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FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
OVER BLACK:
VOICE-OVER: My name is H. I. McDunnough ...
A WALL
With horizontal hatch lines.
VOICE-OVER: ... Call me Hi.
A disheveled young man in a gaily colored Hawaiian shirt is
launched into frame by someone offscreen.
He holds a printed paddle that reads "NO. 1468-6 NOV.
29 79. "
The hatch marks on the wall behind him are apparently
height markers.
VOICE-OVER: ... The first time I met Ed was in the
county lock-up in Tempe, Arizona ...
FLASH
As his picture is taken.
CLOSE UP
On the paddle: "NOV. 29 79."
VOICE-OVER: ... a day I'll never forget.
A bellowing male voice from offscreen:
SHERIFF: Don't forget the profile, Ed!
ANGLE ON THE STILL CAMERA
It is mounted on a tripod. A pretty young woman in a severe
police uniform peers out from behind it.
WOMAN: Turn to the right.
HI: What kind of name is Ed for a pretty thing like
you?
ED: Short for Edwinna. Turn to the right!
Hi obliges, but still looks at ED Out of the corner of his eye.
HI: You're a flower, you are. just a little desert flower.
FLASH
On his eye-skewed profile.
HI: Lemme know how those come out.
LOW ANGLE CELL BLOCK CORRIDOR
As Hi is escorted away from the camera toward his cell.
At the far end of the corridor a huge con is sluggishly
mopping the floor.
VOICE-OVER: I was in for writing hot checks which,
when businessmen do it, is called an overdraft. I'm not
complainin', mind you; just sayin' there ain't no pancake
so thin it ain't got two sides. Now prison life is very
structured-more than most people care for ...
INTERCUTTING
Hi's POV of the MOPPING CON, tracking as he approaches,
and the MOPPING CON'S POV of Hi as Hi approaches.
VO: ... But there's a spirit of camaraderie that exists
between the men, like you find only in combat
maybe ...
The mopping. con snarls as Hi passes:
CON: Grrrr . . .
VO: ... or on a pro ball club in the heat of a pennant
drive.
NEWSREEL FOOTAGE
A ballplayer connects-THWOCK-for a home run and the
crowd roars.
PRISON HALL
Panning a circle of men who sit facing each other in folding
chairs. 7he pan starts on Hi.
VO: In an effort to better ourselves we were forced to
meet with a counselor who tried to help us figure out
why we were the way we were ...
At this point the pan has reached the COUNSELOR, an
earnest, bearded young man who straddles a folding chair
with his arms folded over its back.
He is addressing one of the cons:
COUNSELOR: Why do you use the word "trapped"?
CLOSE UP BLACK CON
The huge muscle-bound black man with a shaved head is
knitting his brow in consternation.
CON: Huh?
COUNSELOR: Why do you say you feel "trapped" .
in a man's body?
CON: Oh ...
He bites his lip, thinking; then, in a resonant bass voice:
... Well, sometimes I get the menstrual cramps real
hard.
PAROLE MEETING ROOM
Three PAROLE OFFICERS-TWO men and a woman-face Hi
across a table.
CHAIRMAN: Have you learned anything, Hi?
HI: Yessir, you bet.
WOMAN: You wouldn't lie to us, would you Hi?
HI: No ma'am, hope to say.
CHAIRMAN: Okay then.
EXT 7-ELEVEN NIGHT
A beat-up Chevy pulls into the all-night store's empty
parking lot.
VO: I tried to stand up and fly straight, but it wasn't
easy with that sumbitch Reagan in the White House ...
Hi is getting out of the Chevy in a Hawaiian shirt, holding a
pump-action shotgun.
... I dunno, they say he's a decent man, so ...
He primes the shotgun-WHOOSH-CLACK-and heads for
the store.
... maybe his advisers are confused.
FLASH
Full-face exposure of Hi once again in front of the mug-shot
wall.
ED: Turn to the right!
Hi obliges but shoots sympathetic glances at ED who is
obviously upset, wiping away tears and snuffling behind the
camera.
HI: What's the matter, Ed?
ED: My fai-ants left me.
VO: She said her fiance had run off with a student
cosmetologist who knew how to ply her feminine wiles.
FLASH
On Hi's profile. He turns back to ED.
HI: That sumbitch.
SHERIFF (offscreen): Don't forget his phone call, Ed!
HI: You tell him I think he's a damn fool, Ed. You tell
him I said so-H. 1. McDunnough. And if he wants to
discuss it he knows where to find me ...
As another police officer starts to lead him away:
HI: ... in the Munroe County Maximum Security
Correctional Facility for Men ...
CLOSE ON ED
Looking up through her tears as Hi is led away.
HI (OS): ... State Farm Road Number Thirty-one;
Tempe, Arizona ...
BACK TO HI
Struggling to call back over his shoulder as he is firmly led
out the door.
HI: ... I'll be waiting!
The door slams.
LOW ANGLE CELL BLOCK CORRIDOR
As Hi is once again escorted toward his cell.
The mopping CON is now in the middle-background,
having worked his way about halfway up the corridor since
last time we saw him.
VO: I can't say I was happy to be back inside, but the
flood of familiar sights, sounds and faces almost made it
feel like a homecoming.
CLOSE ON MOPPING CON
As Hi passes.
CON: Grrrr ...
PRISON HALL
Group is meeting again.
COUNSELOR: Most men your age, Hi, are getting
married and raising up a family. They wouldn't accept
prison as a substitute.
Hi looks sheepish.
COUNSELOR: ... Would any of you men care to
comment?
Two convicts sitting next to each other, GALE and EVELLE,
appear to be friends.
GALE: But sometimes your career gotta come before
family.
EVELLE: Work is what's kept us happy.
ANGRY BLACK CON: Yeah, but Doc Schwartz is sayin'
you gotta accept responsibilities. I mean I'm proud to say
I got a family ... somewheres.
HIGH ANGLE CELL
Looking down from the ceiling. In the foreground, lying on
the top bunk, hands clasped behind his head as he stares off
into space is MOSES. MOSES is a gnarled, elderly black con
with wire-rimmed spectacles.
On the lower bunk, also with hands clasped behind his
head and staring off at the same spot in space, is Hi.
VO: I tried to sort through what the Doc had said, but
prison ain't the easiest place to think.
MOSES: An' when they was no meat we ate fowl. An'
when they was no fowl we ate crawdad. An' when they
was no crawdad to be foun', we ate San'.
HI: You ate what?
MOSES (nodding): We ate San'.
HI: You ate sand?!
MOSES: Dass right . . .
PAROLE BOARD ROOM
Hi faces the same three PAROLE OFFICERS across the same
table.
CHAIRMAN: Well B, you done served your twenty
munce, and seeing as you never use live ammo, we got
no choice but to return you to society.
SECOND MAN: These doors goan swing wide.
HI: I didn't want to hurt anyone, Sir.
SECOND MAN: Hi, we respect that.
CHAIRMAN: But you're just hurtin' yourself with this
rambunctious behavior.
HI: I know that, sir.
CHAIRMAN: Okay then.
HIGH SHOT
Of a 7-Eleven parking lot, at night, deserted except for Hi's
car which sits untended, its engine rumbling.
VO: Now I don't know how you come down on the
incarceration question ...
Hi backpedals into frame with a shotgun and a bag of cash.
... whether it's for rehabilitation or revenge .
He spins and grabs his car-door handle. Locked. He tries the
back door. Locked.
... But I was beginning to think ...
As we hear the wail of an approaching siren, Hi takes it on
the heel and toe.
... that revenge is the only argument makes any
sense.
FLASH
On Hi against the mug-shot wall.
ED: Turn to the right!
SHERIFF (OS): Don't forget his latents, Ed!
CLOSE ON HI'S HAND
We see his right hand being efficiently manipulated by ED'S
two hands: She is rolling each of his inked fingers into the
appropriate space on an exemplar sheet.
HI (OS): Hear about the paddy-wagon collided with the
see-ment mixer, Ed? . . . Twelve hardened criminals
excaped.
ED titters offscreen.
ED (OS): I heard that one.
She is done rolling off his prints. Her hand lingers on top of
his. Hi's other hand enters to rest on top of hers.
HI (OS): Got a new beau?
ED (OS): No, Hi, I sure don't.
Hi slips a ring off his own finger and slides it onto ED'S.
HI (OS): Don't worry, I paid for it.
LOW ANGLE CELL BLOCK CORRIDOR
The surly MOPPING CON has now worked his way up to the
foreground.
Hi is being escorted past him to his cell.
VO: They say that absence makes the heart grow
fonder, and for once they may be right.
Halfway up the corridor Hi points casually at the floor.
HI: You missed a spot.
The MOPPING CON turns to watch him recede.
CON: Grrrr ...
HIGH ANGLE CELL
Same high shot with MOSES on the top bunk, Hi on the lower.
VO: More and more my thoughts turned to Ed, and I
finally felt the pain of imprisonment.
MOSES: An' momma would frow the live crawdad in a
pot of boihn' water. Well one day I decided to make my
own crawdad ...
We begin to crane down to tighten on the absently staring Hi.
... an' I frew it in a pot, forgettin' to put in the water,
ya see ...
MOSES' voice is mixing down as we lose him from frame.
... and it was like I was makin' popcorn, ya see ...
VO: The joint is a lonely place after lock-up and fights
out ...
We are now very close on Hi, staring.
... when the last of the cons has been swept away by
the sandman.
HI'S POV
The underside of the top bunk.
A sudden flash whitens and fades to leave the image Of ED,
smiling behind her camera, softly supered on the underside of
the bunk.
BACK TO HI
He wearily turns his head to profile on the pillow and shuts
his eyes.
VO: But I couldn't help thinking that a brighter future
lay ahead-a future that was only eight to fourteen
months away.
Eyes closed, he is illuminated by a flash.
PAROLE BOARD ROOM
Hi and the same three officers.
CHAIRMAN: Got a name for people like you, Hi. That
name is called recidivism.
SECOND MAN: Ree-peat 0-fender.
CHAIRMAN: Not a pretty name, is it, Hi?
HI: No Sir, it sure ain't. That's one bonehead name.
But that ain't me anymore.
CHAIRMAN: You're not just tellin' us what we wanna
hear?
HI: No Sir, no way.
SECOND MAN: 'Cause we just wanna hear the truth.
HI: Well then I guess I am tellin' you what you wanna
hear.
CHAIRMAN: Boy, didn't we just tell you not to do that?
HI: Yessir.
CHAIRMAN: Okay then.
TRACKING
Over Hi's shoulder as he strides toward a door marked
"Processing" and flings it open.
It is the familiar booking room. ED looks up from her
camera, having just snapped a picture of another suspect
against the hatched wall.
HI: I'm walkin' in here on my knees, Ed-a free man
proposin'.
Hi cocks a finger at the suspect.
HI: Howdy Kurt.
ED'S ROOM
As she nervously frets at her white bridal gown in front of a
mirror.
VO: And so it was.
SHERIFF (OS): Don't forget the boo-kay, Ed!
CLOSE SHOT ED
Gazing earnestly into the camera. A congregation is seated
behind her-the bride's side wearing police blues; the groom's
side, Hawaiian shirts.
ED: I do.
CLOSE SHOT HI
Also staring into the camera.
HI: You bet I do.
REVERSE
Over their shoulders, the minister.
MINISTER: Okay then.
FLASH
On the newlyweds smiling at the camera.
FLASH
On the newlyweds smiling at each other, profile to the
camera.
HIGH WIDE SHOT TRAILER PARK
In the middle of a vast expanse of desert.
VO: Ed's pa staked us to a starter home in suburban
Tempe ...
INT MACHINE SHOP
Hi is working the drill press, wearing goggles and sweat-
stained overalls.
VO: ... and I got a job drilling holes in sheet metal.
Next to him idly stands Bud, a veteran of the shop, with a
grimy face and a pair of goggles pushed up on his forehead.
BUD: So we was doin' paramedical work in affiliation
with the state highway system-not actually practicin',
y'understand-and me and Bill's patrollin' down Nine
Mile-
HI: Bill Roberts?
BUD (barking): No, not that motherscratcher! Bill
Parker! Anyway, we're approachin' the wreck, and
there's a spherical object a-restin' on the highway ...
He pauses to blow and pop a bubble with his chewing gum.
... And it don't look like a piece a the car.
VO: Mostways the job was a lot like prison, except Ed
was waifin' at the end of every day ...
CASNIER'S WINDOW
Hi is scowling at his paycheck. Behind the barred window a
fat cashier grins.
VO: ... and a paycheck at the end of every week.
CASHIER: Gummint do take a bite, don't she?
EXT TRAILER
Hi sits in a lawn chair in front of the trailer. ED sits on his
lap, his arms around her.
Both are wearing sunglasses, looking at the setting sun.
The scene is suff-used with a warm yellow light.
VO: These were the happy days, the salad days as they
say ...
As the sun sets, the light is turning from yellow to amber. Hi
and ED watch, their heads following its slow downward arc.
. . . and Ed felt that having a critter was the next
logical step. It was all she thought about.
The amber is turning to a more neutral dusky light as the sun
has set. Hi and ED continue to stare at the point where it
disappeared.
... Her point was that there was too much love and
beauty for just the two of us . . .
The dusk is slipping away into darkness.
... and every day we kept a child out of the world
was a day he might later regret having missed.
We are by now holding on pitch black. Crickets chirp. From
the darkness:
ED: That was beautiful.
A CALENDAR
ED is crossing off the last day on the calendar before a day
circled in red.
VO: So we worked at it on the days we calculated most
likely to be fruitful ...
INT TRAILER
Hi is wearily entering after a long day at work, clutching his
lunchpail.
VO: ... and we worked at it most other days just to be
sure.
ED flies into frame and leaps into his arms, covering him with
kisses.
TRAILER BEDROOM
In each other's arms, Hi and ED roll over on the bed.
VO: Seemed like nothing could stand in our way
now ...
We pan with them rolling and continue off them to the night
table, on which sits a framed pair of photographs of Hi,
probably taken by ED: One shows him full face, the other in
profile.
EXT TRAILER TWILIGHT
ED Sits in a lawn chair knitting a booty. Hi stands in
Bermuda shorts and an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, hosing
down the minuscule patch of front lawn.
VO: ... My lawless years were behind me; our child
rearin' years lay ahead.
DUSTY ROAD LEADING UP TO TRAILER DAY
A squad car, its siren wailing, kicks up dust as it roars into
the foreground.
VO: So we worked at it on the days we calculated most
likely to be fruitful ...
INT TRAILER
Hi is wearily entering after a long day at work, clutching his
lunchpail.
VO: ... and we worked at it most other days just to be
sure.
ED flies into frame and leaps into his arms, covering him with
kisses.
TRAILER BEDROOM
In each other's arms, Hi and ED roll over on the bed.
VO: Seemed like nothing could stand in our way
now ...
We pan with them rolling and continue off them to the night
table, on which sits a framed pair of photographs of Hi,
probably taken by ED: One shows him full face, the other in
profile.
EXT TRAILER TWILIGHT
ED Sits in a lawn chair knitting a booty. Hi stands in
Bermuda shorts and an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, hosing
down the minuscule patch of front lawn.
VO: ... My lawless years were behind me; our child
rearin' years lay ahead.
DUSTY ROAD LEADING UP TO TRAILER DAY
A squad car, its siren wailing, kicks up dust as it roars into
the foreground.
ADOPTION OFFICE
Hi and ED are seated on folding chairs facing an agent's desk.
Hi wears a sport coat over his Hawaiian shirt. ED is in her
dress blues.
HI: It's true I've had a checkered past, but Ed here is
an officer of the law twice decorated . . .
THE AGENT
Looking, with a dead pan, from the file to Hi.
HI: ... So we figure it kind of evens out.
His face still deadly neutral, the agent looks back down at the
file and unfolds the accordioned rap sheet, revealing it to be a
couple feet long.
VO: ... But biology and the prejudices of others
conspired to keep us childless.
INT SQUAD CAR
On ED as she stares vacantly out the passenger window.
VO: Our love for each other was stronger than
ever . . .
ON HI
Driving. He looks from ED Out to the road.
VO: ... but I preminisced no return of the salad days.
TRAILER BATHROOM
Over Hi's shoulder as he stares listlessly at himself in the
mirror, a razor held forgotten in one hand, his face half
lathered and half shaved.
VO: The pizzazz had gone out of our lives.
TRAILER BEDROOM
The bedroom is somewhat messy. ED sits on the edge of the
bed, also staring listlessly. Her police uniform is on but not
yet buttoned. Her hands lie palm-up in her lap, like two dead.
fish.
VO: Ed lost all interest in both criminal justice and
housekeeping. Soon after, she tendered her badge.
MACHINE SHOP
Once again Hi works as his sweaty gum-chewing colleague
stands idly by.
VO: Even my job seemed as dry and bitter as a hot
prairie wind.
BUD: So here comes Bill a-walkin' down Nine Mile-
that's Bill Parker, y'understand-got his sandwich in one
hand, the fuckin' head in the other ...
ON HI DRIVING
Alone in his Chevy. He looks to the side.
VO: I even caught myself drivin' by convenience
stores ...
HIS MOVING POV
7-Eleven.
VO: ... that weren't on the way home.
TRAILER LIVING ROOM
Hi and ED Sit listlessly watching TV.
VO: Then one day the biggest news hit the state since
they built the Hoover Dam ...
ED perks up, reacting to something on TV. Hi notices her
reaction and also sloughs off his stupor to watch.
... The Arizona quints was born.
THE TV
A newscaster silently reading copy. Behind him news footage
of five nurses holding infants mortices in.
VO: By "Arizona" quints I mean they was born to a
woman named Florence Arizona.
BACK TO HI AND ED
Watching intently. Eyes still locked on the set, ED reaches her
hand out to Hi. Eyes still locked on the set, Hi takes her hand
in his.
VO: As you probably guessed, Florence Arizona is the
wife of Nathan Arizona. And Nathan Arizona-well hell,
you know who he is ...
THE TV A LATE-NIGHT LOCAL COMMERCIAL
NATHAN ARIZONA, a stocky middle-aged man in a white
polyester suit, is gesturing expansively with his white cowboy
hat toward a one-story warehouse store with a football
stadium parking lot, chroma-keyed in behind him.
NATHAN ARIZONA (mixing up on the TV): So come on
down to Unpainted Arizona for the finest selection in
fixtures and appointments for your bathroom, bedroom,
beaudoir!
VO: ... The owner of the largest chain of unpainted
furniture and bathroom fixture outlets throughout the
Southwest.
NATHAN ARIZONA: And if you can find lower prices
anywhere my name ain't Nathan Arizona!
BACK TO HI AND ED
As they slowly look from the TV set toward each other.
LINE OF NEWSPAPER VENDING MACHINES
Hi lounges near one of the vending machines as a
businessman puts in a quarter.
VO: Yep, Florence had been taking fertility pills, and
she and Nathan had hit the jackpot.
The businessman takes his newspaper and releases the
machine door as he turns to leave.
Hi snags the door before it closes and takes his own five-
finger discount copy.
He flips the paper over to look at the headline.
FRONT PAGE OF NEWSPAPER
The banner headline of the Tempe Intelligencer is:
ARIZONA QUINTS GO HOME! The subhead: "More Than We
Can Handle,' Laughs Dad." Next to it is a picture of
NATHAN.
VO: Now y'all who're without sin can cast the first
stone ...
A pull back from the paper shows Hi and ED reading it
together at home. They look from the paper to each other.
Hi opens to an inside page and we pan a row of pictures-
the five tots with their names underneath: HARRY, BARRY,
LARRY, GARRY and NATHAN JR.
... but we thought it was unfair that some should
have so many while others should have so few.
BILLBOARD
In the middle of the desert. It reads: "WELCOME TO
TEMPE! POPULATION 13,948 ... PLUS FIVE!"
EXT TRAILER TWILIGHT
We are floating in toward ED who is seated, waiting, in the
driver's seat of Hi's Chevy. Hi enters frame and cinches down
a ladder that is tied to the roof of the car. Pieces of red flag
flutter at either end of the ladder where it sticks out beyond
the car.
vo: With the benefit of hindsight maybe it wasn't such
a hot idea ...
Hi gets in the car.
FROM BEHIND THE CHEVY
It starts down the long, winding road leading away from the
trailer, kicking up dust.
vo: ... but at the time, Ed's little plan seemed like the
solution to all our problems, and the answer to all our
prayers.
The title of the film burns in: RAISING ARIZONA
A building chord snaps off in a shock cut to:
SUBURBAN LIVING ROOM EVENING
Tableau of a couple at home. NATHAN ARIZONA is on the
telephone, his stocking feet up on an ottoman. FLORENCE Sits
reading Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care.
The living room is dominated by a large oil portrait of
NATHAN and FLORENCE, gazing out from the wall over the
mantelpiece.
NATHAN (into the phone): Eight hundred leaf tables and
no chairs?! You can't sell leaf tables and no chairs! Chairs,
you got a dinette set! No chairs, you got dick! I ask my
wife she got more sense! ...
A title is supered: THE ARIZONA HOUSEHOLD
From somewhere upstairs we hear an infant start to cry.'
FLORENCE stops reading and looks up at the ceiling. NATHAN
is oblivious.
NATHAN: ... Miles, alls I know is I'm away from the
office to have me some kids and everything goes straight
to heck! I ain't gonna stand for it!
Another title is supered below the first: SEPTEMBER 17, 1985
The baby stops crying and FLORENCE's attention returns to
her book.
... Yeah, and if a frog had wings he wouldn't bump
his ass a-hoppin'! I'm sick of your excuses, Miles! It is
now ...
As he throws out his wrist to look at his watch a third title is
supered beneath the first two: 8:45 P.m.
. . .8:45 in the P.m. I'm gonna be down to the store in
exactly twelve hours to kick me some butt!
He starts to replace the receiver but brings it back with an
afterthought:
. . .Or my name ain't Nathan Arizona!
As he slams the phone into the cradle the titles disappear.
Another baby starts crying. FLORENCE looks up at the
ceiling.
NATHAN: That sounds like Larry.
Close on the crying baby as Hi bounces it, gently but
desperately.
HI: Shhhh! Shh! Nice baby . . .
He starts to lower it back into the crib. The crib is unpainted
with the name of each baby burned Bonanza-style into the
headboard: Harry, Barry, Larry, Garry, and Nathan Jr.
Instead of quieting as he is lowered into the crib, the
squalling baby only sets off one of his brothers. Hi hurriedly
lifts him back out.
He looks desperately around the room.
The room is wallpapered with nursery rhyme characters.
There are toys strewn around. There is one adult-sized easy
chair in the corner.
Hi carries the baby over to the chair, stepping on and
reacting to the squeal of a squeeze-me toy on the way. He sits
the baby deep in- the chair and then returns to the crib to deal
with the second crying baby.
He lifts the baby out of the crib and gently bounces it. This
baby stops crying.
Another one in the crib starts bawling.
Hi sets the second baby down on the floor and gives it a
rattle to keep it pacified. He reaches for the third baby in the
crib. Sweat stands out on Hi's brow. He is desperately
chucking the third baby under the chin when we hear a
muffled pthump!
He whirls to look across the darkened room.
The first baby has dropped off the easy chair and is
energetically crawling away toward a shadowy corner.
LIVING ROOM
NATHAN and FLORENCE are sitting stock-still, staring at the
ceiling. After a moment, another baby starts crying.
NATHAN: What're they, playing telephone?
They stare at the ceiling.
NURSERY
Loose babies are crawling everywhere.
Hi is skittering across the room in a half-crouch, a baby
tucked under one arm, reaching out with the other as he
pursues a crawling baby across the room.
He hefts the other baby with his free arm and brings the
air back to the crib.
He turns to look frantically around the room.
The other three babies have disappeared.
There is perfect quiet.
Hi goes over to the closet door, which is ajar, and swings it
open.
He reaches under a moving pile of clothes on the floor and
pulls out a baby.
He returns it to the crib and freezes, listening.
The sound of a rattle.
He drops to the floor to look under the crib.
WIDE ANGLE UNDER CRIB
A baby holding a rattle leers into the camera in the
foreground. Behind him Hi, on his stomach, is reaching in to
grab at his leg.
Hi is pulling the baby out, away from the camera, when
with a plop! a baby drops onto Hi's back from the crib above.
Hi twists one arm back to grope for the baby crawling on
top of him.
He is straightening up, a baby in each arm, when he reacts
in horror to something he sees across the room.
HI'S POV
The hindquarters of a diapered baby are just disappearing
around the corner of the nursery door into the hallway.
LIVING ROOM
FLORENCE and NATHAN are staring at the ceiling. After a
beat we hear a muffled plop! on the ceiling. A beat later, the
bleat of the squeeze-me toy.
NATHAN: ... Whyn't you go up and check on 'em?
They sound restless.
UPSTAIRS HALLWAY
The floor-level wide-angle shot shows a baby crawling toward
the camera in the foreground. Behind him, in the background,
just rounding the open door from the nursery, yet another
baby is making a mad dash for freedom.
Hi emerges from the nursery and, stepping around the
background baby, trots toward the baby in the foreground. By
the time he reaches it the low-angle cropping shows us only
his feet and calves.
CLOSE ON HI
Perspiring as he tiptoes the last two steps to the baby.
HIS POV
The baby and, beyond it, the stairway down to the main floor.
We hear footsteps approaching.
BACK TO HI
He scoops up the baby and hurriedly tiptoes away toward the
nursery.
LOW-ANGLE REVERSE
The baby at the nursery door in the foreground; the staircase
in the background. As Hi reaches the baby we hear footsteps
climbing the stairs.
HI'S free arm comes down into frame to scoop the baby up
and out of frame just as:
FLORENCE's head appears, bobbing up as she climbs the
stairs.
She approaches the nursery, still clutching the Dr. Spock
book.
NURSERY
As FLORENCE enters from the hallway door.
We track back into the room, on her, as she approaches the
crib. Halfway there she freezes, staring, in shock.
HER POV
All of the babies have been replaced in the crib but not lying
down: They are seated in a row, staring back at her, lined up
against the far crib railing, like a small but distinguished
panel on "Meet the Press."
THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD OF THE CHEVY
ED'S point of view of Hi approaching the car. He is shrugging
and displaying a pair of manifestly empty hands.
CLOSE ON ED
Barely able to fight down her anger. Hissing:
ED: What's the matter?!
Hi appears at her-the driver's-window.
HI: Sorry honey, it just didn't work out.
He is reaching to open the door but she slaps his hand away
from the handle.
ED: What d'you mean it didn't work out?!
HI: They started cryin', then they were all over me . . .
He is trying to open the door, which ED is holding shut with
all her might.
... It was kinda horrifying-Lemme in, honey.
ED: Course they cried! Babies cry!
HI: I know that now! Come on honey, we better
leave-
ED is rolling up the window and locking the door.
ED: You go right back up there and get me a toddler! I
need a baby, Hi; they got more'n they can handle!
Muffled, through the closed window, and very forlorn:
HI: Aw honey I-
ED: Don't you come back here without a baby!
NURSERY
FLORENCE is holding one of the babies cradled against her
shoulder. She is facing the hallway door; her back is to the
crib and window. The baby, peeping out over her shoulder, is
facing the window.
CLOSE ON BABY
Looking.
BABY'S POV
Of the window, as Hi's head appears in it.
BABY
Looking.
Hi
Looking back, he holds a finger to his lips.
BABY
FLORENCE starts bouncing it, patting it on the back.
BABY'S POV
Hi and the window bouncing up and down.
LIVING ROOM
NATHAN is leafing through the lingerie ads in the newspaper.
We can hear FLORENCE's returning footsteps. Muttering:
NATHAN: Christian Dior my butt . . .
FLORENCE enters.
... They pay money for that?
FLORENCE: Yes dear.
NATHAN: How're the kids?
FLORENCE: Fine dear.
NATHAN: Fuckin' kids, I love 'em.
We hear the bleat of the squeeze-me toy. FLORENCE and
NATHAN look at the ceiling for a beat, then NATHAN clears his
throat and returns to the newspaper.
CHEVY
ED sits anxiously waiting in the driver's seat, peering
intently through the windshield. As she catches sight of
something she breaks into a broad smile, unlocks the door,
and slides over to the passenger seat.
Hi is opening the door with one hand, cradling a baby in
the other.
ED: Which one ya get?
As he gets into the driver's seat:
HI: I dunno. Nathan Jr., I think.
ED: Gimme here.
He hands her the infant, then hands her the copy of Dr.
Spock's Baby and Child Care.
HI: Here's the instructions.
ED: Oh, he's beautiful!
Hi nods as he pulls away from the curb.
HI: He's awful damn good. I think I got the best one.
ED is gushing and kissing the baby through the rest of the
conversation.
ED: I bet they were all beautiful. AU babies are
beautiful!
HI: Yeah. This one's awful damn good though.
ED: Don't you cuss around him.
HI: He's fine, he is. I think it's Nathan Jr.
ED: We are doin' the right thing, aren't we Hi?-l
mean, they had more'n they could handle.
HI: Well now honey we been over this and over this.
There's what's right and there's what's right, and never
the twain shall meet.
ED: But you don't think his momma'll be upset? I mean
overly?
HI: Well a course she'll be upset, sugar, but she'll get
over it. She's got four little babies almost as good as this
one. It's like when I was robbin' convenience stores-
ED suddenly bursts out crying.
ED: I love him so much!
HI: I know you do, honey.
ED (still sobbing): I love him so much!
TRAILER LIVING ROOM
As the lights are thrown on. The room is hung with
streamers. A string of cut-out letters reads "Welcome Home
Son!"
HI (OS): Okay, bring him in!
REVERSE
ED is entering with NATHAN JR.
HI: This is it young Nathan Jr. Just feast your eyes
about, old boy!
ED: Don't be so loud around him, Hi.
HI: (softly): Damn, I'm sorry honey.
ED: And don't you cuss around him.
HI: Aw, he don't know a cuss word from shinola.
ED: Well see that he don't.
HI (jovially): He's all right, he is.
He reaches for the child.
... Come on over here, Nathan Jr., I'll show you
around.
He takes the baby in both hands and holds him out at arm's
length, pointing him at the various places of interest. The
baby looks google-eyed at each one.
... Lookahere, young sportsman. That-there's the
kitchen area where Ma and Pa chow down. Over there's
the TV, two hours a day maximum, either educational or
football so's you don't ruin your appreciation of the finer
things. This-here's the divan, for sociahzin' and relaxin'
with the family unit. Yessir, many's the day we sat there
and said wouldn't it be nice to have a youngster here to
share our thoughts and feelin's-
Impatient with the nonsense:
ED: He's tired, Hi.
HI: Well we'll just sit you right there, boy ...
He is propping NATHAN JR. up in the corner of the couch. Hi
sits at the other corner and ED Sits in a facing chair.
... Just put those dogs up'n take a load off.
Hi beams at NATHAN JR. ED smiles at NATHAN JR. NATHAN
IR. looks from one to the other, deadpan. They seem to be
waiting for him to contribute to the conversation.
Silence.
Suddenly Hi slaps his knee.
HI: What are you kiddin'?! We got a family here!
ED is getting up.
... He's a scandal, honey! He's a little outlaw!
As she picks up the baby:
ED: He's a good boy.
HI: He ain't too good! You can tell by that twinkle in his
eye!
ED: Don't you think we should put him to bed?
HI: Hang on, honey ...
He is frantically reaching for a Polaroid camera.
... Let's us preserve the moment in pictures!
ED: just one, okay? ...
She sits down on the couch with NATHAN IR. as Hi starts
screwing the camera into a tripod.
...I gotta tell ya, I'm a little scared
Absently, as he sets up the camera:
HI: How come is that, honey?
ED: Well we got a baby, Hi. It's an awful big
responsibility.
As he peers through the lens:
HI: Honey, could ya slide over a tad and raise the
nipper up?
As she complies:
ED: I mean we never done this before and I'm kinda
nervous.
HI: You're doin' real good, sugar.
Hi sits on the couch, holding the camera's cable release. He
puts his arm around ED and smiles at the offscreen camera.
ED nestles her head against Hi's shoulder.
ED: I love you, Hi.
HI: We're set to pop here, honey.
ED: You're gonna help, aren't ya?
Through his teeth as he continues to grin at the offscreen
camera:
HI: How's that, honey?
ED: Give Nathan Jr. a normal family background, just
quiet evenings at home together ...
We begin to hear distant thunder.
HI: You can count on it, honey.
ED: ... Everything decent'n normal from here on out.
HI: Uh-huh.
As he squeezes the cable release-FLASH-the image
momentarily freezes on Hi beaming, NATHAN JR. staring, and
ED looking at Hi with a little bit of concern.
DARK FIELD SAME NIGHT
The rolling thunder has built to a thunderclap at the cut, and
the flash of the Polaroid match cuts to lightning throwing a
momentarily harsh glare on the field.
Rain beats down on the bare patch of ground we are
looking at-by now just a patch of mud.
Faraway lightning flickers and we hear the rumble of more
thunder approaching, then suddenly:
THWACK -A head pops up out of the mud. It is GALE, the
con we saw in group therapy. He bellows as lightning and
thunder flash and crack nearby.
His head is covered with mud, although the driving rain is
already starting to wash it away.
We are beginning to track in an arc around GALE's head,
who is now struggling, working to get his shoulders and
arms up out of the mud. The end of the 180-degree arc and a
flash of lightning reveal, way in the distance, the wire-topped
walls of a penitentiary.
Still bellowing, as if in some primal rage, GALE has gotten
his muck-covered arms up out of the earth and is now
pushing down to haul up the rest of his body. It comes with
much effort, and with the loud sucking-popping sounds of the
fiercely clinging mud.
Finally he is free.
With a great cry, the mud-covered man plunges his right
arm straight back down into the earth, all the way up to his
shoulder. He gropes intently and then, apparently having
grabbed hold of something underground, he starts pulling.
His arm comes slowly back up out of the mud. Clasped in
his hand is-a human foot.
Bellowing with effort he continues to pull, liberating the
foot ... leg ... torso of his companion, and finally his head.
As the rain starts to wash the mud off his companion's
head we see that it is his friend EVELLE.
Both are bellowing.
Mud sucks and pops.
Thunder crashes.
INT GAS STATION MENS ROOM
At the cut the ear-splitting thunder drops out to quiet. We
hear only the muffled patter of rain and the hum of a bare
fluorescent.
The two bedraggled escaped cons are standing side by side,
combing their hair in the mirror. The men seem absorbed in
their task, using hair jelly from a jar that sits on the shelf
between them to restore their duck's-ass haircuts.
EVELLE cracks the bathroom door and looks out into the
rain.
EVELLE: ... Okay.
GALE: What is it?
EVELLE: Mercury. Looks nice.
EXT GAS STATION
The two men are trotting out to a Mercury that sits untended
at a gas island, a gas hose on automatic stuck in its tank.
AS GALE starts up the car EVELLE yanks the hose out and
drops it to the ground. GALE is already starting to peel out as
EVELLE gets in.
WIDE SHOT TRAILER LIVING ROOM
Late at night. Hi sits asleep on the sofa at the far end of the
room, in a pool of lamp light.
We hear faint, distant knocking. As we track in toward Hi
the knocking becomes louder and more present.
As we approach Hi we see that several Polaroids are spread
over his gently rising and falling chest.
By the time we tighten on his face the knocking has become
quite loud.
VOICE: Open up!
Hi starts awake with a grunt.
. . .Open up in air!
He looks up, alarmed.
HI'S POV
The front door of the trailer. Someone is pounding
insistently.
VOICE: Open up! It's a police!
BACK TO HI
He sits up and tenses. He looks around.
ED stands in her nightgown at the mouth of the hallway,
holding NATHAN JR. and squinting at Hi. She hisses:
ED: Hi! What's goin' on?
VOICE: Po-lice, son! Open her up!
Hi gets to his feet, hurriedly tosses the Polaroids under a
cushion of the couch and takes out a gun.
HI: Get in the bedroom.
ED: They ain't gonna take Nathan?!
HI: Well I'd like to see 'em fty.
AS ED turns back to the bedroom:
VOICE: Open up and maybe we'll letcha plea-bargain.
BEDROOM
As ED enters and shuts the door. She listens hard at the door:
Hi's footsteps cross the living room, the click of the door
opening, silence ... a burst of raucous male laughter.
HI'S VOICE: ... Honey! Come on out here! Want you
to meet a couple friends of mine!
LIVING ROOM
AS ED enters, carrying NATHAN IR. All three men-Hi,
GALE, and EVELLE-are beaming at her.
HI: Honey, like you to meet Gale and Evelle Snopes,
fine a pair as ever broke and entered.
GALE roars with laughter.
... Boys, this-here's my wife.
GALE: Ma'am.
EVELLE: Miz McDunnough.
ED smiles politely, then squints at Hi.
ED: Kind of late for visitors, isn't it Hi?
HI: Well yeah honey, but these boys tell me they just
got outta the joint. Gotta show a little hospitality.
GALE is admiring the baby.
GALE: Well now H. I., looks like you been up to the
devil's bidnis!
EVELLE: That a him or a her?
ED: It's a little boy.
GALE: Got a name, does he?
Hi and ED look at each other uncomfortably. Hi clears his
throat.
HI: Well so far we just been using Junior.
ED: We call him junior.
EVELLE: Say, thairs good-J.R., just like on the Teevee.
GALE is staring at the streamers and decorations. Reading
aloud:
GALE: "Welcome ... Home ... Son." Where's he
been?
Hi and ED respond simultaneously:
HI: Tulsa.
ED: Phoenix.
HI: He was, uh ... he was visiting his grandparents.
ED: They're separated.
GALE: Was that yer folks ma'am?
ED: No, I'm afraid not.
GALE: I thought yer folks was dead, H.I.?
HI (very uncomfortably): Well we thought Junior should
see their final resting place-Whyn't you boys have a
seat?
As the two men move toward the couch ED hesitantly pipes
up:
ED: Hi, it's two in the morning ...
She wrinkles her nose.
... What's that smell?
Apologetically:
GALE: We don't always smell like this, Miz
McDunnough. I was just explainin' to yer better haff here
that when we were tunnehn' out we hit the main
sewer-dumb luck, that-and just followed that to-
ED: You mean you busted out of jail!!
GALE: Waaaal ...
EVELLE: We released ourselves on our own
recognizance.
GALE: What Evelle means to say is, we felt the
institution no longer had anything to offer us .
He is looking at the baby.
... My Lord he's cute.
EVELLE: He's a little outlaw, you can see that.
ED: Now listen, you folks can't stay here!
GALE, EVELLE, and Hi look up at ED, dumbstruck. After a
beat:
EVELLE: ... Ma'am?
ED: You just can't stay! I appreciate your bein' friends
of HI and all, but this is a decent family now ...
She looks at Hi.
... I mean we got a toddler here!
GALE leans in close to Hi, a look of sincere concern on his
face, and says under his breath:
GALE: Say, who wears the pants round here H.I.?
HI: Now honey-
ED: Don't you honey me. Now you boys can set a
while and catch up, and then you'll be on your way.
There is an awkward silence as she leaves and slams the
bedroom door.
GALE is carefully studying his thumbnail; EVELLE stares
fixedly at the ceiling. Still looking at his thumb:
GALE: Gotcha on a awful short leash, don't she H.I.?
BEDROOM
Sometime later, as Hi tiptoes in. ED lies in bed facing the
wall; we see only the back of her head. Hi sits gingerly on the
edge of the bed and, smiling, sticks a finger through the bars
of the crib to play with the baby.
The sound of the TV set in the living room filters faintly
in.
ED: They stiff here?
Hi is momentarily startled, then goes on playing with the
baby.
HI: Yeah, they're just gonna stay a day or two. It's
raining out honey, they got nowhere to go.
ED finally turns to face him. We hear the two men laugh
raucously in the living room.
ED: They're fugitives, Hi ...
HI turns to face her.
. . .How're we gonna start a new life with them
around?
HI: Well now honey you gotta have a little charity. Ya
know, in Arab lands they'd set out a plate-
ED: Promise just a day or two.
HI: Tonight and tomorrow, tops.
EXTREME HIGH ANGLE
Looking straight down at Hi, asleep in bed. It is later:
filtering softly in from the other room is the end of the "Star
Spangled Banner" on TV. We are craning down.
VO: That night I had a dream .
FLASH CUT
For a brief moment we see a wall of flames and hear it roar.
BACK TO HI
Still craning down.
VO: ... I'd drifted off thinkin' about happiness, birth,
and new fife ...
FLASH CUT
Wall of flames. Deafening roar.
BACK TO HI
Craning down. The faint National Anthem ends: we hear the
WEEEEEEEE of a test pattern.
VO: ... but now I was haunted by a vision of-
WALL OF FLAMES
Roaring. At the cut: WHOOOOOSH! a huge low-rider
motorcycle bursts through the flames, its engine roaring even
louder than the fire. Its driver is a huge leather-clad hellion.
The chains worn by the BIKER clank ominously as he rides.
VO: He was horrible . . .
The BIKER roars out of frame.
LOW-ANGLE REVERSE
As the BIKER roars into frame, his rear tire laying down a
wake of fire.
VO: ... a lone biker of the apocalypse . . .
TRACKING ON BIKER
As he roars along a ribbon of desert highway.
VO: . . . a man with all the powers of heR at his
command.
The BIKER reaches for his bullwhip.
... He could turn the day into night . . .
The BIKER cracks the whip and, at the crack:
The sky behind him turns instantly to black. Bolts of
lightning crackle across it as thunder roars.
ANOTHER DESERT SCENE DAY
Tracking with and also in on the BIKER from behind as he
roars along a strip of highway. He is reaching for the two
sawed-off shotguns which are strapped crisscross across his
back.
VO: . . . and laid to waste everything in his path.
REVERSE TRACK ON BIKER
Pulling the BIKER from a distance as he levels the two
shotguns. The tracking camera pulls back further to reveal a
running jack-rabbit keeping pace with us in the foreground.
VO: He was especially hard on the little things . . .
CRACK-as the first shotgun spurts orange the foreground
rabbit keels over. The BIKER slues the other gun around.
LOCKED-DOWN WIDE SHOT
On a rock in the foreground, a desert lizard suns himself.
The BIKER is approaching in the distant background.
VO: . . . the helpless and the gentle creatures.
CRACK-from afar, the foreground lizard is blown away.
LOCKED-DOWN LOW-ANGLE WIDE SHOT
Of the empty desert road stretching away. In the foreground
a lone desert flower blooms.
The BIKER roars into frame.
VO: He left a scorched earth in his wake, befouling
even the sweet desert breeze that whipped across his
brow.
As the BIKER roars away, the foreground flower bends with
his draft and then bursts into flame.
TRACKING ON BIKER
From in front. He twirls the shotguns in either hand and
reaches back to plunge them over his shoulders into their
holsters.
VO: I didn't know where he came from or why . . .
We are moving in on his chest, where two crisscrossed
bandoliers carry two rows of hand grenades, their silver pins
glinting in the sun. We follow the line of one of the bandoliers
up to his right shoulder which bears the tattoo: "Mama
Didn't Love Me."
I didn't know if he was dream or vision . . .
REVERSE TRACK ON BIKER
From behind, booming down as we track. We are approaching
the crest of a rise.
VO: But I feared that I myself had unleashed him ...
HIGH SHOT
Of the BIKER approaching, craning down as he draws near.
VO: ... for he was The Fury That Would Be ...
With the crane down we momentarily lose him from view
over the rise; then suddenly-ROAR-he tops the rise and,
wheels spinning, is airborne
REVERSE
As he crashes back down to earth in the foreground and roars
away. Only now we are no longer in the desert: We are
looking down a twilit street at the end of which is the Arizona
house.
VO: ... as soon as Florence Arizona found her little
Nathan gone.
The roar of his engine and clank of his chains recede as the
BIKER qraduall'y dissolves into thin air.
We are left looking at the empty street and the faraway
Arizona house.
The receding roar has left behind eerily beautiful singing, a
woman singing a lullaby. Faintly, behind the singing, there
is also a droning high-pitched noise.
The camera starts floating forward very close to the
ground, moving slowly toward the Arizona house. The high-
pitched drone is becoming less faint under the singing.
The camera is accelerating. The drone is growing louder-
we can now tell that it is a human scream.
As we approach the Arizona house we can see that a ladder
is propped up to a second-story window.
We are moving quite fast now. The scream all but buries
the singing.
We are rushing toward the house, toward the base of the
ladder, the sustained scream drawing us on.
We hurtle toward and then straight up the ladder with
no abatement of speed, sucked forward by the deafening
scream.
We reach the top and hurtle-THWAP!-through the
white curtains of the open second-story window into the
nursery to reveal FLORENCE ARIZONA, her back to us,
screaming over the crib.
We are rocketing toward her.
She is turning to us, hands pressed to her ears, mouth
stretched wide in an ear-splitting shriek and we are rushing
into an extreme close-up of her gaping mouth and her wildly
vibrating epiglottis and we
CUT TO:
EXTREME CLOSE SHOT NI'S EYES
As they snap open.
The screaming snaps off at the cut. The singing that the
building scream covered, however, is now audible again.
Perspiration beads Hi's forehead. He looks down toward the
foot of the bed.
THE BEDROOM
It is now morning. ED walks back and forth, gently bouncing
the baby as she walks. She is singing it a lullaby.
Faintly, from the next room, we can hear GALE and EVELLE
snoring away like buzz saws.
Hi (groggily): He all right?
ED: He's all right. He was just havin' a nightmare.
Hi is getting out of bed.
HI: Yeah, well . . .
He crosses to the bedroom window and cracks the venetian
blind. Orange light filters in.
HIS POV
Beyond a clothes line and a septic tank, a huge orange ball of
sun is rising. We can almost hear the roar of its burning
surface.
BACK TO HI
Looking.
HI: ... Sometimes it's a hard world for little things.
HIS POV
The orange sun, rumbling, perceptibly rising.
ARIZONA HOME FRONT FOYER
At the cut the rumble of the sun is snapped off by the high-
pitched ba-WEEEEeeee . . . of a strobe going off as a flash
picture is taken: We are looking over NATHAN SR.'S shoulder
as he stands at his open front door, facing a battery of press
people who stand out on the porch.
An obie light over a local TV news camera glares in at us;
various flashbulbs pop.
NATHAN: -No, the missus and the rest of the kids've
left town to I ain't sayin' where. They'll be back here
when we're a nuclear fam'ly again.
VOICE: Mr. Arizona, which tot was abducted?
NATHAN: Nathan Jr., I think.
VOICE: Do you have anything to say to the kidnappers?
NATHAN: Yeah: Watch yer butt.
VOICE: Sir, it's been rumored that your son was
abducted by UFOS. Would you care to comment?
NATHAN (sadly): Now don't print that, son. If his
mama reads that she's just gonna lose all hope.
A POLICEMAN from inside the house is taking NATHAN by the
elbow.
POLICEMAN: We really have to ask you some more
questions, sir ...
As NATHAN allows himself to be led back into the house he
calls back over his shoulder:
NATHAN: But remember, it's still business as usual at
Unpainted Arizona, and if you can find lower prices
anywhere my name still ain't Nathan Arizona!
We are following the two, hand-held, as the PoLicE leads
NATHAN toward the living room.
LIVING ROOM
The room is filled with policemen milling about in several
different uniforms: local police, state troopers, plainclothes
detectives.
The original POLICEMAN is leading NATHAN to a table
where a white-smocked technician is preparing inkpad and
exemplar sheets.
The dialogue is urgent, rapid-fire and overlapping.
POLICEMAN: Mr. Byrum here can take your exemplars
while you talk.
MR. ByRum has taken NATHAN's right hand and is rolling its
fingers onto the inkpad.
BYRUM: just let your hand relax; I'll do the work.
NATHAN jerks his hand away.
NATHAN: What is this?! I didn't steal the damn kid!
Two men in conservative suits are approaching.
POLICEMAN: Sir, these men are from the FBI-
NATHAN (bewildered): Are you boys crazy?! ARs I know
is I wake up this morning with my wife screaming-
BYRUM (patiently): We just need to distinguish your
prints from the perpetrators', ff they left any.
Giving his hand back:
NATHAN: Course! I know that!
FBI 1: Sir, we have an indication you were born Nathan
Huffhines; is this correct?
NATHAN: Yeah, I changed m'name; what of it?
FBI 2: Could you give us an indication why?
NATHAN: Yeah, would you buy furniture at a store
called Unpainted Huffhines?
FBI 1: All right, I'll get to the point-
UNIFORMED COP: Was the child wearing anything
when he was abducted?
NATHAN: No one sleeps nekkid in this house, boy! He
was wear-
FBI 1: I'm asking the questions here, officer.
COP: If we're gonna put out an APB we need a
description of the-
NATHAN: He was wearin' his-
FBI 2: It's just that we're better trained to intervene in
crisis situations (to NATHAN). What was he wearing?
NATHAN: A dinner jacket! Wuddya think, he was
wearing his damn jammies!
FBI 2 (to cop): The child was wearing his jammies. Are
you happy?
FBI 1: Do you have any disgruntled employees?
NATHAN: Hell, they're all disgruntled! I ain't runnin' a
daffm daisy farm!
COP: What did the pyjamas-
NATHAN: My motto is do it my way or watch your
butt!
COP: What did the pyjamas-
FBI 1: So you think it might have been an employee?
NATHAN: Don't make me laugh. Without my say-so
they don't piss with their pants on fire.
COP: What did the pyjamas look like?
FBI 1: (pained): Officer-
NATHAN (bellowing): I dunno, they were jammies! They
had Yodas'n shit on 'em!
BELLOWING VOICE OFFSCREEN: Would ya mind, I'm
trying to set up a Command Post here!
NATHAN bellows back:
NATHAN: Get your feet off m'damn coffee table!
Also raising his voice at the offscreen bellower:
FBI 1: Ron, you're upsetting the victim.
NATHAN is getting worked up.
NATHAN: Damnit, are you boys gonna go chase down
your leads or are you gonna sit drinkin' coffee in the one
house in the state where I know my boy ain't at?!
FBI 2: Sir, there aren't any "leads" yet, aside from this
coat-
NATHAN: Gimme that!
He grabs the overcoat being displayed by FBI 2.
NATHAN: That's a five-hundred-dollar camel's hair-
BYRUM: Sir, you might want to wash your hands at this
point.
NATHAN realizes that he's gotten ink from his fingerprinting
all over the coat.
NATHAN: Well goddamnit!
He is rising to his feet and hurling the coat to the floor.
... No leads?!
He furiously kicks the coat.
... Everyone leaves microbes'n whatnot!
Throughout the speech NATHAN stalks the room, working
himself into a frenzy, furiously putting coffee cups onto
coasters, generally cleaning up, hectoring the police, and
swiping their feet off his ftirniture.
...Hell, that's your forte, trackin' down them
microbes left by criminals'n commies'n shit! That's yer
whole damn raison d'i&tre! No leads?! I want Nathan Jr.
back, or whichever the hell one they took! He's out there
somewhere! Somethin' leads to him! And anyone can find
him knows the difference between a lead and a hole in
the ground!!
A HOLE IN THE GROUND DAY
Specifically, it is the hole in the muddy patch of earth that
GALE and EVELLE climbed out of. We hear only the squish-
suck of many feet walking around in the mud offscreen.
We are pulling back to reveal the feet-the shiny black
patent leather shoes and blue pants cuffs-becoming quickly
spattered-of several policemen milling about the hole.
German shepherds sniff around also.
With a roar, motorcycle wheels enter frame. The bike's
jackbooted rider casually tools around the hole once; police
step back and dogs skitter away to give him room.
He backs toward the camera and stops, standing astride the
bike. The burning stub of a cheroot is dropped into frame; it
hisses angrily and dies in the mud. We start to crane up.
The whipcracking BIKER cue mixes up. The BIKER'S
motorcycle idles with a deep rumble, like the roar of fire on
the sun.
We are now framed looking over the BIKER'S shoulder. The
policemen's attitude to him seems to be deferential. One cop
in front of him is pointing a direction. The BIKER is shaking
his head; he doesn't think they went that way.
Suddenly, with a loud whipcrack effect, the BIKER's head
snaps to profile. He is staring across the field, stock-still,
having heard, smelled or sensed something.
The dogs milling around the hole also react, snapping to
attention, a split second after the BIKER.
THEIR POV
A jackrabbit is bounding away at the far end of the field.
THE DOGS
After a moment, their attention returns to the hole.
THE BIKER
His attention also returns to the matter at hand. He squints,
concentrating. His bike rumbles. Gradually his face sets in a
specific direction.
We pan down to the tattoo on his shoulder: "Mama Didn't
Love Me. " His shoulder flexes once or twice as he revs the
throttle; then he puts the bike in gear and it roars out of
frame.
TRAILER KITCHEN CLOSE ON GALE AND EVELLE
They are both intently munching cornflakes, staring at
something offscreen. After a beat:
EVELLE: ... Awful good cereal flakes, Miz
McDunnough.
THEIR POV
ED is sitting in the living room, bottle-feeding NATHAN JR.
She is surrounded by the rumpled sheets and blankets used by
the house guests. She does not respond to the ice-breaker.
GALE puts his spoon down and picks up a cigarette which
has been smoking in the ashtray next to him. There is a bead
of milk dribbling down his chin.
He takes a contemplative puff, studying ED.
GALE: ... Whyncha breast feed him? You 'pear to be
capable.
ED: Mind your own bidnis.
Through a mouthful of cornflakes:
EVELLE: Ya don't breast feed him, he'll hate you for it
later. That's why we wound up in prison.
GALE blows out smoke and picks up his spoon to start back in
on his cornflakes.
GALE: Anyway, that's what Doc Schwartz tells us.
Hi is walking in, yawning.
HI: Boys.
EVELLE: Momin', H.I.
Sharply, as Hi sits and starts to pour cornflakes into a bowl:
ED: ... Hi.
Hi holds the cornflakes box arrested in mid-air. He looks at
ED, who is motioning to GALE and EVELLE with her eyes.
HI: Oh yeah ... Say boys, you wouldn't mind makin'
yourself scarce for a couple hours this afternoon?
ED: We're havin' some decent friends over.
GALE and EVELLE are looking dumbly from ED to HI.
HI: Heh-heh ... What Ed means to say is, seein' as
you two boys are wanted, it wouldn't exactly do to have
folks seein' you here-I mean for your own protection.
GALE: Sure H.I.
EVELLE: Anything you say.
More relaxed now, to ED:
HI: Matter of fact honey, maybe I'll skip this little get-
together myself, Glen won't mind, and I'll just duck out
with the boys, knock back a couple of-uh, Co'Colas-
GALE: Sure H.I.
EVELLE: We'd love to have ya.
CLOSE ON ED
Looking pleadingly at Hi.
BACK TO HI
Feeling the look, he goes back to his cornflakes.
HI: ... Well ... maybe that ain't such a hot idea
either.
GALE leans back to blow smoke at the ceiling.
GALE (bitterly): So many social engagements. So little
time.
WIDE SHOT GAS STATION RATNROON
It is the bathroom where we earlier saw GALE and EVELLE
combing their hair, now empty.
We are looking toward the door. The bathroom is quiet
except for the dripping sink, and the faint rumble of an
approaching motorcycle. It grows louder, then begins to
recede as the bike shoots by the station.
Suddenly we hear the screech of the bike's brakes.
EXT THE STATION
We are on the road outside the gas station as the motorcycle
screeches to a halt in the foreground. The low wide shot crops
the BIKER at his shins. In the background behind him is the
gas station.
The BIKER pauses for a moment, thinking or feeling.
BACK TO INT BATHROON
We hear the rumble of the bike approaching, very loud.
CRASH-the bathroom door flies open as the BIKER bursts
in astride his hog, bright daylight streaming in with him to
throw him into imposing silhouette. The shafts of light
pouring in are defined by motes of dust dancing in the air.
HI'S POV
Fast track in on the jar of hair jelly sitting on the shelf under
the mirror.
BACK TO BIKER
An extreme close shot shows his nostrils dilating as we hear
him sniff.
He revs the rumbling bike, stealing thunder from a far
mountain.
FRONT STOOP OF TRAILER
Hi, with ED standing by, is just opening the door to a young
couple. GLEN is a short stocky blond man in his early thirties,
wearing Bermuda shorts. DOT is wearing slacks, heels, and a
scarf over her hair.
HI: Glen, Dot-
As the door opens, DOT hops up the stoop shrieking.
DOT: Where's at baby? Where's he at?
From behind, GLEN gives ha an energetic THWOK on the ass.
GLEN: Go find him honey!
DOT spins and smacks GLEN across the face with her purse.
Through clenched teeth:
DOT: Cut it out, Glen!
He reels under the blow.
ED (quietly): He's asleep right now.
DOT shrieks again, but this time muffles it with her own
hand. She tiptoes into the trailer, hand to her mouth.
GLEN, rubbing his cheek, seems angry at himself.
GLEN: Shit, I hope we didn't wake it!
DOT: Can I just sneak a peek-a-loo?
GLEN at the top of the stoop, turns out to the yard.
GLEN: Come on kids ...
WIDE SHOT GLEN AND DOT'S KIDS
A scad of children, ranging in age from two to seven, are
crawling over Hi's car. One is beating on it with a large stick,
another sits on the hood pulling back one of the windshield
wipers, etc.
GLEN: ... Get away from Mr. McDunnough's car.
TRAILER BEDROOM
AS ED and DOT enter, ED beaming as they go to the crib.
DOT: What's his name?
ED: Uh ... Hi Jr. TiR we think of a better one.
DOT: Whyncha call him Jason? I love Biblical names. If
I had another little boy I'd name him Jason or Caleb or
ED: Oh!-
She puts her hand to her forehead, reacting to the baby as if
she is about to faint.
... He's an angel!
She hides her face in her hands and looks away as if blinded,
then sneaks a look around her hands.
... He's an angel straight from heaven! Now honey I
had all my kids the hard way so you goffa tell me where
you got this angel. Did he fly straight down from
heaven?
ED: Well-
DOT: You gonna send him to Arizona State?
TRAILER LIVING ROOM/KITCHEN
The weaving knee-level tracking shot is following a six-year-
old boy in shorts and a dirty T-shirt as he tramps around the
trailer, brandishing a big stick. He strikes the walls,
furniture, various other objects with his stick, hollering
"Bam! Bam-Bam!" with each blow.
The track weaves off him and onto Hi, who is bending
down to pull a couple of beers from the refrigerator. He raises
his voice to make himself heard over the din of all the children
boiling around the room:
HI: Need a beer, Glen?
GLEN: Does the Pope wear a funny hat?
Hi considers this.
HI: ... Well yeah, Glen, I guess it is kinda funny.
GLEN: Say, that reminds me! How many Pollacks it
take to screw up a lightbulb?
HI: I don't know Glen, one?
Hi looks down.
One Of GLEN'S children, in a cowboy hat, is squirting a
squirt gun into his crotch area.
GLEN: Nope, it takes three!
He starts laughing, then catches himself.
... Wait a minute, I told it wrong. Here, I'm startin'
over: How come it takes three Pollacks to screw up a
lightbulb?
HI: I don't know, Glen.
GLEN: Cause they're so durn stupid!
He laughs; Hi doesn't react.
... Shit man, loosen up! Don't ya get it?
Hi looks over at the TV, which the bam-shouting six-year-old
is banging with his stick.
HI: No Glen, I sure don't.
GLEN: Shit man, think about it! I guess it's what they
call a Way Homer.
HI: Why's that?
GLEN: Cause you only get it on the Way Home.
HI: I'm already home, Glen.
The kid in the cowboy hat is reaching up to slap Hi on the ass.
KID: You wetchaseff! Mr. McDunnough wet hisseff,
Daddy!
GLEN: Say, that reminds me! How'd you get that kid
s'darned fast? Me'n Dottie went in to adopt on account of
something went wrong with m'semen, and they told us
five years' wait for a healthy white baby! I said healthy
white baby! Five years! Okay, what else you got? Said,
two Koreans and one Negro bom with the heart
outside ...
He takes a sip of beer.
... Yeah, it's a crazy world.
HI: Someone oughta sell tickets.
GLEN: Sure, I'd buy one.
Hi is looking at another child who is just finishing off the T in
FART in crayon on the wall.
GLEN chuckles, looking at his errant child.
... That Buford's a sly one. Already knows his ABCs.
But I'm sayin', how'd ya get the kid?
HI: Well this whole thing is just who knows who and
favoritism. Ed has a friend at one of the agencies.
GLEN: Well maybe she can do something for me'n Dot.
See there's something wrong with m'semen. Say, that
reminds me! What you gonna call him?
HI: Uh, Ed-Ed Jr.
GLEN: Thought you said he was a boy.
HI: Well, as in Edward. Just like that name.
GLEN (not really interested): Yeah, it's a good one . . .
Course I don't really need another kid, but Dottie says
these-here are gettin' too big to cuddle. Say, that reminds
me!-
nffe is the sound of shattering glass. GLEN looks around.
GLEN: Mind ya don't cutchaseff, Mordecai ...
EXT PICNIC GROUNDS
DOT faces Hi and ED across a picnic table covered with grilled
hamburgers, rolls, green jello mold, cooler, etc.
One of the younger children sits in the middle of the table,
occasionally taking a fistful of jello and flinging it at Hi. The
two women don't seem to notice.
DOT: -and then there's diphtheria-tetanus, what they
call dip-tet. You gotta get him dip-tet boosters yearly or
else he'll get lockjaw and night vision. Then there's the
smallpox vaccine, chicken pox and measles, and if your
kid's like ours you gotta take all those shots first to get
him to take 'em. Who's your pediatrician, anyway?
ED: We ain't exactly fixed on one yet. Have we Hi?
Hi sits stock-still with a stony face.
... No, I guess we don't have one yet.
DOT shrieks.
DOT: Well you just gotta have one! You just gotta have
one this instant!
ED: Yeah, what if the baby gets sick, honey?
DOT: Her, even if he don't get sick he's gotta have his
dip-tet!
ED: He's gotta have his dip-tet, honey.
Hi shrugs, then flinches as a piece of jello hits his shoulder.
HI: ... Uh-huh.
DOT: You started his bank accounts?
ED: Have we done that honey? We gotta do that
honey. What's that for, Dot?
DOT: That-there's for his orthodonture and his college.
You soak his thumb in iodine you might get by without
the orthodonture, but it won't knock any off the college.
Hi sits stoically. DOT is looking offscreen:
... Reilly, take that diaper off your head and put it
back on your sister! ... Anyway, you probably got the
life insurance all squared away.
ED: You done that yet honey?
DOT: You gotta do that, Hi! Ed here's got her hands
full with that little angel!
Hi (dully): Yes ma'am.
DOT: What would Ed and the angel do ff a truck came
along and splattered your brains all over the interstate?
Where would you be then?
ED: Yeah honey, what if you get run over?
DOT: Or you got carried off by a twister?
LAKESIDE PATH
We are tracking on Hi and GLEN as they walk side by side.
GLEN is sopping wet, wearing only swimming suit and wing-
tipped shoes. His body is ghostly pale except for a V-area at
his neck and his arms below the short-sleeve line, which are a
bright angry red.
GLEN: Hear about the person of the Polish persuasion
he walks into a bar holdin' a pfle of shit in his hands,
says "Look what I almost stepped in."
GLEN bursts out laughing; Hi walks on in silence.
HI: ... Yeah, that's funny all right ...
GLEN: Ya damn right it's funny! Shit man, what's the
matter?
HI: I dunno ... maybe it's wife, kids, family life ... I
mean are you, uh, satisfied Glen? Don't y'ever feel
suffocated? Like, like there's somethin' big pressin'
down ...
GLEN (solemnly): Eeeeeyep ... I do know the feelin'.
Hi shakes his head.
HI: I dunno-
GLEN: And I told Dottie to lose some weight but she
don't wanna listen!
He roars with laughter and slaps Hi heartily on the back. As
he chuckles sympathetically:
... No man, I know what you mean. You got all kinds
a responsibilities now. You're married, ya got a kid, looks
like your whole fife's set down and where's the
excitement?
HI: Yeah Glen, I guess that's it.
GLEN: Okay! That's the disease, but there is a cure.
HI: Yeah?
GLEN: Sure; Doctor Glen is tellin' ya you can heal
thyself.
HI: What do I gotta do?
GLEN: Well you just gotta broaden your mind a little
bit. I mean say I asked you, what do you think about
Dot?
HI (puzzled): Fine woman you got there.
GLEN is eyeing him shrewdly.
GLEN: Okay. Now it might not look like it, but lemme
tell you something: She's a helicat.
HI: That right?
GLEN: T-I-G-E-R.
HI: But what's that got to do with-
GLEN: Don't rush me!
He stops walking. Hi stops also, looking at GLEN, Still
puzzled. GLEN lays a companionable hand on his shoulder.
...Now the thing about Dot is, she thinks-and she's
told me this-
He looks around as if to make sure they are not being
overheard. His tone is confidential.
... she thinks ... you're cute.
Hi looks suspiciously at GLEN's hand on his shoulder.
HI: ... Yeah. . . ?
GLEN nods energetically:
GLEN: I'm crappin' you negafive! And I could say the
same about Ed!
Through tightly clenched teeth:
HI: What're you talkin' about, Glen?
GLEN: What'm I talkin' about?! I'm talkin' about sex,
boy! What the hell're you talkin' about?! You know,
"L'amour"?! I'm talkin' me'n Dot are Swingers! As in "to
Swing"! Wife-swappin'! What they call nowadays Open
Marriage!
Beaming, he takes his hand off Hi's shoulder and spreads his
arms.
GLEN: I'm talkin' about the Sex Revolution! I'm talkin'
about-
THWAK-Hi's fist swings into frame to connect solidly with
GLEN'S jaw.
GLEN'S feet leave the ground. He flies back and lands in a
heap.
LOW-ANGLE REVERSE
GLEN in the foreground, groggily rubbing his jaw; Hi
approaching menacingly.
HI: Keep your goddamned hands off my wife!
GLEN: Shit man!
He is scrambling to his feet.
... I was only tryin' to help!
HI: Keep your goddamned hands off my wife!
With Hi still advancing, GLEN starts to run.
TRACKING ON GLEN
With Hi pursuing in the background.
GLEN is looking back over his shoulder to shout at Hi as he
runs.
GLEN: You're crazy! I feel pity for you, man! You-
CRASH!-GLEN runs smack into a tree and drops like a sack
of cement.
INT CAR NIGHT
Hi is driving, his jaw rigidly set, his temple throbbing.
NATHAN J.R. sits in a safety seat between him and ED.
ED: We finally go out with some decent people and
you break his nose. That ain't too funny, Hi.
Hi (stolidly): His kids seemed to think it was funny.
ED: Well they're just kids, you're a grown man with
responsibilities. Whatever possessed you?
HI: He was provokin' me when I popped him.
ED: How'd he do that?
HI: ... Never mind.
ED: But HI, he's your foreman, he's just gonna fire you
now.
HI: I expect he will.
ED: And where does that leave me and Nathan Jr.?
HI: With a man for a husband.
He is pulling into a convenience store parking lot.
ED: That ain't no answer.
HI: Honey, that's the only answer.
He puts the car in park but leaves it running.
... Nathan needs some Huggies. I'll be out directly.
As he gets out of the car:
... Mind you stay strapped in.
INT STORE
CLOSE SNOT LOEGGS RACK
A hand enters to take a package of panty hose from the
standing rack.
CLOSE SHOT HUGGIES
A hand enters to take a big carton of disposable diapers from
the shelf.
CLOSE UP CASHIER
A pimply-faced lad with a paper 7-Eleven cap on his head. He
is looking up from a dirty magazine, reacting in horror to
something approaching.
HI'S POV
Hi is approaching the check-out island with a gun in one
hand, the carton of Huggies tucked under the other. The
L'Eggs stocking is pulled over his head to distort his features.
HI: I'll be taking these Huggies and whatever cash you
got.
CLOSE SHOT CASHIERIS HAHD
As he presses a silent alarm under the lip of his counter.
EXT CAR
ED is reading to NATHAN JR. from a large picture book.
ED: "'Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin. "Then
I'll huff and I'll puff . . ."'
She pauses for a moment, listening. We can barely hear a
distant siren. She resumes absently, but her voice trails off.-
". . . and I'll blow your house in . . .'"
We can definitely hear the WHOO-WHOO of the siren now,
and it is definitely approaching. ED hooks an arm around the
seat and looks behind the car, then looks forzvard.
HER POV
Indistinctly visible through the semi-reflective glass are two
figures at the check-out island. One is pointing something at
the other.
BACK TO ED
As the siren is growing louder. Under her breath:
ED: That son of a bitch.
She unstraps herself and gets out of the car.
INT STORE
Two-shot of Hi and the CASHIER, who is stuffing bills into a
grocery bag. Beyond them we can see ED, outside, circling the
front of the car.
Her shout is muffled through the glass:
ED: You son of a bitch!
With this Hi notices her. He turns to the CASHIER.
HI: Better hurry it up. I'm in dutch with the wife.
But ED is already getting into the driver's seat of the car.
BACK TO ED
As she slams the car door shut. The siren is quite loud now.
ED: That son of a bitch. Hang on, pumpkin.
The car squeals out of the lot.
WIDE SHOT THE STREET
The squad car tops a rise to bounce into view, its siren
wailing.
BACK TO THE STORE
Hi bursts out the door, still wearing the stocking. The carton
of Huggies is still tucked under one arm.
Bellowing hopefully after his departing car:
HI: Honey!
We hear the SMACK-CRACK of a gunshot and glass impact,
but the approaching squad car is still too far down the block to
have been the source.
Hi looks around the parking lot, bewildered.
The wailing siren is becoming painfully loud.
Hi looks behind him at the plate-glass front of the store,
where a bullet pock mars the glass.
HIS POV
Through the glass we see the pimply young CASHIER with the
paper 7-Eleven cap pop up from behind the counter to sight
down his huge .44 Magnum for another shot. The gun is so
big he uses both hands to heft it.
SMACK-CRACK-the bullet kisses another hole in the
glass.
Hi is off and running.
The squad car is screeching into the lot. An officer tumbles
out of the passenger side before the car is fully stopped. He
rolls on the pavement, then hurriedly rights himself and takes
up a half-kneeling shooting stance.
At the same time the little CASHIER is emerging from the 7-
Eleven with his gun.
The two bang away at Hi's retreating figure-the
POLICEMAN's revolver popping, the CASHIER'S Magnum
booming.
We hear the POLICEMAN who is still in the car drawling
over its loudspeaker:
SPEAKER: Halt. It's a police warning, son. Put those
groceries down and turn yourself in.
TRACKING ON HI
Legs pumping, panty hose still over his head, its unused leg
streaming behind him like an aviator's scarf. The gun is
tucked into his belt; the Huggies are tucked securely under his
arm.
Behind him we can see the OFFICER and the CASHIER
squeeze off another couple shots, and then the policeman piles
back into the squad car.
ED'S CAR
Driving. She hears distant gunshots.
ED: That son of a bitch . . . Hold on, Nathan. We're
gonna go pick up Daddy.
She hangs a vicious U-turn.
TRACKING ON HI
Huffing and puffing down the road with his Huggies.
The cop car careens onto the street in the background, its
siren wailing.
The PASSENGER COP is leaning far out his window, one
hand gripping the light-and-siren rack, the other pointing a
gun at Hi, shooting away.
Bullets whizz past.
Suddenly, with a soft pthunk! the Huggies box pops
forward, out from under Hi's arm-hit by a bullet. Still
running, Hi reaches forward, tries to catch it on the fly,
bobbles it, tips it-loses it. He overruns it a couple steps
before he can bring himself up short.
He turns and reaches to pick up the box but-PING-
PING-bullets chew up the road near his hand.
Leaving the Huggies, Hi takes off through a well-
manicured yard.
The police car is proceeding on down the street to catch him
around the corner, the driver still drawling over his
loudspeaker:
SPEAKER: That's private property, son. Come back out
to the street and reveal yourself to Officer Steensma and
Officer Scoft-that's me.
YARD
Hi vaults a fence to land in the backyard.
As he straightens to his feet we hear a horrible snarling
and barking.
A huge black Doberman is bounding across the lawn. It
looks like it means to rip Hi's throat out.
LOW TRACKING SHOT TOWARD HI
The dog's racing POV as it bounds toward the paralyzed Hi.
The dog leaps-camera flying up toward Hi's face-and:
CLOSE SHOT HI'S FROZEN PROFILE
The dog's slavering muzzle flies into frame and-stops, bare
inches from Hi's nose, and the dog falls back, having reached
the end of his chain.
Hi resumes running.
CLOSE
On the dog, snarling and straining against the end of his
chain.
TRACKING
Down along the chain toward the spike mooring it to the
ground. As the dog strains, the spike starts to stir in the
ground.
Other dogs can be heard barking now, the Doberman
having started a sympathetic wave.
ED'S CAR
Her jaw set, she takes a hard turn, looking this way and that.
ED: That son of a bitch ...
The police car approaches and roars by, the PASSENGER COP
still hanging out his window.
... Lookie Nathan, a police car ...
She is looking in her rearview mirror.
... Say, that looks like Bill Steensma.
LOW TRACKING SHOT
The camera is shooting forward at ground level, following the
Doberman as it bounds along. The Doberman is dragging his
chain and spike, which stretch into the foreground, bumping
and scraping along the road.
Far ahead we can see Hi running, then turning down an
intersecting street.
A second dog peels into the road to bound along with the
Doberman.
TRACKING BEHIND HI
Running up a dark street. There is an oncoming pickup. Hi
runs directly at it.
INT PICKUP
The DRIVER screams and brakes-not quite in time.
Hi rolls onto the hood, and off, and gamely trots over to
open the passenger door.
The DRIVER is leaning over to tell him:
DRIVER: Son, you got a panty on your head.
HI: Just drive fast . . .
He is displaying his gun as he starts to climb in.
... and don't stop till I tell ya.
Before Hi can get his door shut the DRIVER is obediently
peeling out.
Hi is reacting to an oncoming car. He peels the stocking off
to look, and leans across the DRIVER'S lap to bellow as ED'
car passes:
HI: ... Honey!
Hi turns to look through the back window.
HIS POV
ED'S car is braking and spinning into a U-turn.
BACK TO HI
Leaning out the window.
HI: Mind the baby now!
Next to him, the DRIVER is screaming.
As Hi turns forward, the entire windshield explodes in.
THEIR POV
The pimply-faced CASHIER from the 7-Eleven is standing in
the middle of the road ahead, sighting down his .44 Magnum
for another shot.
We are rushing in.
THE DRIVER
Still screaming.
THE CASHIER
Ready to fire and-THUMP-he is bowled over by the
arriving Doberman, still trailing chain and spike, and now
accompanied by three other dogs, all braying at the top of
their lungs.
Still screaming, the DRIVER puts his body into a hard right
turn to avoid the CASHIER and hellhounds.
NEW STREET
Roaring up the new street, they are now directly in the path
of the oncoming police car, its siren wailing, barreling
straight at them.
Still screaming, the DRIVER leans into another hard right.
Wind is whistling in through where the windshield used to
be.
Two wheels hop curb as the car skids into the new street,
fishtails, and roars away.
ED'S CAR
She hears dogs, siren, squealing brakes on an adjacent street.
ED: Hold on Nathan, we'll take a shortcut.
She gives the wheel a hard right turn.
But there is no cross street. The car hops the curb and roars
up someone's nicely tended front yard, heading for the gap
between this house and the one next door.
POLICE CAR
Recovered and turned around from its near collision with the
SCREAMINC; DRIVER, the squad car is now squealing onto the
street the SCREAMER swerved on to-resuming pursuit.
As the police car roars down the street, ED'S car appears
from between two houses behind it, bounces down the front
yard to the street and follows the police.
SCREAMER'S PICKUP
Raking two-shot of Hi and the SCREAMER. Hi is looking back
over his shoulder at the pursuing police.
Desperately pleading:
SCREAMER: Can I stop now?
Hi looks forward.
HIS POV
They are rushing toward an imposing colonial house planted
at the end of the dead-end street.
BACK TO HI
HI: Maybe you better.
CLOSE SHOT BRAKE PEDAL
Stepped on hard. The brakes scream.
EXT CAR
As the car squeals to a halt Hi is catapulted through where the
windshield used to be, tumbling over the hood onto the front
lawn.
He rolls to his feet and, as he runs up the lawn, calls back
over his shoulder:
HI: Thank you.
INTO THE HOUSE
We are tracking behind Hi as he runs up to the house and
crashes through the screen door.
Still tracking behind him as he runs through the living
room.
A middle-aged couple sits on the couch watching TV. They
look up as Hi rushes by.
Hi plunges down a staircase. As he does so we hear: ka-
chick ka-chock ka-chick ka-chock.
He emerges into a rec room where he and we rush past two
kids playing ping-pong. He runs out the back door.
TRACKING WITH THE POLICENAN
As he runs into the house.
As he runs through the living room we catch a glimpse of
the middle-aged couple gaping at him.
OFFICER STEENSMA plunges down the stairs.
TRACKING ON HI
Outdoors now, running, crossing the street behind the house
and entering the parking lot of a supermarket on the other
side.
BACK TO THE HOUSE
As a pack of dogs thunders in. The lead Doberman with chain
and spike has now picked up about a dozen neighborhood
dogs.
The dogs thunder through the living room and down the
stairs. As they hit the rec room the thunder of their feet turns
into the clatter of nails on tile.
INT SUPERMARKET
As Hi bursts in. Tracking on him as he runs down the broad
front aisle, head whipping as he runs, looking up each
perpendicular lane, searching for something.
He turns up one of the last lanes, races along it and grabs a
carton of Huggies, still on the flat run.
He emerges into the broad back aisle and runs along it, but
at the first perpendicular lane he hits, we see OFFICER
STEENSMA, gun leveled, at the other end. He fires.
Hi keeps running.
The POLICEMAN is running along the front aisle, keeping
pace with Hi running along the back aisle. He squeezes off
shots at Hi as each lane gives him the opportunity.
Hi abruptly stops between lanes and doubles back, losing
the POLICEMAN. He runs down the second lane he comes to
toward the front of the store.
The pack of dogs appears at the end of the lane and
thunders up toward Hi, braying at the top of their doggy
lungs. The lead Doberman holds in his teeth a paper 7-Eleven
cap.
Hi reverses again, and emerges into the back aisle.
BANG! A pyramid of cranberry juice explodes at his
shoulder. The POLICEMAN has been waiting at the end of the
back aisle; he aims once again.
Hi plunges down the next lane but is brought up short as
KA-BOOM! five jars of applesauce explode in front of him.
Hi looks.
Standing in the raised platform-cubicle at the front of the
store is the STORE MANAGER, a fat man in a white short-
sleeved shirt with a lit cigarette dangling from his mouth.
The MANAGER cracks open his shotgun and inserts two
more cartridges-thoonk thoonk-in the smoking chamber.
Hi doubles back once again toward the back aisle.
He is still several paces from the end of the lane when the
POLICEMAN appears there, squaring to face him.
The POLICEMAN is in front of him. The MANAGER is
blowing out groceries on the shelves behind him.
CLOSE ON POLICEMAN
As he coolly levels his police special and takes aim at Hi.
POLICEMAN'S POV
Still on the dead run, Hi is flinging the carton of Huggies.
The carton rockets straight at the camera.
BACK TO POLICEMAN
Futilely raising his gun to avoid-impact: The Huggies catch
him square on the chest. The force makes him stumble one
fatal step backwards-into the back aisle-where:
CRASH-He is hit broadside and bowled over by a
rocketing shopping cart, propelled by an hysterically
screaming SHOPPER.
TRACKING ON SHOPPER
Racing on down the back aisle, bellowing.
HER FEET
Tracking from in front. Beyond her we can see the pack of
furiously barking dogs, nipping at her heels. They boil over
the prostrate OFFICER STEENSMA, and this is the last we see
of him in this movie.
EXT STORE
As Hi emerges through the back door. ED is just skidding
around the corner.
Hi scrambles in the passenger side.
INT CAR
Raking two-shot with Hi in the foreground. The car peels out
of the lot.
HI: Thank you honey, you really didn't have to do
this-
THWAK-ED gives him a good hard slap and Hi's head rolls
toward the camera.
ED: You son of a bitch! You're actin' like a mad dog!
Rubbing his jaw:
HI: Turn left, honey.
Still at top speed, she leans into a hard left, tires squealing.
ED: What if me'n the baby'd been picked up? Nathan
Jr. would a been accessory to armed robbery!
HI: Nawww honey, it ain't armed robbery if the gun
ain't loaded-
ED: What kind of home life is this for a toddler?! You're
supposed to be an example!
HI: Now honey, I never postured myself as the three-
piece suit type-Tum left, dear.
ED: We got a child now, everything's changed!
HI: Well Nathan Jr. accepts me for what I am and I
think you better had, too. You know, honey, I'm okay
you're okay? That-there's what it is.
ED: I know, but honey-
HI: See I come from a long line of frontiersmen and-
here it is, turn here dear-frontiersmen and outdoor
types.
Hi's eyes are fixed on something in the road ahead.
ED: I'm not gonna live this way, Hi. It just ain't family
life!
Hi's attention is still on the road. He is opening his door,
even though the car is still racing along. He absently
concedes:
HI: Well ... It ain't Ozzie and Harriet.
LOW ANGLE THE STREET
In the extreme foreground sits the first carton of Huggies that
Hi dropped in the middle of the road. The car is approaching.
As the car passes the carton, Hi's hand reaches from the
passenger door and snags it.
REVERSE
As Hi pulls the carton in and slams his door shut. Crane up
on the car speeding away.
TRAILER LIVING ROOM
AS ED bursts in the front door, holding NATHAN JR.
ED: You two are leaving.
ON GALE AND EVELLE
They look up, dumbstruck and mortified, from the sofa where
the have been watching TV.
ED: Tomorrow morning. Now I got nothing against
you personally ...
GALE and EVELLE look appealingly toward Hi, who shifts
uncomfortably behind ED.
ED: ... but you're wanted by the authorities and
you're a bad influence in this household, in my opinion.
GALE: Well ma'am ... we sure didn't mean to
influence anyone.
EVELLE: And if we did, we apologize.
ED is unmoved.
ED: I'm goin' in to town tomorrow to see about some
shots for the baby. When I come back you better be gone
or I'll kick you out myself.
She storms into the bedroom and slams the door.
There is an awkward silence as GALE studies his thumb and
EVELLE stares at the ceiling. Finally EVELLE turns to Hi.
EVELLE: ... What's he need, his dip-tet?
HI: I'm awful sorry boys, but when Ed gets mad, you
know, when she gets an idea ...
GALE: Well there ain't a thing to apologize for, H. 1...
He looks at EVELLE.
... It seems pretty clear what the situation is here.
EVELLE: Yeah, I guess the Missus wants us to clear out.
GALE: Now H. I., you'll pardon me for sayin' so, but I
get the feelin' that this-here ...
His gesture seems to take in the trailer and the entire
domestic situation.
... ain't exactly workin' out.
HI: Well now Ed's generally a real sweetheart, I-
GALE: And as per usual, I wouldn't be surprised if the
source of the marital friction was financial.
HI: Well, matter of fact, I did lose my job today-
EVELLE: Come on Hi. you're young, you got your
health-what do you want with a job?
GALE: But look, I'd rather light a candle than curse
your darkness. As you know, Evelle'n I never go
anywhere without a reason ... and here we are in your
little domicile. We come to invite you in on a score.
EVELLE: A bank, Hi.
Hi is shaking his head.
HI: Aw boys, I don't-
GALE: I know you're partial to convenience stores but,
H. I., the sun don't rise and set on the comer grocery.
EVELLE: It's like Doc Schwartz says: You gotta have a
little ambition. Why we just heard on the news how
somebody snatched off one of the Arizona babies. Now
there's someone thinkin' big.
GALE: And here you are sittin' around on your butt
playin' house with a-don't get me wrong, H.I., with a
fine woman-but a woman who needs the button-down
type.
HI: Well now that ain't really any of your-
GALE: Just lookahere ...
He is handing Hi a folded-up picture.
EVELLE: Picture of El Dorado, Hi.
GALE: Though the locals call it the Farmers and
Mechanics Bank of LaGrange. Looks like a hayseed bank
and, tell you the truth, it is a hayseed bank. Except the
last Friday of every financial quarter there's more cash in
that bank than flies at a barbecue.
EVELLE: And guess what day it is tomorrow?
GALE: Ya see, H. I., it's when the hayseeds come in to
cash their farm subsidy checks.
EVELLE: A-One information.
GALE: Got it in the joint from a guy named Lawrence
Spivey, one of Dick Nixon's undersecretaties of
agriculture.
EVELLE: He's in for sohcitin' sex from a state trooper.
GALE: Ordinarily we don't associate with that class of
person, but ...
GALE chuckles.
... he was tryin' to make brownie points with some.of
the boys.
HI: Boys, I can't-
EVIELLE: We need someone handy with a scatter-gun to
cover the hayseeds while we get the cash.
GALE: Y'understand, H.I., if this works out it's just the
beginning of a spree across the entire Southwest proper.
We keep goin' tffl we can retire-or we get caught.
EVELLE: Either way we're fixed for life.
Hi is still shaking his head.
HI: Boys, it's a kind offer, but you're suggesting I just
up'n leave Ed. Now that'd be pretty damn cowardly,
wouldn't it.
GALE: Would it? Think about it, H. I. Seems to me,
stayin' here, yain't doin' her any good. And y'ain't bein'
true to your own nature.
The camera has floated in to a close shot Of Hi, staring glumly
at GALE.
TRACKING ON MOTORCYCLE NIGHT
Following it, very close, we see only its rear wheel and fender
and twin exhaust pipes, one on either side. Flame is boiling
in each exhaust pipe as the hog roars.
HIGHER TRACKING SHOT
From behind the BIKER's head as he rides through the night.
With the sharp whipcrack effect he suddenly looks left,
searching. With a second whipcrack effect he suddenly looks
right, still searching.
He banks into a turn.
EXT TRAILER
Creeping in. Late at night. We are tracking in toward the one
window that is illuminated, with a feeble yellow light.
In voice-over, Hi is composing a letter.
VO: My dearest Edwinna. Tonight as you and Nathan
slumber, my heart is filled with anguish .
DISSOLVE THROUGH TO:
INT TRAILER
Creeping in on Hi's hunched back, as he sits over the kitchen
table writing the letter. The yellow lamp sitting on the table
is the only light on in the trailer.
VO: ... I hope that you will both understand, and
forgive me for what I have decided I must do. By the
time you read this, I will be gone.
DISSOLVE THROUGH TO:
LIVING ROOM
Creeping in on GALE and EVELLE, sprawled on the sofa and
easy chair respectively, sawing boards.
VO: ... I will never be the man that you want me to
be, the husband and father that you and Nathan
deserve ...
DISSOLVE THROUGH:
BACK TO Hi
Still creeping in.
VO: Maybe it's my upbringing; maybe it's just that my
genes got screwed up-I don't know ...
DISSOLVE THROUGH TO:
INT 7-ELEVEN
Creeping in on the pimply-faced CASHIER, sitting asleep
behind the counter, a dirty magazine lying face-down, open
on his chest.
VO: But the events of the last day have showed,
amply, that I don't have the strength of character to raise
up a family ...
We are slowly panning over to the newspaper rack, revealing
tomorrow's headline: WHERE IS NATHAN JR.?
... in the manner befitting a responsible adult, and
not like the wild man from Borneo.
DISSOLVE THROUGH TO:
ARIZONA HOME
Creeping in on NATHAN SR. in the living room, asleep in his
ottoman armchair, lit only by the snow from the TV set he is
facing, a half-full glass of milk on the coffee table next to him.
His robe is disheveled; his eyeglasses have slid down his
nose.
VO: . . . I say all this to my shame.
DISSOLVE THROUGH TO:
TRAILER BEDROOM
Creeping in on ED and NATHAN IR., asleep together in the
double bed. ED's arm is draped protectively over the sleeping
infant.
VO: . . . I will love you always, truly and deeply. But I
fear that if I stay I would only bring bad trouble . . .
We start to hear the rumble of the motorcycle mix up again.
... on the heads of you and Nathan Jr.
DISSOLVE THROUGH TO:
BLACKNESS
Night sky. The motorcycle tire enters frame as the bike comes
to a halt. The BIKER plants a jackbooted foot in the
foreground.
The engine rumbles.
VO: I feel the thunder gathering even now; if I leave,
hopefully, it will leave with me.
We are craning up over the BIKER's back to reveal what he is
looking at: We are on a bluff overlooking the trailer park. In
the window of one trailer below, a yellow light glows.
I cannot tarry ...
DISSOLVE THROUGH:
BACK TO HI
Still creeping in.
VO: Better I should go, send you money, and let you
curse my name. Your loving ... Herbert.
FADE OUT
FIRE
Roaring at the cut. Through it we can see the BIKER sitting
on the ground, legs stretched out in front of him, back resting
against his parked motorcycle, arms folded across his chest.
Perfectly motionless, he stares at the campfire.
We are floating in toward him.
As we come closer, eventually drawing in to a close shot of
his face, we gradually realize something peculiar about his
eyes: He seems to have none. Although his eyes are
unblinkingly open we do not see eyeballs, but only fire-
either a reflection of the campfire or something roaring-
burning-inside.
CLOSE SHOT DOOR MAT
It reads: "Come On In! To Unpainted Arizona."
The smoking butt of a cheroot is dropped onto the mat. A
jackbooted foot grinds it out.
CLOSE SHOT BAR ON GLASS DOOR
Leading into the showroom. The BIKER'S mail-and-chained
fist pushes the door open.
LOW WIDE TRACKING SHOT
Behind the jackboots as they stroll through a showroom of
unpainted furniture and bathroom fixtures.
TRACKING ON THE MAILED HAND
Swinging as he walks, the BIKER's hand produces a fresh
cheroot from no apparent source-either sleight-of-hand or
magic.
THE OTHER HAND
Similarly producing a long wooden match.
DISCOLORED TEETH
Biting down on the cigar.
HAND
Dragging the kitchen match along the unfinished wood
surface of an expensive bureau, leaving an ugly black scar.
The match erupts into roaring flame.
CIGAR
Crackling as it is lit.
DOOR
Reading "Executive Offices. " The mailed fist pushes it open.
PEBBLED GLASS DOOR
From the inside of the office. The name on the pebbled glass is
a backwards NATHAN ARIZONA.
There is the shadow of a man approaching the door, and
muffled voices.
SECRETARY'S VOICE: I'm sorry, Mr. Arizona, he just
barged in ...
The door swings open and NATHAN stands looking in, his
middle-aged secretary hanging at his elbow.
. . .Should I call Dewayne?
NATHAN is staring toward his desk.
NATHAN: Hell no, why wake the security guard. I'll
take care a this.
The secretary leaves.
NATHAN'S POV
The BIKER Sits with his back to us, jackboots propped lazily on
the desk.
His head bobs and ducks, as if he is following some
movement in the air in front of him.
BACK TO NATHAN
Eyes on the BIKER he slams the door shut behind him, looking
for some reaction.
BIKER
No reaction. His head continues to bob and duck.
BACK TO NATHAN
Circling the BIKER as he crosses to sit behind his desk.
HIS POV
Arcing around to reveal the BIKER'S face. He still does not
react to NATHAN, not even bothering to give him a glance.
His eyes continue to follow some phantom movement.
When the BIKER speaks it is still without looking at
NATHAN, and with a surprisingly soft voice and mild,
unhurried manner:
BIKER: You got flies.
He finally looks at NATHAN, and smiles faintly.
NATHAN: I doubt it. This place's climate-controlled, all
the windows are sealed. Who the hell are you?
BIKER: Name of Leonard Smalls. My friends call me
Lenny . . .
He takes a drag on his cigar.
. . .Only I ain't got no friends.
NATHAN: Stop, you'll make me bust out crying. Listen
Leonard, you want some furniture or a shitbox, they're
out on the sales floor.
SMALLS is pleasantly shaking his head.
SMALLS: Nooo, I ain't a customer, I'm a manhunter.
Ordinarily. Though I do hunt babies, on occasion. Hear
you got one you can't put your hand to.
NATHAN: What do you know about it?
SMALLS: Wal, that's my business. I'm a tracker-part
Hopi Indian, some say part hound dog. When some dink
skips bafl, crushes outta the joint, I'm the man they call.
NATHAN: Mister, I got the cops, the state troopers and
the Federal-B-I already lookin' for my boy. Now if you
got information I strongly advise-
SMALLS: Cop won't find your boy. Cop couldn't find
his own butt if it had a bell on it. Wanna find an outlaw,
call an outlaw. Wanna find a Dunkin Donuts, call a cop.
NATHAN: Smalls, first off, take your damn feet off
m'furniture. Second off, it's widely known I posted a
twenty grand reward for my boy. If you can find him,
claim it. Short of that what do we got to talk about?
SMALLS: Price. Fair price. And that ain't whatever you
say it is; fair price is what the market'fl bear. Now there
are people, mind you, there are people in this land,
who'll pay a lot more'n twenty grand for a healthy baby.
NATHAN is looking at him stonily.
NATHAN: What're you after?
SMALLS: Give you an idea, when I was a lad I m'self
fetched twenty-five thousand on the black market. And
them's 1954 dollars. I'm sayin, fair price. For fifty grand
I'll track him, find him-
Quick as a flash the heretofore languid SMALLs bolts forward,
his fist stopped an inch short Of NATHAN'S nose.
EXTREME CLOSE SHOT SMALLS' FINGERS
His index finger and thumb are pinched together-holding
the leg of a struggling fly that he has just plucked from the
air.
SMALLS: ... and the people that took him . . .
He flicks the fly away.
... I'll kick their butts.
He sits back down.
. . .No extra charge.
NATHAN stares grimly at SMALLS.
NATHAN: And if I don't pay?
SMALLS: Oh I'll get your boy regardless. Cause if you
don't pay, the market will.
NATHAN: You wanna know what I think? I think
you're an evil man. I think this is nothin' but a goddamn
screw job. I think it's a shakedown. I think you're the
one took Nathan Jr. and my fine friend, I think you're the
one gonna get his butt kicked ...
NATHAN swivels to punch numbers on a telephone.
... I think I'm on the phone to the cops right now,
and I-
He swivels back, looking up, and his speech stops short.
HIS POV
The office is empty. A whipcrack effect builds to the cut and:
CLOSE ON HI
His eyes snap open as the whipcrack echoes away.
He has been slumped over the kitchen table, asleep.
GALE (OS): Up and attem, H. I. Today is the first day of
the rest of your fife ...
EVELLE (OS): . . . and already you're fuckin' it up.
Hi looks up.
GALE and EVELLE are smiling down at him.
EVELLE: Come on, the missus'll be back from town
soon.
Hi takes the envelope that he was slumped over, TO ED
written on its face. As he sticks it to the refrigerator door
with a broccoli magnet:
HI: Where's the baby?
EVELLE: Bedroom, in his crib.
GALE: He's sawin' toothpicks, he'll be fine.
There is a harsh knock at the door. All three tense.
... You expectin' anybody?
Hi is staring. The knock comes again.
HI: No. You two stay outta sight.
He goes to the door, pulls back its shade and peeks out. Under
his breath:
HI: Shit.
He opens the door.
EXT TRAILER
It is GLEN. He backs nervously down to the foot of the stoop
as Hi stands in the half open doorway. GLEN comes to rest a
few feet away from the stoop.
He is wearing a neckbrace. The bridge of his eyeglasses is
taped together. Cotton wadding is stuffed up his nose, which
is darkly discolored. He holds a rolled up newspaper.
His station wagon is parked behind him, idling.
HI: Morning Glen.
GLEN speaks in a very nasal voice:
GLEN: I ain't comin' in if ya don't mind. I'll just keep
my distance.
HI: I didn't invite you in, Glen.
GLEN: Well don't even bother. First off, you're fired-
and that's official.
HI: I kinda figured that, Glen.
GLEN: Well that ain't why I'm here neither. No sir.
You're in a whole shitload of trouble, my friend.
Hi is looking at him evenly.
HI: Why don't you just calm down, Glen.
GLEN: Why don't you make me?! Know that little baby
you got in there? Remember him? I know what his real
name is!
Hi is suddenly nervous and urgent:
HI: Wanna keep your voice down, Glen?
GLEN: I'll pitch my voice wherever I please! His name
ain't HI Jr.! His name ain't Ed Jr.! But it's junior an right!
Yes sir, it's Nathan Jr.!
Hi takes one step down holding out a calming hand.
GLEN takes two nervous steps away and reassures himself
by resting a hand on the door of his station wagon.
... Stay away from me, McDunnough!
HI stops short. GLEN smiles.
GLEN: ... Sure, you're an awful big man when you
got somethin' around to clobber a guy with!
HI: (softly): I ain't a big man.
GLEN: That's right! And now you're at my mercy!
He spits on the dirt in front of him.
... I'm your worst nightmare! I wanted to just turn
you in for the re-ward. But Dot, she wants something to
cuddle. So it looks like that baby's gonna be Glen Jr. from
now on!
Hi's face is set in rigid dismay.
... I'll give you a day to break the news to Ed ...
GLEN is getting into his car.
... Dot'll be by tomorrow to pick him up.
He slams the door.
... It's either that or jail. Oh and say, that reminds
me! You'll find a doctor bill in the mail in a few days. I
recommend you pay it!
And the car squeals off.
Hi looks back at the trailer.
HIS POV
A slat in the window blind drops back into place.
BACK TO Hi
He opens the door.
INT TRAILER
EVELLE is already emerging from the bedroom with the baby
in his arms.
Hi moves toward EVELLE. His teeth are set; he means
business.
HI: What's goin' on here.
GALE Steps in front of Hi.
GALE: You know what's goin' on, H.I. It's just
business. Now this can go either hard or easy-
Hi gives GALE a hard push to get past him. GALE staggers
back but recovers and grabs Hi in a bear hug.
HI flips GALE. GALE lands on a coffee table which flips up
and crashes back down.
EVELLE is dancing back out of Hi's reach. As Hi lunges for
him the prostrate GALE grabs his legs.
Hi goes down hard.
GALE leaps to his feet and-CRASH-bangs his head up
against an overhanging lamp. Both of his hands fly up to
massage the top of his head.
THOOMP-Hi's fist flies into frame to connect with
GALE'S unguarded stomach. GALE doubles over, clutching at
his gut.
Hi interlaces his fingers to make a club of his two hands.
With GALE's bowed head a target in front of him, Hi swings
his hands up over his head.
Hi's knuckles scrape painfully against the plaster of the too-
low ceiling. Skin is flayed, plaster crumbles.
Hi grabs at his knuckles in pain. GALE lunges with a mid-
body tackle that sends Hi crashing into the wall.
GALE, still on top of him, reaches back to throw a punch.
The reach-back sends his elbow crashing through a window
but doesn't stop the punch.
It connects with Hi's jaw.
GALE throws another quick punch, all his weight behind it.
Hi's head bobs sideways just in time and GALE'S fist goes
through the wall. It is momentarily stuck there.
Hi uses the opportunity to grab GALE'S one free arm with
both of his. He is twisting it to make GALE, roaring with
pain, twist around and present his back to him.
Hi climbs aboard, grabbing GALE'S face.
GALE, still roaring, is pulling his fist out of the hole. He
grabs a lath exposed by the hole and pulls; it tears out of the
wall and snaps free, giving him a length of about two feet.
GALE is rampaging around like a.Qrizzlil bear hemmed in a
too-small space. Hi is hanging on for dear life, his own feet
flailing this way and that, knocking over lamps and wall
fixtures as GALE bends and twirls about, trying to shake him
loose. GALE crashes and bounces off the walls, roaring in pain
and fury.
Close shots Of GALE'S face show his features impossibly and
grotesquely contorted by Hi's hand, squeezing, gripping and
clutching at it.
EVELLE is dancing around with the baby, dodging crashing
furniture and flailing body parts.
EXT WIDE SHOT THE TRAILER
At the cut GALE's roaring drops out. We hear the chirping of
birds and the laughter of children playing in the
neighborhood.
It is a sunny day.
BACK TO INT TRAILER
GALE still roars. With a last mighty effort, he finally swings
Hi off his body.
Hi crashes against a wall and through it to land in the:
BATHROOM
Amid a shower of plaster dust and lath. Hi has landed,
groggily, against the toilet.
EVELLE enters now with his hands free, apparently having
set the baby down somewhere.
He yanks the cord off the bathroom blinds.
LIVING ROOM
Hi is seated in a straight-back chair, still violently struggling
but GALE's arms are wrapped around him from behind.
EVELLE is just finishing tying off his wrists behind the chair.
No one talks; there is nothing left to say.
Finished, GALE goes to the door and EVELLE goes to the
bedroom. He emerges with the baby and precedes GALE Out
the door, GALE slamming it behind him.
Hi starts bucking and struggling, weeping tears of rage and
frustration. He succeeds only in tipping forzvard, face down
into the carpet, the strapped-on chair pressing down on top of
him.
His profile is pressed into the carpet.
Offscreen we hear the door of the trailer opening.
HI'S POV
At carpet level. GALE'S shoes enter his field of vision. They
stride over to a mess of debris in the corner of the living
room.
OBJECTIVE SHOT
As GALE paws through the wreckage to expose the copy of Dr.
Spock's Baby and Child Care. He grabs the book.
HI'S POV
The feet walk away and leave his field of vision.
CLOSE ON HI
As we hear the door slam shut with horrible finality.
Hi's mouth stretches wide. He ROARS with grief and
frustration.
WIDE SHOT
Moving down the road toward an oncoming car. As the
oncoming car gets closer we can see GALE and EVELLE in its
front seat.
As the car passes we pan with it, to reveal that we have
been shooting from the inside of another car, and we hold on
the profile of its driver: ED. She has just watched the other car
shoot past.
ED: ... Good.
QUICK FADE OUT
INT DEVASTATED TRAILER
AS ED sits heavily into frame, apparently in shock, her frozen
profile to the camera as she stares straight ahead into space.
Her foreground hand absently holds a length of cord.
Beyond her in the middle background Hi is rummaging in
the debris. He stands up, cropped from the chest down and
starts loading bullets into the chamber Of ED'S .38 police
special.
HI (frantically): I know you're worried honey but
believe me, there ain't a thing to worry about. We're
gonna get him back, there just ain't no
question about that ...
He snaps the chamber shut and leaves frame, still talking.
... We'll get him back, that's just all there is to it. And
you wanna know another thing?
He is walking back into frame holding another handgun now
in addition to the .38, this one an automatic.
... I'm gonna be a better person from here on out.
And that's final, I mean that's absolutely the way it's
gonna be, that's official. You were right and I was
wrong ...
He snaps a clip into the automatic.
HI: ... A blind man could tell you that. Now they
ain't gonna hurt him, they're just in it for the score ...
Hi is leaving frame again, continuing to talk as we hear him
rummaging offscreen.
... But I ain't like that no more, I'm a changed man.
You were right and I was wrong. We got a family here
and I'm gonna start acting responsibly ...
Hi enters frame with the two handguns stuck in his belt,
holding his pump-action shotgun.
... So let's go honey ...
He primes the shotgun: WHOOSH-CLACK.
... Let's go get Nathan Jr.
TRACKING SHOT
From the front bumper of an automobile. Beautiful desert
stretches to the horizon. The road rushes under the camera.
GALE AND EVELLE'S CAR
GALE drives, gazing out at the road. EVELLE holds NATHAN
J.R., occasionally bouncing him. Contemplatively:
GALE: I luuuuv to drive.
EVELLE: You said somethin' there, partner.
GALE: ... Yessir, I figure with the ransom and this
bank, you'n I'll be sittin' in the fabled catbird seat.
EVELLE is looking down at the baby, shifting him in his lap.
EVELLE: Uh, Gale. . . Junior had a, uh, accident.
GALE: What's that, pardner?
EVELLE: He had a little accident.
GALE looks over.
GALE: Wuddya mean, he looks okay.
EVELLE: No, ya see ... Movin' though we are, he just
had hisself a rest stop.
GALE: Well it's perfectly natural.
EVELLE (very excited): Hey Gale!
GALE: What now?
EVELLE, beaming, looks up from the baby to GALE.
EVELLE: ... He smiled at me!
THE SUN
A huge rumbling rippling red ball that fills the frame.
As we hear his footfalls on concrete steps, SMALLS rises
into frame, apparently climbing a stoop. The sun behind him
throws him into silhouette; the extreme telephoto flattens him
against the sun. Heat waves ripple between us and him,
making his figure slightly waver.
The rumble builds, louder and louder, until it is snapped
off by a-
INT TRAILER
-CLICK. The front door handle clicks open and SMALLS
stands in the doorway. The abandoned trailer is perfectly
quiet.
The room is a complete shambles from the fight. Sunlight
filters in between the slats of the venetian blinds. Smoke from
LENNY SMALLS' cheroot ripples up through the light.
After only a momentary pause at the door to take in the
scene, SMALLS goes directly to a specific spot in the debris and
nudges some of it aside with his toe, exposing a piece of
paper.
He bends down to pick it up but suddenly freezes, with a
soft grunt of surprise.
HIS POV
At knee-height on the wall in front of him, "FART" is
scrawled in crayon.
BACK TO SMALLS
As he stands up with the piece of paper.
THE PAPER
It is GALE'S picture of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank.
INT CONVENIENCE STORE
Close on a carton of diapers being set down on the check-out
counter.
EVELLE (os): Know how you put these thangs on?
WIDER
EVELLE and the CASHIER, a late-middle-aged man (perhaps
the proprietor of this small mom-and-pop store) face each
other across the check-out counter. EVELLE has various baby
purchases-the diapers, baby food, etc.-piled on the
counter. The CASHIER is ringing them up.
Through the open door beyond them we can see a strip of
the parking lot.
CASHIER: Welp. Around the butt, then up over the
groin area-
EVELLE: I know where they go, old timer. I mean do I
need pins or fasteners?
We see GALE trotting past through the visible part of the
parking lot, cooing "Weeeeee!" as he holds NATHAN JR. Up
over his head.
CASHIER: Well no, they got those tape-ettes already on
there, it's self-contained and fairly explanatory.
EVELLE: Uh-huh . . .
He takes a plastic-covered squirt gun off a display rack and
drops it on the counter. He is looking around at the other
impulse purchases displayed by the register; he unhooks a bag
of balloons.
. . .These blow up into funny shapes at all?
GALE is trotting by in the opposite direction: "Weeeeee!"
CASHIER: Well no. Unless round is funny.
EVELLE is pulling a gun out of his belt.
EVELLE: All right, I'll take these too. Now you lie down
back there-
CASHIER: Yessir!
EVELLE: -and don't you move till you've counted up
to eight hundred and twenty-five and then backwards
down to zero. I'll be back to check-see y'ain't cheatin'.
The CASHIER is already down on the floor, out of frame.
CASHIER (OS): You the diaper burglar?
As he heads for the door with the groceries:
EVELLE: Looks like I'm one of 'em.
EXT STORE
AS EVELLE hurriedly emerges with the two bags. Faintly we
can hear the CASHIER bellowing: "One one thousand, two one
thousand . . . "
EVELLE: Get the door, will ya?
GALE is slipping the baby back into his car seat, which sits on
the roof of the car. He starts doing up the straps.
GALE: He's a real cheerful little critter once he warms
up to ya.
Hands free now, GALE reaches for the back door.
EVELLE: Hurry up Gale ...
GALE has the door open. EVELLE starts throwing in the
groceries.
I don't know how high this one can count.
GALE AND EVELLE'S CAR
GALE drives as EVELLE sorts through his purchases.
EVELLE: Got him some baby grub ... baby wipes . . .
diapers, disposable ... packet of balloons-
GALE: They blow up into funny shapes at all?
EVELLE: No, just-
GALE is looking around, puzzled.
GALE: Say, where's Junior?
EVELLE: Wuddya mean, didn't you put him in?!
GALE: No, I thought-
The two men look at each other.
REVERSE
The two men's heads whip around to look in the back seat.
BACK TO FRONT ANGLE
They look at each other in horror.
GALE: Where'd we leave hirn?!
The two men's eyes widen as they remember at the same time:
both look up at the roof of the car.
CLOSE ON GALE'S FOOT
Coming off the accelerator.
CLOSE ON EVELLE
Screaming as he watches the foot:
EVELLE: NOOOOOO!!
-But too late.
GALE'S FOOT
Already plunging down on the brake. SQUEEEEEEEAL . . .
TWO SHOT
EVELLE is screaming at the top of his lungs as the car rocks to
a stop. He peers through the windshield, still screaming, but
nothing has shot off the roof of the car.
He cranes his neck to look up the slant of the windshield
toward the roof. This of course gives him no view; still
screaming, he thrusts his body out his open window to look
up at the roof. His scream is muted as his head disappears
from view, then comes back full force as he ducks back in,
frantically shaking his head.
With this GALE'S last hope disappears and he starts
bellowing also.
GALE'S FOOT
Rising from the brake to plunge down on the accelerator.
EXT THE CAR
As it hangs a squealing U-turn and races off at top speed.
LOW WIDE SHOT
In the foreground NATHAN JR. sits upright in his car seat, in
the middle of the road that fronts the convenience store. He is
placidly looking at the scenery.
Faintly, we hear the CASHIER bellowing:
CASHIER: ... Seven hunnert ninety-seven one
thousand, seven hunnert ninety-six one thousand . . .
GALE AND EVELLE
In their speeding car, both staring out at the road ahead,
mouths gaping, emitting ear-splitting screams.
INT STORE
Shot faces the front of the store with some of the street visible
outside. The CASHIER on the floor is out of frame, but we can
hear him loud and clear:
CASHIER: ... Seven hunnert ninety-one one thousand,
seven hunnert-ah . . . bullshit.
He rises into frame, back to the camera, just as:
We see GALE and EVELLE'S car, through the front window,
roaring up the street. Quick as a shot, the CASHIER has
dropped back out of frame and resumes bellowing:
. . .Seven hunnert ninety-ought one thousand! Seven
hundred eighty-
The car is starting to squeal to a screaming halt.
BACK TO LOW WIDE SHOT
With NATHAN JR. in the foreground. GALE and EVELLE'S car
comes to a rocking halt behind-and inches shy of-the baby.
EVELLE's door is already open. He bolts from it and runs
over to the baby, blubbering. He picks up the car seat and
NATHAN JR.
GALE is also getting out of the car.
EVELLE: Promise we ain't never gonna give him up,
Gale! We ain't never gonna let him go!
GALE, choked up, speaks in a low unsteady voice:
GALE: We'll never give him up, EveRe. He's our little
Gale Jr. now.
Hi AND ED"S CAR
Hi driving. Both are staring wordlessly ahead at the road.
Hi looks over at ED, glum but trying to be kind.
HI: ... Ed, I realize I can't be much of a comfort to
you. But lemme just say this ...
He is nodding to himself.
... You'll feel a whole lot better when-
ED: I don't wanna feel better.
HI: Honey-
ED: I don't care about myself anymore. I don't care
about us anymore. I just want Nathan junior back safe.
HI: I know that-
ED: If we don't get him back safe, I don't wanna go on
hvin'. And even if we do, I don't wanna go on hvin' with
you.
This shuts Hi up.
After a moment:
ED: ... I guess I still love you Hi; I know I do. I ain't
even blaming you. The whole thing was crazy and the
whole thing was my idea.
Hi clears his throat.
HI: Well, factually, I myself bear a very large-
ED: Lemme finish. Since those jailbirds took little
Nathan I been doin' some thinking, and I ain't too proud
of myself. Even if Mrs. Arizona had more'n she could
handle, I was a police officer sworn to uphold the
Constitution of the United States-
HI: Now waitaminute honey, you resigned before
we-
ED: That ain't the point, M. We don't deserve Nathan
Jr. Any more'n those jailbirds do. And if I'm as selfish
and irresponsible as you-
HI: Y'ain't that bad, honey.
ED: -If I'm as bad as you, what good're we to each
other. You'n me's just a fool's paradise.
FARMERS AND MECHANICS BANK
Baking in the noonday sun.
GALE AND EVELLE
Sitting in the front seat of their idling car, looking at the
bank.
EVELLE: There she is.
GALE: Yep. Welp ...
They look at each other. GALE reaches for his door.
... Let's do her.
EVELLE: Waitaminute. What do we do with Gale Jr.?
GALE: Wuddya mean, he waits here.
EVELLE: Are you crazy?! He can't wait here by hisself.
Supposin' we get killed in there-it could be hours
before he's discovered.
INT FARMERS AND MECHANICS BANK
AS GALE and EVELLE bang in through the door. EVELLE holds
a shotgun; GALE holds a shotgun in one hand and NATHAN
JR. in his car seat in the other.
GALE: All right you hayseeds, it's a stick-up! Everbody
freeze! Everbody down on the ground!
Everyone freezes, staring at GALE and EVELLE. An OLD
HAYSEED with his hands in the air speaks up:
HAYSEED: Well which is it young fella? You want I
should freeze or get down on the ground? Mean to say,
iffen I freeze, I can't rightly drop. And iffen I drop, I'm a
gonna be in motion. Ya see-
GALE: SHUTUP!
Promptly:
HAYSEED: Yessir.
GALE: Everone down on the ground!
EVELLE: Y'all can just forget that part about freezin'.
GALE: That is until they get down there.
EVELLE: Y'all hear that?
There is a murmur of acknowledgment from all the people on
the ground.
GALE is tossing EVELLE a sack.
GALE: Wanna fill that sack, pardner? We got-shit!
He, is looking in shock at the tellers' counter.
... Where'd all the tellers go?
There is no one behind the counter.
A muffled voice from offscreen:
VOICE: We're down here, sir.
EVELLE: They're down on the ground like you
commanded, Gale.
GALE: I told you not to use m'damn name! Can't you
even try to keep from forget' that?!
EVELLE is momentarily abashed, but then brightens:
EVELLE: Not even yer code name?
GALE registers understanding.
GALE: Oh yeah ... m'code name.
EVELLE: Y'all hear that?
There is a murmur of acknowledgment from all the people on
the ground.
GALE: All right now everone, we're just about ready to
begin the robbery proper ...
EXT POLICE CAR
The camera is locked down on the roof of the rocketing squad
car, looking past its flashing gumballs.
The car is approaching the townlet, its siren wailing.
BACK TO THE BANK
A teller is finishing stuffing the last of two burlap bags. Close
on her hands, we see her putting in a cash packet that is
really only a few bills and a sleeve surrounding and hiding a
small plastic device.
The teller hits a button on the device and it starts ticking;
she shoves it into the sack.
EVELLE: All right now everone, you know how this
works: Y'all stay flattened for ten full minutes ...
He is grabbing the two sacks and tosses one to GALE, who also
picks up the baby. As the two are backing toward the door:
... We might come back in five to check. That's for us
to know and y'aU to find out.
GALE: Anyone found bipedal in five wears his ass for a
hat.
They bolt out the door.
EXT POLICECAR
Siren jumps in loud at the cut. It is the same locked-down
shot over the gumballs.
EXT GALE AND EVELLE"S CAR
Peeling out from in front of the bank.
INT GALE AND EVELLE'S CAR
GALE is driving; EVELLE starts pawing through one of the
sacks.
GALE: That old timer threw off my concentration.
Otherwise it would a gone smoother.
EVELLE: We done okay. Yessir. This ought to split
nicely three ways.
A thought registers with GALE and EVELLE at the same
moment.
They look at each other. They both twist frantically to look
in the back seat.
Bellowing:
GALE: Goddamnit! Ya never leave a man behind!
KA-POP! With a loud flat crack something detonates in the
front seat and the interior of the car is spattered with bright
blue paint.
GALE and EVELLE, both covered in blue, are screaming in
rage, fear and incomprehension. Blue dollar bills snap and
flutter around the inside of the car.
The car is swerving wildly as GALE drives blind, the inside
of the windshield covered with blue paint. He reaches forward
to wipe clear a patch of windshield.
HIS POV
As the blue paint is smeared away we see Hi and ED'S car
parked broadside in the middle of the road. Hi and ED are in
front of it, Hi aiming his scatter gun, ED ha revolver.
The guns spit orange flame.
HI'S POV
Down the barrel of his shotgun. The car with the blue interior
is swerving crazily at us, one front tire blown out.
Hi lets go with the other barrel.
The shot chews up the front grill, shatters one headlight
and blows out the other front tire. The hood of the car flies
open.
The car is squealing to a halt and GALE and EVELLE pile
out, still bellowing.
GALE: Goddamnit H.I., ain't we got enough to contend
with?
ED is running over to GALE and EVELLE'S car, throwing open
the back door to look for the baby but coming out only with
Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care.
EVELLE is staggering around in shock, looking in disbelief
at his own blue body.
ED: Where's the baby?
EVELLE points this way and that, in a state of confusion.
EVELLE: I think we left him on the roof of the . . . he
must be back at the . . .
Hi and ED are climbing into their car.
GALE: Let us come with! . . .
Hi and ED are already peeling out.
. . .He's our baby too!
CLOSE ON NATHAN JR.
Sitting placidly in his car seat that sits in the middle of the
road in front of the bank.
We can hear the wail of the police siren still approaching.
As we hold on NATHAN JR. we hear the distant booming of a
shotgun.
As we boom up to show the empty street beyond the baby,
we hear the crack of return fire and furiously squealing
brakes. The screech culminates in a loud explosion that snaps
off the siren wail. The police car is apparently history.'
From beyond the crest of the road ahead a ball of flame has
leapt up with the explosion. As the explosion echoes and fades
we hear the deep rumble of an approaching engine.
LENNY SMALLS' motorcycle appears over the rise. Framed
against fire and smoke, he is coming directly toward us, and
the baby.
FROM BEHIND Hi AND ED
As they top a rise coming from the other direction. We see the
baby sitting in the middle of the street, and LENNY fast
approaching from the background.
LOCKED DOWN TO MOTORCYCLE
The extremely low wide shot, locked down to the speeding
bike, shows us rushing toward the rear Of NATHAN IR.'s car
seat.
With a clank of chains LENNY's hand drops down into
frame, palm for7vard, tensing to scoop up the car seat that we
are almost upon.
A tattoo on LENNYS wrist reads "No Prisoners."
REVERSE
Low shot with NATHAN JR. in the foreground.
He is scooped up and out of frame as LENNY roars by.
ON LENNY
Roaring along. He hooks the car seat over his handlebars.
OVER Hi AND ED'S SHOULDERS
LENNY is approaching. Under her breath:
ED: What is he?
HI: ... D'you see him too?
LENNY is sawing a shotgun out of his back holster and
leveling it at the oncoming car.
LENNY is sighting down the gun, swinging it around as he
approaches the car.
Hi and ED duck just as:
The shotgun spits orange flame and the windshield
explodes in.
LENNY roars by.
LENNY'S POV
The baby on the handlebars in the foreground; the road
rushing by beyond him.
The bike banks into a hard turn.
FACING Hl AND ED
Shooting through where the windshield used to be, cutting in
at the end of the skid as the car rocks to a halt.
Hi and ED are raising their heads. Facing forward, they do
not see LENNY approaching again through the rear window.
He is sawing out his second shotgun.
Hi looks around, reaches and PUIIS ED down beneath him
just as:
Ka-BOOM!-The second shotgun roars and the back
window spits in.
AS LENNY roars past the back window he casually flips
something in.
LOOKING DOWN AT Hi AND ED
Folded over in the front seat. Below them something bounces
into and around the leg well-LENNY'S grenade.
EXT CAR
As the two front doors fly open and Hi and ED Spill OUT-HI
from the driver's side, heading for the far side of the road, and
ED from the passenger side.
ON ED
As she dives for cover behind a parked car. Beyond her-
KABOOM!-their car explodes and bounces, pouring black
smoke.
ON Hi
The explosion flings him to the ground in the middle of the
street.
THROUGH FIRE AND SMOKE
Looking up the street to where LENNY is wheeling his bike in
a U-turn. He is not finished yet.
Hi flat on his back, woozily shaking his head.
He weakly raises himself on his elbows to look down the
street.
HI'S POV
Looking down the length of his own body. His legs stretch
away in a V.
Crashing down from a wheelie, LENNY's roaring bike is
almost upon him-aiming up the middle of the V.
Hi
He rolls. As the bike is roaring by:
HI'S HAND
Reaches and snags a chain on LENNY'S passing boot.
Hi
Dragged several yards before the boot shakes him off, leaving
him on his stomach in the middle of the road.
Hi looks up the road.
HI'S POV
LENNY is again sluing the bike around.
REAR WHEEL OF BIKE
Smoking as it skids around in the foreground, completing its
turn.
Boom Up LENNY's back to reveal ED stomping straight up
the street toward him-unarmed, unafraid.
ED: I want that baby!
BACK TO Hi
He reaches back to pull up his shirt, revealing a gun tucked in
his pants in the small of his back. He grabs the gun.
OVER LENNY'S SHOULDER
AS ED closes in.
ED: Gimme that baby, you warthog from hell!
LENNY's arms rise into frame. With a roll of his wrists two
knives appear in his hands.
BACK TO Hi
On his stomach, sighting down the gun toward LENNY.
HIS POV
ED stepping into his line of fire, blocking LENNY.
FROM BEHIND LENNY
Raising an arm to stab.
ED Stoops to scoop the baby from the car seat, revealing:
Hi, behind her. He fires.
LENNY"S NAND
Drilled by Hi's bullet, drops its knife.
The exit wound spurts, not flesh and blood, but a brief jet
of fire.
LENNY
Quick as a flash hurling the other knife at Hi.
HI
As the knife stings the gun out of his hand.
KNIFE ON THE GROUND AT LENNY'S FEET
LENNY bends to scoop up the knife he dropped.
TRACKING BEHIND ED
As she runs toward the bank, clutching NATHAN IR. to her
chest.
INT BANK
AS ED bursts in. The floor is littered with obedient hayseeds.
From where he lies prone:
OLD TIMER: just lie down on the floor, missie.
BANG: The front door bursts open before LENNY's roaring
hog.
It sails off a step into the sunken atrium, and lands with a
CRASH amidst the hayseeds.
TRACKING BEHIND ED
As she runs for the back door and pushes through it.
TRACKING BEHIND LENNY
As he slaloms through the wildly scattering hayseeds.
EXT BACK OF BANK
AS LENNY bursts out.
With a whipcrack effect he looks left, then right.
He jerks the bike right, to where an alleyway flanks the side
of the bank.
ALLEYWAY
ED is running up the alley toward the front of the bank as
LENNY enters. He roars after her.
LENNY'S POV
Roaring down the alley.
TRACKING IN FRONT OF ED
As the bike approaches behind her.
BACK TO LENNY'S POV
Closing on ED as she reaches the mouth of the alley.
A plank swings into frame, straight at the camera.
REVERSE
Matching action as HI finishes swinging the plank into
LENNY'S face.
LENNY hits the ground hard as his bike spins out from
under him.
THE BIKE
Riderless, twisting crazily into the street where it collapses.
HI AND ED
LENNY is rising to his feet beyond them as Hi nods
encouragement to ED.
HI: Run along now, honey.
LENNY is reaching back to throw his knife.
Hi, unaware, is turning to face him, presenting the plank
as-the knife is thrown.
It thunks into the plank, piercing it through.
Hi backs up, swinging the knife-studded plank to make
LENNY keep his distance.
TRACKING BEHIND LENNY'S SHOULDER
As he reaches up to unhook a chain from a ring on his vest
shoulder.
LENNY'S HAND
As the free chain drops down into his palm.
LENNY
Swinging the chain-whoosh whoosh-at the backpedaling
HI.
THE PLANK
As the chain snakes around it and rips it out of Hi's hands.
LENNY
Grabbing Hi by the shirtfront.
LENNY'S OTHER HAND
Swings down and brass knuckles appear on it.
ON HI
AS LENNY'S fist swings into frame to club him forehand, then
backhand.
An uppercut from his heels sends Hi sprawling back.
A PARKED CAR
As Hi lands against it, banging his head. He sinks to the
ground.
LENNY is casually walking toward him, lighting a cheroot.
Hi flops over onto his stomach and starts wriggling under
the car.
FROM UNDER THE CAR
Hi's face in the foreground as he desperately seeks escape.
Behind him we can see LENNY casually reaching down and
grabbing an ankle.
The shot is framed identically to the shot in the Arizona
nursery where Hi pulled a baby from under the crib.
LENNY PUllS. Hi is dragged away from the camera and out
from under the car.
Hi
Struggling to stand up.
LENNY wraps his arms around him and applies a
tremendous bear hug.
HI'S ARMS
Crushed against LENNY. His hands paw futilely at LENNY'S
chest.
FULL SHOT
LENNY finally flings Hi away.
Hi
Landing in the dust, all the fight beaten out of him.
LENNY
Tired of the fight: He saws out both shotguns
THE HANNERS
On the guns as LENNY'S thumbs draw them back. He raises
the guns to fire.
HI
The end of the road.
He wearily lifts a hand, defensively extending it in front of
him-then stops, staring at:
HI'S HAND
A hand grenade pin hangs, glinting, from one of his fingers.
Pawing at LENNY'S chest he must have hooked his finger
through its ring.
HI
Reacting.
LENNY
Reacting to Hi reacting. He looks down.
LENNY"S CHEST
On the bandoliers across his chest, silver pins glint in all the
grenades-except one. Its squeeze-lever juts at a right angle
from the grenade.
LENNY'S FACE
Hi's jaw drops.
LENNY'S FEET
The lit cheroot hits the ground between his boots.
Hi
Scrambling to his feet.
LENNY
Trying to drop the shotguns to free his hands. In his panic
his fingers tangle in the trigger guards.
Hi
Starting to run.
LENNY
Finally freeing his hands.
Hi
Diving behind the parked car.
LENNY'S CHEST
His hands fly in to wrap around the grenade-too late-
bright light:
LENNY
Blows sky-high. There is a roar as if the earth were cracking
open and flame as if hell were slipping out.
We pan the fire to the sky.
Fade out.
A white aluminum ladder rises up into the blackness,
clanking softly. The top of the ladder arcs toward the camera.
JUMP BACK
To the interior of the Arizona second-story nursery as the
ladder comes to rest against the window frame.
It is late at night; the nursery is dark and empty.
THE HEADBOARD
Of the unpainted crib with the burned-in names: Harry,
Barry, Larry, Garry, and Nathan Jr.
As we pull back from the headboard ED's arms are gently
depositing the sleeping NATHAN JR. into the crib. HI puts the
singed copy of Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care next to
the baby.
REVERSE
Hi and ED looking sadly down at the baby.
The silence is broken by the bleat of a squeeze-me toy as the
lights are snapped on. Hi and ED turn, startled.
NURSERY DOORWAY
NATHAN SR. stands in his jammies, hair disheveled, holding a
gun and squinting against the light.
Keeping the gun trained on Hi and ED, he slowly raises a
pair of eyeglasses to his nose.
NATHAN: The hell is goin' on?
He advances cautiously into the nursery, gesturing with his
gun.
. . .Get away from there.
Hi and ED back away from the crib.
NATHAN peers in and studies the baby for a moment.
He lays the gun down, tenderly picks up the baby and
holds him to his chest. A tear forms at the corner of his eye.
Hi and ED are quietly moving back towards the ladder.
NATHAN (sharply): Waitaminute . . .
Hi and ED Stop.
... I ain't through with you. What're you doin'
creepin' around here in the dark? You in with Smalls?
HI: ... Scuse me?
As he bounces the baby, studying Hi and ED:
NATHAN: Leonard Smalls, big fella rides a Harley,
dresses like a rock star?
HI: No sir, that's who we saved him from. It's a long
story.
NATHAN: Suppose you tell it.
HI: Well, sir, in a re-ward situation, they usually say
no questions asked.
NATHAN : Do they.
Hi shrugs.
NATHAN turns to put the baby back in the crib.
...All right, boy, I guess you got a re-ward coming.
Twenty thousand dollars ...
He turns around with a thought:
NATHAN: ... Or, if you need home furnishings, I can
give you a fine of credit at any of my stores. Fact, that's
the way I'd rather handle it, for tax reasons ...
HI: Well-
NATHAN throws his hands up in the air.
NATHAN: But it's up to you.
HI: Tell you the truth, I think we'd prefer the ca-
ED: We don't want no reward.
Hi does a small take, surprised at this much integrity.
... We didn't bring him back for money.
NATHAN: Well, we could work it that way too.
ED: Could I just look at him a little bit more?
She stands looking into the crib. Hi steps up next to her and
puts an arm around her shoulder.
NATHAN: Be my guest, young lady ... but would you
mind teflin' me exactly how you-
ED starts crying softly as she gazes into the crib. Hi murmurs
something to comfort her.
NATHAN is studying the two of them.
... You took him, didn't you? Wasn't that biker a'tar.
Hi turns to face him. He speaks in a rush.
HI: I took him, sir, my wife had nothin' to do with it. I
crept in yon window and-
ED (still crying): We both did it. We didn't wanna hurt
him any; I just wanted to be a mama.
HI: It wasn't for money or nothin'. We just figured you
had more'n you could handle, babywise. But I'm the one
committed the actual crime sir, if you need to call the
authorities-
NATHAN: Shutup boy, no one's callin' the authorities ff
there's no harm done.
HI: Thank you sir.
ED: Thank you sir.
NATHAN: Aw bullshit. Just tell me-just tell me why
you did it.
ED: We can't have our own.
NATHAN looks at her. Finally he nods and sighs.
NATHAN: ... Well lookit. If you can't have kids you
gotta just keep tryin' and hope medical science catches
up with you. Like Florence'n me-it caught up with a
vengeance. And hell, even if it never does, you still got
each other.
HI: Sir, those're kind words. But I think the wife and
me are splittin' up ...
He indicates ED with a nod of the head.
... Her point of view is we're both kinda selfish and
unrealistic, so we ain't too good for each other.
NATHAN: Well ma'am, I don't know much but I do
know human bein's. You brought back my boy so you
must have your good points too. I'd sure hate to think of
Florence leavin' me-I do love her so ...
He clears his throat and turns to the door. His tone is harder
again:
... You can go out the way you came in ...
He snaps off the lights.
... And before you go off and do another foolish
thing, like busting up, I suggest you sleep on it ...
He has disappeared into the hall. We hear his voice receding:
... at least one night.
HIGH SHOT
Looking straight down at Hi, asleep in the trailer bedroom.
We start to crane down.
VO: That night I had a dream ...
EXTREME WIDE SHOT
A beautiful dusk landscape. We are floating in over the field,
abutting the prison, that GALE and EVELLE popped out of.
In the middle background of the extreme long shot two men
are walking across the field.
VO: . . . I dreamt I was as light as the ether, a floating
spirit visiting things to come . . .
BACK TO HIGH SHOT BEDROOM
Craning down toward Hi.
VO: The shades and shadows of the people in my fife
wrastled their way into my slumber.
BACK TO FIELD
Still floating forzvard but now much closer to the two walking
men. We see that they are GALE and EVELLE. Both are still
dyed blue.
They are approaching the hole in the ground.
VO: I dreamt that Gale and Evelle had decided to
return to prison ...
EVELLE is starting to climb into the hole.
... Probably that's just as well. I don't mean to sound
superior, and they're a swell couple guys, but ...
EVELLE has disappeared and GALE starts climbing in.
... maybe they weren't ready yet to come out into the
world.
FLOATING UP THE WALK OF THE ARIZONA HONE
The front door has a holly wreath on it.
VO: And then I dreamed on, into the future, to a
Christmas mom in the Arizona home ...
DISSOLVE THROUGH TO:
ARIZONA LIVING ROOM
Five three-year-olds in their pyjamas are opening presents
around a tree as NATHAN and FLORENCE look on.
VO: ... where Nathan Jr. was opening a present from
a kindly couple who preferred to remain unknown.
We have been isolating in on one of the children peeling the
wrappings off a package marked TO NATHAN JR.
Inside is a shiny red plastic football.
FLOATING IN TOWARD A STATION WAGON
Pulled over on the state highway in the middle of the desert, a
police motorcycle parked behind it. GLEN is leaning out the
driver's window of the car talking to the state trooper who
stands facing him.
VO: I saw Glen, a few years later, still havin' no luck
gettin' the cops to listen to his wild tales about me'n
Ed ...
GLEN is grinning and talking with his hands cupped in front
of him, as when he told Hi about the Pollack who almost
stepped in the pile of shit.
The trooper, in crash helmet and dark sunglasses, is
listening tight-lipped and stone-faced as GLEN finishes his
story and slaps his knee.
. . .Maybe he threw in one Pollack joke too many . . .
The trooper is clicking open his ballpoint pen and reaching his
citation book from his breast pocket. The name tag on the
pocket says "SGT. KOWALSKI."
... I don't know.
FLOATING IN TOWARD A FOOTBALL
It sits on a tee in the middle of a football field.
VO: And still I dreamed on ...
A cleated foot boots the football out of frame.
... further into the future than I'd ever dreamed
before.
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER
Looking up, arms out at his sides, waiting to receive the
kicked ball.
VO: ... Watching Nathan Jr.'s progress from afar ...
He catches the ball and starts running.
... Taking pride in his accomplishments as if he were
our own ...
He is skillfully eluding and stiff-arming tacklers.
... Wondering if he ever thought of us .
He reaches the end zone and triumphantly spikes the football.
He whips off his helmet and we track in on the face of the
rosy-cheeked high-school bruiser.
... and hoping that maybe we'd broadened his
horizons a little, even if he couldn't remember just how
they'd got broadened.
BACK TO BEDROOM
Still craning down, now very close to the sleeping Hi.
vo: But still I hadn't dreamt nothin' about me'n Ed.
Until the end ...
DISSOLVE THROUGH TO:
A COUPLE
The man and woman are sitting on a sofa in the foreground
with their backs to the camera. They are in the living room of
Hi and ED'S trailer, which is suff-used with a warm golden
light.
As they face the trailer's front door, all we see of the couple
is the backs of their heads. They both have white hair, the
woman's pulled into a bun. The old man wears a cardigan,
the woman a shawl.
VO: . . . And this was cloudier 'cause it was years,
years away.
The front door bursts open. Two young couples are entering
as their kids-about a dozen of them-stream in around
them.
The old couple on the couch raise their arms to embrace
their visitors. The children boil onto the couch.
... But I saw an old couple bein' visited by their
children-and all their grandchildren too. And the old
couple wasn't screwed up, and neither were their kids or
their grandkids. And I don't know, you tell me. This
whole dream, was it wishful thinking? Was I just fleein'
reality, like I know I'm liable to do?
FLOATING IN TOWARD A LONG DINING TABLE
In the trailer. The table is all laid out with a Thanksgiving
dinner, a huge turkey sitting at the far end.
Cut-out letters at the other end of the room say: WELCOME
HOME KIDS!
The grandchildren are running into frame and taking their
seats at the table, accompanied by their parents.
VO: . . . But me'n Ed, we can be good too . . .
The elderly couple enter from either side of the camera and
stand in the foreground, backs to us, facing the table.
... And it seemed real. It seemed like us. And it seemed
like well ... our home . . . If not Arizona, then a
land, not too far away, where all parents are strong and
wise and capable, and all children are happy and
beloved.... I dunno, maybe it was Utah.
The elderly man drapes an arm around his wife's shoulder
and draws her close.
She rests her head against his shoulder, and we:
Fade out.