"THE DEER HUNTER" (1978)

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r 1. EXT. ALLEGHENY MOUNTAINS, HIGHWAY - LIGHT SNOW - 1968 - DAWN ,__ A big tande~ diesel truck brakes and turns off the highway into a smaller cor..rr,2.:-::ial:::-o;.itethatis!Jeco:ninga.:orgo:.·.:enbackroud. The road winds u~der the high~ay, through a high un~erpass, down towards the little steel town of Clairton, Pa.

Rearing itself enormously over the town, the steel plant is massive, grime-streaked, squatting in the river valley under five massive blast furnace stacks, each one over twelve stories high and trail- ing fat white ~lumes across the winter sky. Fires can be seen flickering through the windows and long flames weave and dance frorr. the tops of guyed metal flues. Steam rises in clouds from vents and chimneys and the sound of it all -- the hissing, the clanging, the rumbling, the shrieking -- comes faintly, muted by the falling snow.

In the foreground is the town's only commercial street -- Division Street -- which shares thebottom of the narrow flood plain and borders directly alongside the mill. Division is a sad-looking street, a grim-looking street, a street hanging on by the skin o: its teeth. Dilapidated stores hug the narrow sidewalks. Battered signs squeak in the wind. Sandwiched between the stores and scat- tered on twisting roads along the hillside are narrow Victorian houses. These houses, which run to three stories or more in height, all seem on the verge of tO??ling over, and undoubtedly would, ~x- cept that they are all connected one to another by a mad arrangeme~~ of utility lines which cross and re-cross between them with occasic~- al aid from a leaning pole.

The theme music comes U? -- dissonant, rather frightening music as we watch the truck come charging up through the slush on Divisic~ Street. As it nears came=a the truck seems to shake the town, roars down the slippery grade and sli=es out of sight. A figu=e appear~, huddled against the driving snow. The figure crosses a catwalk to the mill, disa?pears as camera holds on the mill and the em?tY stree~ Simple lettering fades in:

THE DEER HUNTER

Suddenly the theme music stops. There is a moment's pause.

A huge sheet of flame roars two stories high as pure oxygen is blowr. into a furnace. On a stage below, a white-hot i~got is pulled fron a "soaking pit" by a massive overhead crane. The crane comes screa::·.- ing down a mile-long track and drops the ingot off onto the rollers. Another ingot follows it, and another and another and another. The ingots are huge, trembling with heat, and they come on with a terri- • fying rumble.

FADE IN CREDITS OVER:

r

We see a CAST HOUSE CREW preparing to ta_p the furncce •..;hichrisesir.··. a spidery network of catwalks and girders and deftly swinging across the troughs. There are five of them, all of whom are young. ~hey wear leather aprons, thick goggles and asbestos hoods which ex~end ~c the waist. Warped in heat waves and glistening with sweat they see~ like figures in some hellish ballet. Since they all wear goggles i~ is hard to distinguish between them, but there are three, who are younger, who seem to work with particular grace. These are ~;ICK, STEVEN and MICHAEL.

Michael takes up a long steel pole and rams it through the crust sealing the open tap hole at the base of the furnace. As the steel pole penetrates the crust there is a tremendous explosion of white- hot molten iron which gushes from the tap hole in a spectacu:ar shower of sparks and pours intoa deep trough in the brick floor. Nick slams open a heavy sluice gate and the molten iron roars out across the entire floor in a series of inter-connected channels. This last regulated by two men, one of whom is huge. He is AXEL. The other, STAN, who is the smallest man, watches as now the molten iron pours through gaping holes, into brick-lined "hot metal cars" waiting on railroad tracks below.

The heat is unbelievable, rising inwaves, and as the men step back and forth across the lethal rivers of flowing iron the shap~s of their bodies go through sudden, spectacular visual changes -- g=owi~; fat, growing thin, growing short, growing tall. Michael has a~out him an air of com.rnand,evenof arrogance. He is the "Turn Foreman".

Close on Nick. The noise isdeafening, the close ?resenc2 of the furnace terrifying, and the white-hot molten iron continues g~shing from the tap hole in bursts of spark and flame. ~aking acvantase of a slight pause, Michael jabsNick with his pole and they beth make cuckold's horns at Steven. Steven waves them off wit:i.!1is hand. Michael and Nick make thehorns again and now Steven p~~s both hands on his hips and studiously ignores them. Michael and Nick begin laughing. Steven can't hold out and he begins laughing too, but now one of the troughs begins flowing and Axel turns to give them a look and they become all concentration again.

FADE CREDITS:

And it couldn't be more of a contrast. A young, prematurely balding PRIEST, two small ALTAR BOYS and an old CUSTODIAN are making prepa- rations for a wedding ceremony. STEVEN'S MOTHER hovers close-~y as ·thePriest unlocks a cabinet and takes out beautiful hand-made tapers and two golden crowns which will be used in the service. T:-iePriest moves with precise, agonizing slowness and Steven's Mother is in the midst of a bad anxiety attack.

--- STEVEN'S MOTHER It's all right? Everything's going to be all right?

(Revised 5/9/77) 3.

STEVE:--l'SMOTHER How many times does a first son get married?.•• Once.

The priest smiles again.

Steven's Mother puts her hand to her mouth and bursts into tears.

* STEVEN IsMOTHER (cont)

I can't believe this ...My own boy ••.with a strange girl ... and not so thin, if you understand my meaning... not such a thin girl ... and next thing, two days later,

enlisted! With those crazy friends of his, they enlisted! I don't ~nder- stand, Father. No. I understand nothing anymore... Nothing, Father! Can you explain it all? Can anybody explain...

The priest gives his gentle smile again. He takes Steven's ~other, who is openly weeping now, in his arms and comforts her.

A car lunges up t~e hill, gets about halfway and slides back. As the car disappears, the door to one of the tilting old houses bursts open and a group of giggling BRIDESMAIDS begins scampering across the street. They have all been working on their dresses, which are not completely finished, a~d they all carry ribbons and scissors and pieces of material. It is freezing cold and as they make their way to the other side of the slippery street they grab each other for support. An icy wind begins blowing. One of the brides~aids loses her dress entirely and with everyone laughing she rushes back r to retrieve it. Hhen the garment is captured a door comes O?en and the bridesmaids disappear inside.

We hold on Starkweather Street for a moment. The snow slants across the boarded-up stores a::dpiles on the 9ables of th!? ti?SY :!.itt:!.e houses. Anoi:.:-.,:::::cara~;:ears,llln •:1esat-::hehilla:-.dslides!Jae:,. Suddenly the c:=r of one of the ~c .:sesc0nesopen a~c a sro~? o:. OLDER ~EIGHBOR~CO □ WO~E~ emerge carrying a huge white wedding ca~e with a rniniatu~e bride and groo~ standing on the tc?. 7he older women are all i:-1theirfifties and sixties and bundled in dark over- coats, boots a::ibabush~as. As they begin moving slowly up the streei:. in the driving snow, shielding the great white cake between thern,we see the onion-sha?ed cones of the church rearing over them all.

7. . INT. STEEL MILL - CHANGING SHED - EARLY MORNING

Time clocks line the walls. As a whistle screams to mark the end of the graveyard shift thousand of steelworkers, many with their hard hats still on, goggles pushed over the top, and all of them grimy in thick layers of clothes and boots, begin checking out, streaming toward acres of parked cars or heading directly for the line of small, neon-lit bars which adjoin the mill along the entire length of a nea~- by block on the end of Division Street. Nick, Steven and Michael are right up in the front ranks and once they have clocked their cards they gather together in the streaming mass of men. We see them clear- ly for the first time: They are tall, strongly built, and there is a melancholy about their faces now, but this can be quickly washed out with a smile or a laugh. They are intelligent, sensitive, handsorr.e faces, but very ethnic, very strong.

Axel appears -- six and a half feet tall, huge and strong-musc~ed, ·but with a natural smile like an angel and a stomach as beamy as a coal barge -- changes course and plows across the river of depart~ng steelwo.!'kers.

· AXEL (poker faced) You feelin' hot?

Steven punches Axel's arm. On closer view, Steven seems no longer a youth, but he is not yet a man: something about him is unfixed.

•.:..1·-- --~...

NICK

( (laughs, wraps an '-..

arm around Steven). Watch out, Axel. We'll be calling him "Old Fire Balls" after tonight...

Axel wades back into the stream of steelworkers, grabs Stan and they all push out together.

,.r s. EXT. PARKING AREA - M.~IN GATE - EARLY MOR.~ING

v The snqw is still falling. It covers the ground. It covers the acres of begrimed cars. It swirls and tosses and blows. As the five friends come out into the parking lot they all stop dead in their tracks, star~ng into the grey sky.

Everyone looks at Michael, then back up at the sky. Around the hazed winter sun is an enormous, perfect halo. At four equidistant points around the outer edge of the halo.are four shimmering, faintly glow- ing disks, each one of which is a miniature reflection of the sun it- self.

The sight is so stunning that for a moment no one speaks.

r STAN

What the fuck are you talking about?

The others nod 'no',shruq. They are all embarrassed. Thev start heading towards Michael's car. A battered old shark-finned-'59 ·Caddy Coupe de Ville.

STEVEN {cont) Not tonight! I'm getting married tonight! You fuckin' guys would go up deer hunting tonight?

' · STE"vEN

(envious) You guys are crazy. You know that? I ~ean, you guys ire fuckin' nuts!

The others murmur agreement. Now Steven is embarrassed. He makes a gesture with his hand.

They all come through the swirling snow to Michael's old Cadillac, -all with their arms around Stev~n, laughing a~d jokins, punching each other, but it's obvious they care about each other. They care.

MICHAEL

I Willing fingers-- '-·

The place is large and lovingly painted in glossy pastoral scenes of various conflicting shades, like a huge candy box. ~here are high arched windows alonq the outer walls. Across the floor from the en- trance is a small arched stage with an enormous American flag hanginq from the ceiling behind the arch. WOMEN are laying white paper table- cloths on trestle tables.

Plastered to the wall just above the arched stage are three large blow-ups of Nick, Steven and Michael. The blow-ups are high school vintage photos, patriotically edged with red, white and blue bunting. Above them is a caption: SERVING GOD AND COUNTRY PROUDLY.

As TWO OLD MEN on high ladders gingerly hold the bunting with trembli~s hands, TWO v-iWlVETSon the floor look up at them, their ey,espeering up intently behind thick corrective glasses. The first vet has a sin- gle lens blacked out.

VET l (signals) Up closer to Steven's picture!

The old men on the ladders adjust the bunting closer to Steven's picture. The two WWl vets on the floor study it.

Down.

Suddenly there is a comr.'.otion.Thewomen who are setting the ~ables r all rush to the door as the older women come in with the wedc~~crcake. The older women are half-frozen and as they move toward the ta~ie in the middle of the room t~c cake receives a great chor~:so fo~ ~• sa~~ ahh's. Suddenly the oldest woman collacses. Evervc~e ~~shes ~o her aid, seats her in a chair and rubs her feet and ha;cis. Someo ~ecomes up with a large glass of wine. The oldest woman takes the glass, tosses it off in one swallow and gives a great, ear-s?litting grin.

Michael's '59 Caddy careens across the parking area.

Nick, Steven, Michael, Stan and Axel are all laughing. Michael is at the wheel. The wipers have made two broad arcs in the dirt on the windshield.

The Caddy bangs over gaping potholes heading straight for the ~ain gate which opens onto the narrow end of Division Street where it curves sharply under a railroad trestle. Obviously the caution sign is not going to be observed.

r 13. EXT. DIVISION STREET - EARLY MORNING

- Michael careens through the gate and just as he does so a huge tracto~ trailer rig comes barrelling out of the underpass on his blinc side tc the right and swings wide to avoid him ...

--. Michael is highballing it two wheels up on the sidewalk scraping the rock wall of the railroad trestle o~ his right. Th~ tractor ~railer is only inches·away on his left, air horn blaring. There is not en-

,... ough room for both vehicles on the same narrow stretch of road.

\-. Nick, who has been slar..::-,edagainsti:hewindo..,,onthet=ucksid0,is studying the second hand on his watch. .The others are all hollering at the truck and swearing. Michael half l~ans back against the seat, eye~ on the road.

OVer this last, Nick pulls out his pick-up truck registration and throws over to Michael.

MICW\EL (allconcentration) Today your lucky day?

A telephone pole alongside the wall is coming up fast. Mike swerves out more onto the street, touchi~g the truck, floors the accelerator, cuts back around the pole. andthen right, accelerates across the side- walk, and suddenly cuts left in front of the speeding trailer rig. Steven's face drains of color.

The tractor trailer misses the Caddy by a hairbreadth. The Caddy swaps ends three times around and comes to a sliding stop in the slush directly in front of the bar.

The angry blaring of the truck's air horn echoing in the air around them fades. Thro~gh the window of the car we see Axel, one eye still on the disappearing truck, his fist thrust forward in a victory salute. A loud cheer goes up ...Michael hands Nick back his registration, gives his spare smile.

MICHAEL

·1 dbe taking advantage of you-- a million to one shot even money against a sure thing.

l0A.

,,..

A plump, country-pretty girl with a solemn, round face and big brown eyes, leans forwa.?:"dintoamirror. She is At,GEL.A,Steven'sb=:.ce-to- be.· She is dressed in her white bridal crownand veil·. She ste::is back from the mirror, standing in t~emiddle o: an u~faniliar =com, looking down at her stomach. Her stomach is definitely swollen and Angela atternps,with no success, to suck it in.

1(.(_:,•..--:· ANGELA :; ·'.,.-:

'. Oh, God!

Now, she crosses back to the mirror and stares intently at herself.

A pause_. Angela scowls and tries it again.

Angela tries it a few more times. It sounds worse and worse.

Angela stares at herself again. Now she looks desperately alone and unrelievedly forlorn. Bursting into tears she throws herself on the bed. Someone has slipped a magazine photograph uncer the clct~es piled in her beat-up card~oard suitcase. The photogr~?~ is face down and as Angela pulls.it out she sees that something is writ.en en the back:

Angela frowns, turns the magazine photograph over. It is a picture of Michaelangelo's "David". Angela stares at the figure for a long, long moment ••.

ANGELA (cont)

,... Oh, my God!

L --

1.7. EXT. STEVEN'S !-!OTHER'SHOUSE - FRONT E:;TPJ~:;CE-EARLYMORNING

Suddenly, Angel~ bursts outside, her bridal gown and veils swirli~g in the freczi~; wind. S~e runs u~ ~he ste~o, ric~ctv wooden stens leading to the ~op of the hill, s~oke swirllng in th~ air above ~he bar~ tree to~s. And bevond, the huoe stacks of the blast furnaces belching smo~e and flam~ tower abov~ the tiny figure of the bride. An overbearing sense of her fragility in the vastness of the bleak industrial lancscape.

The place is packed with boisterous steelworkers drinking boiler- makers.· A television set blares above the bar. A well-knc~1 SPORTS COMMENTATORis announcing that the Eagles are beating Oakland 14-0 at the half. Deerheads are mounted in long rows all around the bar, and hand-painted murals decorate the walls. The murals depict hu~t- ing scenes and sports scenes -- at once comical and frightening as if the animals held some secret· fromthe hunters, some power beyond their own.

JOHN WELCH bangs out from behind the bar with an armload of beer pit- chers. At the same moment Steven cones in with Michael, Nick, Axel and Stan. John, who is a great coarse bear of a youth, puts down his pitchers, wraps his arms around Steven and begins jum?ing him around the floor, a gap-toothed grin from ear to ear. He has skin that is rough and pebbly. Still he is, if not handsome, at least not ugly. He is a few years older than the others, big and strong-muscled like Axel, but after·you watch him for a moment you notice his extraordi- narily gentle eyes.

The steelworkers, to a man, allleave their bar stools and chairs and sw~rm around Steven, pur.ching, joking and shouting congratulations over the noise of the football game.

He's already put down half a pitcher of beer and for no reason on earth that he can understand, Axel is suddenly crying.

\ INT. LINDA'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - EARLY MORNING

LINDA is thin -- a fragile slip of a thing _witha hauntingly lovely face. She is Nick's girlfriend, although we don't know this yet. Wearing her bridesmaid's dress she stands alone in the kitchen, staring at the ceiling. Thumping noises are coming from the room above. The thumping gets louder. There is a crash, then another crash, as if furniture were being thrown around. A ~~N'S VOICE begins cursing and there is more thumping and crashing. Suddenly there is a thud ... and then silence.

Linda bites her lip. She crosses to the stove, ladles stew into a bowl, butters bread, pours a cup of tea and puts it all on a tray.

The room is a wreck of broken furniture. Chairs are turned over, lamps are smashed and the pictures hang cockeyed on the wall. In the middle of the room, face down on the bed, is LINDA'S FA:'HBR. His coat is torn, one shoe is missing and he holds a half-enpty bottle in his hand. Behind him, through the open window, snow is blowing in fiercely. And in the distance, across the roofs of the other houses leading down to Commercial Street, the mill looms over the whole house, thewhole town, the whole valley. Linda's father turns, stares at the acres of steelworkers' cars oarked for the next shift. Linda comes in with the tray. She stands for a ~oment, expressionless, looking down at her father. Then she sets che tray on the bed and kneels beside him.

Linda reaches down, takes her father by the shoulder and lifts him up. It takes some effort and the face that comes up is gray, un- shaven and implacably bitter. Sal1va dribbles from his mouth, there is a cut with the stitches still in it seaming his forehead, and as Linda looks at him he begins cursing again, rolls out of bea ...

Linda gets up and closes the-window subduing the incessant sound of the mill. She comes back, gets down on the floor beside her father and pushes him toward the bed. Then, hiking up her brides~aid's

(Revised 5/9/77) 13.

dress, she takes him by the shoulders a~ai~ and heaves him o~~o ·

to burn in her eyes, but when he slips back she tries again. Her father groans, beryinsto nu..'11:)le,andt.hen,whensheal;:-:ost!7.2.shim * on the bed, he suc.denlyf 1 ailshisa~, catches her .:·.:11in':.::e face and knocks her across ~he roo~

Liridacrashes backwards over a fallen chair and s~ashes into the wall. As she gets to her feet her father advances on her.

He swings, slaps her in the face, hard.

Linda's father swings at her again, loses his balance and falls on the floor. Linda stands looking at hi~, holding her jaw. She is crying. Tears are streaming down her face.

,... 20A. EXT. LINDA'S HOUSE - EARLY MO!l!-TING

Linda comes outside into the raw cold, down the stairway to the street, dogs barking in the wind.

21. OMITTED

Steven's mother approac~es wielding a length of t~o-by-four -- a roar of laughter comes from inside.

* 23. INT. JOHN' s BAR - EARLY Mop_;u~G

Michael, Nick, Steven, A.4<elandJohn are singinq. A country-western tune blasting on the juke box is at top volume and the smoke is thick enough to cut with a Bowie knife. Now we see Stan, arguing loudly with a hulking TEAMSTERover the use of t~e pool table. Suddenly, from the back, comes a screech of female recrimination. The door to the kitchen bursts open and Steven's Mother appears, swing- ing her two-by-four. The steelworke:::-stakeone look, gulp their drinks, grab their hard hats and all rush for the doors, except for Stan, who pulls his.gun on.the Teamster. The two-by-four crashing do~m on tables and chairs. Pandernoni~~!!!

The steelworkers all stream into the snow with Steven's mother, like an avenging angel, close behind still swinging her two-by-four.

,. 1 -t•

Several ?arting blows are delivered and the howls cf complaint are met with ang:-ycom:nandsto hurry a!'l:lget~.ressedfor Steven's wee.di:-.;-:.

Camera closes c~ Steven, who e~er~2s with Nick and '.!ic~ael.The col~ hits him a sobe~ing blow anc he co~es to a stop.

They all share a laugh then go silent. Steven's mother hurries out of the alley. She is crying.

She throws herself in Steven's arms, sobbing.

Steven throws a horribly emba~rassed look toNick and Michael. Axel just shrugs in a somewhat befuddled way. They all gesture with sym- · pathy- and study the snow flakes.

j , flight. I'll be li~i~g right

upstairs when I co~e home. (;>a~ses) I love lu1gela,t!a. She l"oves me.

The trailer is a dented two-tone silver job which looks as if it had been purchased third-hand off a construction site. It stands on cin- derblocks in a small lot on the corner of a hill overlooking the tow~ and the blast furnaces of the mill. A beat-up pick-u? truck with rifle racks set in behind the seat is parked to the right. On the left is a bare-branched tree. View moves to reveal Michael's black '59 Caddy coming uphill toward the trailer. The Caddy makes a sJ.idins stop. Michael gets out. He is wearing his rented tuxedo bet wears :~ his boots and carries his rented dress shoes. The su~den sight of hi~ ,_ in a tuxedo is jarring. He mounts the cinderblock steps and pounds o~ the trailer door. Nick opens the door and motions him in.

The place is cramped, littered with the two bachelors' garbage, but mostly hunting paraphernalia. A very beautiful deer head is r:1ounted above the sink. Nick, who is half into his tuxedo, is applying water- proofing to a pair of heavy boots. Michael smiles, sits on ~he sink -and tries on his rented patent leather shoes.

Nick shakes his head, laughs, continues waterproofing his hunting boot:

5/9/77) 16. ~'-s MICHAEL/ /Revised

That way it sets. /

'\, NICK// Yeah. I know that, Mike.

Pause.

;:/'~

_,,,,,,,,/MICHAEL·'-..

/LI ·ustwait. You Jq~~~?

/ NICK ~ uh?

---------_:::::::-::=--'."9~-~~------------

Nick abruptly takes down his rif{e and begins wiping the oil off it.

" I MICHAEL You really t'\dnkabout it?

·,, NI K . ,/~/

Yeah. Idon t know ..•ForChris;t-s ake_s,Hike, Steven's gettin<;l-~arried

what the hell we're even.,aoingtalking abo'u,thunting a last 9-ctebefore the army~ Whole thing's_,.,erazy. 'csirence - tl}ento n~<\onne~n,Particular) Fuck. "" , HAE!. I'll tell/ ou one-~thing...If I found out my 1ife had to epd up in the moun- tains /it would be ail right.. .you know.

,,.. (watches Nick f6r a moment) t___ it has to be ther~Ain your mind.

'\ .. '\·,

.........-.__...._._:__. . _....

(Revised 5/9/77) 17.

,,.. MICHAEL

(smiles) Two is pussy.

Just then, there is cursing and banqing from outside. Nick opens th~ door. ~e see big John, and Axel, who is getting drunker by the minute. Two ~enacing b~t corni~figures, both in rented tuxedos that are much too s~all. Loaded with camping gear, they are pounding on the trunk of the Caddy, trying to get it open. Nick and Michael go outside.

Axel kicks the trunk in the inqicated spot and the lid snaps open.

,. Michael gives him a long look. Axel, not kno~ing what the hell to do. t· toasts them all with a can of beer. Stan comes up, also in tuxedo, \_ . dragging a totallv disor=anized clutter of huntina :ear behind him. But unlike the ot;ers, his tuxedo fits as if itw~r~ tailo= made for him. His shoes polished to a high gleam, he is the perfect picture of a band leader in the forties.

Axel looks around at his friends. He surveys the back of the Caddy, then from some dim dark place in his memory he dredges up an old litany from his days as an altar boy: blesses the car, sanctifies his friends with a last sprinkling of beer. Then he expands his -chest, thumps on it with both fists and yodels out a magnificent, mile-carrying Tarzan call. As the echo of it comes back the church bell begins ringing down the street and a group of more excited bri- desmaids come hurrying up, slipping and sliding on the ice, the mill below them at the bottom of the hill, as Axel throws himself onto the Caddy, attacking it.

BRIDES~1AID3 Who's got the carnations?

BRIDESl·1AID4 Here. They're right here.

As the bridesmaids begin straightening ties, one of them starts ptitting on Axel's carnation.

AXEL

I \~ - (proudly)

Fuckin' A.

Nick hears someone call his name. He turns to find Linda sta~ding beside the trailer where she can't be seen. She looks pale and very frightened and she holds a small suitcase in her hand.

Linda tries to speak, can't. She fights against it but the tears begin to come. Nick looks around, pulls her inside the trailer.

,- Nick clears a place in the clutter on the couch. Linda sits, holding '- her suitcase in her lap.

,,...

NICK

'\. . Linda, Linda...!

LINDl. (very small voice, looking into his eyes) What?

They meeet in a long look. Nothing more is said, but a lot of emotion is going on.

Nick and Linda are holding the crowns above Steven and Angela who stand facing each other as an overwhelmingly vibrant chorus of male voices comes up singing the powerful and haunting Russian wedding music.

As the priest continues with the Holy Sacrarne~t,ca~era picks up FACES in the congregation. We see familiar faces from the VFW po3t, the steelworkers fro~ the bar and their WIVES, and Steven's nether who chased them home to change. They are hard faces -- working-class faces -- but we sense a fortitude among the congregation, a community of both heart and spirit. The music is now so emotional it would seem impossible to increase it in intensity, but it does go higher.

·tamera picks up Michael, Stan and Axel in a row opposite the brides- maids. And then John, who is standing in the choir loft singing with the other men. His great voice booning over the others, see~ing to carry the entire choir. The expression in his eyes is beyond descrip- tion, tears welling up in them now.

Michael, Stan and Axel look back up tot-1ardJohn,all disheveled. Their tuxedos are suffocatingly too small and their shoes are soaking wet from walking in the snow. Except for Stan who amazingly, despite the weather, is as neat as a pin.

Nick catches Linda's eye and they hold each other across the interven- ing space like two children who are amazed.

The priest hands white tapers to the bride and groom. Camera closes slowly on the priest. The man is impressive -- gentle, soft, yet full of power. The priest lights the tapers -- first Angela's, then St~ven's and looks out across the assembled congregation. The

(OMITTED) 2 2.

great wave of e~otion fron the singing riding over it all, so that we have to stra~n as he continues...

PRIES? "For everyone that docs evil hates the light, and does not come to tha light, lest his deeds will be reproved."

Save for the lone figure of Linda's father, muttering, trudsing home, the street is caserted, left to the gently falling s~ow. The music passes through the walls cf the church. A souna that is so rich, so vibrant, so darkly pure, that it seems enough to break the heart. It goes beyond the great onion-shaped domes of the church, beyond the town, beyond the massive silhouette of the steel mill lit with fire.

Michael, Nick, Stan and Axel Join- thebridesmaids to assist the priest in the crowning of Steven andAngela. The priest has just crowned Angela. Now Steven is crowned.

Guiding the cou9le by their joined hands the priest leads Steven and Angela and the other friends around the little altar. The movement is very precise, very fornal, a circling to represent eternity. Li~da meets Michael in a look as the music builds to an unbeara!::::lye~otional ~limax. Michael's eyes for a long moment on Linda who ~clts hils loo~ at first, then down.

The wedding couple hurries frcm the church down the steps to the one waiting car, Michael's old black Caddy decorated with colored paper streamers. Everybody is cheering and shouting and as the car pulls out toward Ler..koVFW Ilall,Michael, Nick, Stan and Axel go running down the street after the·car, slipping and sliding on the ice, grab- bing up fistfuls of snow and throwing snowballs at the car. Steven and Angela laughing, waving back at them. And beyond all of this, the whole congregation noving towards the reception in cars, Nick's p~ck-up truck, and on foot. John watch~s the congregation from a high window in the choir loft and follows them with his eyes in the falling r snow, advancing toward Lemko VFW Hall.

(~ 33. INT. LEMKO VFW HALL - DAN'CE FLOOR - DAY

Pandemonium. The band ~s going full blast and the whirling COUPLES,

young and old, are laughing. All the servers are women and they are serving as fast as ?OSsible -:oall the people ja::i::-,•~:lto;-ether.Ha1f the men are already quite drunk. Ke see Steven a11~~~gela, Ni=~ an~ Linda, Stan, Axel and Joh~. The only one o~ the grcu? no~ dancing is Michael. Michael is drinking heavily, standirigalone on the side of the floor chugging beer in tense, rapid-fire gul?s. We sense im- mediately that he feels out of place, at a loss to join spontaneously in the spirit of the party. Suddenly all the old ~o~en start clangin; forks against their glasses. The sound gets very loud fast and every time the sound is made Angela and Steven must kiss, as they do now.· Michael finishes the beer, crumples the can and starts on another. As he picks up the second can he notices that a sad-looking GI?.L is sitting against the wall behind him, waiting for someone to ask her to dance. The sad-looking girl gives Michael a s~lle. Michael pre- tends not to see and moves behind a post, stares up at his high school picture above the stage between Nick and Steven's pictures, intensely.

Now all the old women begin singing as the wedding cake that was carried in earlier is br~ught out, the ~iniature bride and qroo2 are slightly askew, but still standing in the middle. Unnoticed by Steve~. his mother and Angela eye the little figures. Both women are in rat~e: teary condition and begin moving toward the cake. Suddenly, as the crowd shifts, they encounter each other face to face. Smiles ar~ ex- changed -- strained smiles, which get stretched and stretched and stretched. Then, Angela deserts the smiling and removes th~ fisures

from the cake, gives them to Steven s mother who looks down at her sugar-coated groom and bride. Then they eye each other, burst into

tears and throw themselves in each other s arms, moaning and sobbin;.

Another late-arriving COUPLE tries to enter the place. It is already overflowing with coats on racks. They finally find their way to the door and squeeze inside.

35. ..INT.LEMKO HALL - DAY

Inside the whole place is literally throbbing. The band is now play- ing·the loudest dancing polka musi _canyone has ever heard anyw!'lere. The new man is stopped by John who stands at the head of a receiving line holding a large basket full of money and envelopes. Next to hi~ is Axel.

Axel is swaying slightly but holding firmly onto a large tray with shot glasses of whiskey each filled to the brim, and laden with cigars. Before the man goes any further, he puts hi3 dollar in John's

basket, then Axel gives him a shot and a cigar and the man gets· · afour-s3cond turn on the dance floor with Angela, who is bearnina, showinq her ring to everybody as sh~ whirls a~d twirls. In the ~ r:lids~cf all t.":-::.~·.•:0v-:...-y-=..-Pcl1c.,-,,· '\',..e".•,,,,...,deac·-~~-•-.v;....,; ..,~

- -- -...,-..._"•---;.,;,it;.;i.• •-_,Lr---•,....,I-c;,_:..._.♦-

carried out. 3~dde~ly, the band s~o~s c~~d, anc t~e ba~d leader addresses the c=o~d at a shout, without t~e aid of a microphone.

BANDLE,\DER Quiet! Quiet please! Could I have your attention ?lease! Angela and Steven would like to welcome you and introduce you to their bridal party, and especially to Nick and Michael who are also going to Vietnam with Steven to proudly serve their country!

There is a tremendous burst of applause, hollering and cheering as Michael, Nick, Axel, Linda, Stan and John all step into the glare of light and a flash picture is taken of the group. We hold on this tableau for a moment as the band strikes up with "Starsand Stripes Forever".

The old vets put their hats over their hearts. Then the old women begin banging on the glasses agair.and Steven and Angela kiss once more. Then the whole bridal party switches partners and as the music starts up again they dance. Michael is now going to have to dance with Nick's girl, Linda, but his ~anner as he takes ~er ha~d, is forced. Nick shoves them off onto the dance floor together. He passes John. John stops him. There is an awkward moment.

They meet .in a long look. Nick is touched. He puts his arm around John and hugs him, not knowing what the hell to do. The crowd is loud with excitement. ·

As we watch Michael dancing with Linda, they seem removed from the rest. They look at each other - she breathing hard, he in controlled desire, as if they were separate, alone.

MICHAEL , I'm not the.greatest dancer.

( LINDA

(puzzled)

'·-

Sure.

Michael takes off. Linda sits down at a table shakir.gher head in puzzlement as Michael goes to the cooler to get a Miller's. He gropes around in the tub, finds one and pops the tab. Suddenly he notices that Nick has crossed to the sad-looking girl by the wall. He has stopped in front of her and is asking her something. The sad-looking girl gives a blush, gets out of her chair and Nick takes her in his arms and begins to dance. The sad-looking girl looks transforraed. She begins chattering and laughing just like the others.

Michael crosses back to Linda and gives her the Miller's. As he pull~ up a chair to sit down beside her he st~~bles and nearly loses his balance.,and for the first time we notice he is very, very drunk, and it surprises us.

Nick swings by with the sad-looking girl and makes a dramatic flashy turn, smiles as they go by.

Michael doesn't say anything for a moment. He seems to be trying to contain a floodtide of emotion. Looks up at his high school picture next to Nick's again. Big and absurd and yet terribly moving.

,...

The rack is s ti11more jan:nedwith wet, soggy coats. 'icungc:'J:..:?les, squeezed furtively between tte coats neck passionat~ l y. 7he =acks qu~ver and shake and the music is now playing sweet and low, ~ut somehow still manages to sound hectic.

The front door comes open and a young U.S. Army S?ecial Forces SERGEANT steps into the darkened hallway. The nan ~ears his dress green uniform and beret. On his chest is a row of battle ribtons and his jump boots are mirror-polished. The Sergeant gives a slight shake of his head and moves toward the bar area.

The Sergeant passes between groups of still celebrating guests, pluck5 a beer from one of the coolers and sits down alone at the end of one of the white trestle tables littered with food and debris. Katches Angela dancing, expressionless.

Axel suddenly gives his Tarzan cry, picks the bridesmaid who fixed his carnation off her feet and marches around holding her above his head. She had been cutting ribbons from presents and still has the scissors in her hand when he sweeps her up into the air.

BRIDESt•L?,,ID 2 Axel, what are you doing ...! Axel! You don't put me down, I'll stab you with this scissors!

Meanwhile Stan and John are standing together. Stan is burning because his girl is dancing with someone else.

Instead, Stan suddenly marches up ar.cta?s the man on the shoulder. The man releases Stan's ~irl. The =irl waits, cne h~~d on her hi?, and abru?tly ~~~~ decks ~er with 3 0ic~ed left hook, %necking he= flat on her ass. Stan ~s hOf?i~g ~2 and ao~~, shou~i~~ no~. The man is getti~g ~~e hell out of there fast. Now, Stan pats his still neat hair once again, ~aking certain every strand is in place.

Nick, Steven an1 Michael are standing together, looking at the younq veteran sergeant with as much awe and respect as they can fuanagein their condition.

Michael gestures with his head. Nick and Steven cross with him to the sergeant.

The sergeant looks at them and delivers a big, blank smile.

The sergeant keeps smiling.

Steven nods.

Michael looks at Nick. Nick looks at Steven. They all begin to laugh, but nervously.

They turn away and then, when they are out of earshot, they all break up, howling. Axel comes up, pouring sweat, his jacket starting to split down the back.

r- 39. INT. STAGE - NH~HT

The guests have formed all around the staae. Eve=yone is pretty drunk and they are all arwed with streamers and ~a-:2c= rice. As Steven and Angela appear on ~r.estage there is a -::-e:a~rov, ,":.:c:!eer. Ange la throws her bouquet - Linda catches it, then t.::eDRli'.·'..':::R strikes up a roll, followed by the other musicians. ShowerGd with streamers, rice, advice and encouragement, Steven .:ir:d:\ngelawalk toward the front edge where Steven's mother carefully brings out t~o wine glasses on one stern.

STEVE1~' SMOTHER

.. If you don't spill any it's good

luck for the rest of your life!

Steven and Angela begin to drink down the wine sirnultan~ously. There is a tremendous cheer. Nick turns to Linda and says abruptly, as if he wanted to say something else:

Linda blushes, completely taken aback.

LIND/\ (after a long,

,,..

long moment) Okay.

L,

NICl~ What?

Linda nods - a solemn nod.

LINDI\ I guess what goes through your mind comes out your mouth.

Linda's lip begins to tremble. Tears stand in her eyes and she tries to give a little nod of her head.

LIND/\ Really!

Nick stares at her. He can still hardly believe she said~hat she just said.

3Oll..

NICK

r Terrific...!

LINDI\ It is te.!:"rific.

Nick nods. Li~cla is suddenly excited, suddenly ra<liantly happy. She dl".opsthebou~t.:ctof flowers and throws herself in :~ick.'scirms.

He breathes deeply to collect himself. Linda laughs nervously. Then their eyes meet, just as Steven and Angela finish drinking t~e wine. Only we notice a single tiny drop on Angela's white gown. Now sud- denly the wo~en all begin singinq, and Steven picks Angela U? in his arrns,jumps off the stage with her and runs through the hall to ~-tike's Caddy outside. The singing of the women going even higher.

John, Axel and Michael are standing by the door. Their badly fitted rented tuxedos are stained and torn. Their carnations are squas~ed and their clip-en bow ties are either missing entirely or dangling from the open collars of their shirts, all still amazingly guzzling beer. Stan.looks the best, same as when he walked in; still not a hair out of place. He turns to Michael, winks at him, grinning ...

(looking at Angela) Bullshit! That's bullshit!

Steven and Angela struggle into the Caddy to more hollering and applauding and a shower of ·streamersan~-rice. Angela is helped

in by John. Axel and Nick throw their ar~s around Steven and help him around to the drive~•s seat. The=e is an awcso~e collection of tin cans tied to the back of the Caddy.

STEVEN

,.. That's my one true secret in

life, Nick...

L

People are crowding around.

Nick just gives Steven a big hug. Steven slides in the car.

Steven looks over at Angela.

Angela nods. Steven puts the car into gear and starts slowly off. Fists pound on the car. Rice and streamers shower down. Suddenly, through the front windshield, Michael appears, stark naked, running in front of the car with colored paper streamers floating out from his upraised right hand. For a split second Steven cannot believe what he is seeing. He throws a look at Angela. Angela covers her mouth in amazement and quickly shifts the hand to the horn.

Michael weaves up the street in front of the growling, slipping Cadd y , tin cans bouncing everywhich way from behind it. Michael is not jus~ running. He is leaping and bounding, as if released from gravity anc entered into a realm of pure ethereal space.

Nick, Axel, Stan and John pound up the steep street behind the Caddy. Axel carrying Michael's clothes, slipping and sliding in the slush, goes ass over tea kettle, scattering the clothes all over the street.

43. · EXT.HILL STREET - NIGHT

The road forks, one road going high to a beat-up basketball court on a cliff overlooking the steel mill, the other descending to Steven's mother's house and to the mill below. Michael runs up the incline toward the basketball court while the Caddy goes straight down and disappears around the bend toward Steven's mother•~ house.

Axel, Stan and John stagger to a stop, panting helplessly, halfwey up the hill. Stan is trying to clean the slush off his shoes. ~:ick takes off for :.~etop.

Michael slips under one of the baskets and comes to a sliding stop on the slushy :reezing qround, remains motionless, looking out across to the blast f~rr.acesgoing in t~e mill as Nick approaches. The night is brilliantly c~ear and the fires :rom the furnaces light up the skywith an eerie glow. And all over the neighborhood dogs are yapping and howling.

Nick comes to a sliding stop a few feet away from the basket. The dogs really going at it now.

Michael rolls over, turns. His face is almost blue with a strange, distant look. He gives Nick an almost feral grin.

Nick helps lift Michael up beside him. He removes his tux ja-~:~·":. and wraps it around Michael. Both of them huddled there togeth~r in the moonlight under the basket, the glow of the blast furnace flickering steadily. Neither of them knows what the hell to say.

( NICK

You gotta promise, definitely.

Nick lets out his breath... It is as if some great weight had been pressing on him.

Michael'.sbattered old shark-finned '59Caddy comes screaming past. Some wedding streamers still cling to the door handles and bumpers, rattling in the wind.

Nick, Michael, Stan, Axel and John, all of them still in their rented tuxedos and drunk out of their minds, are ja~~ed in the car bet~een knapsacks, sleeping bags, huge piles of six-packs of beer and deer rifle~. Nick and Michael start singing the "Screaming Eagles Air- borne Song"

I:· ·•. John looks at Axel, smiles gently.

,_,.,.~,~;..·;· .,.'

~-r //~x~;MOUNTA~N-'RO~D..-DAWN

-·.

t/ ,•,-TheCaddy_comesblasting by trailing_a great rooster t~il oz fresh

snow_.t-~.. , v·

_-,-. <t:..t;:./~-""·~·.-:.;.,-?.'-:.-;:kishunchedoverthewheel,hiseyesgonecompletelyglassy. S 1 ;,--/ i,½c~Ql and John are on the nod, while Axel and Stan, both half-aslee~ are having a lead-voiced conversation hazed by too much alcohol.

There is a long gloomy· pause. They both struggle to keep their eyes open.

,,..

I~ Fucking women... all alike. u

Nic~~a~· is-su~1k-.tie--J.~w-•~he-,upper.r,.in.of....the~steering~ti.heel._,.,.Que eye 1.sentirely··S!"!'..lt_..--anctne-open-,:me-see,nsc-lose-cA•t:O-·-ciee-tbatc..Sud:::l.en.!.\· 'h~-e-s.-1a.o&....uo-~ slams his foot down on the t.:-akeandthe Cadd~· fishtails, rubber screaming, to a sliding, bumping stop. -

Everyone in the car comes awake ten bleary eyes staring out throuqh the windshield.

There is a deer in the road, a big buck standing shoc~-still in~~ ~are ef th& ~a!igh"ts.. t,•'{!.~:-(~'N•

Stan, Axel, Nick and John pile out, grabbing up their rifles. Stan immediately slips and falls down. Michael remains right where he ,- is, unmoved, watching the others and he is beginning to sober up now. I \,_ STAN

Son of a bitch! Get him! For Christ's sake, somebody get him!

·JOHN It's in the trunk, Axel! It's in the trunkl I'm telling you, it's in the trunk!

Stan, Axel and John rush around to the trunk. Axel begins kicking '-- it. He slips, falls on his ass, Stan screaming at him.

,

l\XEL Stanley, you never could hit

"· shit anyway!

Pushing and shoving each other, Stan, Axel and John ransack the trunk like madmen, scrambling for weapons.

Michael gives tJicka sidelong glance, t~en slips out of the car with his rifle. He looks at the others with an expression o: absolute dis- gust -- and t!1enhe looks at the deer. The deer is h-Y-?r"i"'...izec.j;-._...he ~e-o-f-1'-±gtrt, still watching. If anything, it ::asedged closer an.:: his expression of polite curiosity throws rtichaelinto a blind rage.

MICHJ\EL Get out of here, damn you! Go home! •••Scat! ...Shoo!

Michael, whose rifle is fully ready, sla~s a shell into the chamber and lets off a shot above the deer. Then, as it scatters in panic:

At this raowentthe others all crowd around; watch him watching the deer disappearing in the snow; they all think he is drunk and has lost the point of the hunting trip.

oru-r'i'to------------

53. - MOUNTAIN PASS - DAY

The sky is co3.4-- there is the pink glow of first. 'ght over the rim of the hills -- with low, dark wind-driven c~·ds. Ca;"'.'\eratilts down and we see the addy cor,,.ingupanarrow r c.flanked .bypreci- pitous, heavily foresE ridges on both side . \

i I I Watch \

STAN

\ ounds Nick on I \ the shoulder) \ H e! This is it! This is I \_ he place we stopped ~t last ' year.

\

,_..... c· .=--~---- ---·····-·

----------- ·-··--..

38 •

·---. It's up uheac, Stan.

Nick pulls to a stop on the shoulder, disgustedly.

The sky is just tur~ing grey-white. A cold wind is blowinc, ~canine in the trees and swirling a fine haze of snow across the ope::valle;• below. The guys all pile out in their totally wreckec tuxeccs and cracked patent leather shoes.

- They lock in a glare for a moment. Finally, Stan avo!ds Axel's eyes.

There is a moment of tension. Then everyone begins eating colc bal- oney, ripping slices of them out of half-dozen near frozen p~astic packages, dipping them in a jar cf mustard and stuffing the~ down -- _everyone, except Nick. Mustard has dripped over everything, ?Otato chips are littered everywhere and beers are being passed arc·.::-.d.Axel, his mouth half-open, full of food, stares at Nick in wonder~e~t.

,... I,

Axel tears off the wrapper, dips it in the mustard and glomps it down.

John just shakes his head.

C the road)

•Definitely! · Thisis not it! I'm telling you, they changed it!

They all meet in a look, stand silently for a moment frozen in tab- leau in their crushed rented tuxedos at the side of the Caddy in the snow, the icy wind beating at their clothes, the dark moun~ains rear- ing themselves over them, the air filled only with the sound of wind. Then they raise their beer cans, drink.

Suddenly, they all seem minuscule, overwhelmed by the massive, black slopes looming up from the narrow road.

After·a moment of silence, Axel kicks the trunk oepn and they all be- gin taking stuff out.

Michael strips down right where he stands, and begins putting on his hunting clothes.

Axel and Stan grab their own gear and fc ,llowthe exarnplP.of:ack an~ ..John, who are changing on the corner of ·:':1cseats.

Hunting gear is hanging all over the fe~~crs, bumpers, etc. They are all fumbling, struggling, half-naked, half-insane figures...

NICK• Jesus! It's reallv freezing, Mike!

•STAN You know, you got a really terrific vocabulary, Axel.

r

AXEL

\... Fuckin' A!

Michael who is crouched down studying the hillside, looks over...

STA?l(cont) (rummaging around in the mess of sorry- looking things he has brought} Never mind, Mike. Never mind. I got 'em •..Where the hell are my boots? Anyone · seemy boots? •••Who the hell took my boots!

Stan begins plunging in the squashed baloney, crumpled tuxedo jackets, potato chips, shoes, sleeping bags, etc.

,,..

l ...

Stan tears into the trunk again, comes up with nothing and is shiver- ing now. It is very cold.

Michael, Nick, Axel and John stand by the roadside ~hile Stan is still half in his tuxedo and patent leat~er dress shoes, draped only in a gigantic red goose down vest that could only have come from Axel. They have all seen this a million times, look at each other and shake their heads. Michael's knapsack lies on the ground in front of him and we can see that it contains an extra pair of Vibra~- soled mountain boots.

'....

The word hangs there in the air for a moment. There is a sudden tension.

4 3.

Hey, you guys--

(Revised 5/9/77) 44.

STA."1

( (hopping-mad now) ·.

Last week! Last week he coulda had that new red-headed waitrcs3 at the 3owlac:::-o:::c~iiecoulda::2.d it knocked! And look what he did. I mean, look wha~ he fuckin' did! Nothin'! That's what!

JOH~ Stan! Shut the hell up!

This last from John, strona, and it surorises us. Axel just throws up his hands in a comical ;ay. But Michael's stare at Stan is un- wavering and it unnerves the others. Nick is watching Michael very intensely.

JOHN {cont) I'll give you my boots. I'll stay in the car and listen to the radio.

Michael -- who remains completely unmoved throughout Stan's tirade -- pumps another shell in the chamber of his rifle wi~hout sound.

The silence lies there cold ~nd killing. John freezes in his track~ and stares at Michael, his face gone blank. The color is draining out of Stan's face.

Michael says this last with a hardness we haven't seen him exhibit with his friends before. John looks at Axel, ~ho is riqht be~ind him, and they both back away. Stan, who is standing di~ectly op- posite Michael, begins to tremble. I!ismouth co~es open, closes

stops. Michael's face is grave. Suddenly, ;:~ickste;,sfon:ard -- he looks long and hard at Michael, crosses to t~e kna?sacl~,takes out Michael's extra pair of boots, walks over to Stan and throws them on the road. Stan laughs. He is the only one who does.

55. OMITTED

56. OMITTED

It is later in the morning-and a cold sun is rising through the mists of swirling snow, with only the keening of the wind on the high slopes.

Close on Nick, we see he is struqgling fo~ breath, gasping air in strangled little gulps, trying to keep up with ~1ichael.Then sudden- ly Michael stops. Instantly he levels his rifle. He is about to

about to squeeze the trigger when we heQr the movement of a .deer. the snow. Nick is transfix•--r1.·Thenthe deer is there. He is ,,... of a size and magnificence thatgives him an ali';'lost;:iythiculqual of presence. Michael puts n single shot into ~1c heart of the deer. The deer shudd~rs and falls without a sound in the snow. For a moment the two men look at ec'.lchotherinthe str~nge eerie light.

so. INT~ BUSTED-DO'iiNOLD LOGGERS SHZ\CK - LATE AFTERNOON

The place ls .about nine-by-twelve. The floor is rotted out, boards are missing from the walls and the entire structure is canted to the right. Hanging from the roof peak is a Cole::1anlan which sways in the ,-?ind.Daggers of afternoon slant light stab through the cracks in the walls.

Stan, Axel and John are sacked out, sound asleeo. Deer cans -- some old, some new -- l·i tterthe floor. t·7etclothesha?:}gfrom tie-boards and nails. Snow is blowing in -- dry, crystal bright. It swirls over everything ·~ndsettles on the exhausted sleeping figures on the floor. •.

Camera turns as Michael and Nick come in. They both stare at the men lying in sleeping bags on rusted becsprings on either side of the broken door• . Thewind gusts and moans.

MIClll\.EL

~ - Tomorrow I'll give Stan my I

boots. I'll take him out · withme·.

The cabin shudders and then there is a sudden lull•

Returning weekend traffic is heavy, and unending flow of cars, a river of headlights suspended on the curved concrete trestle which seems to float in thin air. Behind is the steel mill, the furnaces blowing heavy smoke and ablaze with fire.

'' Nick's Caddy appears, horn blaring, weaving through the traffic. I~ The car sits low.· Trussed to the hood is the carcass of the magnificent deer.· Rope-ends flutter and bang in the wind. The car shudders and thuds. Inside, grinning, Nick, Michael, Stan, Axel and John are all singing, happy. ·----~ ,_..

r 60. EXT. .DIVISIONSTREET -?-;IGHT

r The Caddy appears, swerving through the underpass onto Division St. ·_,,., past the town, t ::cndow:::cowardsSt~ven's house, tires spinning.

We see Axel reaching frc~ the back seat to lean on the horn. P.eand Stan are han~i~g out the windows shouting to the house, whistling for Steven and Ar:;ela,and l::langir.gatriump::an-:tattooonthe doors. The car spins, swa?s ends alongside the house. The lights all coming on now, dogs, bar~ing, Ste~en's mother's face appearing in one of the

As the Caddy comes under the railroad trestle the mill appears behind it, seeming to loom up~ard under the night-dark sky. A sign on the door of the ba= proclaims: Closed: Gone Deer Hun~inc.

Camera holds as the Caddy comes towards it. The headlights blaze white, like huge hungry stars, and the eyes of the be~utiful dead deer on the hood glitter gold and green and red.

Axel leans out the window and gives his Tarzan call. It seems to echo as if coming from far away ..•

The men all sitting in different positions around the room, suddenly silent, unmoving. Outside the bar the sound of the mill comes clearly through. Michael's attention has been riveted toward the sound. The~ the men look at each ot~er for a moment. Abruptly, John turns to the

begins to play Chopin. It is so unexpected, so beautiful, so sensi- tive, that it startles and moves us. John's face is grave and proud in the dusty light. Sudcenly from outside beyond the wall cones the sound of an approaching train. It passes like a tornado, shaking the whole building, rattling the glasses on the shelves. The Chopin con- tinuing through it all. Michael gives Nick his spare, closed-mouthed smile, but the. musicreaches him too, as now we

,...

t. 65. OMITTED

And it couldn't be more of a contrast. There is a chopper, coming fast and low, just around a cut in an outcropping of jagged rock, sweeping over a field. Sunlight gleams on its black p~int, and murderous-looking rockets are packed to its ur.derb~lly in fat clus- ters, like eggs.

Suddenly, it fires the rockets...

As the rockets streak into a cluster of huts the lightened chopper roars over a dirt road, shoots upward, lost to sight. There is an eerie silence, and then the whole tiny village explodes, vanishes in a sheet of smoke and flame.

But the air support has been too late...

A platoon of AMERICAN RANGERS has already been ambushed on the road bordering the little village. The bodies lie helter-skelter -- head- less, armless, legless, guts spilled in the dirt. rro one moves and there isabsolute silence except for a sudden heavy low buzz of flies.

There is a slight sound. A V.C.· LIEUTENANTemerges into view. The V.C. Lieutenant spins and gives a hand signal comr.,and. Fifty feet away are the remains of the village. He motions for his nE!~to spre:::. :::~ out and then he starts toward a clump of dried branches in the fielc.

68. OMITTED

South Vietnamese VILLAGERS -- WOMEN, CHILDREN and a few OLD MEN -- sit huddled in the semi-darkness of the deep hole in the ground, roofed with bamboo poles. The women hold their hands over their BABIES' mouths. Flies buzz and there is a look of stark terror in their faces.

One of the fallen American Rangers moves. Camera closes on the Ranger. His face is in the dirt and flies are nuzzling at a gash on his temple. The face is bearded, frighteningly gaunt and in- drawn. The skin stretched taut on his face, his eyes sunken and half-crazy, but we recognize that it is Michael ... not at first glance, but we recognize hin.

A woman's scream comes from the direction of the hole. A muffled grenade explosion rings out. Michael pulls himself to his hands and k~ees and holds there, on .allfours, like a dog.

,....

r 71. EXT. HOLE IN THE GROUND - DAY '.... One of the women e~erges from the smoking hole, tor~ ~~c singet and carrying a small dead baby. One of the s6ldiers s~~~~=, levc:s his AK-47 and lets it go on full automatic. The woman and the baby flip over like rabbits.

Michael strips a flamethrower from one of his dead cc~?anions, sla~s · itonto his back, the rnetalso hot from the sun it burns hi~, and starts for the burning huts. His ~ovements are slow, al~ost d~eam- like, and his face is expressionless, like someone risen fro~ ~he dead.

The dead woman and baby lie in the dust. A dog tries to play with the baby. A V.C. soldier, who took a Rolex watch from one of the dead Rangers, squats nearby, winding it.

Close on Michael's eyes. They are cold, dreaming thi~gs, glittering blankly. He spins out with the flamethrower on full burn. The V.C. soldiers go down screaming, arms and necks thro\omback, disap;;,earing in a wall of flame.

Above the hoarse roar of Michael's flamethrower we hear a growing sound, like thunder.

In the shimmering waves of heat, it is coming back in low around the _ towering outcropping of jagged rocks.

76. OMITTED

The villagers stand motionless, staring atMichael and frozen with terror.

Michael stands alone with his flamethrower, like the angel with the flaming sword, surrounded by clouds of billowing black smoke. There is no sound but the dying rush of heated air and the faint crackle -of flames. Michael'-sclothes are close to burning. Flames are lick- ing up his trouser legs. He looks like a blackened scarecro~, or a standing dead man.

In front of Michael the v.c. soldiers lie in charred heaps, motion- less now, like roasted stones.

, . T.hecho?:=ierjust touc!--.esthefieJ.dforsecor1ds,.:1o=cR~ngersrush ou '.:., movina throuqh the c=ass flutterina fic=cclv in the =otor ~ash. The chopp;r hauling ass.straight the h ; llouto~ there.

An .AMERICAN RAMGER LIEUTE~L~NTsteps into the burning clearinq. t:ichae:. and the Lieutenan~ spin on each other anc then the Lieutenant lowers his armalite rifle.

LIEUTENJ\~T What the hell are you doing · here?

(numb) Fuckit ...

More Rangers appear, a squad, coming out o: the still-smoking high grass in spread-out clusters. Among them are Nick and Steven.

LIEUTENAtlT Move it out, mudfuckers! Move it out!

The Lieutenant heads down the line. Hick stares at l-~icha.el,shrugs, in evidence that he does not recognize his friend. As Steven passes, he looks at Michael close up and fccuses his eyes for a moment, emits a little gasp of surprise.

Michael turns and looks at Steven. He seems to be looking right through him. Nick stops, turns around and comes up behind Steven. They meet in a strange look.

Suddenly a burst of sharp flat sound rings out. The Lieutenant goes down and suddenly the Ranger Squad is caught in a ~urderous ambush. Mortars rain out of the distant trees. .Michael,Nick and Steven dive for the ground.

Out of the smoking high grass soldiers begin to appear, more and more of them, swarming out in scores.

An extraordinarily beautiful· bend in the river, the strange, Asian- looking peaks of the mountains beyond rearing thenselves enormously over the jungle. Below, our view moves closer toward an ordinary looking fishing hut, typical of the river, and as we do we notice

so.

,. that in the sand beach a shallow oit has been dug and fitted with '' bamboo gratings held down b'lston~s, and covered wit~ fishi~g nets. --... The river is run~inq high a;c the pit is filling wi~h ~rater to with- in a foot of the bamboo gratings. In the pit are about a half-doze~ men -- SOUTH VIET~·:1'"1..:·1ESEandso::1eoftheA:-:ERICANR.:"'\~iGERS.Their hands grip the gratings and their eyes arc hollow. Other than an occasional groan, there is only the sound of the falling rain. Sud- denly --

A V.C. soldier trudaes out of the fishincrhut. As he reaches the pit he walks over the hands an<lbegins urina~i~g on the bamboo gratings. The hands disappear. As soon as one co~es back, the soldier stomps on it.

Our view keeps moving closer --

We see the fishing hut in its totality. It is a raw hut propped on pilings half-jutting onto the beach. The hut is small with a thatch- ed roof. The walls are almost open and we can see a few v.c. soldiers moving about inside. But now below the floor, we notice the pilings are wrapped from top to bottom with barbed wire...

And in the darkness under the floor boards; we see faces from a dis- tance, peering out, unshaved, animal-like, staring up at the cracks in the floor above them.

A cry comes from the hut. There is the thud of a rifle butt on flesh and the cry abruptly stops.

In the middle of the hut is a tin kitchen table with a plastic top. At opposite e~ds of the table are two chairs. A South Vietnamese prisoner sits in one of the chairs. In t~c other chair, facing him, is another South Vietnamese prisoner. !:ot!1SouthVietnamese pr isone.:-s · have welts on their heads which they are ~rapping in filthy red rags, and one of the half-dozen V.C. soldiers in the hut is scre~rning at them to hQrry. In the middle of the table, between the South Viet- namese prisoners, is a single-action, high-velocity magnum.revolver with a double American eagle carved on its ivory grip.

It is incredible, impossible and startling; and in the middle of a prisoner of war camp, an absolutely terrifying scene. We are looking at a game of Russian Roulette.

Michael looks up through a crack in the floorboards, quietly, waiting; but his eyes are working, ~littering like a wolf's, taking in every detail of this strange scene.

The v.c. soldier gives one of the South Vietnamese prisoners a final glancing blow, takes up the magnum revolver with a dramatic flourish and loads one cartridge into the chamber. Immediat~ly the other sol- diers begin placing bets.

,.

, The V.C. soldiers are a ragged bunch -- wet, half-drunk on c~pt~red

things out. Forget the Geneva Convention here.

Now, close on South Vietnamese and .Z\mericanprisoners standing, sit- ting, kneeling; staring uo. Most of them have been badly beaten and all have their elbows t1.·ed·beh1.·n~~tn·e1.·rbac~s.~n.~ong'~nem,·•-s~a~~ing·~- beside one another, are ~ick and Steven. Nick looks grey, like a skinny ghost. Steven is sob~ing quietly. =1ichael ~ee?s staring up through the crack in the floorboards.

The betting is now completed. The V.C. in charge waves the maqnum revolver around and calls for silence -- then, snapping shut t~e cylinder containing the single cartridge, he points the revolver at the ceiling and clicks through the empty chambers until the revolver goes off with a deafening roar. A big hole blows open in the roof and bits of thatch flutter down from the ceiling, the rain coning through the hole now.

The South Vietnamese prisoners begin trembling, continually blinking ,. _their eyes in the rain pouring down over their faces from the hole in the roof.

l.. The v.c. in charge now reloads the revolver with one cartridge again, snaps the cylinder shut, puts the gun on the table between the South Vietnamese, and gives it a good spin.

The revolver slows and finally comes to a stop pointing to one man. He stares at it fer a long beat. Then he picks it up, spins the cylinder, cocks it, puts it to his temple and pulls the trigger. The hammer falls on an empty chamber with a loud click.

TheV.C. in charge grabs the revolver, throws it back on the table, and pushes it toward the other South Vi~tnamese priso~er. The South Vietnamese begins shaking uncontrollably now. Fumbling horribly, he finally manages to get the gun in his hand. He spins the cylinder, cocks the hammer and puts it to his ter:1ple.The gun weaves around... The South Vietnamese closes his eyes and pulls the trigger. There is a loud click.

The V.C. in charge quickly takes the revolver again. He spins it, cocks it -- all in one smooth motion -- puts it to the temple of the other South Vietnamese and pulls the trigger himself. There is an- o.ther click. He pushes the·gun back across the table. This tir:le the other South Vietnamese takes it up with giddy confidence. !lespins the cylinder, cocks it, puts.it to his temple and pulls on the triggc:.

THERE IS A SUDDEN, EAR-SPLITTING ROAR. The South Vietnamese is fly- ing in the air away from the kitchen table and blown clear through the grass wall. Then there is a moment of pure siJ~nce. As below --

,...

Michael doesn't even blink. Now the guards begin hooting and lauchir~ wiping S?Ots o~ blood fro~ their clot~es -- and ~:ic~3clst~res ~= at (__ th2~, watc~es 0~ery gest~re, every movement ... like a cat, but sudden-· ly his face splits with a smile, wi?gs ofi quickly.

Several bodies lie by t~e steps in the pouring rain. The bodies are both South Vie~:1a::.esea:1dAmerican.Huge dark water rats are already scurrying over them.

Steven is at the table now, opposite Michael. It will be a sudden · andshocking cut. His face is twitching, dripping sweat and both he and Michael are holding onto each other's eyes. Steven is shaking and trembling, his eyes beginning to wander around in their sockets as if they had been suddenly cut loose. ~ichael is trying to talk to Steven over the excited murmurs of the guards as their betting begins with another round of typical Oriental haggling.

Steven cannot speak at first, just keeps shaking his head negatively. Then --

MICHAEL

• Steven... listen tome, Steven!

You have to do it.

( STEVEN .. We don't belong here, in the -- jungle, Michael, I just wanna

go home!

Steven looks down. The pistol is ending its spin and the muzzle comes up pointing at him. He stares at the gun and tears begin to fill his eyes. The guards begin yelling at him, urging him on and then Michael gives him a smile of such unwavering faith that Steven picks up the gun, fumbles the cylinder around, cocks it and puts it to his temple. For a moment Michael and Steven look at each other. Steven is taking his faith straight out of Michael's eyes and now Michael gives him another encouraging nod.

Steven starts to squeeze the trigger, but at the very last instant jerks the gun away from his head. There is an explosion and the top of his head is horribly burned and bloodied.

Steve~ sits motionless, his jaw hanging open and his face formed in an expression of terrible puzzlement. Then his face begins to move, begins to twitch, as if the muscles were trying to discover a frown. Steven looks around, a thin trickle of blood runs from his head do~n into his eyes._ He looks back again at Michael and he begins to cry. We can see all the youth being sucked right out of his eyes.

Suddenly, Steven is thrown out of his chair, jerked to his feet and pushed below. A South Vietnamese is pulled up and placed opposite Michael. The South Vietnamese isonly a kid, even younger tha~ Steven, and he is trembling with terror.

A couple of South Vietnamese sit huddled together in the muck on the uphill side. A third lies sprawled on his back, dead. The rain pours through the few leaves placed over their heads and splashes in great cascades around their feet.

On the downhill side are Steven, Nick and Michael. Steven is in a fetal position, gripping his knees and rocking himself back and forth. Michael has torn one sleeve of his shirt off and wrapped it around Steven's wound as best as he could. Steven's eyes are vacant and his face is fixed in an expression of horror, as if he were still at the table. Beside Steven is Nick. Nick sits slumped against the bamboo, careful of the barbs. One knee is raised and he is picking at the threa~s of his.trousers where they have torn at the knee.

Michael is standing, grip?ing the barbed wire 'walls' of the corepou~~ and looking out at the pit.

Th~ pit is about twenty feet away. Running mud and river wa~er gurgle into it, coming out through shallo~ trenches on the cown side. There are fewer hands tha~ the day befo=e, far fewer. Only one pair is left and as Michael watches he sees that these hands are struggling tokeep their grip.

Suddenly one of the hands slips away. The hand comes back for a moment, then both hands disappear under the muddy water.

Michael turns away from the pit. He looks down at Steven, then he looks at Nick. His expression is one of exasperation, as if he had been having a long argument.

-r

,... are.•. And we gotta get ouIT

~-- NICK

You're right... okay, you're right. You're always right! Okay?

......-.-~.,,.- '

,-. I MICHAEL \.... Get off your fu~ki~g ass and

stand up! (grabs him) Get off your ass, Nick!

c..

A shout comes from above. The two surviving South Vietnamese whip around in fright. Michael and Nick turn.

Through the slits in the floor we see the V.C. guards coming down from the hut. The guards are all drinking Miller's High Life beer again and the guard in charge is waving the pearl-handled magnum revolver.

Nick looks at Michael. The whole thing is beginning to finally totally unnerve him. d-'", ~ · MICHAEL

(calm) We gotta play with more bullets.

r (· NICK •'-~ What?

NICHAE!... I'm gotta get more bullets into that gun, Nick. It's the only way.

,.. MICHAEL

It's the only choice we've got.

k ~

Nick stares ~t Michael. Rain is easing off, fading in rivulets. The voices of the guards corningdown are getting louder.

The guards begin screaming orders from the stair ladder and one of them lets off a blast of automatic rifle fire which shreds the pili~; just alongside Nick's head. Nick looks at Michael and theywatch as the guards grab Steven and drag him out toward the pit.

As Steven emerges from under. thehut one of the guards smashes him with his rifle butt, screaming orders. Nick and Michael make a move and are both knocked to the ground by furious blows. When they get to their feet they see Steven.

Steven has absolutely no comprehension of what is about to happen to him. His eyes are dreamy, far away, as if he had mentally transporte~ himself to some distant place. There are great gashes in his head from the additional blows he has received and as he stands waiting o~ the sand he looks exactly like a very small child who has experience~ some terrible confusion.

Suddenly the guard standing beside Steven wrenches him around. We see the pit now, close up. There are four bloated corpses floating in the muck.

We see Steven's face, close up. He gives a little cry and tries to turn away.

We see the guards pick Ste~en up, screaming. We see the splash as -~. Steven hits the water and then we see him surface between the bloated corpses, still screaming, paddling desperately and trying to find something solid to hold him up. Then the bamboo grating crashes down as he grabs hold.

~ - 88. EXT. COMPOUND - DAY

·- Nick stands ~otior.less,stunned, listening to Steven's ~at~etic screams. In contrast, Michael has his aitention tocused only on the guard in charge, and when he glances in their direction Michael slugs Nick in the stomach and begins beating him viciously to the ground. Nick struggles to his feet, his eyes full of question ~arks. Michael attacks him again and now, as the guard in charge comes over to ·seewhat's going on, Michael begins charging Nick again and screa~- ing.

The guards look at each other, becoming interested.

Michael and Nick sit facing one another across the tin kitchen table. The guards are all grinning and even the South Vietnamese kids are watching with grim fascination. Nick has the revolver. He is trem- bling visibly. Already Michael has managed to draw the guards in closer and as Nick spins the cylinder of the deadly-looki~g ffiagnum and cocks the hammer, Michael jumps up and begins pounding on the· table.

Nick almost loses what little control is left and his hand-begins shaking violently.

Side bets begin changing _hands.

Nick puts the revolver against his temple and pulls the trigger. There is a dull click.

Nick puts the revolver back on the table. His hand is shaking so badly it falls with a clunk. Michael grabs it, spins it, sticks it to his temple and clicks out, talking all the time.

MICHAEL

r

(throws the revolver on the table) More! Put in more! You under- stand more? More! More bullets! (hemimes with his fingers) Three bullets! You understand three?

Michael starts laughing naniacally. The guard in charge looks at his companions. They all begin shouting for him to go ahead. The guard in charge purses his lips, as if imitating a general coning to .adecision, and then nods his assent. The guards all howl. Michael joins right in.

The guard in charge takes the revolver, opens the cylinder and begins sticking in two or more cartridges. Nick is just shaking his head in disbelief as if wondering how he got there.

Michael suddenly screams at Nick, jabbing his finger at him, as if in fury.

The guard in charge places the revolver on the table, spins it.·

The muzzle stops pointing at Michael. Michael scowls, looks over at the guard in charge. The guard in charge has lifted the barrel of his AK 47 and is watching ~im with caution. The other guards who are totally caught up in-the s~0 e,are yelling and shouting.

Michael picks up the revolver, spins the cylinder, cocks it...

~

MICHAEL (cont)

C.. No way! ~ever!

(b~gins to ch~nt) Mike is nighty! s:.. :-:eisst::-ong! Mike is nagic! Mike lives long! Lemme hear it f!"'omthebench. Come on, motherfuckers, lemme hear it!

Michael takes a glance at the gu2rd in charge again. The guard in charge is still eyeing him with caution, not understanding a word he's saying.

•Michael places the revolver to his temple... and clicks into an empty chamber.

He pushes the gun across to Nick. Then he stabs his finger at hi~, screaming again, as if in a fit of rage.

Nick looks down at the revolver and picks it up. He stares at MichaeJ. for a moment. Then he spins the cylinder, cocks the han;:::er,putsit to his head .... andclicks into an e~pty chamber.

The guards let out expressions of disbelief. Those betting on Nick _begin hooting and jeering at those betting on Michael.

Michael sits motionless, as if stunned, as if utterly defeated, his brow furrowed in a dark frown.

Nick pushes the revolver across the table. His face is twitching but he gives the gesture a certain flair, as if throwing back a challenge.

Michael stares at the revolver -- stares at it with an expression of utter gloom. Then he reaches out, takes the revolver in his hand a~d pulls it .towardhim, as if he no longer possessed the strength to pick it up.

~- Michael roams a glowering eye over t~e watching guards, as if sudden- ~ - ly ~isco~erin~ ~~~self a~ong traitors . Slowly, he ?~sies hi mscl~to his feet. The ;~n is still o~ the ta~le, still in his right hand, and as he gets-~ he le~s his body 5ag over it.

There is absol~te silence now except for the sudden drun.~ing of new rain. It is as if the war had disappeare~, vanished. The guards stand motionless, hardly breathing, so ca::)tivatedbv Michael's per- formance that t~ey suddenly resemble littie children.

Michael begins his chant again. His voice is low, very dramatic, and the guard in charge joins in a sing song imitation of Michael's words.

Suddenly, Michael snaps the revolver level in his hand and blasts the guard who has been singing, hitting him full in the face.

At the same time Nick throws himself onto the guard who is standing behind him, spins and slams the· guard'sAK 47 into his chin. Two more shots blas~ out from Michael's magnum and we see two more guards crash ·over the kitchen table. Nick now opens U? with the AK 47, and

the remaining guards to the floor, who fire back as they fall.

For amoment everything is a roaring blur, then it is over in an instant. Bodies lie all over the place in a bloody, tangled mess under a pathetic paper lantern. The rain has stopped --

Nick staggers, badly wounded. Michael picks himself o~f the floor and pulls Nick out of the fishing hut toward the river...

Michael appears carrying Nick on his back. Nick is unconscious and the effort that Michael has expended to get him this far can be mea- sured in his eyes. As :-1ichaelapproachesthe ::>amboopit along the side of the river, we· suddenlysee Steven, staring up, his eyes burn- ing like coals.

Michael comes to a stop, unshoulders Nick and lays him on the ground. As he stands looking at Steven, gasping for breath, Steven stares up at him with an expression of pure terror.

r 'For a moment t~ere is nothing silence. The rain drones on and ( we can hear ~ick's breath, which co~es in short, shallow rasps.

Ca~era closes ~:owlv o~ Steven's f~ce. lfisaurnsar8 bleedi~cran~ his skin is d=a~n tlght so that ev~ry bc~e siancisout in his-skull. His teeth a=e bd=ed, his eyes are hallo~ and he looks within a hair's bre~c~~ of bei~s completely mad. Ee makes a strangled ani- mal sound, so ~aint as to be almost imperceptible. Michael pulls loose the ba~boo grati~g and raises Steve~ out of the slime.

A huge battle is taking place in the distance. The earth trembles and shakes.

Michael staggers down into the water with Nick, almost too tired to move. Steven comes behind. He is hunched over, like a gnome. The rope which Michael has tied around his neck drags in the water. His eyes are huge with terror and.his voice comes in a loud rasp.

Steven follows them into the water.

Another explosion shakes the earth, this one much closer. Nick's breath rattles inhis t~roat. Michael, who lies low in the water beside Nick, holding hi~, closes his eyes for a rnomentas if to gather strength.

Michael gets to within a foo~ of a snaggled uprooted tree floating by, he lunges out and grabs it, then he pushes Nick on it and lays him on his back. The huge root end is so soggy that it barely sup- ports Nick's ~eight and his chin is within inches of the water.

·r'·

, Michael loops one strand of ro?e around Nick and ties him down ~ith { a knot he c?.::instantly=e.!.ease,t:-1enheslips sc:i,ecea(:.b=.;1.nches under the rope so that he will not be vis~ble from shore.

Michael crosses back to Steven who sits in the water with the rope around his neck.

Michael leads Steven out to his neck in the water. Steven balks,

A sound comes from the clearing. Michael snaps around. v.c. SOL- DIERS are coming out of the trees -- about twenty of them.

Steven hesitates and then Michael yanks him to the tree raft and the heavy run of the current sweeps them silently out around a great, rainswept bend...

'· The rain has stopped. Michael holds Steven who clings to the tree raft staring out at a landscape of strange, hump-like hills. Gnarled pine trees cling to the rock walls and a dreamy mist seems to hold them in a spell.

Nick, Michael and Steven sweep around a bend. The river suddenly narrows, locked on both sides with sheer walls. There is no way to get to the shore and in the distance there is the ominous rurr.bling sound of falls.

They are racing now, riding a crest of deep, fast-moving water whose surface is deceptively smooth. The river funnels around another bend. Suddenly, dead ahead, there is an ancient suspension foot bridge across the river. The sound of the falls is much louder now and the

derelict bridge, which sags to within only a few feet of the water, ( is their.last hope. 7he onlv trouble is t:-;atayoung v.c. Gt:E~R!L:..:.. is squatting on one bank, st~nding guard.

Michael claws his way to the upstream end of the huge root S~?porting Nick, who suddenly lifts the AK 47. Just as he dces so, the v.c. guerrilla turns and sees him. Nick fires first and the guerrilla crurnples·downt~rough the rotting slats into thewater and sinks below the surface.

Nick drops the rifle into the river. The sound of the falls is like thunder now and the bridge is coming up fast.

Michael steadies himself and as they pass under the suspension bridge he lunges upward and grabs hold of one of the rotted slats. The bridge swings sideways, tipping the slat toa vertical position so that the slat snaps in Michael's grip.

The current is ferocious, building up a high head of boiling water around Michael's body. As Steven watches, the slat slowly tears away from the dead bridge and then, suddenly, it separates entirely ,,.. and they are out in the river again spinning toward the mounting thunder of the falls. l_,,. Michael drops the broken slat, releases the rope that holds Nick to the tree and screams at Steven:

Michael pushes Nick off, holding him on his back. A ~ornentpasses. The tree drifts slowly away. The thunder of the water gets lo~der and louder and then the huge tree suddenly tilts upward and dis- appears.

Steven, Nick and Michael sweep over the edge ...

The river drops about thirty feet into a deep pool. There is nothins visible in the pool except the huge tree log, plunging around like a great horned beast in the roaring water.

Michael lies on a rock clutching Nick in his arms. Michael's head is bleeding and Nick is unconscious. Michael shakes his head, wipes the blood from his eyes and says in a cracked voice:

Michael looks over at Steven ar.dnotices that he is staring at so~e- ,,_ thing, st.arins as i:::--:ecouldn't~8li~·.-ehiseves. :-:i::::1ael·,;hi:=:,s around • •:l-.••---:-,,,,...!,.-;·--'-..•,,,dva-..-:s..._,....do;.;.,...s+-~·e::.-,.~._.,_•..,...,,...,.~__i....r,,.,.....,.._..._,,...,"-4~~,.-'"ADV•,.f\,,.,0~_-_,.:::.-.::~:,_.-_,r.:.,1.a._..-•.·~' RANGERS is being evacuated by cho?pers. The Rangers are u::.derfiYe, the sandbars are too narrow to set down on, and the only way the choppers can pick the ~en up is to swoop down and try to pluck them out of the water.

Michael tur~s back tc ~~ick,picks him up and drags him back into the heavy run o: the current. Steven hesitates. ~ichael oulls him viciously back into the river with the rope and then ~~ves them all towards the focus of evacuation.

The choppers have machine guns mounted in their open doors. They hover with their skids just above the river, the rotor wash whipping water, and as they rake the tree line with machine gun firewhat is left of the Ranger squad pull themselves out of the water and climb aboard.

A chopper roars down over Michael, Steven and Nick, who suddenly slide into view. They are the last to be picked up and the chopper takes heavy fire from the shore. Michael manages to get Nick pulled aboard and then, as he is trying to get Steven up, the fire fro~ the shoreline intensifies and the chopper begins to lift up. Hands reach down to Steven andMichael who are both now hanging from the skids, faces blurred in the spray of water. Suddenly, as the chopper reaches a height of about forty feet, Steven loses his grip. For a split second Michael watches him falling... and then he lets go.

Steven and ~ichael hit the rock~strewn river with two plu~es of spray. They both surface and show an arm or leg, and then disappaar around a bend.

Michael has dragged Steven from the river and props him up in a low muddy cut of a creek bed. Steven's legs are horribly broken and Michael kneels over him -- out of breath, tears streaming from his cavernous eyes -- howling with helpless rage.

Michael looks down at Steven. Steven's body is a mass of raw flesh but his eyes look up at Michael with lunatic, unwavering trust.

r MICHAEL l ·,. (nods)

Sure. Sure, Ace. We're going home. We gotta just keep moving...

The mountains rear themselves over the road, immense and mvsterious. REFUGEES are streaming down the road in a desperate, frightened huna~ torrent. There is every imaginable means of convevance -- ~rem bull- ock carts to motorbikes -- but the vast majority carrying their ~eas~= belongings, are fleeing on foot. Burned-out vehicles of every kind litter the drainage ditches off the side of the road, and the grea~ human tide overflowing the road streams around them as if they were islands. In the distance comes the sound of machine gun fire and mortars are coming in nearby. MEDVAC helicopters packed full of wounded men clatter overhead, with more wounded strapped to the skids. Now and then a U.S. Army tank comes highballing through, scattering the refugees into the drainage ditches. ·

We catch a glimpse of Michael moving along the embankment on the far side of the road with Steven on his back. Camera closes slowly on Michael's face. His nose is bleeding from fatigue, and rivulets of Steven's blood run down his legs ...

Suddenly a tank approaches with a full bird COLO~EL in it. The tank is completely encrusted with men. Clinging to every available sup- port or protrusion are men's hands. The refugees begin scattering to make way for the tank.

Michael stops, turns and stares at the fast-approaching tank -- blankly, without comprehension. He waits. The tank barrels closer. Michael waits until the last instant and then, car=ying Steven, and with sudden passionate hate, he lunges into the middle of the road.

The tank is almost on top of them before it grinds to a sudden, sliding, wrenching stop at his feet. Now finally, Michael puts Steven down on the road, utterly exhausted.

The Colonel and the TANK CO~L'iAND~Rget out swearing and start toward Michael.

(warily} Little Rand Rand you'll be standing tal·lagain, son...

TANK CO~L~1ANDER ·uh-oh,Sir. Hostile vibes!

The Colonel walks right up to Micihael.

We now see that Michael is leveling the ~earl-handled revolver and he . cocksthe haITL~erwithan audible click.

COLOi~EL Oh, shit!

The Colonel and the tank commander pick up Steven end scra~ble to the already overloaded tank and pile him on.

Michael watches them go, Steven safely aboard, without expression. On the road the refugees stream past -- by the hundreds, by the thousands, by the tens of thousands. For a long mo~ent Michael watches. Then he jams ~he gun in his pants and joins the vast human torrent.

Michael is walking with the fleeing refugees. Camera pans past the uneven rimrock of themountains holding on nichael as he grows small- er and smaller. He dwindles to a spot in the distance to the South.

The corridor is narrow, jammed with wounded men on stretchers and tables; some propped on chairs. In fact, the ~hole place is a steamy . madhouse of confusion. Nick is there, staring out the window lookin•; down to the courtyard below. He is so changed that we do not recogni- ze him at first glance, see only the shadowy form of what we take to be just another patient. Camera closes on Nick -- and as we do re- cognize him -- we notice that around his neck is a piece of plastic on which is stapled a colored paper marker.

Nick reaches for the big paper marker on his neck and peers down at it from the corner of his eye. It seems to remind him of something and he takes out his wallet. In his wallet is a photograph of Linda. Nick peers at the photograph intently, then closes his wallet and puts it away. The strain on Nick is now glaringly apparent, both in his face and in his rnovement·s;a feeling of complete, radical discon- nection between Nick and everyone else. There is a hint -- a lookin his eye that he is in the edge of madness.

Departing aircraft thunder overhead and there is the sound of wooden coffins being stacked into trucks in the courtyard.

Black body bags are laid out in countless rows on the hot concrete. PFC's are stacking them on pallets and more PFC's, driving hydraulic fork lifters, are loading the pallets of coffins into the holds of the trucks.

Nick turns away from the window and looks down the corridor, down the rows of blank staring faces. Everything appears grimy, even in here, and the only clean white thir.gseems to be the cigarette in Nick's hand. Suddenly a couple of NURSES burst in and a harassee DOCTOR follows them in.

Nick shakes his head affirmatively.

Nick nods.

The doctor looks at the paper marker on Nick's neck, marked N.P.

Nick shrugs.

...... seeps into ~i~ voice)

What t~e hell rli~~c=e~cedoes that ma ~:e?T!"te:-''v ,~tot:1.!:-.::en dead for over twenty year~!!!

The doctor stares at hirafor a ~ornent,shoots a sidelong glance at one of the ~~rses, the~ he staples another colored ~arker around Nick's neck. 2e directs a finger at Nick.

The doctor slams back out the coor, the nurses following in his wake. Another jet thunders overhead. The hydraulic fork lifts in the court- yard shriek and whine. Suddenly, from sornew~erenearby, comes the sound of a wounded black G.I.'s voice:

VOICE (O.S.) (laughing; almost chanting) Roll 'em all out of Nam. Roll 'em daid! Feet first! Let 'em all go home with their boots on ...

Banks of telephones li~e the wall. Stretching out from the telephones are long, ragged lines of SERVICEME!·lwaitine;tocall hone. The roor.1 is huge, full of echoes. Re-enlistment posters arc ?lastered every- where and ca::nedrausic is playing over the considerable noise of a hundred nen, all shouting over. theirlong-distance connections at the same time.

Nick, wearinc civilian clothes, blends into one of the lines with cnl~ · one ;:·~rson{; f.r-ontofhim. He looks anxious. Ee taKes out hiswal- let again, p~e!'.'sintentlyat Linda's photogra?h, then puts it back. r s takes a half-step forward -- staring at the telephor.e-- and then he sto~s, turns and walks away. No one takes any notice.

A shimmering, iridescent confusion of flashing neon signs. Nick comQS along the sidewalk, .a crowd of MILIT.l'~RYPERSOm·lELandHUSTLERS sellir.::; everything from electric blenders to women. lieseems drunk and hemo- ves unsteadily, as if he were walking on ice. Suddenly, across the street, something catches his eye.

Nick throws himself into the tiaffic headlong, without ~ven looking.

{Reviss-d5/28/77) 70.

Ve~icles ·sw7rve and screech to a stop. Nick dodges between the~, ,- gain~ the sidewalk on the other side lunging throush an alley con- \-.......,.nectingto another street line~ with bars. He clac3 his hand on the back of a passing G.I. The G.I. turns. It is.not Michael at all but the resemblance is al~ost close.·

* The G.I. makes no reply, just continues on his way into the congre- gation of A..~1ERICANSOLDIERSmilling about the middle o= the streets. "The crowd streams around it, a sea of bobbing, brilliant color. Nick enters the nearest bar.

* The place is jammed and very dark, ear-splitting rock music is play- ing. Bikini-clad GIRLS are dancing with the American soldiers while above the bar on pedestals half-naked girls are dancing to the music with obscene contortions.

Nick comes into the smokey and noisy room, wedges into an opening at the bar. By now a very young, very pretty BAR GIRL is giving him her undivided attention. She whispers something in his ear which we do not hear.

Nick nods. He looks as if he might be about to cry.

The bar girl comes around a corner with Nick, guiding him up the steps of a flight of narrow stairs into a fluorescent lit, horribly decrepit room with sad little plastic flowered curtains and a torn mattress on the floor. In one corner of the room, jar..medbetween piles of clothes and cooking utensils is a baby, asleep in a tiny crib. ·The bar girl puts one hand around Nick's waist and slides

(Revised 5/28/77) 71.

the other do~n t~e fro~t of his pants. A look of terrible sac~~ss crosses his face. , \. BAR GIRL (cont}

What you liJ:e. tocallme now?

Suddenly, with a fever bordering on brutality he un~resses her and desperately, as though barely controlling his hysteria throug~ t~e force of his passion, he pushes her onto the dirtv mattress in t~e middle of the floor. After a moment, Nick pulls away, without the slightest interest in the girl beside him, staring at the window at the end of the room. He tears himself loose from the bar girl and pushes up against the filthy glass, opens it.

A filthy, grimy dark place loud with the fierce whirring sound of hundreds of ancient, leaking air conditioners. Seated on a chair against the wire fence of the opposite building is an OLD !-~'\~:with an old food stand on bicycle wheels, surrounded by a collectio~ o: white ceramic elephants for sale. A military police jeep roars in front of him, a few motorcycles sputter past and a few girls with soldiers hurry in both dirGctions. The old man sits motionless, like the guardian of some timeless, silent kingdom.

Nick spins away from the window, tears rolling down his cheeks.

* The bar girl stares at him. The baby begins crying now. Suddenly, Nick, startled at the sound, bolts and charges back down the stairs with the bar girl hot on his tail.

crying.•.

The sky is alight with fires. Now and then huge distant explosions rock·the night and sirens wail.

(Revised5/28/77) 72.

/ A lone figure ap?ears walking down the ~iddle of the street. As t the figure approach~s we see that it is ~ick. He iz alterna~cly burning with chills and fever.

The street is almost deserted excc~t for the ir.c~ssant ricks~~w- type taxis whizzing by carrying soidiers out fer a night on ~he to~:r..

Nick stops, swallows, as if to force back so:neoverwhelming e!r.ction. Then continues down the street passing under a lamp ?OSt lea~ing precariously over him, and begins singing softly again, his voice thin and cracking now.

Suddenly, there is the sharp flat report of a pistol shot fron some- where nearby. Hick spins, reflectively, staring at a small com?lex of wooden buildings behind a high corrugated metal gate, and there is the unmistakable sound of Vietnamese voices, hooting and cheerin~.

Nick stares at the buildings fer a long ~onent, then he crosses through some passing trafic toward the gate.

From another wooden house, beyond the others and closer to the river, a tiny light glows inside a pape= lante~n. ~ick moves to- ward the light coming fro~ the riverfront h~use. Lying on t~e ground under a grove of bougainvillea r.earbyare three CORPS~S, all of them Asian, all of them with one side of their heads blood- ied. As Nick stands looking at them a door co~es open of the back of the building and T;-;oBURLYVIE':'~iA.¾ESEME~~bri:1gC'..!'tanothe!' corpse. The body is that of a yo 11:1g/.1nerice.n.LD~etheAsians he "isdead from a bullet in the right temple.

Nick turns. A man is stand'ingin the shadows of a very beautiful little arbor, eyeing him with a look of cold amusement. The nan's accent is French. His name is JULIEN. Beside him, on the seat of a gleaming European sports car, is a bottle of cha~pagne and several silver cups. Nick stares ~t this st=ange sight unbelievingly, blinks several times to clear his mind of this vision. Then after a moment, says in a distant voice:

Hais certaincm.~nt...Sor~etimesa great deal of ,noney. Naturally I do not do it myself. I myself do not possess the nerve. (smiles) But I am always... how do. yousay ..• looking out for those things quite rare. Champagne perhaps? Tch, tch. Don't say no. When a man says no to champagne, he says no to life. (gives Nick a cup) You s~w this before?

A moment of silence passes bE:tweenthem. Then--

'NICK Up north.

There is another shot from inside and another round of hooting anc cheering.

But I insist.

: NICK I

I have to go.

Julien refills Nick's cup. Nick looks at it. The cup is as highly polished as a ~irro= and the sparkli~g bubbles dance and hiss. Nick lifts the glass and empties it in one swallow.

He guides Nick toward the little wooden house on the river.

Nick hesitates, then precedes Julien through the door.

i5.

I 110. INT. HOUSE - NIGHT \ The narrow hallway is lined on bo~h sicteswith cas2s of French wine and chz:i7!pagne,:-::c1:-:ingitstil1:--.:1:-:.::0'.•:er.·,\'.:cad,frc:~.a:-,-2.:ir:::vrcc:-:i comes the souni.2of voices a:-i<lthefaintcut un:nista::ablecor...r:,;ti.0:1 of odds being given and bets placed -- an excited hur:uningcha.cs...

We watch Nick co:-:-.ethroughwithJulien past cases of American liauor and cigarettes stacked to the ceilinq, into a room lit only with.a single fierce overhead drop light. He is now even r.ioreunrecognizable.

Several big imposing DODYGuARDS from different parts of Asia are spread around -- some standing, some sitting. They are in varying degrees of dress -- some in suits, some in casual clothes. The one element they have in common is their size. Directly under the sin- gle bright light is a table and two chairs. T'wocor::-ESTAUTS,both of them Vietnamese, sitopposite one another. Between them, lying on the table, is a revolver. Both are wranoinq t~cir heads with strips of red cloth in a ceremonial ~-,ay.The REFERSE inspects the wraps, crossing first toone man, then to the next; satisfied, he nods. Now he holds a pistol by its cylinder, turns to address the room.

Spectators, predominantly Asian, jam all the available space around the table. And in the middle of it all we see a vague, familiar shape. It is Michael. But all this seems remote and unreal to him now, somethin~ out of a world fromwhich he has already taken leave and from which he is becoming more distan~ and detached every moment.

A CHINESE CLERK taking the lastbets, chalks the fi~al odds on a la=~ : board. The betting has been heavy. Champagne flows like water and the.atmosphere is one of reckless abandon, as if money, like love, were good for an hour. The referee holds the pistol up for all to see and inserts a single cartridge into the empty chamber.

Camera closes on Nick, staring at the evolution of the game he once played for his life. Be is bordering on obsession now; we feel a restlessness in his movements unlike anything we have seen before.

The contestants have finished wrapping their heads with the scarlet cloth. They sit and look at each other, strange in the eerie light. It is like a dream. There is a sudden silence; a sense of upcoming climax among the spectators.

75A.

r The Chinese referee puts the pistol on the table in front of the two C men. Nick, without taking his eyes off the pistol, abru?tly, ~ades through the crowd, pulls o~e of the contestants out of his chair and sits at the table opposite the other Vietnamese player.

Michael, who's attention is suddenly snagged by Uick, recognizes him. Nothing at all seems to happen for a rnonent. Then a startled, chc ,:ed cry of terror escapes him -- he cannot believe that he is looki~g at Ni~k. He stares in wonderment and panic at the sig!:tof Nick grabbin~ the pistol. Suddenly and frighteningly all of the spectators begin to shout in confusion.

Nick, resting his elbows on the edge of the table like someone having a conversation in a bar, spins the ?istol, cocks it, puts it to his own head. Involuntarily, Michael cries out. For a brief moment, the two men simply -- and to powerful effect -- stare at each other. Then Nick gives Michael an odd, searching look. Suddenly -- ·

Michael lunges forward with a great heave, but Nick has already click- ed out and is being dragged from the table, screaming. Michael strug- gles fiercely to rip free from the other bodyguards who are stopping him.

lllA. EXT. COURTYARD - NIGHT ,.. There is a sudden movement in the darkness. And with terrible force (_ one of the bodyguard's feet comes up into t:ick'sstomach. His body lifts off the ground, shuddering with the i~pact, and crashes down, stunned. Punches, kicks and blows come from every direction. All of it sudden and shocking. Uick gathers himself, mixes punches, then lands a swift, stunning two-punch combination. He backs off, tur~s away on the same beat, leaving the bodyguard to drcp unconscious, and lurches out of the courtyard.

Michael pushes outside, looks around with the confused look of aman who has a=rived in a strange city for the very first time. He backs away from the building and hurls himself th=ough the courtyard.

Julien, who has said nothing during the whole scene, follows outside onto the street.

Michael catches a fleeting glimpse of Nick, breaks into a stiff run that becomes more and more violent.

Then, as if all this last had been too much for him, he stops -- waves

down one of the passing ri·c 1~s.:...a·~·-ty".'"'eta•.--;c:.Ju""tt\..e,..,Jul·

_ r, ".. !::' ·•-- .;;,~i,., l.e::1pc.SS-

es him in his car.

We see Nick fall back into t~e seat and his eyes cl~ ~ ~--he ~ooks half-dead. All the life seems to have aone out of ~i~. Sudcc~ly, he opens his eyes. J~lien is alongside, d;iving. Julien studies ~~ick for a moment and then smiles.

JULIErl If you are truly brave and lucky I can rnukeyou rich.

For a moment Nick doesn't answer. His eyes seem to look thro~c~ Julien, as if to some landscape far beyond. Julien tar~esout a thick wad of American bills and presses them on r-;ick.nothing at ali seems to happen for a moment. Suddenly, Nick throws the noney out the window. Julien says nothing, gives Nick a lo~g look. There is a sound of scuffling, then shouting. Julien turns to look back.

There is a full-scale riot breaking out in the street. People fight- ing for the money. In the distance the sky goes up in a huge flash of fire and then the dollar bills whip across the street in a great hot wind.

There is a sudden, mad scramble of taxis. Michael lunges into the closest one to him, takes off. After a moment, he sees Nick in Jul- ien's car disappearing from view. He looks at the people fighting for the money and suddenly he is moved almost to tears. He sees the fluttering collar bills -- perhaps it is that that touches hi~; a sharp awareness that he is no demigod, but huwan lil:e:Hck. Perhaps, too, it is the·sense that Nick will never re~lly co~e back.

It is freezing cold. The trailer is all decked out like a plum cake, with_tiny American flags. Stretching from the trailer to the tele- phone pole across the street is a huge, hand-lettered banner ~hich says: "WELCOME HOHE MICH,\EL!"and it whips and snaps in the winter wind. The billowing smoke from the steel mill, blown by the fierce wind across the town below, sweeps over it all.

Michael's battered Caddy is in the yard, tires sagging, frozen flat. Alongside it is Nic~•s pick-up truck and a bunch of much newer cars.

Axel, John and a bunch of familiar-looking steelworkers, all of them half-bombed, are dragging out two more kegs of beer fro~ garbage cans filled with ice. Linda is peerir.gout one of the trailer windows, looking pale and anxious. Stan, who is unofficial lookout, is jumpi~~ up and down at·the approach of every cur and screaming:

STA.'l This is it! This is Michael! (and then, when it isn'tJ Not yet! Just ~ol= your water, I'll tell you when!

We see the empty street intowhich a taxicab turns.

Michael, in his Airborne dress uniform, sits hunched forward in the back seat surrounded ~y his baggage, his chest bemedaled with a lot of ribbons and expert badges.

Suddenly, as the cab comes over the crest of the hill, the trailer looms into sight, straight ahead. Through one window we see Stan peering out of the trailer at the approaching cab.

Michael just stares at the fast approaching trailer.

MICHl\EL I was wrong. That's not it. Keep going. Go straight down to the highway.

Michael slumps in the seat out of view. (

Linda is at the window, standing with Stan and Axel pressed close together, all of them watching the cab.

The taxicab comes thudding by. Linda, Stan and Axel all watch as it disappears under the flapping "Welcome HorneMichael" banner.

Linda gives a thin smile. Stan puts one arm around her shoulders.

•Linda nods, but not too hopefully.

A huge neon sign stands against the grey sky, buzzing angrily, as if it were full of bees.

The taxi driver comes out of one of the rooms, gets back in his cab and pulls away.

,...

~· 120. INT. MICHAEL'S ROOM - NIGHT (

Michael stands in the doorway where the driver jus~ ~~ft hi~. His duffle bag and the rest of his gear are·at t~e ·.-:;:;.._····his:::eet. His head is thrown back and he is draining the las~ of a bottle of whiskey, gulping it down in a great raw swallow.

Michaet lowers the bottle, catches his breath. The stark panic is gone, but there is still fear -- blind, nameless fear, like that of an animal run to the ground.

Michael crosses to the window, grips the frame with both hands and looks out across the valley.

The five great blast furnace stacks trail their ribbons of s~oke across the pale winter sky. Steam billows upward in huge, silver- edged clouds and there is the familiar and somehow comforting flash and gleam of fire.

Michael turns back to the room. He stares at it blankly -- stares at the bed, the bureau, the chair -- all of it cheap plastic and syn- thetic imitation decor: then he opens his bag, pulls out the wedding picture and props it up on the bed. He drags a chair over, sits down heavily and puts his feet up on the bed. Then he reaches down and picks up a new bottle from his bag, closes his eyes and begins gulping whiskey down, gulping it hard, fast. As hard and as fast as he can -- staring at the picture of Linda in front of hi~.

The banner stretching to the telephone pole across the street has been whipped to shreds by the wind. Everyone has ~one home. In the yard, parked beside Michael's Caddy is only o~e other car ab9ut the same vintage. There is a case of beer on its roof, the windows are entirely frosted over and the engine is running. After a moment, Axel, Stan and John stagger out -- blear~·-eyed,hung-over and freezing. Linda comes out of the trailer, but just as she emerges the whistle at the. millgoes off. Axel and Stan begin yell- ing at each other, then they throw themselves back in the car and start off . . Thecase of beer on the roof crashes to the ground. They stop, pile out, pick up the cans, heave them in the back seat and take off again.

John stands in the yard alone with Linda. She kisses him lightly on the cheek, John smiles. They hug each other and John starts dow~ ,... a rickety wooden stairway, disappears.

~- Linda turns and goes back inside the trailer.

·,.-

so.

We see Michael standina in the freezing cold, and :.:.looksas tho'.! 0:. he has been standing t~ere ~or a long ti~e. It i~ ~is POV of ~he trailer we have been watching. Michael is powerf~lly moved. He gathers his breath and starts cown the stairway toward the trailer.

Half-eaten cakes, cookies, six-oacks of beer and e~pty bottles of wine cover almost every inch of.available space. Linda sits en the little plastic-covered settee, wedged between two cases cf teer anc hunched over a white sweater which with painful slow-nessshe has knitted for Nick. Frightened, lonely, she is trying not to cry. She is trying her goddarnnedest. Suddenly--

There is a knock at the door. Linda freezes. Then, trying to be totally matter-of-fact, she puts down the sweater, crosses to the door and opens it, revealing a grinning Michael. He looks, in his uniform now, as the airborne sergeant did at thewedding. Tough, wizened beyond his years. An expert-looking killer.

Linda stares at him. The sound of his voice is even more of a shock to her than seeing him. For a split second she seems not to recog- nize him. Michael gives a little laugh and steps up into the traile~ lifts his arms out to her.

She hugs him for a moment, as hard as she dares, then they pull apar~.

Linda gives him a quick look; then looks away. The intensity in Michael's eyes and the tone of his voice combine to frighten her.

BOA.

/-· LINDA I Oh, Michael! Everyo~e missed '--·.

you so! Welcome h ~~e. (hugs him)

They pull apart. She looks at him searchingly. Both are as close to open expression of feeling as they will ever be. Then Michael says only:

Linda nods, makes no reply.

LINDA

C, He never . called...

(this last with an edge of bitterness)

MICl:.AEL It was just the usual compli- cations. All the guys go

I"' \~ . through it.

The remark reaches Linda. They both stand rigidly. Michael's eyes are on her. There is an awkward pause. Then--

Michael re~oves his fitted jacket. Linda pulls the sweater over him, touches his shoulders for a moment, gingerly, as if she hadn't touch- ed a man for so long she can't remember how it went.

The sweater ishuge, a great rumpled thing reaching almost to Mich~el's knees.

One thing about wool, it s such a cinch to fix... Oh, Chr~st!

The pressure of the moment is too intense for her. She crosses to one of the garbage pails full of melting ice and stuffs the sweater iriit.

Linda softens, they meet in a look.

(

Her face starts to quiver; against her will, she begins to sob. Camera closes on her face.

Michael, wearing his uniform, and Linda are some distance away. Michael is seen shaking hands with an enthusiastic older M.2\Nwhile Linda stands to one side, watching his face. She looks suddenly in- vigorated by the cold air and the prospect of mystery, danger. An- other older MAN comes over. Linda takes the man's arm and presents Michael to him almost as an object of ~ender. Suddenly noticing her reflection in a store window, she fixes her hair, aware of Michael's eyes on her. We cannot hear what is being said. The only sound comes from the steel mill which looms up behind them out of the fro2en valle·ybelow.

Across the street a coal train is rumbling slowly by and Michael is caught by it. The cars are black, interchangable, and they roll on and on. Suddenly the.last car appears. The car passes and there is silence.

Michael gives Linda a friendly little kiss. Linda stares up at him. She doesn't know what to say, how to respond. Michael forces a grin, gestures with his head and shrugs. He holds her hand and they con- tinue on down the street -- obviously uneasy.

The small place is overflowing with crates and boxes. A couple of girls in smocks are stacking and unpacking. Michc~l comes in with Linda. A cigar-chewing MANAGER comes right up, starts pumping

Michael's ~and, slapping him on the back and shouting orders all at the same tine. T~e qirls working as checkers are all smiling, ~d- miring the ~ell o~t cf ~~ic~ael,ru~~i~g their :i~cers ov~~ nis uni- \ ·--· form; as i: ,:::--.lybyt.0-.:::~1:.nc;r.::.:-:i.cl.,2:i,·couldtell:-.::•.1.3.s=,.::al.:::ve::-·:- body makins s~all tal~ as the ma~ase= keeps inter=~~ting.

He goes off. A STOCK BOY comes by and whistles at Linda.

,. laughs)

No-o-o! (gives him a

Ci little wave)

I have to go now.

Linda hurries off. The manager comes up from behind, clapping Michael on the shoulder again as he goes outside for his car, a brand-new Cadillac. ~ichael watches it pull out of view. He does not move or speak for a moment, and the girls stare at him. Then he just leaves without another word or a look back.

Michael waits by the entrance to the mill. It is cold and he looks as if he had been waiting for some time. Suddenly steelworkers beg~~ streaming out the doors, heading for their cars. Michael cranes his neck and then catches sight of Axel and Stan making their way towarc~· John's bar down the street.

Axel turns. ·Hegrabs Stan and pulls him through the departing steel- workers.

(Revised 5/28/77) 84.

STA..~ What the--!

Stan grabs Michael's hand, shakes it. Then Axel does the sa~e, grabs hi~ in a big bear hug.

The question hangs there for a moment.

Stan seems suddenly relieved. There is an awkward silence for a ..-~ moment, then everybody nods silently.and they start for John's bar. ...

(Revised 5/28/77) 84A.

r -;

Axel makes a threatening gesture to Stan, then shrugs.

r Stan loo~s around. Cars arc streaming out of the lot, horns blaring. ,. Stan hikes up his layers of sweaters and sweatshirts and shows a r spanking new .38 S~ith and Wesson in a clip holster on his belt. \...

MIC!!ld:L What the hell's that for?

Michael comes through the crowd of steelworkers toward the bar, shaking hands. The men treat him with immense respect. There are no cracks, there are no jokes. They squeeze his shoulder, pat his back, punch his arm, reaching out for him, touching him.

(_, Suddenly John comes out of the back kitchen.

MICHJ\EL I'm fine, John.

John pushes them all back into the kitchen.

The <loorshuts behind him. One of the bartenders bangs in, brings a pitcher of beer and a bottle of Seagram's whiskey, nods anu leaves.

\

{Revised 5/28/77) 86.

They all stand t~e~e silently for a rnoT-entlooki~gat each ot~er. The other ffioodissuddenly gone.

MICHAEL

* (in a low·

voice) How's Angela taking it?

John, Axel and Stan exchange glances.

Michael is silent. Tears begin streaming down John's face.

Michael walks in a circle and then stops, staring at them. Then he turns and _goesstraight out.

(Revised 5/9/77) 87.

/ * The room is very dark. Angela sits prop?ed-u? ~~ bed unce:::-alace covered comforter bv the window. The only illu~i~~ =~0nco~es fro~ the glow of the bla;t fu=naces. s~rrounding t h et~~~ =~~e~ a~oli- ances, many in unopened cartons (hlendcrs, a t.v., a ~i-fi set:· radios, electric curlers, other gifts, etc.) Anc in ~he nicdle of it all, playing with a toaster, is a chubby four-year-old boy.

There is a sound from t~e hallway, then Steven's ~other co~es in with Michael. She gives hi~ a look raising her ~ead sli~~tly, in- dicating Angela. Then she closes the coo:::-sou~dlessly2.:-idleaves, leaving·~ichael alone with Angela. As she goes out, we catch a last glimpse of her quickly making the sign of the cross.

Michael stares at the cartons of appliances and gifts and at the smiling boy. Then he shifts his look to Angela, who stares right through him. An unblinking, terrifying stare.

Angela begins to tremble, fiddles with the dial on a tiny ?Ortablc radio in her hand, going from one station to another, the w~ole time staring at Michael. Finally she reaches for a magazine and writes down a number in a tiny, nearly illegible scrawl. :-~ichael moves closer to her now. Angela finishes, puts c.ownthe ;ienand tearn off the tiniest ~iece of paper, looks at it once, and gives it hesitantingly to Michael.

Angela just gives him a strange, twisted smile, avoiding his eyes too directly. ~ichael leans over, kisses her gently on the fore- head, looks one more tine at t~e smiling boy and goes out.•• Camera closes on Angela who just keeps staring into space.

Michael walks past on his way to the trailer with the piece of paper Angela gave him in his pocket. It is snowing and fro!':'!inside the church we hear the choir singing. The sound is nassive, deep and dark, like a great river rolling through the growing ~ight.

Ahead we see a lone telephone booth at the curb. The door is half- open and snow is blowing in. Michael starts to reach for Steven's number in his p~cket, stops, closes his eyes, leans forward into the wind. The telephone looms closer and Michael almost stops, but doesn't and passes by.

(Revised 5/28/77) 88.

133. I!~T.TRAILE?. - tHGHT ,..

Michael sits in a chair in the back of the traile~. His knuckles f \ are ~hite t=o~ the p=essi~g tensi0n. He locks erai~ed and e~ta~stee. His old dee= ~~nting ;~~r is s~~ll p~l8i on the t:~cr alo~;sii~ Ni,...:,.'sVo111oIr~,-·..,.'"_._-:;••-.,.:..,e-e· ••J.•t'-:-.·••-_:·l;;:,f~----'-~....·---•,~-:,:,.__,.,-••---1 ic-...ts...••<..;.-; ,,...,,,.___,.._,,...;..,.;.\.,.CL•;."-"-...-1"'.~••--.1..a:.•:;,.-.\....,,=-;___ is staring a~ =~e tele;hone which is ill~~inated through the window by a stre~~ light in t~e corner. There is a sound outside, ther.t~E lights co~e o~ as Linda enters with groceries. Xichael is packing= * pistol.

Linda crosses through the living room to where Michael is sitting in the dark.

LINDA · What are you doing?

There is a long silence. Silence holds past the point where we expect someo~e to speak, then it holds still longer. When Linda finally speaks, her voice seems teasing yet sad.

There is another long, tense silence.

Not here! I gotta get outta here!

Michael swings all his hunting gear on his back, picks up his rifle and heads for the door. Linda follows, still clutching her grocer- ies, her emotions so pulverized she can hardly speak.

Michael isgone. Linda stands motionless, clutching her groce=ics, t- staring at the trailer door. It is dark outsid~. Snow is blo~inc ....... in. The door closes slG\v"ly,1.-: ithafainthiss,ar.J-:l~c:1clickss:-.~::.. From beyond the door t'."1ercisthesoun.dof ~~ich<'lel'sCadd ~,s~c1r-:ir~s up. Lin<lahesitates a moment longer, t ~~ndrops the groceries an~ rushes outside.

We watch Linda step out of the shower and begin to <lryherself. When she speaks it is loud enough to be heard in the other room.

Linda wraps on a short fresh bath towel and it is very sexy, then looks at herself in the mirror. She is very excited, but there is an uneasy balance between sexual desire and guilt in this monent. She strikes a pose, pulling down the bottom of the towel a bit.

LINDJ\(cont) Do you know what I mean, Michael?

Michael doesn't answer. Linda pulls the door fully open, takes one last look at herself in the mirror and goes out.

As Linda comes out of the bathroom her face falls and she stops dead in her trac}:s.

Michael is lying·on the bed -- sprawled on his back, his uniform and boots still on, sound asleep on top of the cheap bedspread.

LINDJ\ Michael?

Michael doesn't stir, doesn't budge. Linda crosses and looks at him -- hungrily, top to bottom -- the group weddinq picture is still where he left it. His duffel bag unmoved from the previous night. All the hunting gear piled carelessly around it.

Linda lets out a little moan and pulls down the top spread beside Michael, then she slips slowly under the covers moving as close to him as she can get. She moves one arm out from underneath and puts it around him, staring at the moonlit shadows moving on the ceiling.

Camera holds or. both of them like this for a long moment. Michael's mirror-polished jump boots gleaming in the shine of the moon.

135. OMITTED

I"

People are coming and going a~a each time one oft~~ :~~er d~~~s open the sound of the bowling alle? comes.in. ~-;cc ::.c':.:::·:af:.-:,s-:.::.;,,(:' glimpse of Linda 1-::ttinggoof a ball. Her ~ovemen~ .:suncc:--..sc:.ous- ly erotic, although no enc else but ~ichael seems to be aware o~ it.

The BARTENDER lifts a beer over to Michael, gestures with his hands, "this round is on the house'', Michael nods. Across fro~ hie, at the far end of the ~ar is Stan, fast-talking a redhead ~ho is ~ar- velously stoned, sitting on the bar stool with amazin; e~uil:~r:.u~, her glass held near her mouth. She occasionally turns her hea~ to look at Michael, keeping herself in delicate balance, ~oving as if her head were in danger of snapping off at the neck if she we~e to move suddenly too fast.

Michael is high and seemingly does not notice her or Stan, continues watching Linda ~ith growing, obsessive appreciation, exciteme~t. Stan gets up, comes over to Michael and claps him on the back.

,.

L Great.

MICI!l\EL (really looking at her) Straight?

MICHAEL

(

No.

\._

The redhead gives him a look of pure agreeable irr~ecility. But before she can answer (supposing she can answer at this stage) there is a roar of screams from the bowling lanes.

Axel is flat on his stomach wedged under an automatic pin setter which has come down on hin. He is hollering at the top of his voice but only his legs are sticking out, wriggling frantically. John and Linda are running toward him and begin tuqgina on his legs, but they cannot buc.aehim. We follow Michael and Stan running across the alleys-to help. Linda and John are pulling like mad and Axel is yelling his head off.

Michael stares at John. He is perspiring, trying to hold the ~eig~~ ,- of the pin setter off Axel. Then a big smile split$ his face ~nd ~0

begins to laugh; and then, pul!.ingen Axel all the ':ir:ie,Linealauc::·..· and they all laugh together uproariously. They can't help it.

13 8. INT. Bm·lLING LANE - NIGHT

Stan is furiously jacking up the pin setter while everyone stands watching. Slowly, Axel wriggles back out, his bowling ball clutchet triumphantly in his hands.

Axel straightens up slowly, his great stomach in his hands.

(.,

Axel scoops Linda into his arms and holds her up over his head, then puts her down, laughing.

Michael hesitates, gives a sidelong glance to Linda, fixes directly into her eyes, setting up a special connection between the two of them. But Linda looks suddenly nervous and just turns and walks of: the lane. Michael watches her go for a moment, composed, the~ lifts his beer.

Snow is blowing, swirling past the trunks of stark, ice-covered trees. There is no horizon. Sky and earth are bound in a moan of wind, in the faint creak of frozen limbs and the whispering, fitful, spinning flakes.

Michael appear~ suddenly, as a gust of wind shifts the slanting snow. He is moving easily, heading steadily up-hill, following the contcur {:.,. of the slope. As he draws closer we see that he is following a set ~ of fresh tracks on the highest ridge -- that to the east which falls sheer to jagged rocks standing out in the river below -- then to the west.

Then the deer is there. Ileis a magnificent seven-point buck, stand- ing in a grove of hemlock, looking at ~tichael. He is like the es- sence of a deer seen in a dream; and what gives him the over-masterir.~ and mythical quality of presence is so~cthing beyond his .co~orand size and beauty: It is the sense of his power and vitality, as if he were a piece of primal and unconditional energy, luminous and immortal.

Michael catches his breath, barely visible in the swirling snow.

The buck watches Michael for a moment longer, then turns, throws up his head and curvets over the hi~h ridge to the west.

Stan is out of breath, clawing his way up a steep slope on all fours. John and Axel, who have reached a level area above Stan, unsling their rifles. Shots . aregoing off in every direction and ,,.. the sound is so magnified by echoes that it sounds like a full- scale war. (t.,

STAN

(

(breathrasping in his lungs} What are you, kidcin'? ?<.re you kiddin' ffie,Axel? Twenty times we coulda had it! (wheezing) If I'd'a been where you were--

John signals with his head, Stan turns. Finally a deer, an old greying buck, has come out of the woods. The deer is rattled by the gunfire and peers at Stan uncertainly. Stan spins and grabs his gun, which immediately goes off. He slams another shell in · the chamber and scrambles to his feet, but the rifle sling is hooked on the branches of a bush and his shot ricochets off a near- by rock. John and Axel dive for cover. As they look up, t~ey see the deer trot down the slope and then Axel, firing, running after it...

The wind is much stronger, moaning in the trees. Michael is moving fast, at a near trot. Suddenly he stop~, listening. At the same moment there is a snort. Michael wheels. For a split second the buck comes into sight in a break in the trees, then springs away. Michael is transfixed for a moment, then darts after it, as the great buck thunders through the trees.

The wind shifts and we see that Michael has stepped onto a boulder whi~h is loo~ely planted at the top of a steeo scree slooe. As he watches in horror, the boulder begins to roll, then to bound, disiodging other rocks and boulders, all of them bouncing and leaping and cracking... and then falling soundless -- eve~ a sheer ledge to unknown depths below.

14 3. EXT. BUSTED-om-."NLOGGERSSHACK - DAY

Axel and John have dragged their dead deer to an old weathe~ed log beside the shack. They sit side by side,· drenched in sweat, guz- zling beer out of both hands.

Shots explode nearby. At first the shots are scattered but they quickly open into a full barrage. Axel and John stand up.

144_- EXT. TREE LINE - DAY r ·

•- · Stan comes ba==eling t~=ough the trees, shouti~g a:1~scrca~~~;. His clothes are in tatters, the sole is.gone fro~c~0 snoc ~~~ the barrel of his rifle is jammed up with mud and perce?~~bly ~ent.

Stan loses his footing and rolls down an embankment, head over heels.

S~an's deer staggers through the trees, drops quietly in the softly falling snow.

On the rugged cliffs above the lake the wind is blowing in gusts, slanting the snow first one way and then the other. Michael appears in the distance, a bl~ck speck in the endless expanse of shifting white. His pursuit has become nightmarish.

As Michael draws closer we can see that he is near exhaustion. His clothes are caked with snow, his breath comes in a shallow gasp and his gait is uneven, favoring one leg. As Mi~hael approaches camera he falters and limps to a stop. There are no more tracks. There is nothing to go by and he hunkers down in the driving snow.

The wind bangs in from one way, then it shifts and bangs in again from another way. Suddenly it stops entirely. In the moment of pure silence ·thereis a sound -- the click of a hoof on rock.

Instantly the buck comes flashing into view.

Again, Michael is transfixed for a moment, then he pushes hi~self to

We see the buck. throughMichael's sights. The buck whirls and sto~s fa~ing him. It is a clear shot. Michael's finger is on the trigge=. For a second the buck is too astonished to move. He trembles across his whole body.

Michael stands motionless, squeezes the trigger~ but at the last instant he raises the barrel. The shot misses .

Michael. Then, throwing up his great head, he begins to run.

Michael is so wonder-struck he has foraotten to breathe. He turns with his back against a sheer rock face high in the air. As he does he looks out over a snow-shrouded landsca~e of such spec- tacular beauty that it might be something from-a ~ream.

(Revised 5/26/77j 96.

The wind keening through the high passes, and then faintly, the echo comes back.

A Coleman lantern hangs from one rafter, rocking in the wind. John is out cold. Axel and Stan are both high on beer and are cleaning their deer rifles. Stan finishes first and then pulls out his .38 caliber pistol and begins cleaning it .

(noticing) What's that stupid little gun up here for?

STAN

,,. In case!

AXEL

L In case? In case of what?

In case you stumble on one of your girlfriends suckin' a forest ranger's cock?

Stan is sheet~white, trembling. He grabs up the pistol and cocks it.

Michael is just corningin, half-frozen. He stares at the pistol in

disbelief. Suddenly looks as if he is going to kill somebody. He springs, seizes the gun with one hand and slams Stan to the floor. Stan gets up. Michael starts to move on him. Axel quickly lurches over, pulls Hichael a·,.,ray.

(Revised 5/28/77) 97.

(grimly) Yeah.

Stan gets tc his feet. There is a dazed look on his face.

Michael takes the pistol, then he points it at the roof and squeezes the trigger. The g,..mgoesoff with a deafening roar, blows a hole in the roof. John snaps awake.

For a moment there is absolute silence. The wind moans in the ,.. trees, snow curls through the open hole, splinters and snowflakes raining down. John is still trying to find his breath. (__. Michael lowers the pistol, looks at it, turns it over in his hands ...

MICH.1\EL You guys want to play ga~es? I'm going to ?lay your fuckin' game!

Michael sna?s open the cylinder, empties all but one cartridge and slams it shut. Stan is chewing his lip. John is staring in utter disbelief at the ghastly scene about to take place. i:ichael spins ·the cyliricer. Then there is absolute silence.

Axel notices that his hands are shaking. ~ichael suddenly cocks the revolver and in a single motion grabs Stan by the throat and puts the gun to his head. Stan's eyes rolling madly in astonish- ment and outrage.

Simultaneously, there is a dull click, as the ham.~erstrikes into an empty cha-:.ber.Stan clamps his eyes shut and a scream tears out of his t~roat.

Michael still clenches Stan, but then slowly, with every last ounce

of control he has le£~, releases his grip. Stan gasps for air, gags and throws ~o, then he reels, like a rudderless ship, and crashes to the floor-where he lies motionless beside Axel's feet. Michael stands ~ight where he is, nerves alert.

For another moment there is an absolute stillness. John, who has not said a word thewhole ti~e, is struck mute, staring at Mich~el.

Michael comes out the door and stands for a moment, listening ~o the wind. He looks down at the pistol turning it over in his ha~ds, then he heaves it into the trees as hard as he ca~. He looks half- destroyed. He is stiff, sore and exhausted. Slowly he comes back into his other world.

149". EXT. STARLIGHTER MOTEL - DAY

The motel is lonely-looking, cheap and cold. Michael's Caddy ?Ulls into the yard beside the big trucks and cars and slides to a stop. Michael goes around to the trunk, removes his gear and slams the lie. He crosses to his room and goes inside. And now for the first time we notice that Axel, John and Stan are still in the car, silent and unmoving. Momentarily they file out, grab their gear and without a word to each other walk home in separate directions.

Division Street is empty ~xcept for scores of abandoned shopping carts on the sidewalk near the market which a CLERK is ba~ging to- gether.

Michael pulls up in his Caddy, stops and goes in.

A GIRL is closing out the two registers up front.

The girl is about to say more but Michael goes down a long aisle of bright packages. Coming out at the back he finds Linda sitting on the floor surrounded by boxes, crying.

·-· · Linda looks up at him, tears streaming down ~er f~ce.

LI~DA I'm just so lcnely.

~ichael cannot reply for a moment. Then:

Michael hesitates, then turns and walks back down the aisle between the bright packages. He is silent but obviously moved.

Michael sits behind the wheel, watching the lights go out. His hands begin shaking uncontrollably and he gets back out of the car.

The clerk is rouncing up the last of the abandoned shopping carts. The carts crash and clank as he rarr.sthemtogether. The lig~ts inside the market are going out.

Michael watches the last light go out in the market. Linda comes out of the door and crosses towards him.

He fumbles, opens her door. Linda suddenly slips in and sla.'1lsthe door shut tight.

·· Michaelis lying on his back. Outside the bedroom we hear a door open, then bare footsteps. Michael and we make out Linea's naked figure through the darkness. She comes to him gently, slowly, decisively. They make love.

(Revised 5/28/77) 100.

,.. 155. EXT. STI'-<..EET-NIGHT I,

r The wind is blowing. No one. A beer can rolling in the wind... \, _

We watch ~ichael back awav from the window. For a moment he stands motionless, turns, looks it Linda asl~~---1:'--1y1.ng·enner'bac.k,arr.t5 flung out across the pillo~s, like an angel in a child's story. Ee hesitates; then ~e pulls on pants, shirt, jacket, and jams his fee~ into a p~ir of bcots.

157 ~ EXT. STAR.Ki;IBATHERSTREET-NIGH7

Michael comes walking up the street. There is no one in sight. He crosses to the intersection, near the church, with the telephone booth.

Michael jams himself into the booth, zippers his jacket. He is irk- edwith himself, a little frightened. He hears a car door close anc an engine start up. A car pulls out of a nearby street and comes past him, slowly. As Michael watches, the tail lights grow small, then the car dips over a hill and disappears.

Michael pulls out the tiny scrap of paper with Steven's number that ,.. Angela had given hin before. He lifts the frozen receiver and be- gins to dial a number.•.

C 158. INT.V.A. HOSPITAL - RECREATION ROOM - NIGHT

* Moonlig~t streams through windows. A Bingo game is in full swing. Dozens of men in wheelchairs, some eating, are watching the tote board with absolute concentration.

A NURSE enters the foreground with a telephone message. Beyond her we see the wheelctai= fleet corningfrom the recreation room toward her. As the nursE continues we realize she is moving directly to- ward Steven. Steven is dressed in a shite hospital gown, the botto~ of which hangs over the front of the wheelchair a~d trails limply on the floor. Both of his legs have been high anputated and te has lost the use of one arm. Eis face is scarred and what expression he displays is centered in his eyes.

We watch Steven take the telephone message from the nurse.

Suddenly, Steven begins wheeling himself rapidly dovm the polished corridor. At the doorway to the telephone room he pauses, looking at the dangling receiver.

He wheels around in a little circle - pained, terribly upset. His eyes fall back on the receiver. Therihe hurries toward it.

(Revised 5/28/77) 101.

Michael stands in the booth huedled anxiously over the recei~ar. It is very cold.

Steven? Steven, it's me, Mike.

Steven suddenly looks around in desperation. A flurry of wheel- chairs go past.

Michael holds the receiver, staring into it.

· 163. INT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT

STEVEN'

(with every- thing he has) Place is great. It's like a re- sort .•. Basketball, bowling. You name it. Ev·enPrinces·sGrace visited us here. I gotta get back, Mike. Curfew. (clicks off)

r--- 165. INT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT , Camera -closes slowly en Steven. His head has falle:-ito one side -- as if he were drowning. In !rent of him is the dangling receiver. A nurse approac~es ...

Someone·is getting out of a cab. After a rnoncntthe feet ap?ear, ~lad in highly polished jump boots. We see military t~ousers with the razor crease tucked ir.the boots, a belt buckle e~bosscc ~ith an eagle's head ... ant the~ suddenly, Michael's face. Then Axel, Stan and John following.

They all slow their approach, stop, looking at the hospital buildins. It is huge. We watch Axel, Stan and John take seats in the lobby as Michael heads for the elevators.

Steven watches Michael approach for a moment, his face utterly with- out expression. Michael continues coming closer. As he sees Steven: condition, he tries to hide his reaction, but in his eyes we see how hard he is hit.

MI<:;:HAEL No.

, . Michael gets behind Steven's wheelchair, pushes him along.

STEVE: -~ Good.

Michael swinqs Steven's wheelchair arou~d to his bed area. No- tices the lie of his footlocker is locked with several very large padlocks.

Michael keeps looking down at all the padlocks on the footlocker at his feet. They are everywhere.

Steven bends over to the footlocker, as best he can, and begins opening the locks with keys from a chain worn around his neck. As he straightens up, Michael notices wedged in between his underwear and toilet articles wadded-up bundles of hundred-dollar bills and ceramic elephants, which are f~~iliar to us from the street peddler in Saigon. Some of them are still stuffed \o.·ithmoney.The corners are all chipped and it looks as if they have been in there for a long time.

Michael reaches down, slips a single bill out, feels the paper: realizes it is real a~d folds it. He looks U?, wa~ching Steven. Other men in wheelchairs roll slowly by. Steven sits with the footlocker of ~oney at his feet, utterly bewildered, tears well- ing up in his eyes.

This last with a growing edge of hysteria. Michael looks at the men going by in wheelc~airs. His head is spinning and he brings himself back with effort, looks suddenly exhausted.

Michael makes no reply. But the intensity in his eyes frightens Steven• .

(Revisee 5/28/77) 104.

,, * STEVEN '•· That place .:..sS'Or.nabeca:.ight

in a terri~le shit storm. Where is a guy li~e Nick getting money like this?

Michael rises, looking down at the money. The reality of wh~t he is thinking has nearly overwhelmed him, and it is only with tre- mendous effort that he maintains a casual tone.

* STEVEN

(panicked) Like hell you are! I don't fit in!! Mike! No!

For a moment both of them look like the worn-out survivors of a terrible struggle. And they are.. They are. After a moment, Steven says quietly:

There is a moment's pause. Then Michael suddenly gets behind the wheelchair and pushes Steven right out of the ward with quick, hare. steps. As he is wheeling Steven through corridors, an increasing number of NURSES gather around, questioning, everyone talking at once.

The place is amadhouse of acti~ity. As jet scream TROOPS disem- barking from Saigon are being counted and re-counted. SERGEANTS are yelling off names. CLERKS are typing forms. Forklift trucks weave in and around a few OFFICERS waiting to go to Saigon, look- ing lost.

Michael is still in uniform. He stands at a window watching a jet transport being prepared for loading. A CLERK comes by, arg~ing with a SERGEANT. The Sergeant sets down his clipboard to consult the clerk's papers. Michael picks up the clipboard and fades into the crowd.

(Revised 5/9/77) 105.

..,I

169. OMITTED

Michael has the Sergeant's clipboard and flashes it as he casually boards with the others. A.YOUNG LIEUTE~!ANTis shouting up at the pilot, who shrugs back at him.

LIEUTEHA~T Please! It's vital I go to Saigon today. This is very important!

The sound of the jet whine revving up overrides him as the cargo doors are slammed shut a~c the big plane lumbers out onto the run- way. The figure of the lieutenant quavers in the waves of heat, breaks up like smoke as the plane taxis into position for takeoff.

VIET CONG S~PPERS have just attacked. A number of jet fighters are burning, bodies are str~wn over the tarmac and jeeps with SOLDIERS arc racing back and forth. Out beyond, the jet troop tra~sport t~xis L into view, lumbering like a great silver monster out of the night.

Michael stands in the aisle next to a COLON~L who is peering out the window. A lone MAJOR sits nearby.

COLO:~EL Jesus Christ, they're hitting the goddarnned airport now!

Michael nods. Everyone starts out.

Sirens are screaming in the distance. Michael looks arou~d ner- vously. Smoke hangs over everything.

(Revised 5/9/77) 106.

( The scream of the sirens grows louder. Suddcnlv a rnilitarv colice

i.., Jeep, rnountcuwith a 50-ca!i~er machine gun, ca=ecn5 into view just as a huge black chop?er sets down. The peoplo ~~o stream out are of all ages, ::cth/1.siu.na.:1c.A::",erica:r.':'tevallhaveidentifi- cation tags whip?ing around their necks in the-rotor wash, and all are carrying so~e kind of luggage.

Michael, the Colonel, and the Xajor are rushed unceremoniously to the chopper and pushed on board.

They take off_just as another round of mortar shells comes screa~in~.

Michael sits on a seat in the stripped-down, clattering chopper. He is squashed in between the Colonel and the Major who is reading ·the latest Wall Street Journal.

The chopper veers, suddenly tilting over to one side. Michael twists around to look out the window ... In all of these next scenes we will see, and we will hear the increasingly desperate population of a city under assault.

The roof of the Embassy is . jammedwith people st"nding on every inch of available space. Enormous red lights glare from the four corners of the roof. The helicopter pad~? there is ringed with M.P.'s with machine guns who are checking ID's as they let people aboard another chopper, one at a time. The helicopter on the pad taking people on has its rotors going, and other helicopters are circling. But it not only the roof of the Embassy which is jarrmsd.

·---_.,_,__.·- . - . . -

(Revised 5/9/77,) ....1 07.

r From Michael's vantage point he can see that the area arou~d the \..,. swimr-:iingpoolin the courtyard below looks like a .!'.'cfugeecam?.

Michael's chop?er sets down with the doors already open. He and his three travelling companions jump out and rush to a door leadi~g to an interior fire stairway.

Michael looks back. The chopper he came in on is already loaded and taking off, while another is corningin to land right behind it.

Michael and the other officers descend the stairs behind two !-.RHED GUARDS. The doors are open on the landings. Through one doorway Michael can see into the swimming pool area:

Sitting around the pool, filling the entire courtyard right to the edge of the water, are hundreds of silent, waiting PEOPLE. The people are both Asian and American. As in scenes everywhere in the city, they have piles of luggage. They all hold documents in hand and they have the blank-eyed look of those who have been waiting for days. Except for the clatter of the choppers in the air above and the clicking of typewriters, there is hardly a sound. The image appears briefly; like a hallucination.

Sudd~nly they corneon a Coke machine. It is a huge Coke machine, standing on the ground floor.

The Colonel nods.

A yelling, screaming, shrieking, hysterical MOB OF VIETNAMESE are pressed up against the tall red and white striped poles of barbed wire outside the gate. Michael sits in nn open jeep with the Colonel, the Major, a DRIVER at the wheel, and a CORPORAL holding

(Re~ised 5/28/77) 108.

( a machine gun in between them. Suddenly a siren goes off. The main gate is o~ened and chen ~P's with autc~atic r~~les c~arce c~t ' to a smaller wire-mesh ga~e that opens through the b~rbed wi~e. I The MP s open fire above the hez..dsoft:ie~nobbloc:-:i~;the wire- mesh gate and as they begin to ~eve to the side and open a path the driver revs up the je2p. -

He snaps the clutch and they smoke off for the still closed ~ire- mesh gate. Just as the jeep arrives at the gate, the M?'s swing it open and the jeep careens on two·wheels down a narrow h~an corridor of shrieking, jeering, screaming people.

The city seems of two minds, at the very least, about its ap?roach- ing fall. On scme streets everything is calm, on other streets refugees are still frantically streaming in, hoping to flee, carry- - ing every last possession they own on bicycles, ~otorcycles, rick- shaws, carts, and wagons. The jeep whips through it all, fast. A grenade is thrown at the jeep. The machine gunner bats it back with a b~seball bat. As behind them in the receding dista~ce there is a dull explosion.

(_, 179. EXT. U.S. ARMY GENERAL HEADQUARTERS - DAY

The old colonial-style building in which General Headquarters is housed fronts the river. Between the building and the river is a parking area full of staff cars and jeeps mou~ted with SO-caliber machine gur.sin which drivers are all soundly sleeping. ~he en- trance is through a gate in a high chainlink fence topped by three rows of barbed wire, but there is no mob outside the fence and the two MP's at the gate hardly salute when ~-1ichaelandthe o=ficers are driven in. The jeep pulls up at the front en~rance, screeches to a stop. Michael watches the others cli::iliout,headinto the compound. Then he gets out, exactly as if he knew what he was doing. He does not; watches it all for a moment.

There are bumping sounds ahead of him. CLERKS are wheeling out tall green file cabinets. TWO CORPORALS are carrying huge piles of A.~ericanflags, others carrying trunks, etc.

•

The officers staring at·it all.

The whole area looks as if a tornado had hit it. Papers are all over the steps. More file cabinets are standing aroi.;.ndeverywhich

some empty, some full .. Inbetween the file cabinets, the Colonel moves up the steps into th-:building, passing a SERGE&~T ,d th horn-

nose.

(Revised 5/28/77) 109.

,..

The sergeant looks around, makir.ga ho?eless gest~re with his hands.

The Colonel stares at hi~ for a ~oment, shakes his head. The lights inside suddenly go off, there is a dull, far-off explosion. ~!ichael is gone.

180. OMITTED

181. OMITTED

182. OMITTED

183. OMITTED

Traffic streams by the GHQ. In the distance there is the dull crump ~ of artillery fire. A taxi appears and screeches to a stop in front of the GHQ compound. We see Michael get in the taxi, then the taxi l. pulls out, merging into the flow of other similar taxis.

185. OMITTED

186. OMITTED

187. OMITTED

188. · OMITTED

Loud, crowded and steamy as ever, except now the dancing girls above the bar are stark naked. Music is blaring and the place is almost pitch-dark. The girls dancing, seeming in a frenzy but with wistful, far-off gazes. We watch Michael walk straight past the bar, then through a tiny kitchen door, closes it behind him.

The hundreds of air conditioners propped-up with sticks, poles, wire, and boards, are all older: still dripping, squeaking and shaking. And the old peddler·with the food stand and ceramic elephants is still there.

OMITTED 110.

(Revisec 5/28/77) l~l.

Michael comes outside wearing civilian clothes now. ~otic~~q the old peddler he naves on, th=eading his way t~=c~g~ =~~dark ~:le~. He walks with urgency, brea~hing hard.

A nearb.ybuilding is burning. The street is litte=ed with corpses lying this way and that, like broken dolls. Michael walks ~ast th~ body of a dead child. Then sudde~ly, as if by a ~i=acle, h~ finds himself standing in front of the courtyard where J~~ien served Nick champagne.

A KID appears out of the shadows holding a gun in his hand. Michael gives a little laugh, gropes in his pocket, takes out his roll anci counts out a few bills. In the space of an eyeblin~, the ~oney and the kid disappear. Michael steps into the familiar courtyard.

The old courtyard seems entirely menacing, mysterio~s, everywhere grown over with weeds. A loaded truck is just pulling out =eveal- ing Julien's car. Discarded crates lie around, along with a corpse. As Michael looks at the corpse, there is a sound of footste?S cornin~ from inside the shuttered wooden building on the river. Michael r stands for a mo~ent, listening, then he watches as a figure pulls open the door. It is Julien. L In the darkness, Julien suddenly finds his way blocked by Michael. He steps back and for amoment the two men are locked in stares.

Michael comes close, looks Julien long and hard in the eye, remem- bering him. Julien starts to squirm. Suddenly, M~chael s~acks him in the face. Julien is shocked, stunned.

,..

~

Fini.

(Revised 5/9/77) 1:2.

( \... Julien turns, nulls ooen the door to his car, mutteri~g to hi~self and rubbing his face.-

This last with a strong aroma of contempt.

Michael begins slapping bills down on the hood of Julien's car. ~

~

at the money) It is too dangerous in these times!

Michael smack$ down more money. Julien flinches. Michael gives him a look that suggests he should not start the car. He doesn't.

Michael smiles at the last line, speaks softly, lighting a cigarette as he does.

Julien watches with unwavering eyes, finally gives a slight frantic nod of his head.

(Revised 5/9/77) 113.

r \ Julien doesn't answer.

Julien hurries off to the wooden building and disap9ears inside. Now Michael crosses to the door.

,.. 191. INT. BUILDING - NIGHT

l.,.; Michael steps inside and moves into the middle of an empty roorn. The same room where the audiences for Julien's ga~bling used to sit.· And everywhere core remnants of black-market crates and torn cartons of Ar.1ericancigarettes littering the floor. Michael looks out over the river reflectively. Our view begins tornove closer to him~ We begin to hear music of the wedding, happy nusic; as we move closer to Michael we see

1911'...EXT.MICHAEL'SPOV - RIVER - NIGHT

The river is crowded with houseboats of every size, shape and des- cription ·gentlyrolling in the wake of passing power boats ...

Michael turns around -- Julien reappears, wearing his still-elegant white linen suit, the t~ousers of which are a bit shiny now; trying to remember his old importance.'

Julien lurches out the door· onthe river side.

(Revised 5/9/77) OMITTED 113;..•

Julien's boat is about twenty feet long and two feet wide. Michael sits in the frcnt, broken crates sit in the middle, and Julie~ oper- ates a~iny but incredibly noisy outboard froM the stern. As they move up the ri~1er,bridges come gliding overhead, ona -afteranother, each of them jam-packed with refugees on the move ~o God knows whe=s. The bridges are so full that people are alraost falling o!f the sides. As they pass Michael can hear babies crying. Now and then, as a rocket hits closer to the city the sky glows and then, like an after- thought, the sound of the explosion runs out across the night.

The dock is half-rotted, sunken into the water next to two decrepit Esso gasoline pumps wrapped in chains, and beyond, a two-storied warehouse-type building surrounded by truck sheds and mountainous stacks of gleaming silver five-gallon tin cans.

Julien runs his boat right up on the dock, hops into the water, takes hold of the rope and lurches off. Michael follows; the dock sinking further, bringing the water almost to his knees. He sur- veys the scene, shaking his head.

As Michael and Julien approach the warehouse there is a sound of clanking and banging, getting louder and louder. Dim light shows from the upper story of the warehouse through chinks and cracks, but it is impossible to see anything at all of what is going on inside.

There is an entrance on the ground floor and an entrance to the top floor via wooden stairs, directly above it. Julien heads for the ground floor entrance, lugging his cans. When he reaches the door he knocks. After a moment the door comes ooen, and there is a furious argument with some unseen person, and then suddenly the door· slams shut.

Julien carefully mounts the steep, rickety wooden stairway leading to the second floor, gathers his breath and knocks. The door comes open instantly and as instantly slams shut. Julien shouts somethinq

in.Chirleseand pounds on the door. The door re-opens and a dan- gerous-looking CHINESE MAN comes out ir.topurtial view on the landing. Julien gees on with his explanatio~. The C~i~cse man glances down at Michael and says something to Julien in Frc~ch which we do not translate.

He takes the stairs two at a time with urgency, breathing hard.

As Michael reaches the landing the Chinese ~an sticks out his hand. Michael slaps five thousand dollars into it.

Julien translates the question. The Chinese man does not answer. Michael slaps another thousand dollars into the Chinese man's hand. The Chinese man says something, which Julien translates:

Michael slaps another thousand dollars into the Chinese man's hand but stinging hard this time. The Chinese man smiles, finally opens the·door and they all go in.

The Chinese man guides them into a dimly lit room: it is long and rather high. At the back of the room is a small office under a bal-

~ ly, showing light. On all sides of the room every conceivable ki~c 1r:___ of black-market American ::-ierchandiseispiled in cartons to the cei:- ~ ing. From whatever operation is bei~g conducted on the floor belo~, comes a furious din of clanking and banging, as if thousands of per-

( . sons were ham.~cring on m8tal cans. The air is thic~:with s~oke. ' The only light in the rco2 comes from a fierce~=~- :i~~t ~~~s from the ceiling focusing on one a=ea, a broken-~~~ ~~~b~c. ~e- cause the lighting leaves o:~er pa=ts dirk or in =~~~-=~si= ices not allow us to see it all at once, but there is a s~ggesticn of armed BODYGUARDS all over t~e place.

On closer view, we see TWO YOUNG-LOOKH?G VIET:;A.MES::'.::-!E!-Jseat.edat ihe table. Closely surrou~ding t~e table is a see~y-looki~; group of about TWE~7T'!~!El;w:-,oareeati::gandbetting ou'.:c:pa:;e::-tags filled with money. The noise of the banging from telo~ is s~ch that neither the clicks of the har:'..~erintoemptyc~'linders~orthe firing of the pistol can be heard at all. Nobody even tries to talk and everyone com.~unicates with hand signals and signs, indi- cating the shifting odds.

As Michael comes in he -- and we -- are startled yet shoulc ~ot be completely surprised to catch sight of Nick, who is just wrap?ing a scarlet cloth around his head. He stands in the narrcw aisle be- tween the contraband crates, his face without expression w~atsoever. For a split second, Michael stares at him in horror, then he quick- ly moves out of the shadows toward him.

Nick·looks at Michael, studying his face with the blank detach,-:-.ent ,,,. of one stranger eyeing another, pale, exhausted; yet irnposi~;and appealing. Michael leans in closer toward him, stops. He doesn't know -- we don't know --what he is going to do. C

Nick makes no reply, staring at him, like someone watching it rain.

MICirl\EL{cont) (shouting) For Christ's sakes.•! You got no reaction for ~e?

Nick doesn't respond; looks straight at him.

HICHl\EL{cont) Nick! Talk'to me!

Nick still doesn't answer him.

MICHAEL {cont) (almost to hinself) I don't believe this whole thing! (then, directly to Nick) You always told. meI was crazy.•! Why are you doing this?••. I don't know what did this to you ...

llG,\.

Silence. :-1ichael::i:<esdirectlyin tcnickI seyes. r ......

:-:ICii.-"\Z::!.,(cc:1.t) Nickl I ditn't ca~s all-~his way back he~e for ncthi~g -- this city's runnir:gdo•,;~~ill by the minute! ~e gotta get outta r.erel

Nick just keeps locking at hirn. It is now appare~~ toMichael th?t he isout of control the situation. ne clears his throat.

MICHl\EL(cont) Hey, am I talking to myself here?

Just then, one of the Vietnamese pulls the trigger, clicks out, pass- es the pistol to the other man, who S?ins it, cocks it, pulls the trigger, clicks out, and passes it back ju£t as quickly. Nick still shows no reaction, and now ~is name is called by one of the Chinese.

Michael breathes deeply to collect hiraself. He looks around for Jul- ien, finds that he has disaoceared. He turns back to Nick who is al- ready heading toward the next game.

The first Vietnamese now has the pistol to his head once more. He pulls the trigger, clicks cut, and pushes the pistol back the other man. The nan spins it, cocks it and puts it to his head. Suddenly, with only the soun~ of the banging from below, his body blows away from the table. There is a small puff of white smoke in the gloo~. One man outreac~es his companion and catches the pistol as the dead man cr~~ples to the floor.

Two MEN remove the body matter-0f-factly, as if carrying out a drunY..

Suddenly Michael whirls, spots Julien, crosses to hira and grabs his arm.

A thin, good-looking CHINESE sits at a table, eating. Sitting around him are several other MEN ~ho could only be bodyguarcs. Covering the wall behind the China~an and the standing bodyguards are framed ·photographs of relatives.,all of them tilting out from the wall as if to gaze upon hi~ directly. The noise in the office is fully equa: ,.. to the noise outside and as Michael and Julien are brought in, the Chinaman and the ot~ers are all eating, watching TV. co ·-

Michael yanks out all of his remaining money, very last bill he has, slams it down on the table.

All of the men at the table stop eating to confer. Suddenly Julien nods to Michael.

Nick and Michael sit facing each other over the battered table. Nick holds the pistol to his head -- frowning, staring at Michael with a puzzled expression -- as if somehow he night have met hin before. Michael holds his eyes, holds them as hard as he can, trying to brea~ through, trying to reach him, get him to speak. The tension shows i~ Michael's face and manner and tone.

This last line delivered to mock the game. Nick says nothing; clic~s out; pushes the pistol across the table. Trembling like a flame shoo~~ through Michael's body, then he picks the pistol up, spins, cocks, a~ '. clicks out, talking all the time, trying to feed the faint ember of recognition beginning to flicker in Nick's eyes.

He says this flatly; colder. He hesitates, pushes the pistol back to Nick. Nick picks it up, spins, cocks, puts it to his head. Suddenly, just as he is about to pull the trigger, the puzzled look opens intc a startled grin of recognition.

But Nick's finger was in motion. Michael suddenly lunges across the table for the pistol -- as Hick squeezes the trigger and the pistol goes off... Nick's body is driven back by the bullet out of his chai=. In slow motion we see Nick and Michael fly slowly away from the table, producing a stunning effect they crash into stacked cartons of li.rr.eri- can cigarettes. Michael does not move a muscle; the feeling is alffiosc perfe~tly suppressed. Only his eyes suggest how ha=d he h~s been hit. - '

We see ~Hck lyi:-:gon~he flocr and ·,•;ewatch:-1ichaelstur:.S~etohis _,.' "'-..feetsta.:-incat~Jid:'sblood on his :1a:ids,qrir.1,motionless,strick- en, as the ~i~ny bangi~g builds a~~ builds.

;

'"' / ·' We see the h~ge grey s~ape of an A~erican aircraft carrier. The sun is behi~~ it, reflecting on the water, aridhelicopters are coming in c ·,·erh-:ad. ~·/

~", r

·,, /

The flight deck of'.,thecarrieris 9edlam. VIETNA~!.ESEREF~GE2S and AMERICAN E~1BASSYPERS,O:~NELarebe.,i"ngpulledoutof the arriving helicopters and fligh~ crews are ·_..,pushingthehelicoptersoverthe side.

A WOMANTELEVISION COR..<q_;ESPONDENislookinginto camera. She is a thin blonde in her r,.-!d-thirtiesithher hair oulled back and wearing a short-slee,vedbush shirt,-,~;~ing in the wind. Her face is intelligen 'looking, a little "n.

-:---------------~202.INT.LE~-!KOVFWHALL-DAY - ---------

~ --

The place is empty. 'N:l~i;;e.,L::,Elie.fe:int-niasw0•E~eak.i:·n.-g"""Ste-am-:- /Vt~/'c..-.:Ss!at&d-0~f't<2-eC:1Je=o-ithelittlestageisoneoftheoldvets. Beside the flag, with a bugle, ~ trying to play taps. He .fr:l•u,g,.,~•/.,1- fi!'e,-&L~LsoM"r'____,.,I-,h .,.,I.. _/ /· W.--..{/5C:,i-r~~I.,.'.I•'A--(-I.::,,Z~et_PfI '--~l'\":;'"-t:"<1.....,.....-cHURCR-=-;sTARKWE~TiiERSTREET-o~

~s~aits at the curb. The day is cold and ~~he gleaming bn-ex--.Jl~hicleemitsaghostly cl ~hite exhaust.

- ....

,.... In the ringing silence of the music's end the doors to the c~urch r- swing open. Michael, Stan and John aocear with Nick's flag-draped coffi~. John is holdinc uo one whole-~idc bv h!~s~:~. ~is ~3cc is impassive. Next, Ax;l ~heels Steven care~ull~ ~:·:~the i=v st~:7 Angela holding lightly onto one of his ·arrr.s:o=s:.:;:::;;:..·::a:-.::::~lei:: : her child tightly in the other. They are followE:dby more ;:-.ourne:-s, as the· coffinis placed slowly into the hearse.

Smoke drifts across the leaden sky as the rnourne~s sta~d together on a steep hillside of tilted, weather-worn headstones. T::esteel mill looms behind the~, breathing steam and fire and utteri~g a dull concordia of rumbling sounds.

The priest we saw at the beginning of the film completes his readin; of the 23rd Psalm.

Camera closes on Michael, Stan, Axel, John and Steven. Axel helps Steven to the side of the grave. It is awkward. The chair gets stuck and they all have to help carry it. Each of them has a sin- gle flower and then, following Michael's lead, they throw it in.

~ Michael looks uo from the grave to the blast furnaces, then m~ets L Linda in a long-look. Their faces tell us all we need to know abou~ ~ this day.

The place is quite dark and a sign that says "CLOSED" hangs in the window. Michael, Stan, Axel carrying Steven in his arms, Linda anc John, and Angela with her child all come inside. They sta~c watch- ing John as he drags out a table into the middle of the floor. They have all just come from the cemetery. They are ~11 in thei~ coats and boots, awkward and tired, and they go bum?ing i~to each other trying to bring chairs.

Axel brings a chair with a broken leg and places it carefully at the table where it sits at a ridiculous angle. Something like a sob is wrenched out of him ...a stiflec sound, irrepressible. Look- ing up he says hoarsely:

John takes away the broken chair and replaces it with another. He appears emotionally drained and physically tired.

John goes in. thekitchen and comes back with a p~; of coffee which he puts on the table. Everyone stares at the pot of coffee, as if th_eywould lock the memory away_-Forever.

(barely a whis?er) I'll help.

Everyone except Steven follows John into the kitchen and begins loading up with cups.

AXEL· Put some here, Linda. Load me up .

Everyone goes back to the table with their cups. Obviously there are too many cups and after counting themsel~es and getting it all confused they put the extra cups on adjoining ta~les.

John rushes back into the kitchen with Stan behind him.

John opens the oven coor and pulls out a tray of toast he prepared earlier. He goes back . outside.Stan remains alone for a moment. He gives the little kitchen an odd, searching look. Then, his eyes suddenly close as if he were bearing a sharp pain.

208. - INT. BAR - DAY

~ JOHN ( ~-- It's hot, Linda. Watch out now,

this is hot.

Everyone helps make room on the table. John sets down the tray of half-burned toast. Stan comes back inside, his eyes all red.

Axel goes to the bar to get the beers.

Linda pours the coffee. Angela sits down next to Steven, holding her child. Both are very moved, though they maintain their reserve.

Steven nods. He looks like he's about to cry.

Axel comes back with glasses of beer and puts them on the table. There is a big awkward pause, then they all sit down. Silence.

Michael looks around at everyone. He looks at the beers sitting on the table and suddenly, soundlessly, tears begin to well up in his eyes. He moves his mouth, as if trying to say something, but he can't say a word and the tears roll on down his face. Linda draws a deep b~eath.

Scrambling eggs, 3ohn is trying to hold himself together by humming to himself. _Suddenly, he lets out a long, shuddering sigh, then

r · come great body-wracki~g tears, but the dignity with which he does all_things is still th~re.

Back at the table everyone sits in silence, listening. All of the~ are tremendously moved as John's voice becomes steadier, more power- ful.

Linda, who is on the verge of bursting into tears herself, begins to sing in a gentle, lovely voice:

Over the sound of her singing we hear Michael and then the others ,,., join in.

L OTHERS

(the intensity increases) Stand beside her And guide her Through the night With the light from above.

John slowly ccmes out through the door behind Linda. His expressio~ goes from sorrow to astonishment. Now he joins in aloud. ~hey all seem caught in the intensity of the moment, tut whether in joy, re- lief, or for some other reason, we cannot tell.

All of them there and the singing are like one thing, a thing in- ·evitable, older than the memory of man.

They all stop and there's an awkward moment. Michael looks around the room: no one will meet his eye except Linda. In the fai~t glo~ of light they look at each.other.

Michael =eaches out for one of the glasses of beer.a~d raises it. The gesture :.::;::1a.::e:\-:i.tha£:.li.~e:=indLi:1dasmiles-::.20.

MJCH:\Ei.. Here's to ~?ick.

Suddenly, all of them, registering a last moment of the i~age they have always sought to h~ld, say with one voice:

\ . --