster. ANGLE ON Corner. As Sloan tries to cross at the corner, the Suburban pulls up in front of her, blocking her path. ANGLE ON Suburban. A tall black man jumps out of the Chevy. This is BIG BLACK. 25. BIG BLACK Li'l Sister. ANGLE ON Corner. SLOAN You idiot. You almost gave me a massive coronary. BIG BLACK I didn't mean to scare you like that. SLOAN Well you did. BIG BLACK Give me some? SLOAN I'm not huggin' you in the middle of the street. You must be crazy, Julius. BIG BLACK Whoa, hold up li'l sis'. I done told you 'bout that. Julius ain't my name, you better recognize Hopkins was our slave name. My true name is... SLOAN I'm not callin you Big Black Africa. Mommy and Daddy named you Julius. BIG BLACK BIG BLACK is the first name and AFRICA is the last. He hugs her, she becomes lost in his huge arms and laughs. INT. SLOAN'S STUDIO APARTMENT - NIGHT Big Black is rummaging through his sister's refrigerator. BIG BLACK Damn, Sis, you don't keep no food up in here in dis' piece. SLOAN I order out mostly. So what do I owe this visit to? 26. BIG BLACK My group we need some exposure. Was wondering if you could hook a brother up? SLOAN Hook you up? The Mau-Mau's? You must be smoking. Why in the world would I want to hook up a bunch of red, black and green flag-waving pseudo revolutionairies? BIG BLACK So now I see where you're coming from. Just because we ain't rapping about Gucci, Timberland, Rolex, Benz, Cristal, ho's and bitches, we're pseudo. SLOAN Who are you revolting against? BIG BLACK We're revolting against the powers that be, that been enslaving the minds and hearts of all people of color. And we won't stop rapping till we bring about the overthrow of the government of the U.S. of A. SLOAN Please. BIG BLACK If you were really down you would get us together with that boss of yours. What's his name again? SLOAN Delacroix. BIG BLACK Yeah, him. SLOAN What makes you think he would write a show about the Mau-Mau's. BIG BLACK C'mon, why not? The Monkees had a show. Look at all that other junk that's on TV. We got underground cult following. 27. SLOAN You don't have the demographics. BIG BLACK So are you telling me that you wouldn't even introduce me to Delacroix or set up a meeting? I'm talking 'bout me, your only brother, ya own flesh and blood, hook a brother up, youknowwhatI'msayin'. SLOAN That'swhatI'msayin'. I'm not blowin' my young career, brother or no brother, for you or anybody else. BIG BLACK There is a name, a term for your kind, the likes of

rich

How many times the word 'rich' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

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How many times the word 'feed' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

window

How many times the word 'window' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

world

How many times the word 'world' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

rue

How many times the word 'rue' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

progressing

How many times the word 'progressing' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

who

How many times the word 'who' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

fishing

How many times the word 'fishing' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

mammas

How many times the word 'mammas' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

sticks

How many times the word 'sticks' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

both

How many times the word 'both' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

mystery

How many times the word 'mystery' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

script

How many times the word 'script' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

buggy

How many times the word 'buggy' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

tiny

How many times the word 'tiny' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

evil--

How many times the word 'evil--' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

bunch

How many times the word 'bunch' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

animals

How many times the word 'animals' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

planning

How many times the word 'planning' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

someone

How many times the word 'someone' appears in the text?

Beasts of the Southern Wild 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 BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin FINAL DRAFT Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that surely no one lives here. But then, a light goes on. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of unmistakable wisdom. Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice. Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention. CUT TO: EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant slumbering pot-belly pig. Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife- beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it, wonderful, is this the source of the thunder? With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly. We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART. CUT TO: EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard. Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity. 2 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) All the time, everywhere, everything's organs be beatin' and squirtin' and talkin' to each other in ways I can't understand. Mosta the time they probably just sayin' "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop," but sometimes they talkin' in codes. Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells- MAN'S VOICE (O.S.) Get up, get out of here! We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room. A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris and discarded appliances. A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39). WINK Get your pants on, man! Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15 feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer cans. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the door of her house. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the grill. He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food. He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A BELL RINGS. 3 WINK Feed up time! Feed up! Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T- shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She echoes her Daddy. HUSHPUPPY Feed up time! Feed up! INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands, getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks really yummy. Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around her. A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws corn to the chickens. WINK Share with the dogs. Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body. This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a handsome young pup. EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh. They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck". They look out to where the water goes all the way to a monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall. Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with a peaceful and confident disdain. Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression. 4 WINK Ain't that ugly over there? He takes a long pull on his beer. WINK (CONT'D) We live in the prettiest place on earth. Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern world. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy says, up above the levee, on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies. They built the wall that cuts us off. EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They think we all gonna drown down here. But we ain't goin' nowhere. CUT TO: EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of HOLLERING people. They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward WHOOPING and SHOUTING. Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and smack in wild, ritualistic fashion. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The Bathtub's got more holidays than the whole rest of the world. 5 EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to themselves that makes a lot of noise. They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives, downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon. We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class, race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place of true and honest unity. Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck bounces them down a dirt road. They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub Storm Season!" Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes, metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs clamber on top. Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into the mouths of the crowd. Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy always saying, that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got. EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods. Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with one another. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They only got holidays once a year. 6 Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper, are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a cock-fight. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) All babies to the race! Come up to the starting line! The baby race is about to begin. Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of something she probably shouldn't have. A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it. Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one brave soul toddles towards victory. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers, they got their babies stuck in carriages, and chickens on sticks and all that kind of stuff. Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked nosed, handsome devil. A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest, victorious. The crowd goes wild. EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night fishing in the Bathtub. Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one another for dear life. Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain anything, but we sense there is a system of education in place here. 7 Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking it's last breaths of air. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) One day, the storm's gonna blow, the ground's gonna sink, and the water's gonna rise up so high, there ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT. EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of reckless esoteric ritual. The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding. We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel viscerally, that it could be. Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls. Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh with sheer joy. Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward, and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming mortars. Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces. He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display. Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her. They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their joy and their history to the last man. 8 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) But me and my Daddy, we stay right here. We who the earth is for. Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out. Black letters slam down. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for life engulfs the screen. WOMAN'S VOICE Meat. A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36). She points to three students, pushing their heads with her finger, each time announcing: MISS BATHSHEBA MEAT. MEAT. MEAT. The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes- her educational tools. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Every animal is made out of meat. I am meat, ya'll asses meat. Everything is part of the buffet of the universe. Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) This here, is an Aurochs. Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like animals bearing down over them. 9 MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) A fierce, mean creature that roamed the earth back when we all lived in caves. They would gobble the cave- babies down right in front of their cave-parents. And the cavemen couldn't do nothing about it, because they were too poor, too stupid, too small. Who here thinks the Cavemen were sitting around crying like a buncha pussies? Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand. Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to the floor, and make a run for it. Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it back into the vat. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Y'all better think about that. Cause any day now, the fabric of the universe is coming unraveled. The ice caps gonna melt, the water's gonna rise, and everything south of the levee's going under. She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The Bathtub." MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a whole bunch of water. Y'all better learn to survive. A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Way back in the day, the Aurochs was king of the world. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real. 10 We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and volume. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) If it wasn't for giant snowballs, and the iced age. I wouldn't even be Hushpuppy, I would just be breakfast. The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is an Aurochs. INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua, follows behind. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up? Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) Daddy? Nothing. She goes inside. The house is empty. She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing. EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking into the distance. HUSHPUPPY DADDY!? Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS. 11 INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress... HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy and nobody. They got to live in the woods, and eat grass, and steal underpants. Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink. EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet the day. Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko. HUSHPUPPY Daddy? Daddy? No response. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) If Daddy don't get home soon, it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat floating on the bayou. Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her. Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small motor boat tied off on the side of the school. MISS BATHSHEBA You need a ride, boo? HUSHPUPPY My Daddy's coming to pick me up. MISS BATHSHEBA How about food or something, you hungry? 12 Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'. Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not the type to coddle either. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Alright, well suit yourself. Miss Bathsheba motors away. Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house. The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is the domain of a child at loose ends. Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and plugs in the Christmas lights. HUSHPUPPY (V.O) Everything we still got from Mamma, we keep in my house. We push in on a shrine to her mother: A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A child's drawing of a beautiful lady. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D) Daddy says, the first time she looked at me, it made her heart beat so big, that she thought it would blow up. That's why she swam away. Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in the dining area. Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl. Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for feeding herself. She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger. 13 MARIETTA'S VOICE Hi my sweet baby. HUSHPUPPY Hi momma. MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her. Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove. MARIETTA'S VOICE Hushpuppy what you doing there? You being good like I taught you? HUSHPUPPY Yes, mamma. Hushpuppy turns on the gas. Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it. She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL. CUT TO: MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her mom. Marietta's Voice sings to her. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're good, you make me happy / you're good, you make me happy. HUSHPUPPY That's pretty Mamma. MARIETTA'S VOICE You're pretty Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like the bubbling lava at the center of the earth. She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung across the yard. 14 WINK (O.S) Get out of my way you fat animal! Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water, and runs to greet Wink, EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water everywhere in her excitement. HUSHPUPPY Daddy! Daddy, Daddy! Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I learned lots of stuff while you gone. If I drink all this here I can burp like a man. Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking. Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around. Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not right here. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) How come you wearing a dress? Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off violently. WINK Leave me alone, Man. She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on. HUSHPUPPY You wearing a bracelet too? WINK Go in your house, you wouldn't understand. HUSHPUPPY I wanna come in your house. 15 Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt. HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D) I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE! Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her. WINK GO AHEAD! Hushpuppy tears off. Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo. INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment, and turns the burner up. Smoke billows. Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE EXPLOSION. Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median. The stove is on engulfed in flames. Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box. INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY The walls of the box are decorated with years of her drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled. She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an island with a sun and a palm tree. She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled with black smoke, flickering flames. WINK (O.S.) (panicking from inside) Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy where you at!? Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box, filling it up. 16 HUSHPUPPY (V.O) If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten, I'm recording my story for the scientists of the future. Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's panicked fury intensifies outside. WINK (O.S) HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!? HUSHPUPPY (V.O) In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know that once there was Hushpuppy and she lived with her Daddy in the Bathtub. Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them out the door to safety. Hushpuppy coughs. Wink has heard. He looks toward the box. WINK BOSS LADY? Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door. WINK (CONT'D) Don't you run away from me. I swear to GOD Hushpuppy! EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on her trail. In the background, the house is a towering inferno. EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY They run deeper into the swamp. HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off! WINK You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll bust your ass! 17 HUSHPUPPY I'm tearing off just like my Momma. WINK Come on! Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses. She digs her heels in. WINK (CONT'D) See what happens. See what happens to you! Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on. Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down. He looks away, disgusted with himself. WINK (CONT'D) See what you making me do? You're killing me! He reaches down and tries to pick her up. WINK (CONT'D) Get up and now come on. Hushpuppy jumps up on her own. HUSHPUPPY I hope you do die! And after you die, I come to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself! Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed. All at once, we hear-- A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice. Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain. Wink keels over clutching his arm. Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating. Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure. 18 ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff from the opening of the movie. Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is coming unravelled. An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE, a wave rolls toward camera. EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet. Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore, terrified. Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the horizon. HUSHPUPPY Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think I broke something. EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total panic. In front of the school parents pile their children into a pickup trucks and vans. HUSHPUPPY Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba! My Daddy fell down! Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital bracelet that Wink had been wearing. Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it, her eyes widen in recognition and alarm. 19 INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it into a large medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA It's gonna be OK baby. Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar. MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D) Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need you to do. You take this medicine and run as fast as you can. Go! EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky. They're all getting the hell out of dodge. Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh grass all around her. Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed. He's gone. Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand. HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) Daddy could have turned into a tree, or a bug. There wasn't any way to know. Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the years. Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out. She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars. One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for it's life. 20 HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece, the entire universe will get busted. EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube, is an Aurochs. A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid- pounce. THUNDER BOOMS. We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms. EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation. BOY The storm's coming! The storm's coming! EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself. She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost. Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks back into town in the opposite direction. In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a family making their way to safety. 21 LITTLE JO Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place. C'est la vie assholes! WINK I know y'all with me. Y'all doin' the storm. LITTLE JO Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey. WINK That's what I'm talking about. Walrus my big man, you staying? WALRUS Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here as soon as I finish my beer. Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand. WINK You ain't goin nowhere. WALRUS This ain't no sneeze comin' out the gulf. I'm gone brother. WINK I'll see you tomorrow Walrus. Lookit there, Winston's with me. WINSTON is passed out on the stairs. WINK (CONT'D) What you doing about the storm Winston? Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his head. Wink laughs. WALRUS Hey! It's Hushpuppy. EVERYBODY Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here. They burst into a round of drunken applause. 22 WINK Hushpuppy? Where you been? HUSHPUPPY What happened to y- WINK Shut-up! He lifts her up by the britches and

joy

How many times the word 'joy' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

half

How many times the word 'half' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

wringing

How many times the word 'wringing' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

suave

How many times the word 'suave' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

cats

How many times the word 'cats' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

kaufman

How many times the word 'kaufman' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

mess

How many times the word 'mess' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

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Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

afro

How many times the word 'afro' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

tells

How many times the word 'tells' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

stargate

How many times the word 'stargate' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

yell

How many times the word 'yell' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

stockings

How many times the word 'stockings' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

intercom

How many times the word 'intercom' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

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How many times the word 'stock' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

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How many times the word 'page' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

separatist

How many times the word 'separatist' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

stupidly

How many times the word 'stupidly' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

filing

How many times the word 'filing' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

bedroom

How many times the word 'bedroom' appears in the text?

Being John Malkovich 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 if (window!= top) top.location.href=location.href // --> BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman BEING JOHN MALKOVICH A Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman INT. CHEERLESS ROOM - DAY The room is bare, dusty. A ceiling fan turns. The wall clock ticks. Craig, 30 years old and small, sits at a collapsible card table. The only item on the table is a book. Craig picks it up, looks at the jacket. It's entitled "Sit." Craig opens the book. It reads: "sit sit sit sit sit..." over and over, page after page. Craig closes the book. He begins to stand, but thinks better of it, sighs. He looks at the book again. It is now entitled "Die." He opens it up. "die die die die die..." A rooster crows. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig jolts awake. A rooster stands on Craig's chest, crowing. Lotte, also 30, in the middle of dressing for work, hurries in and pulls the bird from Craig's chest. LOTTE Sorry, hon. I didn't know Orrin Hatch was out of his pen. Good morning. Lotte leans down and kisses Craig on the forehead. CRAIG Morning. LOTTE Gotta run. Shipment of grub worms coming in first thing. CRAIG Enjoy. LOTTE Craig, listen, honey, I've been thinking... maybe you'd feel better if you got, you know, a job or something. CRAIG We've been over this. Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate. LOTTE Well, you know, maybe something else until this whole puppet thing turns around. CRAIG (bitterly) The Great Mantini doesn't need a day job. LOTTE (sighs) Craig, everyone can't be Derek Mantini. (beat) Well, grub worms are waiting. Do me a favor? CRAIG What? LOTTE Would you check in on Elijah? He seems to be a little under the weather this morning. CRAIG Which one is Elijah again? LOTTE The monkey. CRAIG Yeah. Okay. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S GARAGE - MORNING The place is a mess. Vivaldi blasts through cheap speakers. A small marionette stage stands in the back of the garage. The stage is lit and on it is a finely sculpted puppet version of Craig. The "Craig" puppet paces back and forth, wringing its hands with incredible subtlety. We see Craig, above and behind the stage. He is manipulating the puppet. His fingers move fast and furious. The puppet breaks into a dance, a beautiful and intricate balletic piece. Soon the puppet is leaping and tumbling through space, moves that one would think impossible for a marionette. Sweat appears on the real Craig s brow. His fingers move like lightning. The puppet moves faster and faster. Sweat appears on the puppet's brow. We see that the sweat is being piped from a special device that the real Craig controls. The Craig puppet collapses on the floor of the stage. It puts its hands up to its face and weeps. Craig hangs the puppet, and comes down around the front of the stage. He is heaving. He switches off the music, picks up a beer and takes a swig. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY The room is filled with penned and unpenned animals of all kinds: snakes, lizards, birds, a dog, cats, etc. Craig sits on the couch and looks at the want ads, the TV is on in the background. Elijah, the monkey, sits next to Craig holding his stomach and moaning weakly. On the TV, Derek Mantini is working a 60 foot high marionette from the top of a water tower. The assembled crowd is enthralled. TV ANNOUNCER The crowd is enthralled as Derek Mantini, arguably the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world, performs "The Belle of Amherst" with his 60 foot Emily Dickinson puppet, directed by the inimitable Charles Nelson Reilly. Charles Nelson Reilly floats by in a hot air balloon. CHARLES NELSON REILLY Beautiful, beautiful! Nyong-nyong. CRAIG Gimmicky bastard. Craig switches off the TV. He comes across an ad for a female puppeteer to teach at a girls school. Craig rubs his chin in thought, then stands with great determination. MUSIC IN: TRIUMPHANT CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig searches through Lotte's closet, looking for the right dress. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig waxes his body, shaves his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig paints his nails while he chats on the phone. Craig pulls stockings and underwear from Lotte's drawer. Craig picks a wig from a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig, at the sewing machine, is sewing padding to go onto his chest and around his hips. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - DAY Craig applies make up in the bathroom mirror. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - DAY Craig, now looking very much like a woman, admires himself in the full length mirror. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - DAY Craig hails a taxi in his get-up. Men on the street turn and leer at him. CUT TO: INT. HEADMISTRESS S OFFICE - DAY Craig and the headmistress chat over tea. Craig is quite animated and charming. The admiring headmistress smiles and nods her head in approval. CUT TO: INT. CLASSROOM - DAY Craig instructs a class of uniformed girls. He draws complex diagrams of puppets on the blackboard. The students are transfixed, except for one troubled girl who eyes Craig sullenly from the back of the room as she plays with a switchblade. CUT TO: INT. THEATER - DAY Craig guides the hands of the troubled teenage girl, who is trying to manipulate a marionette. The girl looks up at Craig. Her tough facade crumbles and she smiles. Craig smiles back. CUT TO: EXT. SCHOOL GROUNDS - DAY The girls carry Craig on their shoulders. Everyone is joyous. CUT TO: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY Craig leads the girls in a bike race. Everyone is laughing and screaming. One of the girls notices that Craig is riding a man's bike. MUSIC OUT. CUT TO: INT. JAIL CELL - NIGHT Craig sits in a holding cell with several other men. He is still in the dress, but the wig is in his lap and the make-up is smeared off. Lotte appears with a cop outside Craig's cell. The door is opened, and Craig, Lotte, and the cop head down the hall. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Lotte drives. Craig looks out the window. Both are silent. LOTTE (finally) Is the trial date set? CRAIG May 11th. More silence. LOTTE Why'd you do it, Craig? CRAIG I'm a puppeteer. They drive in silence. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - MORNING Craig sits on the couch in his bathrobe and studies the want ads. He sees an ad for a company called "WOMYN-TEERS", looking for "an African-American, Lesbian Separatist Puppeteer for Community Outreach." Craig rubs his chin in thought, stands with determination. MUSIC IN: SAME AS BEFORE. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BATHROOM - MORNING Craig applies a dark pancake make-up to his face. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - MORNING Craig pulls an afro-style wig off a mannequin head on Lotte's dressing table. CUT TO: EXT. STREET - MORNING Craig, now made up to look like a black, lesbian separatist, hails a cab. Women look at him longingly. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig, dressed as the black lesbian and beaten to a pulp. sits in the passenger seat. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) Why, Craig. why? CRAIG (through fat lip) I... puppeteer. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig reads the paper. He comes across an ad: "Female puppeteer wanted for nudist colony marionette staging of 'Oh, Calcutta!'" Craig rubs his chin. CUT TO: INT. CAR - NIGHT Craig sits in the passenger seat. He is made up as a woman and wears a full-body rubber "naked woman" suit. Lotte drives. LOTTE (finally) You know, maybe you should speak to someone about this. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S LIVING ROOM - DAY Craig sees a personal ad: "Male puppeteer looking for attractive female puppeteer for friendship, travel, and much much more." Craig rubs his chin, then thinks better of it and sighs. He finds a want ad calling for a "short-statured file clerk with unusually nimble and dexterous fingers needed for speed filing." Craig writes down the address. CUT TO: INT. OFFICE BUILDING LOBBY - DAY Craig. in sport coat and tie, studies the business listings board. He finds LesterCorp, and sees that it is located on floor 7 1/2. Craig presses the elevator button and waits. Another man comes and waits next to him. The doors open, and Craig and the other man get in. CUT TO: INT. ELEVATOR - CONTINUOUS The other man presses "9." Craig studies the buttons. There is no "7 1/2." WOMAN #1 Seven and a half, right? CRAIG Uh. yeah. WOMAN #1 I'll take you through it. The man picks up a crowbar leaning in the corner. He watches the floor numbers light up in succession. After "7" and before "8", the man hits the emergency stop button. The elevator slams to a halt. The man pries open the doors with the crowbar. Revealed is a standard office building hallway, except that from floor to ceiling it is only about four feet high. Everything is scaled down accordingly. The number on the wall across from the elevator is 7 1/2. WOMAN #1 Seven and a half. CRAIG Thank you. Craig climbs out onto the 7 1/2 floor. CUT TO: INT. SEVEN AND A HALF FLOOR - CONTINUOUS Craig, hunched-over, makes his way down the hallway looking for LesterCorp. He passes a hunched-over man walking in the other direction. They nod to each other. Craig finds a door marked "LesterCorp - Meeting America's Filing Needs Since 1922." He enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP RECEPTION AREA - CONTINUOUS All furniture is scaled down to fit into this low-ceilinged space. A few other short men sit reading tiny magazines. Craig approaches Floris, the receptionist. FLORIS Welcome to LesterCorp. May we meet your filing needs? CRAIG No, uh, my name is Craig Schwartz. I have an interview with Mr. Lester. FLORIS Please have a seat, Mr. Juarez... CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS Pardon? CRAIG Schwartz. FLORIS I'm sorry, I'm afraid I have no idea what you're saying right now. CRAIG My name is Schwartz. FLORIS Money, Miss Warts? CRAIG Forget it. Craig takes a seat next to the other applicants. FLORIS (calling across the room) Fork ah did? The intercom buzzes. Floris picks it up. FLORIS (to Craig) Mr. Juarez? CRAIG Yes? FLORIS Yex? CRAIG I said "yes." FLORIS You suggest what? I have no time for piddling suggestions from mumbling job applicants, my good man. Besides, Dr. Lester will see you now. I think that's what he said. Craig stands, opens Lester's door, and enters. CUT TO: INT. LESTER'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Craig enters. Lester, a giant of an old man, sits hunched behind his tiny desk. LESTER Come in, Mr. Juarez. I'd stand, but, well, you know. CRAIG (extending his hand) Actually, my name is Craig Schwartz, Dr. Lester. Lester flips an intercom switch. LESTER Security. CRAIG No, it's okay, sir. Just a mixup with your secretary. LESTER She's not my secretary. She's what they call an executive liaison, and I'm not banging her, if that's what you re implying. CRAIG Not at all, Dr. Lester. I simply misspoke. LESTER Tell me, Dr. Schwartz, what do you feel you can bring to LesterCorp? CRAIG Well, sir, I'm an excellent filer. LESTER (crafty) You think so, eh? Which comes first, L or... Glooph? CRAIG Glooph is not a letter, sir. LESTER Damn, you are good. I tried to trick you. Okay, put these in order. Lester hands Craig a bunch of index cards. Craig orders them with amazing speed and dexterity. Lester watches, eyes wide. LESTER (CONT'D) (flips intercom switch) Floris, get Guinness on the phone. FLORIS (O.S.) Gehginnis ondah foam? LESTER Forget it. FLORIS (CONT'D) Fork ah did? LESTER (flips off switch) Fine woman, Floris. I don't know how she puts up with this damn speech impediment of mine. CRAIG You don't have a speech impediment, Dr. Lester. LESTER Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy. But I'm afraid I have to trust Floris on this one. You see, she has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. Perhaps you've read her memoirs, "I can't understand a word any of you are saying." CRAIG No. LESTER Pity, it tells it like it is. That's why the eastern, read Jewish, publishing establishment won't touch it. That's a quote from the book jacket. George Will, I think. (beat) I apologize if you can't understan a word I'm saying, Dr. Schwartz. CRAIG No. I understand perfectly. LESTER (choking up) Thank you for being kind enough to lie. You see, I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech. You're hired. Any questions? CRAIG Just one. Why is this floor so short? LESTER Low overhead, m'boy. We pass the savings on to you. (laughs heartily) But seriously, that's all covered in orientation. CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY It's a small screening room with red velvet seats. There are a few people scattered about the squat theater. Craig is among them. He looks around the room and his eyes rest momentarily on Maxine. She is in her late 20's with close cropped black hair. Her eyes are opaque, her face expressionless, her countenance trance-like. She glances over at Craig, then turns back to the screen. The lights dim. A projector whirs and the screen is illuminated. CUT TO: EXT. OFFICE BUILDING - DAY We tilt up the building. MUSIC: Perky Industrial Film Music. TITLE: The 7 1/2 Floor NARRATOR (0.S.) Welcome to the 7 1/2 floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building. As you will now be spending your work day here, it is important that you learn a bit about the history of this famous floor. DISSOLVE TO: INT. 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don and Wendy, two office workers, crouch in the hall and chat. Both hold cups of coffee. WENDY Hello, Don. DON Hello. Wendy. WENDY Don, I was wondering, do you know why our workplace has such low ceilings? DON It's an interesting story, Wendy. Many years ago in the late 1800's, James Mertin, an Irish ship captain looking to invest in the future of our great country, came to this town and decided to erect an office building. CUT TO: OLD FOOTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) He would call this building the Mertin-Flemmer Building, after himself and someone else, who, local legend has it, was named Flemmer. CUT TO: INT. 19TH CENTURY OFFICE - DAY An actor playing Mertin sits at a desk and writes with aquill. He appears very stern and has mutton chop sideburns. DON (CONT'D) (V.0.) One day. Captain Mertin received an unexpected visitor. There is a knock at the door. MERTIN Enter ye, if ye dare enter. A tiny woman enters. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin? MERTIN What want ye, girl child? TINY WOMAN I am not a child, Captain Mertin, but rather an adult lady of miniature proportions. MERTIN (taken aback) I see. Well, it is not my fault that thou art tiny. So if it is charity yer after, then be gone with ye, ye foul demon. TINY WOMAN I am not asking for alms, but rather the ear of a kind man with a noble heart. MERTIN (sighs) Aye. Speak then if ye must. TINY WOMAN Captain Mertin, surely I am a God-fearing Christian woman like yourself, but alas, I am afraid that the world was not built with me in mind. Door knobs are too high, chairs are unwieldy, high-ceilinged rooms mock my stature. Nor am I a marrie lady, Captain. after all, who would marry a person of my diminutiveness? So I am forced to work for my few pennies a week as an optometrist. Why cannot there be a place for me to work safe and comfortable? Mertin wipes a tear from his eye. MERTIN Woman, your story moves me like n other. Me own sister was tiny and then died. Therefore, I shall make ye me wife. And I shall build a floor in my building, between the 7th and 8th, which will be scaled down, so from now on there shall be at least one place on God's green Earth that you and your accursed kind can live in peace... DISSOLVE TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Don And Wendy crouch and talk. DON So that's the story of 7 1/2. Since the rents are considerably lower this floor has been adopted by businesses which for one reason or another are forced to cut corners After all... the overhead is low! Ha ha ha! WENDY Ha ha ha! TITLE: The End CUT TO: INT. ORIENTATION ROOM - DAY The screen goes dark. The lights go up. Craig looks over at Maxine. She stands and walks past him. CRAIG Moving story. MAXINE Yes. Unfortunately it's bullshit. The real story of 7 1/2 is so evil that it could never be revealed to Americans raised on sitcoms and happy news anchors. CRAIG Is that true? MAXINE Well, truth is for suckers, isn't it?. CRAIG Listen. I'm Craig Schwartz, just starting out at LesterCorp. MAXINE How dreary - to be - Somebody / How public - like a Frog / To tell one's name - the livelong June / To an admiring Bog! CRAIG (proudly) Emily Dickinson. MAXINE I wouldn't know. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE' S KITCHEN - NIGHT Lotte chops onions. A parrot sits on her head. Craig stirs a pot on the stove. A monkey leaps from the top of the cabinet to the top of the refrigerator to the kitchen table. A dog watches the monkey and barks at it. PARROT Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! CRAIG Shut up! LOTTE (to Craig) Sorry, honey. The dog continues to bark. PARROT Sorry honey. Sorry honey. An offscreen neighbor pounds the wall. NEIGHBOR (0.S.) Shut up! LOTTE (yelling) Sorry! Lotte grabs the parrot off her head and leaves the room. PARROT (0.S.) Help! She's locking me in a cage! Lotte reenters. LOTTE Isn't that cute? I just taught her that. CRAIG Adorable. What time are they supposed to be here? LOTTE Seven-ish CRAIG We have to make it an early night. LOTTE They'll understand. Besides I've got a morning appointment tomorrow with Elijah's shrink. We're getting to the bottom of this acid stomach. CRAIG (not paying attention) Hmmm. LOTTE Some sort of childhood trauma, she thinks. Possible feelings of inadequacy as a chimp. Interesting, huh? CRAIG Hmmm. The doorbell rings. The dog barks. The parrot screams. The neighbor pounds on the wall. DISSOLVE TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S LIVING ROOM - NIGHT The dining room table is set up. Craig and Lotte and their friends Peter and Gloria are seated and eating dinner. There is an obvious lull in the conversation. PETER Good food, Lotte. LOTTE Thanks. Craig helped, too, by the way. PETER Vegetarian, right? LOTTE Yes. All vegetable. all the time. PETER Amazing. There is another lull. Everyone eats. PETER (CONT'D) No kidding about that 7 1/2 floor. Craig? CRAIG No kidding, Peter. GLORIA That's great. It almost sounds like make-believe. (beat) Like a storybook. (beat) like a fairy tale. (beat) It's really great. (beat) So Lotte, when you say all vegetable, do you mean all vegetable entire1y? CUT TO: INT. PETER AND GLORIA'S CAR - NIGHT Gloria and Peter drive in silence. GLORIA Lotte told me that Eskimos have a lot of words for snow. PETER How many? GLORIA Ten, I think. PETER I wonder why so many. GLORIA Because they have a lot of snow. Isn't that interesting? CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S KITCHEN - NIGHT Craig washes the dishes. Lotte dries them. They don t look at each other. CUT TO: INT. LESTERCORP FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig in a cream colored suit, pours over the file cabinets. Floris watches from the doorway. FLORIS You're good. Craig turns. CRAIG (over-enunciating) Thank you, Floris. Floris shrugs, shakes her head. FLORIS You're not like the other boys we've had here. Granted, I can't understand what you're saying either, but your soft palette resonates tremendously well and you never ever constrict your epiglottis. CRAIG I am a trained performer. FLORIS (swooning) Music to my ears! Whatever you said. Speak, speak, speak, my magnificent friend, speak! CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig pours himself a cup of coffee. Maxine approaches with an empty cup. CRAIG Hello again. Craig fills her cup. MAXINE Yes, well... CRAIG You know, I've been thinking about what you said yesterday, about the orientation film being a cover-up. I think you're on to something. MAXINE And fifty other lines to get into a girl's pants. CRAIG No, really. MAXINE You know, if you ever got me, you wouldn't have a clue what to do with me. That's the thing, Romeo. Maxine walks away. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S GARAGE - NIGHT Craig is at his workbench, painting the finishing touches on a new puppet. It is beautiful. It is Maxine. Lotte watches quietly from the door. A Lotte puppet hangs from a hook, tangled and dusty. LOTTE New puppet? Craig is surprised, caught. CRAIG Yeah, just an idea I had. LOTTE She's very beautiful. CRAIG (shrugging) Just an idea I had. Craig hangs the puppet, stands, and switches off the light. CRAIG (CONT'D) C'mon, let's go to bed. CUT TO: INT. CRAIG AND LOTTE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT The room is dark. Lotte snores lightly. Craig lies there with his eyes open. Quietly, he gets up and leaves the bedroom. Lotte watches him go. CUT TO: INT. GARAGE - NIGHT Craig stands above the puppet stage. He is working both the Craig puppet and the Maxine puppet at the same time. The two perform a beautiful and graceful pas de deux. They finish in a passionate embrace. CRAIG (quietly) I would too know what to do with you. CUT TO: INT. FILE ROOM - MORNING Craig files. Floris watches him from the doorway. Dr. Lester watches Floris from behind a cabinet. FLORIS Oh, what magic those fingers could work on the right cabinet. (strokes Craig's neck) Alphabetize me, baby. And don't forget, I comes before U. Floris laughs long and hard. Too long and too hard. CRAIG Floris, you're very nice, but I'm afraid I m in love with somebody else. FLORIS (upset) I'm afraid I... have no idea what you are saying... you bastard! Floris runs from the room. Lester pokes his head out from behind the cabinet. LESTER Don't toy with Floris, Schwartz. Why, if I were eighty years younger, I'd box your ears. CRAIG I wasn't toying with her, sir. I was just... How old are you? LESTER One hundred and five. Carrot juice. (beat) Lot's of it. I swear, it's almost not worth it. I piss orange. Oh, and I, have to piss sitting down... like a godamn girly... every fifteen minutes. But nobody wants to die, Schwartz. CRAIG I'll keep that in mind, sir. LESTER No sir-e-bob, I don't die. But what I do is get older, wrinkled like a former plum that's become the wrinkled prune you see before you. Oh, to be a young man again, maybe then Floris would care for me. CRAIG The elderly have so much to offer, sir. They are our link with history. LESTER I don't want to be your godamn link, damn you. I want to feel Floris' naked thighs against my own. I want to know passion. I want my body to inspire lust in that beautiful, complex woman. I want her to shiver in a spasm of ecstasy when I penetrate her. Oh, God, the agony of the flesh, Schwartz. CRAIG Dr. Lester, while I am flattered that you share your feelings with me, I believe perhaps the workplace is not the most suitable environment for this type of discussion. LESTER All right. Meet me at the Juicy-Juice Juice Bar after work today and I'll spill my goddamn guts for you. Lester exits. CRAIG Shit. CUT TO: INT. HALLWAY 7 1/2 FLOOR - DAY Craig squats next to a payphone. CRAIG (into phone) I won't be late. I just have to listen to Lester's sexual fantasies and drink carrot juice for a little while. It's a job thing. Maxine walks by. Craig grabs her arm, signals for her to wait a minute. She waits. CRAIG (CONT'D) (into phone) I gotta go back to work. Yeah, okay. You too. Okay. Bye. Craig hangs up. MAXINE What? CRAIG I just wanted to say hi. Did you know I still don't know your name or where you work? MAXINE Yeah. CRAIG How about this, if I can guess your first name within three tries, you have to come out for a drink with me tonight. MAXINE Why not? CRAIG Great. (watches her face as he guesses) Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . . Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. . nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . . tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . . nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . . sssseeeeeen. Maxine? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG I'm right? MAXINE Who told you? CRAIG That's incredible! Nobody told me! I swear! It's kismet. Maxine! It's a beautiful name. There's a psychic connection. Don't you see? It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine! Maxine! I will shout it from the rooftops! MAXINE Somebody told you. CRAIG Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine, Maxine. It just came out of me like a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy, song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine! MAXINE I am dubious, but I don't welsh. Meet me at The Stuck Pig. Seven o'clock. You're late, I walk. So help me, if I find out you cheated. CRAIG (in heaven) Maxine. Craig walks down the hall. A tiny smile flits across Maxine's face. CUT TO: INT. JUICY JUICE BAR - EVENING Lester and Craig sit at a table. There are several emptied glasses of carrot juice in front of Lester. Craig nurses one glass, and keeps checking his watch. LESTER Imagine a room full of women. Nubile, blonde, wet with desire, Schwartz. A harem, if you will. Me in leather. A harness, if you like. I am the object of this desire, and all eyes are on me as I speak. Ladies, I begin. I am the love god, Eros. I intoxicate you. My spunk is to you manna from heaven... CRAIG (standing) Dr. Lester, it's been really fascinating, but I'm afraid I have to get home to my wife now. LESTER Wife, huh? I'd love to meet her, Craig. CRAIG Yessir. LESTER Shall we say dinner on Friday. Just the two of us? (afterthought) You can come too if you like, Schwartz. CRAIG (checking watch) That's sounds fine, sir. Gotta run. Craig hurries to the door. Lester downs Craig's juice, signals the waiter for more. CUT TO: INT. THE STUCK PIG - NIGHT Maxine sits at the bar, watching her watch. Craig rushes into the room, frantic, out of breath. He spots Maxine and plops himself next to her. CRAIG Made it. Maxine. Maxine, Maxine, Maxine. MAXINE Just. CRAIG Buy you a drink, Maxine? MAXINE You married? CRAIG Yeah. But enough about me. Maxine laughs. The bartender approaches. CRAIG (CONT'D) What'll you have? MAXINE (to bartender) The usual, Barry. CRAIG (to bartender) I'll have, like, a beer. Like a Budweiser, or something. The bartender walks away. CRAIG (CONT'D) I like you. I don't know what it is exactly. MAXINE My tits? CRAIG No, no, it's your energy or your attitude or the way you carry yourself or... MAXINE Christ, you're not a fag are you? Because I don't want to be wasting my time. The drinks arrive. Maxine's is in an enormous fishbowl of a glass. It's bright blue, with fruit and marshmallows swimming in it. Paper umbrellas stick out of it, an plastic monkeys hang from the rim. CRAIG That's the usual? MAXINE Don t let the girly shit fool you. It'd blow your shorts off. Maxine downs it like a shot of whiskey. She pushes the empty glass to the bartender. MAXINE (CONT'D) Set me up again, Barry. The bartender walks away with the empty glass. CRAIG I m not a homosexual. I just like women for more than their bodies. I guess you could say I'm the new American male. MAXINE You're a fag or a liar. CRAIG (backpedaling) I mean, I am really attracted to you. MAXINE (mocking) I mean, I am really attracted to you. Jesus, you are a fag. We can share recipes, if you like, Darlene. Maxine gets up. CRAIG (at a loss) No, wait! I like your tits. (beat) I love your tits. I want to fuck you. MAXINE (sitting) Good.

finally

How many times the word 'finally' appears in the text?

Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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How many times the word 'right' appears in the text?

Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

afternoon

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

wounded

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

passionately

How many times the word 'passionately' appears in the text?

Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

knees

How many times the word 'knees' appears in the text?

Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

attempts

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

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Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

burning

How many times the word 'burning' appears in the text?

Black Snake Moan 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 BLACK SNAKE MOAN Written by Craig Brewer Only one kind of blues... And that consists between male and female. - Son House EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY DAWN RAE is naked. Wrapped around her shoulders is a loose-knit spread that conceals her slender form. She is in her 20's: a strawberry blond, with cinnamon freckles spotted across her pale skin. She is beautiful without trying. She stares at the distant trees. This is the South; the small town of FISHERVILLE, TENNESSEE. Soon Rae will be alone. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - EARLY MORNING RONNIE is 25 years old. His hair is cropped in a military issue buzz. Rae's face is wet with tears as Ronnie gently makes love to her. She touches his face and sobs like a child. CUT TO: INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - LATER THAT MORNING RONNIE is dressed in his National Guard fatigues, packing up his gear. Rae is now wearing a short jeans skirt and a T-shirt with a gray wolf print ironed on the front. There is a knock at the door. Rae flinches. Ronnie opens the door revealing GILL MORTON, Ronnie's buddy from high school. GILL Still need a lift? RONNIE Yeah. Transmission's shot. Gill and Rae's eyes meet. Gill sees that Rae is crying. GILL Gonna have a smoke. Ronnie shuts the door and feels a wave of sudden nausea. He rushes past Rae. RONNIE Shit... INT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - BATHROOM - MORNING Ronnie is vomiting into the toilet as Rae rubs his head. Each painful dry heave makes Rae comfort him more. RAE Baby... EXT. RONNIE'S TRAILER - MORNING Ronnie places his duffle bag in Gill's truck. Rae begins to cough. GILL You sick? Rae doesn't answer. Gill backs away, allowing Ronnie and Rae some privacy. The two lovers stare into each others eyes and then embrace. Rae peeks over Ronnie's shoulder at Gill with an expression of dread. Anger seizes her. RAE This ain't gonna work. RONNIE Rae... RAE I don't see why we gotta lie 'bout it when you and I know this ain't gonna work. RONNIE (holds her face in his hands) Rae don't do this now... RAE It's stupid... It's so fucking stupid! RONNIE Rae! Silence. Rae melts. Tears stream down her face. RONNIE (reaches in his pocket) Look it. I got somethin' for us. This is gonna help, okay. GILL You gonna miss your bus. Ronnie removes a small digital watch and fastens it around her wrist. RONNIE This watch here is gonna beep at midnight. Every night. That's when it comes up on you the hardest, right? Ronnie holds out his own wrist to show her his identical watch. RONNIE And wherever I'm at, my watch'll beep, too. We'll be thinkin' bout each other at the same time. Wherever we are. Rae is shaking. He grips her by the back of her neck and pushes their faces inches away. Eye to eye. RONNIE I gotta believe we can do this or I ain't gonna make it, Rae. Rae sees the fear in his eyes. She swallows her own anxiety and nods. RAE Okay... Okay. They kiss passionately. RONNIE I love you. Afraid of his swelling emotion, Ronnie quickly breaks away from her. Rae watches as her love leaves in Gill's pick-up. Compelled to follow, she absently walks after the truck, down the gravel drive. She stops. Silence. She is alone. An intense wave of sorrow hits, like a kick to her gut. She gasps for breath as she struggles to hold back the flood of her tears. Rae drops to her knees, right there in the gravel drive. Her hair falls in front of her face, masking her grief. Her shoulders shudder. Her middle finger begins to scratch at her thigh repeatedly -- a nervous habit that has always accompanied this burning sensation that consumes her. RAE Shit. Tears come to her. She's not going to be able to stop it. RAE Goddammit, Ronnie... (shouting in frustration) GODDAMMIT! Rae is gripping the watch around her wrist for comfort. Her breathing is already out of her control. The dizziness is already upon her. The familiar burning. She inhales in gasps, rocking back and forth on her knees. The late morning cicadas chirp in an undulating frenzy. RAE (shaking her head) Mm-mm (meaning "no") Mm-mm... Mm-mm... The scratching at her leg leaves a red mark. She is dizzy with anxiety. Her teeth are clenched, her face is flush. RAE MM-MM! MM-MM! MMMMMMMMMMMM! CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON TEHRONNE is fucking Rae from behind. Tehronne is a muscular, dark-skinned, black male in his late twenties. Rae's face is crammed up against the mirror in the small bathroom. Tehronne gets faster and pushes harder -- a stark contrast to her lovemaking with Ronnie. Rae comes. A severe coughing fit hits her. She pushes him away with her ass. RAE We're done, right? CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - AFTERNOON Walking with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, wearing his only suit and tie, is LAZARUS WOODS (LAZ). He is in his late fifties, black, a strong face under his old fedora. He stares across the street into Dunn's Cafe. ROSE WOODS, black, early forties, stands in the cafe. She looks confident and resolute in her new green skirt. A brown Delta Olds pulls up into a parking space in front of Laz. Stepping out is REVEREND R.L., Laz's longtime friend. He is also black and in his late fifties. R.L. You ain't gonna make a fuss, are you? (no answer) Nothing a man can do when a woman make up her mind. LAZARUS I never laid a hand on her in anger. Not a day. Not even when I's drinkin'. But this business got me wonderin' what a good shake and slap would do for her. R.L. That kind of talk is between us. Don't you go in there with that shit on your tongue. LAZARUS I didn't start this, R.L. Laz tries to stop his lip from quivering: the man is hurting. R.L. You wanna pray with me 'fore you go in? Laz? (R.L. touches Laz's arm and bows his head) Heavenly Father... CUT TO: INT. DUNN'S CAFE - AFTERNOON R.L.'s prayer is heard as Laz opens the front door to the cafe. He looks ill. Each step is painful. R.L. (V.O.) We do not question your divine plan for us, Oh God. But in these times, when our spirit lies in shadow. When we are lost. Laz crosses to Rose's booth -- the distance seems to stretch out into eternity. R.L. (V.O.) We ask that you give us strength. Give us strength that surpasses all understanding. In your name we pray. Amen. Laz sits across from his wife. ROSE Can't remember the last time I saw you in that suit. LAZARUS Your mother's funeral. I's a pallbearer, remember? The waitress is kind and twangy as she asks for their order. WAITRESS Can I start you both off with some coffee 'fore I take your order? ROSE We won't be stayin' long. Coffee'll be fine. The waitress leaves. The sounds of the cafe fill the silence. ROSE We leavin' this weekend. Deke got a friend in Mobile gonna get him a job at the water company... LAZARUS (interrupting) If you come to talk about that muthafucka, I'm gonna get up and leave you sittin' pretty in that new suit he bought'cha. ROSE Think this about money still, ya old fool? LAZARUS Say what you gotta say, but I ain't gonna hear you speak his name to me. Not never. You hear? ROSE How many times we been over this, Laz? How many times? The waitress places the coffee between them and leaves. ROSE Thought we was gonna be friendly about this. LAZARUS Carryin' on behind my back. Make me out to look like a fool to all our people. Tell me, what's friendly about that? ROSE I'm not ready to grow old, Laz. Livin' with you. I feel it. Like I'm one foot in the dirt. Saw it happen to my momma. And that's not gonna happen to me. I got living to do. LAZARUS And you gonna live it with him? Rose doesn't answer. Lazarus softens, touching her hand. LAZARUS Rose. Folks get sick. But you do what you can to get on the mend. Our marriage... it just got sick. That's all. ROSE Talk to me about sick. Ain't been right since I moved into that drafty house. LAZARUS I keep the heat on. ROSE That damned, rusty, radiator, bout burned the skin off my legs each time I passed. LAZARUS Kept us warm for twelve years. It's over. Laz has lost her for good. ROSE I deserve better than this. LAZARUS Better'n me? ROSE Better than what you give. LAZARUS Rose... please... ROSE Laz... You can't say nothin'... LAZARUS If we get with a counselor. At the church, maybe they's... ROSE (the final interruption) I don't love ya no more. The words are daggers. Laz is wounded beyond concealment. Rose picks up her purse, preparing to leave. ROSE I'm sorry you hurtin'. But, like I say, this the only life I got. (waits for him to respond) I said my piece. She stands and attempts to walk away. Laz grips her tightly by the wrist. LAZARUS God forgive you, for how you done me... ROSE Let go... LAZARUS My Daddy told me that a younger woman would bleed me dry. And that's what you did. Ya bled me. ROSE Let go of my arm... LAZARUS Would'a chopped my arm off if you asked. And this how you do me! ROSE LAZ, I said let...! LAZARUS You better pray, gal. You better pray... ROSE (yanks free) Don't you lay a CURSE ON ME! The whole cafe is silent. All eyes are on Rose. ROSE (to customers) Yeah, go'on! Look! See if I give a shit about any of you people! And she's gone, right out the front door. CUT TO: INT. MOTEL ROOM - AFTERNOON Tehronne is taking his time hanging his ice around his neck and wrists as he stands shirtless before the mirror. Rae is lying on the bed. RAE You got any money? TEHRONNE Thought you had a man for that. RAE (a heavy cough) I said we wasn't gonna talk about him. TEHRONNE What we just did, you askin' for money, make a man stop. I ain't callin' you no ho. But I ain't gonna be played like no trick, neither. Remember... you called me. RAE Save that hustle talk to them field ballers you sell crack to. TEHRONNE What'd I tell you? (kicks the bed) I don't do none of that shit no more. I'm in communications now. RAE Stolen phone cards and two-ways is what you sayin'. Rae starts coughing. TEHRONNE Mobile technology is the new fix for these niggaz, I'm tellin' you. I'm just lookin' ahead. (takes out his wallet) Anyways, ain't no money in drugs no more with these rednecks popping cough pills like they's Skittles. Hey, that's what you need, girl. Get you some cough medicine. What, you sick? RAE Just a cough. Sugar and a spoonful of Jack'll do it. TEHRONNE (takes out money) Alright. How much you need, ho? RAE The hell you call me? TEHRONNE Eh, if the bootie fits... Tehronne catches Rae's wrist as she goes to slap. He quickly yanks her arm behind her back and bends her backwards, shoving his face close to her own. He grips the money in a fist and cocks it to punch -- all in jest. TEHRONNE You gonna get rough? Is that what you doin'? Rae's chest begins to heave with deep breaths. Tehronne looks down at her legs as she anxiously rubs them together. TEHRONNE (shakes his head) I swear, I seen some buck-wild bitches in my time, but you the illest I ever seen. Rae gets control of the burning. She takes the money. RAE Just got a cough. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE SQUARE - DAY Rae is prancing up the walkway on the square. Two young men dressed for construction pass Rae. MAN It's already noon, Rae. You think that skirt should still be on? RAE (flips them off) If it weren't you could kiss my rebel cootch, ya faggot. The men keep walking as Rae coughs. She turns toward the Fisherville Grocery. SANDY Cough drops or condoms? Rae stops in her tracks, looking up at her estranged mother, SANDY, smoking a cigarette outside the grocery store. Sandy has bleached hair with dark roots. She is in her late-forties: once a sexy girl, now she's lost all her tread. RAE (surprised to see her) Didn't know you was workin' here now? SANDY I just like dressin' up in these goddamn blue vests. (takes a drag) Your money ticket get shipped today? Rae walks away -- deeply affected by Sandy's presence. SANDY (calling after her) You let me know if I can be of any assistance. CUT TO: EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - DAY Laz drives an old green Ford pick-up. He pulls the truck up to the front of the feed store and kills the engine. LINCOLN, a 13-year-old black boy, comes out of the open loading door. LINCOLN You won't at the square this mornin'. LAZARUS Get me ten bags of mulch. LINCOLN Yes'sir. Lincoln runs off. Laz yanks off his black tie. EXT. MELVIN'S FEED STORE - LATER Lincoln slaps the last bag of mulch into the bed of Laz's truck. Laz hands Lincoln a twenty. LAZARUS Keep the change on that. LINCOLN Naw... I got it, Mr. Lazarus. (makes change) You wanna tip me, best do it in butter beans. Momma say she need a bag 'a yours, none of that store-bought junk. That's what she said. Laz smiles. He takes the change. Climbs in his truck. LAZARUS Alright, Lincoln. You come on by, I'll load you up. CUT TO: EXT. LAZARUS'S BARN - LATE DAY Lazarus steers his tractor toward his small home in a sea of lush green kudzu. He kills the engine and looks beyond the nose of his tractor. He lights a cigarette. Below the nose is the head of a rose garden with a painted sign under it: Rose's Roses. Laz inhales smoke and exhales hate. The tractor lunges forward, trampling the garden, ripping the flowers to shreds. CUT TO: INT. BOJO'S - EARLY EVENING MAYELLA is a heavy, forty-year-old black woman. Her blue neon tube top matches her short pants stretched across her healthy ass. She is flipping through the juke box selection. MAYELLA You gonna put some Luther Vandross in here? Shit, he black ain't he? BOJO is reading a paper behind the bar. He's short and stout, looking like a sad bull dog. BOJO He black alright, he just ain't blue. MAYELLA Why you stop havin' dancin' on Saturday? Used to have bands... all kind's live shit. Like a wake up in here, now. BOJO Folks can dance when they want. Didn't buy that mirror ball for nothin'. MAYELLA You seen my snake-skin shoes? Mayella lifts up her leg and stretches it over the bar with a provocative flourish. Her shoe is bright blue. MAYELLA They're from New York. My niece gets 'em on the computer. LAZARUS They got blue snakes up north? Mayella turns to Laz sipping a beer at the end of the bar. MAYELLA Naw. They got some blue dye, though. You think them boots you got on come from a black cow? BOJO Wanna get on somebody 'bout live music, get on ol' Laz, there. He the one got this place shakin' back in the day. MAYELLA Don't gotta tell me. Me and my girlfriends use-ta talk 'bout them hard fingertips he got pickin' that guitar. LAZARUS Got'em pickin' peas, not strings. Mayella moves in close, with the tips of her tits touching his arm. MAYELLA They still hard? LAZARUS Mayella. It ain't happened yet. Ain't happenin' tonight. MAYELLA (retreating with a glare) I know you hurtin', Laz. I got ears, you know. But you should know more'n me... ain't no better cure for them blues than some good pussy. Mayella saunters over to the pool table with the others. BOJO Whole lotta woman, right there. LAZARUS She can still spread it around. The door opens behind Laz. Bojo sees the man entering. BOJO Laz. We friends and all but... promise me you'll keep yo cool in my joint. Laz turns to see the door shut behind his brother, DEKE WOODS. He is younger than Laz and a bit smaller. Laz turns to Bojo. LAZARUS I'm gonna finish my beer. Deke slowly approaches Laz at the bar. DEKE Mind if I sit? (no answer) Rose said... it didn't go too well this afternoon. See, that's not how we wanted this to go down. I told her, I said, Rose, we ain't leavin' till we make peace with Laz. And that's God's truth. I laid it down. LAZARUS You laid it down. DEKE I did. LAZARUS Funny. Layin' it down... for my wife. DEKE We're not gonna get through this clean. But it don't need to get dirty. All this... it just come together unexpected. You think I want to hurt you? I... I'd take a bullet for you, Laz. The dry look on Laz's face could cool the sun. LAZARUS You wanna give that a try? (to Bojo) Bo. You still got that .22 behind the tap? My little brother say he'd take a bullet for me. (into Deke's eyes) You come here to ease your heart. Well, I ain't gonna give it to you. You took her into your bed, now you gotta lie in it. Laz turns back to the bar. Deke begins to turn but stops. DEKE I'll always love you, Laz. Till the end of my... In one quick movement, Laz grips Deke by the throat and smashes the bottom of his bottle into jagged shards. BOJO LAZ! Laz pushes Deke back through the joint and slams him onto the pool table. He grips Deke's throat and holds the broken bottle up to his face. LAZARUS Cain slew Able. Slew him out of envy. And God put his mark on Cain for his sin. You want that mark, Deke? Give you that peace you come here for? I'll give it to you, just say that shit again. Say you love me. Go'on! Say YOU LOVE ME, NIGGA! Lazarus slams the bottle down on the pool table, shattering it. Laz lifts his hand. His own blood leaks from between his fingers. He wipes the blood across Deke's face. LAZARUS I'm through wit'cha both. Laz releases Deke and exits. Deke calls after him. DEKE What'chu gonna do? Nothin'. YOU AIN'T GONNA DO NOTHIN'! Laz slams the door behind him. CUT TO: EXT. FISHERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL - FOOTBALL FIELD - NIGHT The bleachers are packed with three generations of fans and family cheering their boys on the high school football field. Rae is sitting with her two girlfriends, JESSE and KELL -- two girls who graduated five years ago. JESSE (hands Rae a beer) Ronnie ship out this mornin'? RAE It's so stupid. Says to me that he don't want nothin' to do with no military career. Says he wants to move. Open up an auto shop with his uncle up in Knoxville. I said, okay. How about now? Let's go. KELL He'd be good for that. Shit, Ronnie knows cars. RAE He get stubborn. Starts talkin' 'bout obligation and duty and all that... Shit. I just want him to come home... I swear, if somethin' happens to him... KELL He fixed up that Buick for my uncle Dale. He say it purrs like a kitten every morning. JESSE Nothing's gonna happen. Not like everybody over there is in the line of fire with them Arabs blowin' themselves up. RAE Can't be thinkin' bout him every second of my day. I'll go outta my gourd. JESSE Why should you waste your life waitin' and wonderin'. Not like you're married. RAE (takes a healthy swig) I begged him not to go. And he did. KELL (screaming at the field) PUNT YOU FUCKERS! CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT Dirty South rap pounds the ears from a hoopty Olds with a backseat full of bass. Rae, Kell, and Jesse are walking up to the rowdy party through the variety of parked cars. A girl rushes past the trio, vomiting on herself as a friend comes to her aid. JESSE These baby chicks just can't hold their Jello shots. I'm tellin' ya. CUT TO: INT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - NIGHT CONNER is one of the linebackers for the Fisherville Dusters. A wasted girl sits on his lap as Kell rolls a joint. CONNER Tennessee Vols gotta practice indoors just so those Florida State sons-a- bitches don't spy on their plays with satellites and shit. KELL Satellites... You mean in space? CONNER Uh-huh. KELL Good thing you can block, Conner, cuz you're dumb as a sack of shit. Jesse notices Rae coughing. She pulls her aside as Conner rambles. JESSE You wanna go home? RAE It gets worse there. Leavin' me to my own mind. That's just not good. JESSE (pours a shot of vodka) Here. Pound this and I'll join you. Rae and Jesse take a strong shot. It burns. JESSE One more. Fuck the chaser. As they pound one more, Rae notices Gill, Ronnie's friend, staring at her from across the room. JESSE Better? RAE Yeah. BATSON and MARK approach Jesse and Rae. They are both sophomores, both skinny and harmless. BATSON Hey, Jess. JESSE Boys. BATSON You robotrippin' tonight? JESSE I'm just gonna smoke. Rae peeks at Gill maneuvering through the room. BATSON (rummages in his pockets) Got eight packs of DXM. Oxycontin. Got a shit load of Coricidin if you want to get out-a-body, n'all. JESSE You just trying to get me outta my clothes. RAE Be right back. Rae pushes through the crowd of drunken kids to get to Gill. RAE It's not like I can't go out and have fun with my friends. GILL You think I'm Ronnie's spy or somethin'? Come tomorrow that dumb- ass gonna be halfway round the world tryin' to keep his head on his shoulders. You think he's gonna be thinkin' about you? RAE You go to hell. Rae pushes through the crowd, back toward the others. RAE (to Batson) How many to fuck me up? QUICK CUTS of: Batson popping out five red cough pills. Rae swallowing all five and chasing them with vodka. Conner's girl falls off his lap. Kell laughs. The laughter echoes and grows as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - HIS PARENT'S WATERBED - NIGHT CLOSE ANGLES: We never quite see the whole of what is implied. Rae's eyes, Jesse's mouth, a boy's shoulder. The room is packed with bodies. Rae laughs with pleasure as her eyes attempt to focus. The kid on top of her finishes and rolls off. JESSE What's so funny? Jesse is straddling a guy in an arm chair, Chinese-eyed and bouncing. Rae tries to respond coherently as another football player rolls her over on all fours and takes her from behind. RAE (laughing) Oh... I'm just on a water bed... And it's just... so... Goddamn... funny! A few coughs. Rae focuses to see a younger guy sitting at her eye level. RAE Hi. BRYAN Hey. RAE You ain't the kicker, are you? BRYAN No, ma'am. RAE Cuz let me tell you, you boys gotta run the ball more. You get into a kicking game, ya'll gonna lose. BRYAN Can I put it in your mouth? RAE Okay. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz kills the rest of his whiskey. He squeezes his eyes closed as the liquor burns his throat. He tosses the bottle into a trash bag he is holding. Laz continues throwing out all of Rose's make-up and hair products. With one broad sweep, he cleans off her vanity. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - NIGHT Laz opens the front door and tosses the two bags outside. Stumbling, he kneels next to the coiled radiator against the wall opposite the door. He talks to it like an old friend. LAZARUS Seem like you and me... we drove her away. That's what we did. Now we... (singing softly) Drinkin' muddy water... a'sleep in a hollow log... A thought. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - THE BEDROOM - NIGHT Laz pulls out a guitar case from under the bed. He wipes a layer of dust off and opens it. INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT He gently cradles the guitar in his big hands and sits at his kitchen table. Tunes the strings. He closes his eyes, swimming in drunken sorrow. LAZARUS You gonna do this? Laz plays the blues, Mississippi, Bentonian style: one guitar, one voice, a mess of pain. LAZARUS (singing, his eyes closed) Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. Just like a bird without a feather, you know I'm lost without your love. You know I need your love just like the angels need heaven above. The music continues as we: CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - THE WOODS OUT BACK - NIGHT Lazarus's blues is all we hear as four guys chase Rae through the woods. She is in her shirt and panties, wearing football shoulder pads. She is completely wasted. Lost. The ground rocks back and forth with each step. Trees pass in a slow-motion haze. LAZARUS (singing) Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. Well I sure did shot my baby, but I did it because she did me wrong. You know the judge called it murder now the penitentiary is my home. Rae grips a tree to steady herself, but a team member tackles her. The woods spin and distort as someone mounts her with ease. LAZARUS (singing) I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. I loved that woman, she said she didn't love no one but me. Rae smiles as she lifts her hand up to the stars, passing the writhing back of the guy on top of her. If she could just grab a star she would feel safe again. She tries to snatch one. She can't. Her hand drops as the boy stands and takes off after his friends tossing the football. Rae lies motionless on the ground. LAZARUS (singing) Yeah but I caught my baby cheating. CUT TO: INT. LAZARUS'S HOME - KITCHEN - NIGHT A tear rolls down Laz's cheek. LAZARUS (singing) Now my home ain't where it used to be. His guitar groans its last for the night. CUT TO: EXT. CONNER'S HOUSE - THE KEGGER - FRONT YARD - LATER THAT NIGHT Rae is wasted. She is still wearing her shirt, panties and shoulder pads as she steps over passed-out teenagers. RAE Jes? Jesse? (trips over a sprinkler) Oh shit... Wait... Wait... STOP! GILL Stop what? Rae doesn't look up. The Coricidin is tripping her out. RAE (coughing) The ground is... turnin' upside down. I'm gonna... (coughing) I'm gonna fall off... Gill reaches down and pulls off the shoulder pads. The coughing fit passes. RAE Oh. That feels so much better. CUT TO: EXT. ROAD - NIGHT Gill's truck flies down the dark road. INT. GILL'S TRUCK - NIGHT Rae is looking out the window, drifting in and out. GILL Thought you had a skirt earlier. RAE I got others. Gill pulls to the side of the road and kills the engine. He watches Rae tilt her head from side to side. GILL This thing you got... I've heard people say, you'd fuck a tree if it was handy. I can see that. (shakes his head) But that nigger Tehronne. Thinks he's some player cuz he hustles dope and stolen hubcaps. I mean, I can see a tree. But that piece of shit? RAE (lost in hazy sorrow) I begged him. Don't see why he had to go... GILL I bet you did. Just had to get that black cock up in you. I swear to God. What Ronnie sees... you disgust me. Gill grabs her legs and spreads them with no resistance. Her head rolls from side to side on the truck seat as Gill unzips his pants. Rae starts giggling. GILL The fuck you laughin' at? RAE (giggling) You don't got half what Tehronne got. Gill flinches upright. A rage builds in his eyes. EXT. ROAD - NIGHT From outside the steamed truck window, we see Gill beat Rae repeatedly. Silence. GILL (muffled from the inside) Get up! I ain't playin'! OPEN YOUR GODDAMN EYES! Silence. He opens the truck door, fear in his eyes. Rae isn't moving. Blood is on her face. GILL Oh, Jesus... A hasty idea. He pushes her out of the truck. She falls to

maybe

How many times the word 'maybe' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

coffee

How many times the word 'coffee' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

passionate

How many times the word 'passionate' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

worn

How many times the word 'worn' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

along

How many times the word 'along' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

employees

How many times the word 'employees' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

about

How many times the word 'about' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

v

How many times the word 'v' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

isabella

How many times the word 'isabella' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

harriet

How many times the word 'harriet' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

sadness

How many times the word 'sadness' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

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Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

handful

How many times the word 'handful' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

expedition

How many times the word 'expedition' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

stops

How many times the word 'stops' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

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Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

unless

How many times the word 'unless' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

glorious

How many times the word 'glorious' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

phone

How many times the word 'phone' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

bridge

How many times the word 'bridge' appears in the text?

Blomkvist tries to ignore him settling back in his worn leather chair with his chipped cup, and sifts through an old shoebox of unsorted photographs: A holiday at Lake Como, early 1950's judging from the cars; a Vanger family gathering long ago; some men posing by a slain wild boar dangling from a rope. Harald holds out a pack of cigarettes. Blomkvist comes over, pulls one out. HARALD Blom ... kvist ... (lights the cigarette) With an `o' - or a `u.' BLOMKVIST `o.' HARALD An `o.' Blom - kvist. Harald doesn't say it, but his nod means, `not Jewish then. Good' Blomkvist returns to the photos, glancing up occasionally to the smoke curling up past Harald's face as he examines the journalist at work. HARALD I'm not a recluse. I don't close my door to anyone. They just don't visit. BLOMKVIST Perhaps if you redecorated. HARALD Hide the past like they do. Under a thin, shiny veneer. Like an Ikea table. (Blomkvist shrugs) I'm the most honest of all of them. BLOMKVIST The family. HARALD Sweden. Blomkvist opens another shoebox. Lying on top is a photograph of the bridge accident, and, under it, a few more. He takes them out and angles them toward a lamp. 114. 114. HARALD Two point eight. BLOMKVIST Pardon me? HARALD The Zeiss Tessar on my Hasselblad. Excellent lens. Blomkvist tries to nod appreciatively, but the bridge photos don't tell him anything he doesn't already know. He finds several more that appear to be a hunting expedition - men and blood hounds - but then sees Morell in one, more policemen, and a stricken Henrik in boots and raincoat, and realizes this is the search party. Off to the side, a young man, head turned half away, wearing a dark blazer with a gold patch, which that 2.8 Zeiss lens makes clear is a prep school insignia. A lion. HARALD Landscape? Some nice landscapes there. BLOMKVIST No, it's - I can't tell who it is from this angle. He takes the photo over to the Nazi who only has to glance at it a moment to recognize his late nephew's son: HARALD That's Gottfried's boy. BLOMKVIST Martin? Harald nods, hands it back, smokes. It's not unusual Martin would have joined the search party - it would be unusual if he hadn't - it's his sister that's missing - but this blazer he's wearing troubles Blomkvist - HARALD Handsome but useless young man, Martin. Like his father. 207 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 207 The archive manager shoulders her purse, locks her anteroom, and approaches Salander. LINDGREN We're closing. 115. 115. SALANDER (without looking up) Nowhere near finished. LINDGREN I'm not staying late. SALANDER I am. And I need access to all the rooms, including any that are locked. (nothing from the woman) Call Frode. 208 INT. HOSPITAL - DUSK 208 As Henrik naps and Martin clears his dinner tray, Frode listens to the caller on the room phone - LINDGREN V/O She wants to look at everything. I don't like her and I don't trust her. There's something wrong with her. FRODE Hang on a second - (to Martin) I'm going to let you decide. It's Ms. Lindgren again. MARTIN (takes the phone) Yes, Ingrid, what's the problem? LINDGREN V/O This girl wants a set of keys now. To my room as well. It's outrageous. MARTIN It's fine. Just tell her to make sure to leave the keys with security when she's done. 209 INT. ARCHIVES - DUSK 209 Having found nothing of interest in the 1954 files, Salander moves on to the 1957 killing of Rakel Lunde. The older woman comes back. Drops a set of keys on the desk. LINDGREN Stay all night if you want. Leave the keys with the guard. The woman leaves. Her footsteps echo and fade. Salander reads a yellowed clipping from a Landskrona newspaper: 116. 116. It's about Vanger Industries hiring a local contractor, Carlen Construction, to build a plant. Gottfried Vanger - here to sign the contract. But all that really interests Salander is the date. The article was published one day after the paper printed the story of the discovery of Rakel's battered naked body. Salander flips through the handwritten notes she made during her talk with the retired detective in Landskrona - and finds that part-time palm reader Rakel's main job was as a cleaning woman for Carlen Construction. The detective interviewed her co-workers, but no one from Vanger Industries, including that firm's representative in town for a few days, Gottfried Vanger. Gottfried Vanger ... which one was he again? Salander brings up on her laptop photographs she took of the wall of the cottage: the Vanger family tree. Gottfried Vanger, Son of Margareta & Richard the Nazi Husband of crazy Isabella, Father of Martin and Harriet Of all the Vangers - at least back in 1950 when Harriet was born - Gottfried was the most handsome. Clark Gable good looks. She puts a check next to Rakel's name and returns to Mari Holmberg and the 1954 Vanger files. 210 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 210 Blomkvist flips through one of Morell's reports stating everyone's whereabouts on the day Harriet's disappeared. INSERT: Across from Martin Vanger's name it reads: "Arrived on 4:30 train." He brings up the Photoshop-enhanced Brannlund parade photo on his laptop - INSERT: The figure with the blazer and pocket patch standing near the watch repair clock, which reads: 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' - INSERT: Young Martin with the search party, the emblem clearly visible on his blazer pccket. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - 117. 117. INSERT: She's wearing a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. He looks at Mildred's parade photo of the figure standing near the watch repair clock. It reads, 2:00. And the photo Harald let him take with him of `Gottfried's useless boy' with the search party. In it and the parade photo, he's wearing the same blazer. He shuffles through copies of articles in Salander's victims' files. Looks at the last one, Lena Andersson, 1967. The photo is a school wallet photo - in a sweater with the same Uppsala Prep School lion emblem as Martin. 211 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 211 Knowing what she's looking for now, Salander finds it fairly quickly: A clipping about a timber company Vanger Industries bought in Kalmar and an interview in its local paper with Gottfried, two days after Mari's murder. She jumps to 1960 - Magda Lovisa Sjoberg - Karlstad - and an article in its local paper - this time with a photo of Gottfried - about a union dispute at its factory there. 212 EXT. COTTAGE - EVENING 212 Blomkvist comes out with his cell phone, tries to make a bar or two materialize on it. Dials but only gets a beep that asks him if he wants to `retry.' He doesn't. Instead, under the darkening sky, he looks off to the point. Martin's house is small in the distance, but he can see there's no car in the driveway and no lights on. He stares at it for a long time ... 213 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES - EVENING 213 Salander pulls a 1962 Uddevalla paper from the files. Same day this time, the same page of the newspaper: Lea Persson's horrific murder and an story quoting Gottfried about an expansion project to the town's harbor. She regards Gottfried's newsprint photo: His face looks more than 8 years older than the one in Kalmar but that's what drinking to excess, and murder perhaps, does to you. 214 INT. COTTAGE - EVENING 214 Blomkvist lays the Lena Andersson article - and the photograph of the figure at the parade - atop the rest of the junk on the desk - and quickly scrolls through photos on his laptop, leaving on the screen for Salander to see when she returns: Martin's recent Vanger Industries PR portrait ... 118. 118. 215 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 215 Salander has hit a snag. Gets up. We stay to have a look at the problem she leaves: the victims list - now with "Gottfried" jotted down next to all but one name: 1967 - Lena Andersson - Uppsala Next to it, the newspaper article about the murdered girl, with a school photo. And, next to that, the reason there's no "Gottfried" notation: his obituary in a Hedestad Courier clipping: 1965. We listen to the fading echo of Salander's footsteps - 216 INT. ARCHIVES - SAME TIME - NIGHT 216 As annoying as the older woman was, it was less creepy with her around. Salander is alone in the old building now, wandering through it looking for vending machines. She finds some. Drops coins in one. A cup fills with coffee. She gets a candy bar from another. The coffee machine finishes. The place again plunges into silence. She starts back with her snack down a hallway - 217 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 217 Trying to look like he's just out for a stroll, Blomkvist walks past Martin's dark house, then turns around, walks up the front path to the porch and makes a show of knocking on the door, just in case anyone on the island can see him, which is doubtful in this darkness. He tries the door. Locked. Comes down off the porch as if leaving, but then veers off the path and walks around to the side of the house. He peers through a floor-to-ceiling window, but can't see much inside. Comes around to the back and looks in another window. Tries the back door. Unlocked. 218 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 218 He can't see a lot in the dark, but doesn't dare switch on any lights. He crosses through the kitchen, but we stay behind to regard a closed basement door ... We pick him up again as he comes into the living room, follow him to a wall of glass. It's pitch black outside. We follow him down a hallway - but stop at a bedroom doorway as if this is as far as we care to go. We stay at the threshold and watch him go in and look around. As he begins rummaging around the recesses of a closet - 119. 119. 218A EXT. THE BRIDGE - NIGHT 218A A pair of headlights comes across the bridge. 218B INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218B Blomkvist comes back to the wall of glass. Still no lights out there. Heads off to the hall again. 218C EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218C The car parks fifty yards from Blomkvist's cottage. The headlights blink off. Someone climbs out. 218D INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218D Blomkvist comes into a study. Lots of books and framed photographs. He begins looking around. 218E EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 218E The headlights come up the road leading to the point. 218F INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 218F Blomkvist approaches a gun case in the study. Hunting rifles. Three of them - and an empty space for a fourth one. The trees outside the study window flare with light. A moment later, Blomkvist hears a sound of tires on gravel. Martin is back, and Blomkvist is in his house. We rush back down the hall with Blomkvist. Hopefully Martin will enter through the front door because we're going to try to get out the back one - Blomkvist trips over something in the dark and we go down with him. Then up again - through the kitchen - past the basement door - grabs a knife from a drawer - shoves it in a back pocket - hurries out the rear door - 219 EXT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS 219 Blomkvist tries to steady his breathing as he slinks around the side of the house. As he passes a window, it lights up - and we again hit the ground with him. He hurries across the yard, trips over something in the dark - a sprinkler? - and goes down again into wet muck. He gets up and starts down the road as if returning from a leisurely evening walk - which would be more convincing without the limp - not daring to look back as he goes. 120. 120. MARTIN O/S Hello? Mikael? Blomkvist stops. His heart pounds. Martin comes down his porch and walks toward his car. MARTIN Your evening stroll? BLOMKVIST Hi. How are you? Martin pulls a golf bag from his trunk and shoulders it. MARTIN I stopped at the hospital on my way home. Henrik asked me to ask you something. BLOMKVIST What. MARTIN Come on in, I'll make you a drink. Naturally, this is the last thing Blomkvist wants to do, but it would be more suspicious if he refuses. He heads back to Martin's house, trying not to limp. 220 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 220 Finished with her candy bar and coffee, Salander opens the 1967 files, looks through the clippings for anything of note in Uppsala, where Lena was killed. She finds no news of factories opening there that year, but she does come across a PR newsletter about a winter retreat for fifty employees and their families. There's a photo of Henrik presenting someone with a Best Worker of the Year plaque. And another taken at a dinner for twenty guests and Vanger family members: The camera has captured Henrik presiding at the head of the table, putting on a brave face, raising a champagne flute - as everyone else does the same - except for the young man at the far right foreground. He looks sullen. But what teenager wouldn't at an event as boring as this. Salander would look even more sullen. She checks the caption and reads: ... far right, Martin Vanger (19), currently studying in Uppsala. 121. 121. Uppsala. Same place as Lena - though it's what young Martin is wearing that strikes her: an Uppsala private school blazer with a lion on its pocket - the same as on Lena Andersson's sweater in the photo of her in the article about her murder. 221 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 221 It's not as eerie with the lights on - except for the fact there's a killer in it. Martin sets the golf clubs down and begins emptying a grocery bag in the kitchen. MARTIN What happened to you? BLOMKVIST When. MARTIN Now. Blomkvist's clothes. The fresh mud stains. BLOMKVIST I fell in the dark. MARTIN You don't have a flashlight? I'll give you one. BLOMKVIST I just wasn't being careful. Martin smiles, but Blomkvist isn't sure what he said warrants one. Martin begins rummaging through a drawer for a flashlight. The knife block - with one missing - is right there. MARTIN How's the investigation? BLOMKVIST Nothing new to report. Blomkvist notices a drop of blood from his pantleg on the stone floor and covers it up with his shoe. Martin, not seeming to notice, finds a mini-Maglite in the drawer. MARTIN Dirch says Ms. Salander is clever. Maybe she'll turn something up. BLOMKVIST Maybe. 122. 122. Martin hands Blomkvist the mini-Maglite. BLOMKVIST Thanks. 222 INT. ARCHIVES - NIGHT 222 Salander scrolls through laptop photos to the one at the parade taken by the Brannlund woman on her honeymoon; the people across the street and the blurry figure wearing the blazer with the "pocket square" ... SALANDER Hello, Martin. 223 INT. MARTIN'S KITCHEN - LATER 223 Martin pours Scotch. Hands one to Blomkvist. BLOMKVIST What did he say? MARTIN What? BLOMKVIST You said Henrik asked you to ask me something. MARTIN I just did. BLOMKVIST What? MARTIN How the investigation's going. That was his question. BLOMKVIST Oh. Blomkvist's eyes only dart to a rifle bag leaning against the wall next to a box of shells, but Martin follows them. MARTIN You hunt? We should go hunting together sometime. BLOMKVIST Sure. They drink. Listen to a silence. 123. 123. MARTIN Nothing at all? (Blomkvist doesn't know what he means) New. To report. BLOMKVIST No. Martin regards Blomkvist in another silence. Then - MARTIN I can see you're anxious. BLOMKVIST No. MARTIN To get home. After your walk. BLOMKVIST I suppose I am. MARTIN To have dinner. With your girlfriend. BLOMKVIST My assistant. Yes. MARTIN We'll have better luck with a gun. BLOMKVIST Sorry? MARTIN When we go hunting. Martin pulls open a bar drawer and takes from it a handgun. MARTIN A gun. Rather than a knife. He gives a little gesture with it to the handle of the knife protruding from a back pocket of Blomkvist's jeans. There are fresh drops of blood on the floor next to his shoes. MARTIN You just couldn't stay away, could you. Blomkvist doesn't know what to say. Martin's demeanor, even in this situation, remains cordial. 124. 124. MARTIN I want to show you something. Bring your drink. Leave the knife. Blomkvist's hope of getting out of here unscathed is pretty much gone now. He pulls the knife from his back pocket and sets it on a side table. 224 INT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 224 Salander strides past the napping night watchman without leaving the keys or bothering to tell him she's done. 225 EXT. VANGER ARCHIVES BUILDING - NIGHT 225 Crossing the empty parking lot, she tries Blomkvist on her cell. Gets his voice mail. Kick-starts her bike. 226 INT. MARTIN'S HOUSE - NIGHT 226 Martin "leads" Blomkvist from behind back to the kitchen, switching off lights as they go. MARTIN You know what's harder than shooting someone? Just missing them. That was a very good shot up at the cabin. BLOMKVIST It didn't work. I'm here. MARTIN Mikael, it did work. You're here. They come through a pantry, at the end of which is a door. MARTIN Open it. Blomkvist does. Sees steps leading into darkness. As they descend Martin flicks a switch and bare fluorescent tubes flicker on to reveal: A furnace. Washer. Dryer. Old discarded furniture. And another door. A steel one. As they approach it, Martin presses a little remote and the lock on the steel door clicks. MARTIN Push it open. 227 INT. BASEMENT ANTEROOM - CONTINUOUS 227 As Blomkvist steps across the threshold - 125. 125. MARTIN Switch is on the left. Blomkvist flips it and a row of overhead fluorescent tubes flickers on - one after the other - revealing a subterranean torture chamber: Metal eyelets bolted to the concrete walls and ceiling and floor - table with leather straps - bed with leather straps - steel-mesh cage - work bench with handsaws and other tools - Blomkvist takes it in with one glance and immediately turns to try to smash the glass in his hand into Martin's face - which is covered now with a plastic oxygen mask he holds to it. Gas plumes down on Blomkvist from above; the glass comes out of his hand, shattering on the cement floor - 228 EXT. HEDEBY ISLAND - NIGHT 228 The Honda's single headlight shudders as Salander comes across the bridge onto the island. 228A INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 228A Blomkvist comes to on the floor, handcuffed to a chain that runs through a metal eyelet. He sees Martin behind a video camera on a tripod, focusing it - a shelf full of Betamax tapes - and a TV monitor on which his own image then appears. Note: the steel door if we were close enough to it to notice - which we aren't - is not locked. It's not even completely shut. Satisfied with the framing of the shot of his guest, Martin takes a seat on a comfortable armchair upholstered in clear plastic. It squeaks. He regards Blomkvist calmly. Sips his drink. Then almost sighs. MARTIN Why didn't you just go home. BLOMKVIST I assume you mean the opportunity for that has passed. Martin smiles, appreciating, perhaps, Blomkvist's "easy" manner in this dire circumstance. MARTIN How'd you do it? What did you find? 126. 126. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin looks like he has all the time in the world to wait, and does. Then - MARTIN We can talk or we can just get on with it. It's really up to you. Nothing from Blomkvist. Martin shrugs `okay,' gets up, goes to his workbench and takes a plastic shower curtain from it. As he's laying it on the floor around his victim, Blomkvist changes his mind - BLOMKVIST I found a picture no one had seen before. MARTIN Of. BLOMKVIST You. In your Uppsala prep school blazer. Martin doesn't see the significance, but is pleased Blomkvist has decided to "participate." He rewards him by suspending his shower curtain work to return to the chair. It squeaks again. MARTIN What does that say? BLOMKVIST That you lied about where you were that day. Or rather when. MARTIN Did I? If I did, so what. People lie all the time. BLOMKVIST It also said that Lena Andersson was a schoolmate. MARTIN Lena ... (he has to think back to remember her) Lena was a long time ago. (pause) Where's this picture now? With all the other junk on your desk? BLOMKVIST A print is. Digital copies are on a secure photo site. 127. 127. MARTIN That's a lie ... How much does the girl know? Blomkvist isn't sure how to play that question ... MARTIN Let's hope it's as much as you. That'll make it more fun. Where is she? BLOMKVIST Stockholm. She went there this morning. MARTIN And that's a lie. She's sitting in our offices looking at more old crap. Our archives manager called me - very perturbed with this girl. Lisbeth. I like that name. Lisbeth. When Lisbeth leaves I'll get a call from security, so I can be at your cottage to greet her when she arrives - He holds up the keys he took from Blomkvist's pocket when he was out cold. MARTIN I can't thank you enough for bringing her to me. 228B INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 228B As Salander gets the door open with her key and comes in - SALANDER Mikael - ? He's clearly not here. She goes to the closet. Takes out the surveillance PC. Puts it on the desk - next to Blomkvist's laptop which is now displaying - not the photo of Martin he left for her - but the Apple default "light spider" screen saver. As Salander begins rewinding the captured surveillance images backwards at high speed to get to earlier in the day - 229 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - CONTINUED 229 Martin reframes the video camera to include part of himself in the shot, sits again and crosses his leg like this is a talk show. 128. 128. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN So what would you like to know? There are so many things, but also no point, so Blomkvist says nothing. MARTIN You're the journalist, ask me something. Nothing from Blomkvist. Which is okay with Martin; he can do this alone - MARTIN What do I do with my guests? Is that the question? Well, before - I do what we're doing. Relax, have a drink, converse. I like that part a lot - having a chat when you both know one of you is going to die. After - I simply get rid of them. Out to sea - (points off) - unlike my father leaving them scattered all over the place like trophies. That's not smart if you ask me. That's just garish and loud. But he was a garish and loud man. Frankly, he got what he deserved. Nothing from Blomkvist, but he is wondering now what happened to Gottfried if the drowning wasn't accidental. MARTIN You can't be a sloppy technician like that. You can't drink to excess like he did. This takes discipline. It's a science of a thousand details. The planning. The execution. The cleanup. I'm sure I don't have to tell you you're going to make quite a mess. Nothing from Blomkvist, but Martin nods. ("How do you do this and still function in normal society?") MARTIN That's the interesting thing. Because most of the time I am just like everyone else. I just have a bigger secret. It's wonderful really - standing there waiting for a train - or on a street corner as people brush past me. You know what I mean; (MORE) 129. 129. Dragon Tattoo Final 9/1/11 SZ MARTIN (CONT'D) you have secrets. You had one when you came up here. It made you feel - special. Didn't it? Blomkvist doesn't say. Martin is a little thrown by Blomkvist's next unspoken comment - ("Yes, but my secrets aren't rape and murder") MARTIN No. I'm not a rapist. Of course I do that too - and at one time it was enough - but - (gathers his thoughts to explain it) A rapist, Mikael, gets off on domination. I need ... (discards a few other words before:) - destruction. Martin gets up and sets about the business of immobilizing Blomkvist further with a block-and-tackle contraption of chains and straps. MARTIN Can I ask you something? Why don't people trust their instincts? They sense something's wrong - someone's walking too close behind them - yet they don't cross the street. You knew something was wrong - you even knew what it was - but you came back into the house. Did I force you? Did I grab you and drag you in? I just offered you a drink. (pause) You'd never think the fear of offending could be stronger than the fear of pain - but you know what? It is. They always come willingly. It amazes him. It always amazes him. He keeps working. MARTIN And then they're here. They know it's over like you do - and still somehow think they have a chance. "Maybe if I say the right thing - if I'm polite - or I cry and beg - maybe I'll survive." (regards Blomkvist) And then the moment comes when they realize ... no, all hope is gone. (MORE) 130. 130. MARTIN (CONT'D) And when that happens - when I see the hope draining from their face like it is from yours right now - (whispers like it's just between them) - well, I feel myself getting hard just watching it. Silence ... MARTIN Say something. BLOMKVIST You are a sick fuck. MARTIN ... Is this an interview or an editorial? Blomkvist, of course, doesn't answer, or comment, yet Martin considers what the journalist hasn't said ... ("Martin, civilized people don't do what you do.") MARTIN You're right, this behavior is unacceptable. I know that. But we're not completely different. We both have desires. Satisfying mine just requires more towels. Martin regards Blomkvist in a silence. Then - MARTIN Anything else you want to know? (pause) You sure? (pause) All right. Whatever you say. He yanks a chain that feeds through the pulleys that lift Blomkvist up onto his feet - 230 INT. COTTAGE - NIGHT 230 Salander watches the surveillance images, forward - Blomkvist leaving the cottage and property on foot. Blomkvist returning to the cottage, going back inside. Blomkvist coming out and attempting a call on his cell. Blomkvist going back inside the cottage. Blomkvist coming out again and leaving the property. Blomkvist not coming back. Nothing but the sky darkening to night. Then - 131. 131. Headlights coming through frame. A figure appearing on foot at the front gate. The figure just standing there, looking at the cottage. The figure approaching it, and, as it's trying the locked front door, the motion detection light snapping on and illuminating Martin. Martin moving to the side, looking in a kitchen window, coming around front again, walking to the gate, turning around, looking back, then walking out of frame. 231 INT. MARTIN'S BASEMENT - NIGHT 231 Blomkvist hangs from the block-and-tackle rig, leather strap around his neck now, fed through a ceiling eyelet. With a big sewing scissors, Martin cuts through and removes Blomkvist's pants and underwear - MARTIN It might amuse you to know that while you were over here having dinner with me and Liv - who, by the way, finds me very conventional - Irina was down here in the cage. Who's Irina, you ask? A girl I met in Belarus. Just another girl. Another immigrant whore. Who misses them? He returns to his work bench to lay out various tools next to his gun and a desk phone. BLOMKVIST Your sister wasn't just another girl. Martin comes back quickly and yanks a strap that cinches the noose tighter around Blomkvist's neck as it lifts him onto his tiptoes. MARTIN What happened to her. BLOMKVIST You're choking me - MARTIN You found her? BLOMKVIST You killed her. Martin just stares at him confused. Then - MARTIN You useless fuckin detective. 132. 132. He lets go of the strap and Blomkvist's feet come back down to the floor. As Martin returns to his workbench, Blomkvist is not only scared to death, but confused now. Did Martin not kill her? Then Martin is back in front of him with a roll of cellophane, pulls on the strap again until Blomkvist is balancing on his tiptoes, and ties it off. MARTIN Too tight to talk? It is. Blomkvist can utter no sound but a gag. MARTIN Good. I'm tired of talking to you. He wraps Blomkvist's head in cellophane, completely cutting off his ability to breathe, and calmly watches him struggle. ... MARTIN Would you like me to do something about that? Blomkvist desperately nods as he's about to suffocate. Martin watches another several moments ... then pokes a finger through the cellophane into Blomkvist's gasping mouth. MARTIN See? I'm not a monster. He frames a wide shot

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How many times the word 'measure' appears in the text?