1

Ice Age (2002)

A saber-toothed squirrel (known as Scrat) is trying to find a place to store his
prized acorn. Eventually, as he tries to stomp it into the ground, he causes a
large crack in the ground that extends for miles and miles and sets off a large
avalanche. He barely escapes, but finds himself stepped on by a herd of
prehistoric animals. The animals are trying to avoid the ice age by migrating
south. Sid, a clumsyground sloth left behind by his family, decides to move on
by himself but is attacked by two Brontopswhom he angered. Sid is soon saved
by Manfred ("Manny"), an agitated mammoth who fights them off and is
heading north. Not wanting to be alone and unprotected, Sid follows Manny.
Meanwhile, Soto, the leader of a Smilodon pride, wants revenge on a group of
humans by eating the chief's baby son, Roshan, alive. Soto leads a raid on the
human camp, during which Roshan's mother is separated from the rest and
jumps down a waterfall when cornered by Soto's lieutenant, Diego. For his
failure, Diego is sent to find and retrieve the baby.
Later, Sid and Manny spot Roshan and his mother near the lake, having survived
her plunge. The mother only has enough strength to trust her baby to Manny
before she disappears. After much persuasion by Sid, they decide to return
Roshan, but when they reach the human settlement, they find it deserted. They
meet up with Diego, who convinces the pair to let him help by tracking the
humans. The four travel on, with Diego secretly leading them to his pack for an
ambush.
While having small adventures on their way, they reach a cave with several
drawings made by humans. There Sid and Diego learn about Manny's past and
his previous interactions with the human hunters, in which his wife and son
were killed, leaving Manny a cynical loner. Later, Manny, Sid, Diego and Roshan

2
almost reach Half-Peak but encounter a river of lava. Manny and Sid, along with
Roshan, make it safely, but Diego struggles, about to fall into the lava. Manny
rescues him, narrowly missing a fall into the lava himself. The herd takes a break
for the night, and Roshan takes his first walking steps to Diego.
The next day, the herd approach the ambush, causing Diego to confess to
Manny and Sid about the ambush, and he tells them to trust him. The herd
battles Soto's pack, and a short fight ensues. As Soto closes in for the kill on
Manny, Diego leaps and stops Soto, who wounds Diego in the process. Manny
knocks Soto into a rock wall, causing several sharp icicles to fall on Soto, killing
him. The rest of the pack then retreats. The group then mourns for the injury
caused to Diego. Soon, Manny and Sid manage to return the baby to his tribe,
and Diego rejoins them, as the group begins to head off to warmer climates.
20,000 years later, Scrat, frozen in the ice, ends up on the shores of a tropical
island. When the ice slowly melts, the acorn is then washed away. He mistakenly
triggers a volcanic eruption, while stomping the coconut into the ground.

Script notes

4
Independence Day (1996)
On July 2, a 500 km wide alien mothership enters Earth's orbit and deploys
several dozen saucer-shaped "destroyer" spacecraft, each 15 miles (24 km)
wide. As they take position over some of Earth's major cities, David Levinson
(Jeff Goldblum), an MIT graduate working for a cable company in New York City,
discovers hidden transmissions in Earth's satellites which he realizes is a timer
counting down to a coordinated attack by the aliens. With the support of his
estranged wife Constance Spano (Margaret Colin), the White House
Communications Director, he and his father Julius (Judd Hirsch) gain entrance
into the Oval Office to notify President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) about
the attack. Whitmore orders large-scale evacuations of the targeted cities, but
the aliens attack with advanced directed-energy weapons before these can be
carried out. Whitmore, portions of his staff, and the Levinsons narrowly escape
aboard Air Force One as Washington, D.C. is destroyed.
On July 3, the Black Knights, a squadron of Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornets,
participate in an assault on a destroyer near the ruins of Los Angeles. Their
weapons fail to penetrate the craft's force field. Dozens of "attacker" ships are
launched by the aliens in defense, and a one-sided dogfight ensues in which
nearly all the Hornets are destroyed. Afterwards, many American military
installations, includingNORAD, are destroyed, killing the Vice President and
most of the Cabinet who had been hiding there. Captain Steven Hiller (Will
Smith) is the only pilot to survive the Los Angeles assault by luring a single
attacker to the Grand Canyon and causing their aircraft to crash into the desert.
He subdues the injured alien and is rescued by Russell Casse (Randy Quaid),
who is traveling across the desert with a group of refugees. They take the alien
to nearby Area 51, where Whitmore and his remaining staff have also landed.

5
Area 51 conceals a top-secret facility housing a repaired attacker and three alien
bodies recovered from Roswell in 1947.
When scientist Dr. Brackish Okun (Brent Spiner) attempts to autopsy the alien, it
regains consciousness and attempts to escape. When questioned by Whitmore,
the alien attempts a psychic attack against him, but is killed by Whitmore's
security detail. Whitmore then mentions that while he was being attacked, he
saw the alien's thoughts; what its species was planning to do. They are
likelocusts; their entire species travel from planet to planet, destroying all life
and harvesting the natural resources. Whitmore orders a nuclear attack on the
destroyers, a B-2 Spirit fires a nuclear missile at one of the destroyers above
Houston but the missile fails to penetrate the force field of the destroyer and the
remaining strikes are aborted.
On July 4, Levinson devises a plan to use the repaired attacker to introduce a
computer virus and plant a nuclear missile on board the mothership, theorizing
that this will disrupt the force fields of the destroyers. Hiller volunteers to pilot
the attacker, with Levinson accompanying him. With not enough military pilots
to man all available aircraft, volunteers including Whitmore and Casse are
enlisted for the counterstrike.
With the successful implantation of the virus, Whitmore leads the attack against
an alien destroyer approaching Area 51. Although the force field is deactivated
and the fighters are able to inflict damage, the hull of the destroyer was too big
to inflict serious damage too. As a result, the fighter's supply of missiles quickly
becomes exhausted. As the destroyer prepares to fire on the base, Casse has one
missile left, but it jams. He decides to fly his plane directly into the alien weapon
in a kamikaze attack, which kills him but destroys it. The Americans inform
resistance forces around the world about how to destroy the alien ships. The

6
nuclear device destroys the alien mothership as Hiller and Levinson escape
unharmed back to Earth. The whole world then celebrates its heroes' victory as
well as its true 'Independence Day'.

Script notes

8
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
n 1935, Indiana Jones - Indy (Harrison Ford) narrowly escapes the clutches of
Lao Che (Roy Chiao), acrime boss in Shanghai. With his 11-year-old Chinese
sidekick, Short Round (or Shorty) (Jonathan Ke Quan), and the nightclub singer
Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) in tow, Indy flees Shanghai on an airplane that,
unknown to them, is owned by Lao. While the three of them sleep on the plane,
the pilots parachute out, and they leave the plane to crash over the Himalayas
while dumping its fuel. Indy, Shorty, and Willie discover this and narrowly
manage to escape on an inflatable raft and ride down the slopes into a raging
river. They come to Mayapore, a desolate village in northern India, where the
poor villagers believe them to have been sent by the Hindu god Shiva and
enlist their help to retrieve the sacred Sivalinga stone stolen from their shrine,
as well as the community's children, from evil forces in the nearby Pankot
Palace. During the journey to Pankot, Indy hypothesizes that the stone may be
one of the five fabled Sankara stones that promise fortune and glory.
The trio receive a warm welcome from the Prime Minister of Pankot Palace,
Chattar Lal (Roshan Seth). The visitors are allowed to stay the night as guests,
during which they attend a lavish but grotesque banquet
given by the young Maharajah, Zalim Singh (Raj Singh). Chattar Lal rebuffs
Indy's questions about the villagers' claims and his theory that the ancient
Thuggee cult is responsible for their troubles. Later that night, Indy is attacked
by an assassin, leading Indy, Willie, and Shorty to believe that something is
amiss. They discover a series of tunnels hidden behind a statue in Willie's room
and set out to explore them, overcoming a number of booby-traps along the
way.

9
The trio eventually reach an underground temple where the Thugs worship the
Hindu goddess Kali with human sacrifice. They discover that the Thugs, led by
their evil, bloodthirsty high priest Mola Ram(Amrish Puri), are in possession of
three of the five Sankara stones, and have enslaved the children to mine for the
final two stones, which they hope will allow them to rule the world. As Indy tries
to retrieve the stones, he, Willie, and Shorty are captured and separated. Indy is
whipped and forced to drink a potion called the "Blood of Kali", which places
him in a trance-like state where he begins to mindlessly serve the Thugs. Willie,
meanwhile, is kept as a human sacrifice, while Shorty is put to work in the mines
alongside the enslaved children. Shorty breaks free and escapes back into the
temple where he burns Indy with a torch, shocking him out of the trance. After
defeating Chattar Lal, also a Thuggee worshiper, they go back to the mines to
free the children, but Indy is caught up in a fight with a hulking overseer (Pat
Roach). The Maharajah, who was also forcibly entranced by the "Blood of Kali,"
attempts to cripple Indy with a voodoo doll. Shorty spars with the Maharajah,
ultimately burning him to snap him out of the trance. With his strength
returned, Indy kills the overseer. The Maharajah then tells Shorty how to get out
of the mines. While Mola Ram escapes, Indy and Shorty rescue Willie and
retrieve the three Sankara stones, the village children escape.
After a mine cart chase to escape the temple, the trio emerge above ground and
are again cornered by Mola Ram and his henchmen on a rope bridge high
above a crocodile-infested river. Using a sword, Indy cuts the rope bridge in half,
leaving everyone to hang on for their lives. Indy utters an incantationwhich
causes the stones to glow red hot. Two of the stones fall into the river, while the
last falls into Mola Ram's hand, burning him. Indy catches the now-cool stone,
while Mola Ram falls into the river below, where he is devoured by a Mugger
crocodile. The Thugs then attempt to shoot Indy with arrows, until a company of

10
British Indian Army riflemen from Pankot arrive, having been summoned by the
palace Maharajah. In the ensuing firefight, many of the Thuggee archers are
killed and the remainder are surrounded and captured. Indy, Willie, and Shorty
return victoriously to the village with the children and give the missing stone
back to the villagers.

Script notes

11

12
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Mr. Colbert, a wealthy man from Chicago who was planning to build a factory in
Sparta, Mississippi, is found murdered. White police Chief Bill Gillespie (Rod
Steiger) comes under pressure to quickly find his killer. African-American
northerner Virgil Tibbs(Sidney Poitier), passing through town, is picked up at the
train station between trains with a substantial amount of cash in his wallet.
Gillespie, prejudiced against blacks, jumps to the conclusion that he has his
culprit but is embarrassed to learn that Tibbs is an experienced Philadelphia
homicide detective who is simply passing through town after visiting his
mother. After the racist treatment that he receives, Tibbs wants nothing more
than to leave as quickly as possible, but his own chief, after questioning whether
Tibbs himself is prejudiced, has him stay and help. Leslie Colbert (Lee Grant),
the victim's widow, already frustrated by the ineptitude of the local police, is
impressed by Tibbs's expertise when he clears another wrongly accused suspect
whom Gillespie has arrested on circumstantial evidence. She threatens to stop
construction on the much needed factory unless Tibbs leads the investigation.
Unwilling to accept help, but under orders from the town's mayor, Gillespie
talks a reluctant Tibbs into working on the case.
Despite the rocky start to their relationship, the two policemen are compelled to
respect each other as they are forced to work together to solve the crime. Tibbs
initially suspects wealthy plantation owner Eric Endicott (Larry Gates), a racist
who publicly opposed the new factory. When he attempts to interrogate Endicott
about Colbert, Endicott slaps him in the face, but Tibbs slaps him back, which
leads to Endicott sending a gang of hooligans after Tibbs. Gillespie rescues him
from the fight and orders him to leave town for his own safety, but Tibbs refuses
to leave until he has solved the case.

13
Tibbs asks Sergeant Sam Wood (Warren Oates), the officer who discovered the
body, to retrace his steps the night of the murder. Tibbs and Gillespie
accompany Wood on his patrol route, stopping at a diner where the
counterman, Ralph Henshaw (Anthony James), refuses to serve Tibbs. When
Tibbs notices that Wood has deliberately changed his route, Gillespie starts
suspecting Wood of the crime. Tibbs indicates that he knows why Sam has
changed his route but will not disclose the reason to Gillespie. When Gillespie
discovers that Wood made a sizable deposit into his bank account the day after
the murder (which Wood claims is gambling winnings) and Lloyd Purdy (James
Patterson), a local, files charges against Wood for getting his 16-year-old sister
Delores (Quentin Dean) pregnant, Gillespie arrests Wood for the murder,
despite Tibbs's protests. Purdy is insulted that Tibbs, a black man, was present
for his sister's interrogation about her sexual encounter with Wood, and he
gathers a mob to get his revenge on Tibbs.
Tibbs is able to clear Wood by finding the original murder scene and pointing
out that Sam would not have been able to drive two cars at the same time, his
police patrol car and the victim's car. Tibbs also admits that he knew
immediately that Wood changed his route not to hide the fact that he was a
murderer, but was a peeping Tom, and declined to publicly reveal this in order
to spare Wood embarrassment.
Acting on a hunch, Tibbs tracks down the local back-room abortionist, who
reveals that someone has paid for Delores to have an abortion. When Delores
arrives, Tibbs pursues her outside, where he is confronted by the murderer,
Henshaw. Purdy's mob tracks down Tibbs at this moment, and he is being held
at gunpoint when he proves to Purdy that it was Henshaw, not Wood, who got
Delores pregnant, and Henshaw murders Purdy before being disarmed by
Tibbs. Henshaw is arrested and confesses to the murder of Colbert. He had

14
robbed Colbert to gain money to pay for Delores's abortion, but had killed him
in the process.
His job done, Tibbs finally boards the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio train out of town, after
being bid farewell by a now respectful Gillespie.

Script notes

15

16
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
n Bedford Falls, New York, on Christmas Eve 1945, George Bailey is suicidal.
Prayers for him reach Heaven. Clarence Odbody, Angel 2nd Class, is assigned to
save George. To prepare Clarence, his superior Joseph shows flashbacks of
George's life.
At age 12, George saves his younger brother Harry, who fell through the ice on a
pond, costing George the hearing in one ear. Later, he catches a potentially
deadly mistake made by his boss, distracted by the news of the sudden death of
his son. George waits for Harry to graduate from high school and replace him at
the family business, the Bailey Brothers' Building and Loan, a longtime irritant
toHenry F. Potter, the richest man in town.
On Harry's graduation night in 1928, George discusses his dreams to build
things and travel with admiring classmate Mary Hatch. Suddenly, George's
uncle, Billy, informs him that his father had a stroke. Following his father's
death, George postpones his plans in order to sort out the firm's affairs. He talks
the board of directors into rejecting Potter's proposal to dissolve the company,
but they agree only on condition that George run it. He gives his college money
to Harry for his education.
When Harry graduates, he brings home a wife, whose father has offered Harry a
job. Although Harry vows to decline the offer for his brother's sake, George
cannot deny him such a great opportunity and keeps running the Building and
Loan. George marries Mary on the same day as the Wall Street Crash of 1929
and is forced to use the money saved for their honeymoon to weather a bank
run.

17
George starts Bailey Park, an affordable housing project. Potter, losing tenants,
tries to hire him away, offering the 28-year-old a huge salary and the promise of
business trips to Europe, appealing to his yearning to travel. George angrily
rejects the offer.
George is unable to enlist for World War II because of his bad ear. Harry,
however, becomes a navy flier and is awarded the Medal of Honor. On
Christmas Eve morning 1945, the town prepares a hero's welcome for Harry.
Uncle Billy goes to Potter's bank to deposit $8,000 for the Building and Loan.
After bragging to Potter about Harry, Billy absentmindedly leaves the money
behind. Potter keeps it.
When Uncle Billy remembers, he and George frantically search for the money.
After berating his uncle for endangering the Building and Loan, George goes
home and destroys his corner of the living room. He apologizes to his
frightened wife and children, then leaves.
Desperate, George appeals unsuccessfully to Potter for a loan. Potter tells him
his life insurance policy makes him worth more dead than alive. George gets
drunk, then crashes his car into a tree. He staggers to a nearby bridge to commit
suicide.
Before he can, Clarence jumps in and pretends to be drowning. George rescues
him, but does not believe Clarence's claim to be George's guardian angel.
When George wishes he had never been born, Clarence shows him what life
would have been like without him. Bedford Falls is named Pottersville and is
filled with cocktail bars, casinos, and gentlemen's clubs. The old druggist went
to prison for manslaughter (because George was not there to catch his mistake),
and his father's business had failed due to Uncle Billy's incompetence.

18
George attracts police attention and flees to his embittered mother's home, now
a boarding house. She reveals that Uncle Billy was institutionalized after the
stock market crash. In the cemetery where Bailey Park would have been, George
discovers the grave of his brother, who drowned without his intervention.
Consequently, the hundreds of servicemen Harry would have saved are also
dead. Mary is a timid spinster working at the library.
George runs back to the bridge and begs for another chance. His prayer is
answered, and he runs home joyously, but the authorities are waiting there to
arrest him. Mary and Uncle Billy rally the townspeople, who donate more than
enough to cover the loss. Harry toasts "the richest man in town." A bell on the
Christmas tree rings, and his daughter recalls the story that it means an angel
has just earned his wings.

Script notes

19

20
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987)
The film stars Sheila McCarthy as Polly, a worker for a temporary secretarial
agency. Polly serves as the narrator for the film, and there are frequent
sequences portraying her whimsical fantasies. Polly lives alone, seems to have
no friends and enjoys solitary bicycle rides to undertake her hobby of
photography. Despite her clumsiness, lack of education, social awkwardness
and inclination to take others' statements literally, all of which have resulted in
scarce employment opportunities, Polly is placed as a secretary in a private art
gallery owned by Gabrielle (Paule Baillargeon).
Ann-Marie MacDonald plays Mary, who is Gabrielle's former young lover, and
also a painter. Mary returns after an absence, and she and Gabrielle rekindle
their former relationship despite Gabrielle's misgivings that she is too old and
Mary too young. Polly, who's fallen a little bit in love with Gabrielle, is inspired
to submit some of her own photographs anonymously to the gallery. She is
crushed when Gabrielle dismisses her photos out of hand and calls them
"simpleminded." Polly temporarily quits the gallery, and goes into a
depression. She returns to the gallery, and revives a little when Mary notices
one of her photos.
All the while, Mary and Gabrielle have been perpetrating a fraud. Gabrielle has
been passing off Mary's work as her own. When Polly finds out, she becomes
livid and tosses a cup of tea at Gabrielle. Believing she has done something
unforgivable, Polly retreats to her flat in anguish.
Mary and Gabrielle later visit Polly at her flat, and realize that the discarded
photographs were by Polly. As the film ends, Gabrielle and Mary look at more of
Polly's photographs and in a short fantasy sequence the three are transported

21
together to an idyllic wooded glen, a metaphor for the beautiful world that
supposedly plain and unnoticed people like Polly inhabit.

Script notes

22

23
The Jerk (1979)
Navin R. Johnson, a homeless bum, directly addresses the camera and tells his
story. He is the adopted white son of African American sharecroppers, who
grows to adulthood navely unaware of his obvious adoption. He stands out in
his family not just because of his skin color but because of his utter lack of
rhythm when his adopted family plays spirited blues music. One night, he hears
the staid and starchy Roger Wolfe Kahn Orchestra song called "Crazy Rhythm"
on the radio and his feet spontaneously begin to move with the urge to dance;
he sees this as a calling and decides to hitchhike to St. Louis, from where the
song was broadcast. On the way, he stops at a motel, where a dog wakes him up
by barking at his door. Navin thinks the dog is trying to warn of a fire and names
the dog "Lifesaver". He wakes up the other hotel guests to rescue them, but
when everyone realizes it was a false alarm, one Asian man angrily suggests he
call the dog "Shithead", which Navin takes literally.
Navin gets a job (and a place to sleep) at a gas station owned by Mr. Harry
Hartounian. He is thrilled to find that he is listed in the local phone book, as his
name is "in print" for the first time. Not long after, a gun-wielding lunatic
randomly flips through the phone book and picks "Johnson, Navin R." as his
next victim. As the madman watches through his rifle scope, waiting for a clear
shot, Navin fixes the slippery glasses of a customer, Stan Fox, by adding a
handle and a nose brake. Fox offers to split the profits 50/50 with Navin if he
can market the invention, then departs. Seizing his chance, the crazed sniper
shoots but misses. The lunatic chases Navin to a traveling carnival, where Navin
hides out, eventually getting a job with SJM Fiesta Shows as a weight guesser.
While employed there, Navin meets an intimidating daredevil biker named
Patty Bernstein and has a sexual relationship with her, finally realizing what his

24
"special purpose" (his mother's euphemism for his penis) is for. He then meets
a woman named Marie and arranges a date with her. Patty confronts them, but
Marie knocks her out. While courting, Navin and Marie walk along the beach
and sing " Tonight You Belong to Me"; Navin plays the ukulele and Marie the
cornet. Navin and Marie fall in love, but Marie reluctantly leaves him because of
his lack of financial security. She writes a note and slips out while Navin is in the
bath.
At an emotional and financial low, Navin is soon contacted by Stan Fox with
exciting news: his glasses invention, now called the Opti-Grab, is selling big and
he is entitled to half of the profits. Now extremely rich, he finds and marries
Marie, and they buy an extravagant mansion. Their life becomes one of
splendor and non-stop partying. However, motion-picture director Carl Reiner
files a class action lawsuit against Navin. Reiner claims that the Opti-Grab
caused his eyes to be crossed and his resulting poor vision caused the death of a
stunt driver in the film he was directing. Nearly ten million other people have
the same vision complaint (including the judge and jury foreman), and are
awarded $10 million in damages. Bankrupt, depressed, and now homeless, he
is abandoned by Marie and is soon living on the streets. His story now told, he
resigns himself to a life of misery and memories of Marie, but to his amazed joy,
she suddenly appears, along with Navin's family, and some more good news:
having carefully invested the small sums of money he sent home throughout
the film, they have become wealthy themselves. They pick him up off the street,
and he and Marie move back home into the Johnsons' new house a much
larger but identical version of their old, small shack.
The story ends as the entire family dances on the porch and sings "Pick a Bale of
Cotton"; Navin dances along, now having gained perfect rhythm.

Script notes

25

26
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is a glossy 35-year-oldsports agent working for
Sports Management International (SMI). He writes a mission statement about
perceived dishonesty in the sports management business which prompts
Management to send Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr), Jerry's protg, to fire him. Jerry
and Sugar call all of Jerry's clients to try convincing them not to hire the services
of the other. Sugar secures most of Jerry's previous clients. Jerry speaks to
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), one of his
clients who is disgruntled with his contract. Rod tests Jerry's resolve through a
very long telephone conversation while Sugar is able to convince the rest of
Jerry's clients to stick with SMI instead. Leaving the office, Jerry announces that
he will start his own agency and asks if anyone is willing to join him, to which
only 26-year-old single mother Dorothy Boyd (Rene Zellweger) agrees.
Meanwhile, Frank "Cush" Cushman ( Jerry O'Connell), a superstar quarterback
prospect who expects to be the number one pick in the NFL Draft, also stays with
Jerry after he makes a visit to the Cushman home. However, Sugar is able to
convince Cushman at the last minute to sign with SMI.
After an argument, Jerry breaks up with his disgruntled fiance. He then turns
to Dorothy, becoming closer to her young son, Ray (Jonathan Lipnicki), and
eventually starts a relationship with her. However, Dorothy contemplates
moving to San Diego as she has a secure job offer there. Jerry concentrates all
his efforts on Rod, now his only client, who turns out to be very difficult to
satisfy. Over the next several months, the two direct harsh criticism towards each
other with Rod claiming that Jerry is not trying hard enough to get him a
contract while Jerry claims that Rod is not proving himself worthy of the money
for which he asks. Jerry marries Dorothy to help them both stay afloat financially

27
and to keep her from moving away. He is emotionally and physically distant
during the marriage but is clearly invested in becoming a father to Ray.
Although Dorothy loves Jerry, she breaks up with him because she believes that
he does not love her.
During a Monday Night Football game between the Cardinals and the Dallas
Cowboys, Rod plays well but appears to receive a serious injury when catching a
touchdown. He recovers, however, and dances for the wildly cheering crowd.
Afterwards, Jerry and Rod embrace in front of other athletes and sports agents
and show how their relationship has progressed from a strictly business one to a
close personal one, which was one of the points Jerry made in his mission
statement. Jerry then flies back home to meet Dorothy. He then speaks for
several minutes, telling her that he loves her and wants her in his life, which she
accepts. Rod later appears on Roy Firestone's sports show. Unbeknownst to him,
Jerry has secured him an $11.2 million contract with the Cardinals allowing him
to finish his pro football career in Arizona. The visibly emotional Rod proceeds to
thank everyone and extends warm gratitude to Jerry. Jerry speaks with several
other pro athletes, some of whom have read his earlier mission statement and
respect his work with Rod.
The movie ends with Ray throwing a baseball up in the air surprising Jerry. Jerry
then discusses Ray's possible future career in the sports industry with Dorothy.

Script notes

28

29
Jerusalem (1996)
Apocalypticism, Truth, Sacrifice, Suffering, Love, Forgiveness
This movie has the aura of an Ingmar Bergman production, with a series of
twists and turns in the plot and thought-provoking motifs. It is based on the
novel by Selma Lagerlof, and portrays Swedish peasant life around the turn of
the 20th Christian viewers of this movie will likely be interested in the themes
of: mainline versus apocalyptic-sectarian faith, authority and power, discerning
the truth, suffering and sacrifice, love and forgiveness. I highly recommend
Jerusalem because of theological grist for the the mill that it provides.
(submitted by The Rev. Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson)

Script notes

30

31
Jesus of Montreal (1989)
The film centres on a group of actors in Montreal,Canada who are gathered by
Daniel, an actor hired by a Roman Catholic site of pilgrimage ("le sanctuaire") to
present a Passion play in its gardens.
The sanctuary is implied to be Saint Joseph's Oratory(although this organization
actually refused permission to film there). In fact, the idea for the film came to
its director after an actor apologized for appearing with a beard at an audition.
The actor explained that he had the role of Jesus in a passion play at St-Joseph's
Oratory. Arcand went to see the play and recalls "I saw actors in a mediocre
production which received shouted applause from the tourists. I decided I had
to make a film".[1]
The actors' interpretation of the life of Jesus is unconventional (including, for
example, the statement that the biological father of Jesus was a Roman soldier,
who left Palestine shortly afterwards). Still, it draws on current academic theories
and research. The challenging production becomes the toast of the city. The
higher authorities of the religious order that controls the sanctuary (or of the
Roman Catholic Church, this is left vague) strongly object to this Biblical
interpretation, and forcefully stop a performance.
After an ensuing accident, Daniel is first taken by ambulance to a Catholic
hospital. He is completely neglected there and leaves. He then collapses on a
Montreal Metro platform. The same ambulance takes him to Jewish General
Hospital. Despite immediate, skilled, and energetic efforts by the doctors and
nurses to revive him, Daniel is pronounced brain-dead. Daniel's doctor asks for
the consent of his friends to take Daniel's organs for donation (since Daniel has

32
no known relatives). Daniel's physician states that the staff would have been
able to save him, if he had been brought to them half an hour earlier.
The film is structured so that Daniel's story parallels that of Christ. Some of the
points of contact are:
Daniel has returned to Montreal after spending a long period
travelling in "the East".
Contradictory and uncertain stories are told about Daniel's life story.
In the opening scene, one actor points to Daniel, calling him "a
much better actor", which echoesJohn the Baptist foretelling the
arrival of Jesus the Messiah.
The first actor later "sells-out" and lets his head be used in an
advertisement, paralleling John the Baptist's beheading.
The actors then gather for the Passion play, some of them leaving
safe jobs to do so, recalling Jesus gathering the disciples.
Daniel wrecks an advertising casting session, where the casting
director enjoys humiliating participants, and displays deep contempt
for them. This is a parallel of when Jesus casts the money-lenders out
of the Temple.
Daniel's arrest and court appearance before an indecisive judge,
played by the film's director himself, parallels Jesus' appearance
before Pontius Pilate.

33
The smooth elite lawyer, who lays out a grand commercial career for
Daniel, looking down from a skyscraper at the city, refers to the
temptation of Christ by the devil atop a high pinnacle.
Daniel is disconnected from his life support at the Jewish General
Hospital, mirroring the Christian belief that Jews killed Jesus
The Good Samaritan Parable applauds the Samaritan - an outsider
of the community to which Jesus preaches - for behaving as a true
neighbour should. Daniel is not helped at the Catholic hospital - his
own community - but is instead helped at the Anglo-Jewish hospital - a
religious and linguistic group very different from Daniel's.
The resurrection of Jesus is depicted as the donation of Daniel's
organs, which live on in the lives of others.
Daniel's eyes are used to "heal" the blind.
The founding of the Christian church is portrayed as the starting of
an experimental theatre company,
which is "incorporated".

Script notes

34

35
Kolya (1996)
The film begins in 1988 as the Soviet bloc is beginning to disintegrate.
Frantiek Louka, a middle-aged Czech man dedicated to bachelorhood and the
pursuit of women, is a concert cellist struggling to eke out a living by playing
funerals at the Prague crematorium. He has lost his previous job at the Czech
Philharmonic, having been half-accidentally blacklisted as "politically
unreliable" by the authorities. A friend offers him a chance to earn a great deal
of money through a sham marriage to a Russian woman to enable her to stay in
Czechoslovakia. The woman then uses her new citizenship to emigrate to West
Germany, where her boyfriend lives.
Due to a concurrence of circumstances, she has to leave behind her 5-year-old
son, Kolya, for the disgruntled Czech musician to look after. At first Louka and
Kolya have communication difficulties, as they don't speak each other's
languages and the many false friendwords that exist in Czech and Russian add
to the confusion. Gradually, though, a bond forms between Louka and Kolya.
The child suffers from suspectedmeningitis and has to be placed on a course of
carefully monitored antibiotics. Louka is threatened with imprisonment for his
suspect marriage and the child may be placed in a Russian children's home.
TheVelvet Revolution
intervenes though, and Kolya is reunited with his mother. Louka and Kolya say
their goodbyes.
Bachelor Louka ends up fathering a child with his girlfriend - perhaps a
replacement for lost Kolya - and regains his position as a virtuoso with the
philharmonic orchestra.

Script notes

36

37
Kramer vs Kramer (1979)
Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) is a workaholic advertisingexecutive who has just
been assigned a new and very important account. Ted arrives home and shares
the good news with his wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) only to find that she is
leaving him. Saying that she needs to find herself, she leaves Ted to raise their
son Billy (Justin Henry) by himself. Ted and Billy initially resent one another as
Ted no longer has time to carry his increased workload and Billy misses his
mother's love and attention. After months of unrest, Ted and Billy learn to cope
and gradually bond as father and son.
Ted befriends his neighbor Margaret (Jane Alexander), who had initially
counseled Joanna to leave Ted if she was that unhappy. Margaret is a fellow
single parent, and she and Ted become kindred spirits. One day, as the two sit in
the park watching their children play, Billy falls off the jungle gym, severely
cutting his face. Ted sprints several blocks through oncoming traffic carrying
Billy to the hospital, where he comforts his son during treatment.
Fifteen months after she walked out, Joanna returns to New York to claim Billy,
and a custody battleensues. During the custody hearing, both Ted and Joanna
are unprepared for the brutal character assassinations that their lawyers unleash
on the other. Margaret is forced to testify that she had advised an unhappy
Joanna to leave Ted, though she also attempts to tell Joanna on the stand that
her husband has profoundly changed. Eventually, the damaging facts that Ted
was fired because of his conflicting parental responsibilities which forced him to
take a lower-paying job come out in court, as do the details of Billy's accident.
The court awards custody to Joanna, a decision mostly based on the assumption
that a child is best raised by his mother. Ted discusses appealing the case, but

38
his lawyer warns that Billy himself would have to take the stand in the resulting
trial. Ted cannot bear the thought of submitting his child to such an ordeal, and
decides not to contest custody.
On the morning that Billy is to move in with Joanna, Ted and Billy make
breakfast together, mirroring the meal that Ted tried to cook the first morning
after Joanna left. They share a tender hug, knowing that this is their last daily
breakfast together. Joanna calls on the intercom, asking Ted to come down to
the lobby. She tells Ted how much she loves and wants Billy, but she knows that
his true home is with Ted, and therefore will not take custody of him. She asks
Ted if she can see Billy, and Ted says that that would be OK. As they are about to
enter the elevator together, Ted tells Joanna that he will stay downstairs to allow
Joanna to see Billy in private. After she enters the elevator, Joanna wipes tears
from her face and asks her former husband "How do I look?" As the elevator
doors start to close on Joanna, Ted answers, "Terrific."

Script notes

39

40
The Last Mile (1959)
In a death row cell block nine inmates are scheduled for execution. Then "Killer"
John Mears (Rooney) comes along. His viciousness infects the environment and
his plans to break out of prison are the catalyst for tragedy.

Script notes

41

42
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
The film begins with a man whispering in despair, "The feeling begins. Very
tender, very loving. Then the pain starts. Claws slip underneath the skin and tear
their way up. Just before they reach my eyes, they dig in. And I remember. First I
fasted for three months. I even whipped myself before I went to sleep. At first it
worked. Then the pain came back. And the voices. They call me by the name:
Jesus."Jesus of Nazareth is a carpenter in Roman-occupied Judea, torn between
his own desires and his knowledge that God has a plan for him. His conflict
results in self-loathing, and he collaborates with the Romans to crucify Jewish
rebels.
Judas Iscariot, a friend of Jesus' originally sent to kill him for collaboration,
instead suspects that Jesus is the Messiah and asks him to lead a liberation war
against the Romans. Jesus replies that his message is love of mankind;
whereupon Judas joins Jesus in his ministry, but threatens to kill him if he
strays from the purpose of rebellion. Jesus also has an undisclosed prior
relationship with Mary Magdalene, a Jewish prostitute, who asks Jesus to stay
with her, a request that he considers before leaving for a monastic community.
Jesus later saves Mary from a mob gathered to stone her for prostitution and
working on the sabbath. Jesus compels the mob to spare her life, asking "Who
here has never sinned?" with Jesus offering two stones.[4] Later, Jesus preaches
to the crowd using many of the parables from the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus acquires disciples, but remains uncertain of his role. He visits John the
Baptist, who baptizesJesus, and that night the two discuss their differing
theologies and political views. John believes that one must first gain freedom
from the Romans to achieve their end, while Jesus maintains that love is more
important and people should tend to matters of the spirit. Jesus then goes into

43
the desert to test God's connection to himself, where he is tempted by Satan as
a cobra, a lion, and a pillar of flame, but resists each of these and instead
envisions himself with an axe, being instructed by John the Baptist in answer to
Jesus' dilemma of whether to choose the path of love (symbolized by the heart)
or the path of violence (represented by the axe). Jesus returns from the desert to
the home of Martha and Mary of Bethany (both sisters of Lazarus), who restore
him to health and attempt to persuade him that the way to please God is to
have a home, a marriage, and children. Jesus then appears to his waiting
disciples to tear out his own heart and invites them to follow him. With
newfound confidence he restores sight to a blind man, changes water into wine,
and raises Lazarus from the dead.
Eventually his ministry reaches Jerusalem, where Jesus performs the Cleansing
of the Temple and leads a small army to capture the temple by force, but halts
on the steps to await a sign from God for what he must do next. He begins
bleeding from his hands, which he recognizes as a sign that he must die on the
cross to bring salvation to mankind. Confiding in Judas, he persuades the latter
to give him to the Romans, despite Judas' inclination otherwise. Jesus convenes
his disciples for Passover seder, later known as the Last Supper; whereupon
Judas leads a contingent of soldiers to arrest Jesus in the garden of
Gethsemane, identifying him with a kiss. In the struggle to defend his master,
Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus; whereupon Jesus reattaches it and turns
himself over to the soldiers. Pontius Pilateconfronts Jesus and tells him that he
must be put to death because he represents a threat to theRoman Empire. Jesus
is subsequently flogged and a crown of thorns is placed on his head. He is
thencrucified.
While on the cross, Jesus converses with a young lady who claims to be his
guardian angel. She tells him that although he is the Son of God, he is not the

44
Messiah, and that God is pleased with him, and wants him to be happy. She
brings him down off the cross and, invisible to others, takes him to Mary
Magdalene, whom he then marries. They are soon expecting a child and living
an idyllic life; but she abruptly dies, and Jesus is consoled by his angel; next he
takes Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, for his wives. He starts a family
with them, having many children, and lives his life in peace. Jesus is then seen
as an older man who encounters the apostle Paul preaching about the Messiah
and tries to tell Paul that he is the man about whom Paul has been preaching.
Paul (who in this film has slain the resurrected Lazarus) repudiates him, saying
that even if Jesus had not died on the cross, his message was the truth, and
nothing would stop him from proclaiming that. Jesus debates him, claiming
that salvation cannot be founded on lies.
Near the end of his life, an elderly Jesus calls his former disciples to his bed.
Peter, Nathaniel, and a scarred John visit their master as Jerusalem is in the
throes of rebellion; whereupon Judas comes last and reveals that the youthful
angel who released Jesus from the crucifixion is in fact Satan. Crawling back
through the burning city of Jerusalem, Jesus reaches the site of his crucifixion
and begs God to let him fulfill his purpose and to "let him be God's son."
Jesus then finds himself once more on the cross, having overcome the "last
temptation" of escaping death, being married and raising a family, and the
ensuing disaster that would have consequently encompassed mankind. Naked
and bloody, Jesus cries out in ecstasy as he dies, "It is accomplished!" and the
screen flickers to white. Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Ben Sanderson (Cage) is a Hollywood screenwriter whose alcoholism costs him
his job, family, and friends. With nothing left to live for, he moves to Las Vegas to
drink himself to death. As he drives drunkenly down the Las Vegas Strip, he

45
nearly hits a woman, Sera (Shue), on the crosswalk. Sera chastises him and
walks away. Sera is a prostitute working for an abusive pimp, Yuri Butso (Julian
Sands), a Latvian immigrant.
Polish mobsters are after Yuri, so he breaks his relationship with Sera in fear that
the Poles may hurt her. Yuri is murdered (off-screen) shortly afterwards.
On his second day in Las Vegas, Ben meets Sera, introduces himself and offers
$500 to go to his room for an hour. Sera agrees but Ben does not want sex.
Instead, they only talk and form a bizarre romantic relationship. They move in
together shortly afterward. Ben instructs Sera to never ask him to stop drinking.
Sera reciprocates and instructs Ben to not criticize her occupation. At first the two
are stable as Ben is
"totally at ease with this (Sera's prostitution)". However, each becomes
frustrated with the other's behavior. Sera begs Ben to see a doctor. Furious, Ben
returns to their shared home with another prostitute (Mariska Hargitay). Sera
returns home and throws Ben out. Shortly afterward, while working, she is
approached by three college students at the Excalibur hotel and casino. She
initially rejects their offer by stating that she only "dates" one at a time, but
eventually acquiesces when she is offered an increased price. When she enters
their hotel room, the college students change the deal and request anal sex,
which Sera refuses. When she attempts to leave, she is brutally attacked and
raped as one of the college students films the entire event on a video camera.
The next morning, Sera returns with injuries that make her occupation obvious,
resulting in her eviction. She then receives a call from Ben, who is on his
deathbed. Sera visits Ben and he dies while they make love. His last word is
"wow". In the final scene, Sera explains to her therapist that she accepted Ben
for who he was, liked his drama, and loved him.

Script notes

46

47
Legally Blonde (2001)
In her senior year at the fictional CULA, girlish sorority president Elle Woods
majors in fashion merchandising and is in love with her boyfriend, Warner
Huntington III, who will attend Harvard Law School the following year. She
excitedly expects him to ask her to marry him, but he breaks up with her
instead, saying that he has to be with someone more "serious" if he plans on a
career in politics.
After a depressed Elle spends days holed up in her room, Elle's two best friends
Margot and Serena take her to get her nails done. While waiting, she finds an
article about Warner's older brother and his new fiance, whom he met in law
school. Desperate to win Warner back, Elle takes the Law School Admission Test
(and scores 179 on it, one point below the highest possible score), applies to
Harvard, and although the board of admissions is bewildered at her application
and video essay, they are impressed, and she is accepted. Upon Elle's arrival,
she is ridiculed because of her beautiful, overly-girly looks and naive behavior,
and she discovers that Warner is engaged to another student, Vivian
Kensington. She is humiliated even further when Professor Stromwell ejects Elle
from her class for being unprepared (using a tiny notepad and not a laptop for
note taking). The only friends Elle makes are Paulette, a kindly, yet shy divorced
manicurist at a local salon, a fellow law student, David, and Emmett, a young
attorney. Elle later helps Paulette gain custody of her dog back from her exhusband, and she also helps her seduce the delivery man on whom she has a
crush, and pretends to be a scorned ex of David's to help him land a date.
After Vivian tricks Elle into attending a party in a Playboy Bunny costume where
she retaliates by insulting her, Elle has a discussion with Warner and finally
realizes he will never respect her. Now determined to succeed on her own, Elle

48
studies hard and impresses her professors and classmates in many occasions,
proving herself enough for Vivian to consider her a threat, and wins an
internship with Professor Callahan, as do Warner and Vivian. They work with
Callahan along with Emmett as an associate attorney, to defend Brooke TaylorWindham, a famous fitness instructor accused of murdering her much older
billionaire husband, Hayworth Windham. Brooke was once Elle's fitness
instructor and a member of her sorority. Elle believes Brooke is innocent, but
Brooke's stepdaughter, Chutney, and the household cabana boy say she is
guilty, and that they saw Brooke standing over Windham's dead body, covered
in his blood, while Brooke testifies that she loved her husband and only found
him after he had been shot to death.
Brooke refuses to provide Callahan an alibi, but when Elle visits her in jail,
Brooke admits that she had liposuction on the day of the murder. Public
knowledge of this fact would ruin Brooke's reputation as a fitness instructor, so
Elle agrees to keep it secret and refuses to reveal the alibi to Callahan.
Impressed by her loyalty and integrity, Vivian starts to befriend Elle, also
admitting that Warner was put on Harvard's wait-list and only got in because his
father pulled some strings. Elle also becomes disillusioned with Warner when
he suggests she reveal Brooke's alibi and break her friend's trust just to further
her career.
The case against Brooke begins to weaken when Elle deduces that the cabana
boy is gay after he correctly identifies Elle's shoe style. Callahan brushes off
Elle's deduction as unfounded and ridiculous, but during the crossexamination, Emmett tricks him into identifying his boyfriend to the court,
proving that his testimony about having an affair with Brooke was a lie.

49
Impressed by her performance, Callahan discusses Elle's future with her and
then makes sexual advances on her, which Elle immediately rejects.
Overhearing part of the conversation, Vivian confronts Elle, thinking she was
sleeping with Callahan to get ahead in her career. Frustrated with the lack of
respect she's getting, Elle decides to leave law school, but not before she tells
Emmett about Callahan's advances. While saying good-bye to Paulette at the
nail salon, Professor Stromwell, who's there getting her hair done, intervenes
reinvigorates Elle's desire to be successful in law school by implying that she
actually greatly respects Elle and was once in her position. Meanwhile, Emmett
explains Elle's encounter with Callahan to Vivian and Brooke. Brooke is enraged
and Vivian is horrified at her mistake. Before the trial continues, Brooke
dismisses Callahan and hires Elle as her new attorney with Emmett supervising.
Elle begins shakily cross-examining Chutney, who testifies that she was home
during her father's murder,
but did not hear the gunshot because she was in the shower washing her hair
after getting her hair permed earlier that day. Elle's confidence suddenly spikes
upon hearing this, and asks Chutney how long she'd been getting perms, to
which Chutney reveals several years. Elle then reveals that Chutney could not
have been in the shower because washing permed hair within the first 24 hours
would have deactivated the ammonium thioglycolate, and not only were
Chutney's curls are still intact, but also someone who gets regular perms should
be well aware of this fact. Confronted, Chutney reveals in a frenzy that she
accidentally killed Hayworth because she thought he was Brooke, whom she
hated for marrying her father because she was Chutney's age. Following the
outburst, Brooke is exonerated, and Chutney is arrested. After the trial, Warner
tries to reconcile with Elle, but she rejects him, explaining that she needs a

50
boyfriend who is less of a "bonehead" if she is to be successful in her new
career.
Two years later, Elle, who has graduated with high honors, is the class-elected
speaker at the ceremony, and has been invited into one of Boston's best law
firms; Vivian is now Elle's best friend and has called off her engagement with
Warner, who graduated without honors, no girlfriend, and no job offers;
Paulette has married the delivery man and is expecting a baby girl to be named
after Elle; and finally, Emmett has started his own practice, is now Elle's
boyfriend, and will propose to her that night.

Script notes

51

52
The Legend of Baggar Vance (2000)
Promising golfer Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon) is the favorite son of
Savannah, Georgia and a noteworthy golf player; Adele Invergordon (Charlize
Theron) was his girlfriend before he went off to war and is from a rich family.
While serving as a captain in the US Army duringWorld War I, Junuh is
traumatized when his entire company is wiped out in battle. Though he earns
theMedal of Honor, he returns to Georgia and lives a shadowy life as a drunk,
golf being just a distant memory.
Years later (circa 1930[6]), Adele is trying to recover her family's lost fortune by
holding a four-round, two-day exhibition match between Bobby Jones (Joel
Gretsch) and Walter Hagen (Bruce McGill), the best golfers of the era, with a
grand prize of $10,000, at a golf resort her father built as the Depression struck.
However, she needs a local participant to generate local interest, so she asks her
estranged love Junuh to play.
Junuh is approached by a mysterious traveler carrying a suitcase, who appears
while Junuh is trying to hit golf balls into the dark void of night. The man
identifies himself as Bagger Vance (Will Smith) and says he will be Junuh's
caddy. He then helps Junuh to come to grips with his personal demons and
helps him to play golf again.
When the match starts, Jones and Hagen each play well in their distinctive ways,
but Junuh plays poorly and is far behind after the first round. With Bagger
caddying for him and giving advice, Junuh rediscovers his "authentic swing" in
the second round and makes up some ground. In the third round, he closes the
gap even more. Junuh and Adele also find their romance rekindling.

53
Late in the final round, Junuh disregards Bagger's advice at a crucial point and
after that plays poorly. He hits a ball into a forest, where he has a traumatic
World War I flashback, but Bagger's words help him to focus on golf. Junuh
pulls back to a tie with Jones and Hagen, then has a chance to win on the final
hole, but calls a penalty on himself when his ball moves after he tries to remove
an obstacle.
Seeing from this that Junuh has grown and matured, Bagger decides his golfer
doesn't need him any more. Bagger leaves him as mysteriously as he met him,
with the 18th hole unfinished. Though losing a chance to win because of the
penalty, Junuh sinks an improbable putt and the match ends in a gentlemanly
three-way tie. The three golfers shake hands with all of Savannah cheering, and
Junuh and Adele get back together.
During the match, Bagger Vance has a young assistant, Hardy Greaves (J.
Michael Moncrief), who caddies after Bagger leaves. The beginning of the film
features Hardy as an old man (Jack Lemmon) playing golf in the present day.
Hardy experiences a heart attack and loses consciousness. The story ends with
an old Hardy awakening and seeing a never-aging Bagger Vance on the golf
course. As Bagger beckons, Hardy follows and the film ends.

Script notes

54

55
Legends of the Fall(1994)
Sick of the betrayals the United States government has perpetrated on the
Native Americans, Colonel William Ludlow retires with his family to a remote
part ofMontana with One Stab, a Cree friend, where they build a ranch.
Accompanying them are hired hand Decker, who's an outlaw; Decker's Cree
wife, Pet; and their daughter, Isabel Two. Ludlow's wife Isabel, who does not
adapt to the harsh winters, at first leaves for the winter to come back during the
summer. One spring she doesn't return and moves to the East Coast. As much as
her sons love her, it's Tristan that is most affected by her abandonment and he
vows never to speak of her again.
Ludlow has three sons: Alfred, the eldest, is responsible and cautious; Tristan,
the Colonel's favourite son, is wild and well versed in American Indian
traditions; and Samuel, the youngest, is educated but naive and constantly
watched and protected by his brothers.
At age 12, Tristan touches a sleeping grizzly bear. The bear awakens and slashes
at Tristan, injuring him, but he stabs at the bear's paw and cuts off a claw.
As the boys grow up, Samuel returns from Harvard University with his fiance,
Susannah Fincannon. While Susannah is introducing herself and talking with
Isabel Two, Isabel Two asks if she is going to marry Samuel, to which she replies
yes. Susannah then asks Two who she is going to marry and Two replies, in an
almost knowing way, that she's going to marry Tristan. Susannah finds Tristan
captivating but loves Samuel. Before they can marry, or even capture their love,
Samuel tells his family that he is leaving for Calgary to join the Canadian
Expeditionary Force and aid Britain in the fight againstGermany. Much to their

56
father's displeasure, Alfred also joins. Although Tristan does not want to join, he
does so only to protect his brothers.
During World War I, the brothers find themselves in the 10th Battalion, CEF.
Alfred, commissioned as an officer, leads a charge into no man's land. Tristan
abandons his unit to be at Samuel's side. The attack is repulsed with heavy
casualties, and Alfred is wounded. While visiting Alfred in the field hospital,
Tristan learns that Samuel has volunteered for a dangerous reconnaissance
mission. He rushes off to protect his brother but arrives too late to save him
from being killed. Devastated, Tristan holds Samuel until he dies,
then cuts out Samuel's heart, which he sends home to be buried on his father's
ranch. Seething with hatred, Tristan single-handedly raids behind German lines,
killing two gunners. To the horror of his fellow soldiers, he returns to camp with
the scalps of German soldiers hanging around his neck. He is discharged from
army service but does not go home. Alfred returns to Montana and proposes
marriage to Susannah, but she declines.
Tristan returns home, where Susannah finds him weeping over Samuel's grave.
Susannah tries to comfort him, and they become lovers. A jealous Alfred
confronts Tristan and later leaves to make his name in Helena. Tristan's
relationship with Susannah is doomed by his guilt and pain for failing to protect
Samuel, as well as feeling responsible for driving Alfred away. These demons
force him to go travelling for several years. At the ranch, Susannah waits for him
but eventually receives a letter; "All we had is dead. As I am dead. Marry
another". Alfred finds her weeping on the porch and tries to comfort her.
Colonel Ludlow finds them together which leads to an argument and falling out
between the Colonel and Alfred. Colonel Ludlow later suffers a stroke. He does
not speak for years and the ranch deteriorates. In time Susannah agrees to

57
marry Alfred, now a congressman. Alfred's business and politics cause him to
get involved with the O'Banion brothers, bootleggers and gangsters.
Tristan returns during Prohibition, bringing life back to the ranch and his father.
He accepts Susannah's marriage to his brother and soon afterwards begins
falling in love with Isabel Two, whom he also marries. They have two children,
the elder being a boy named Samuel, in honor of his late brother. Life seems to
become normal again for Tristan as he finds true happiness in his young family.
Tristan becomes involved in small-scale smuggling of bootleg liquor, finding
himself at odds with the O'Banion brothers. Tristan's wife is accidentally killed
by a police officer working for the O'Banions. In a fit of agonized grief, Tristan
beats the officer nearly to death and has to serve thirty days in jail. Susannah
visits, but Tristan refuses her advances and insists she "go home to Alfred." After
his release, Tristan and Decker kill those responsible for Isabel Two's death,
including one of the O'Banion brothers.
Susannah commits suicide after realizing she cannot live without Tristan. When
the remaining O'Banion brother comes for Tristan, he and the corrupt sheriff are
killed by Colonel Ludlow and Alfred, while Tristan attempts to protect his father.
Alfred reconciles with his father and brother. Tristan, knowing he will be blamed
for the men's disappearance, leaves for the mountain country after asking Alfred
to take care of his children. Over time, everyone in Tristan's life dies before him.
As an old man, in 1963, Tristan enters a clearing to investigate an animal carcass
and is set upon by a grizzly bear. He draws his knife and fights it. As they
struggle, the image freeze-frames as One Stab narrates; "It was a good death".

Script notes

58

59
Les Miserables
As the film opens, Henri's father, a chauffeur, is falsely accused of the murder of
his boss. During his trial and imprisonment, Henri's mother finds a job in a
tavern on a Normandy beach. There Henri sees a movie version ofLes
Misrables. His father dies attempting to escape from prison, and upon hearing
the news Henri's mother commits suicide. Henri grows up an orphan and learns
to box.
The film next takes up the story of Elisa, a ballerina, and Andr Ziman, a young
Jewish journalist and law student. They meet following a performance of a
ballet based onLes Misrables. Later, during World War II, Andr and Elisa, now
married, and their daughter Salom attempt to cross the Swiss border to escape
the Nazis. They encounter Henri, who owns a moving company, and they discuss
the Hugo novel. The Zimans entrust Salom to Henri and enroll her in a Catholic
convent school. Andr and Elisa are ambushed while trying to cross the frontier.
Elisa is arrested and Andr wounded. Farmers find him and give him shelter.
Henri and the members of a local gang join the French Resistance, but the gang
members take advantage of their anti-Nazi attacks to steal from local houses.
Elisa and other women are forced to entertain the Nazi occupiers. She is sent to
a concentration camp for being uncooperative. After staging an attack on a train
transporting funds for the Vichy government, Henri and his mates travel to
Normandy to visit the tavern where he lived as a child. The D-Day invasion is
launched the next day and Henri helps the Allied forces capture the beach and
saves the life of Marius, the tavern owner's son.
At the war's end, Henri accepts an offer to run a seaside camp in Normandy.
There he receives a letter from Salom, who has no way of contacting her family.

60
He takes her with him to the resort, which he names Chez Jean Valjean. Elisa,
having surviving a Nazi concentration camp in German-occupied Poland, joins
them later.
A former Vichy police agent accuses Henri of abetting the gang's activities
during the war and of robbing and burning a train. He is imprisoned to await
trial. Meanwhile Andr's one-time rescuer is holding him captive, hoping to live
off his bank account. The farmer has told Ziman that the American D-Day
invasion failed and the Nazis now rule the world. With evident reluctance, the
farmer's wife support her husband in these lies until he attempts to poison
Ziman. Then she shoots her husband before he can feed Andr the poisoned
soup. As she checks to see if her husband is dead, he grabs her and chokes her
to death. Andr escapes from his cellar prison on a bad leg and emerges to find
the farmer couple dead and a liberated Europe. He rejoins his wife and
daughter at Chez Jean Valjean and then represents Henri at his trial and wins
his acquittal.
As the film ends, Henri, now the mayor, presides at the civil marriage of Salom
and Marius in the presence of Andr and Elisa and the mother superior of the
school that sheltered Salom. Andr Ziman quotes Victor Hugo: "The best of our
lives is yet to come."

Script notes

61

62
Liar Liar (1997)
In Los Angeles, career-focused lawyer Fletcher Reede (Carrey) loves his son Max
(Cooper), but his inability to keep his promises and compulsively lying in lieu of
his career often causes problems between them and with his ex-wife Audrey
(Tierney), who has become involved with another man named Jerry. An
impressive defense attorney, Fletcher is not shy about exaggerating the stories
of his clients, and his current client, the self-centered, money-grabbing
Samantha Cole (Tilly) has garnered the attention of Mr. Allen, a partner at the
law firm in which Fletcher works. Should Fletcher win this case, it would bring
his firm a fortune plus be an enormous boost to his career. With the pressure
being put on him, Fletcher lies to Max about missing his birthday due to work,
when he is actually sleeping with another attorney, Miranda, in order to get a
promotion. Dejected, Max makes a birthday wish that for one day his father
cannot tell a lie. The wish immediately comes true, and Fletcher is put in an
awkward circumstance of telling Miranda he's "had better" after they've had
sex.
The following day, Fletcher immediately realizes that he is unable to lie or to
withhold a true answer, often uncontrollably blurting out painful, offensive and
often outrageous truths that set him on the outs with most of his co-workers and
his car ending up in an impound for several parking violations. This comes to a
head when he realizes that he is unable to even ask questions when he knows
the answer will be a lie, which is inconvenient as Samantha and her alleged
affair partner Kenneth Faulk are willing to commit perjury to win the high
profile case and he cannot ask him the questions they have been given answers
for.

63
Realizing that Max had wished for this to happen, Fletcher tries to convince him
that adults need to lie, but cannot give any type of answer at why he should
continue to lie to his son. Fletcher also figures out that since Max wished for him
to tell the truth for only one day, he tries to do what he can to delay Samantha's
case since the magic wish will expire at 8:15 p.m., 24 hours after Max made the
wish.
Fletcher's erratic behavior in court leads to several questions of his sanity as he
objects to himself and badgers and provokes his witnesses into truthfully
admitting they had an affair against Samantha and her husband's prenuptial
agreement. Fletcher loses his loyal assistant Greta after admitting he'd lied
about the "expensive" gifts he gave her, and miserly reasons for denying her
pay raises. Also, Audrey tells Fletcher that she is moving with Max to Boston with
Jerry to prevent anymore heartbreaks from Fletcher's constant broken promises.
However, Fletcher finds a technicality that Samantha was underage when she
signed the prenup prior to her marriage which renders it void and she is
entitled to half of Mr. Cole's estate. But when Samantha decides to contest
custody of their children who Mr. Cole dearly loves just because she wants more
money from the child support payments, Fletcher has a stroke of conscience
after seeing Mrs. Cole cruelly pull the children out of their father's arms, and
shriek her demands for more money, Fletcher overhears this and tries to get the
Judge to reverse the decision, but is arrested for talking back to the Judge and
is thrown in jail.
Greta returns and bails Fletcher from jail, who forgives him and realizes that
telling the truth has made him a better man and he rushes to the airport to stop
Audrey and Max from leaving forever. He misses their flight, but steals a
motorized staircase to stop the flight, he succeeds by causing a crash with the

64
stairs and resulting in the breaking of both of his legs. After coming to, he
admits to Max how much he cares about him and how sorry he was for breaking
his promises, despite no longer under the wish's influence, Fletcher means
what he says and that Max is his priority and Max convinces Audrey to stay in
Los Angeles.
One year later, Fletcher is healed and is running his own law firm with Greta as
his continued assistant. Max makes a wish with his birthday cake and the lights
come on to reveal Fletcher and Audrey kissing, but explains he wished for
rollerblades and not for them to get back together, meaning Audrey
legitimately wants to reconcile. Fletcher clutches his hands into "The Claw" -a
game he likes to play with Max by chasing him- and chases him and Audrey
around the house with it.

Script notes

65

66
Life is Beautiful (1997/1998)
In 1939 Italy, Guido Orefice is a young Jewish man who is leaving his old life
and going to work in the city where his uncle lives. Guido is comical and sharp,
making the best from each situation he encounters. From the start he falls in
love with a girl Dora. Later he sees her again in the city where she is a teacher.
Dora is set to be engaged to a rich but arrogant man. He is a local government
official with whom Guido has run-ins from the beginning. Guido is still in love
with Dora and performs many stunts in order to see her. Guido sets up many
"coincidental" incidents to show his interest. Finally Dora sees Guido's affection
and promise and gives in against her better judgement. He steals her from her
engagement party on a horse, humiliating her fianc and mother. Soon they are
married and have a son, Giosu.
Through the first part, the film depicts the changing political climate in Italy:
Guido frequently imitates members of the National Fascist Party, skewering
their racist logic and pseudoscientific reasoning (at one point, jumping onto a
table to demonstrate his "perfect Aryan bellybutton"). However, the growing
Fascist wave is also evident: the horse Guido steals Dora away on has been
painted green and covered in antisemitic insults. Later during World War II, after
Dora and her mother have reconciled, Guido, his Uncle Eliseo and Giosu are
seized on Giosu's birthday. They and many other Jews are forced onto a train
and taken to a concentration camp. After confronting a guard about her
husband and son and being told there is no mistake, Dora volunteers to get on
the train in order to be close to her family. However, as men and women are
separated in the camp, Dora and Guido never see each other during the
internment. Thus, Guido pulls off stunts, such as using the camp's loudspeaker,
to send messages, symbolic or literal, to Dora to assure her that he and their son

67
are safe. Eliseo is executed in a gas chamber shortly after their arrival. Giosu
barely avoids being gassed himself as he hates to take baths and showers, and
did not follow the other children when they had been ordered to enter the gas
chambers.
In the camp, Guido hides their true situation from his son. Guido explains to
Giosu that the camp is a complicated game in which he must perform the tasks
Guido gives him. Giosu is at times reluctant to go along with the game, but
Guido convinces him each time to continue on. Guido sets up the concentration
camp as a game for Giosu. Each of the tasks will earn them points and whoever
gets to one thousand points first will win a tank. He tells him that if he cries,
complains that he wants his mother, or says that he is hungry, he will lose
points, while quiet boys who hide from the camp guards earn extra points.
Guido uses this game to explain features of the concentration camp that would
otherwise be frightening for a young child: the guards are mean only because
they want the tank for themselves; the dwindling numbers of children (who are
being killed in gas chambers) are only hiding in order to score more points than
Giosu so they can win the game. He puts off Giosu's requests to end the
game and return home by convincing him that they are in the lead for the tank,
and need only wait a short while before they can return home with their tank.
Guido eventually buys additional time by intentionally getting Giosu mixed in
with nearby German schoolchildren, and briefly working as a servant for the
same kids in order to help keep the other officials from noticing that Giosu is
actually Italian.
Despite being surrounded by the misery, sickness, and death at the camp,
Giosu does not question this fiction because of his father's convincing
performance and his own innocence. Guido maintains this story right until the
end when, in the chaos of shutting down the camp as the Allied forces

68
approach, he tells his son to stay in a sweatbox until everybody has left, this
being the final competition before the tank is his. As the camp is in chaos Guido
goes off to find Dora, but while he is out he is caught by a German soldier. An
officer makes the decision to execute Guido. Guido is led off by the soldier to be
executed. While he is walking to his death, Guido passes by Giosu one last
time, still in character and playing the game. The next morning, Giosu emerges
from the sweatbox, just as a U.S. Army unit led by a Sherman tank arrives and
the camp is liberated. Giosu is elated and is convinced he has won the game
and the prize. The captives in the concentration camp also emerge from hiding.
The prisoners travel to safety, accompanied by the Americans. While they are
traveling, the soldiers allow Giosu to ride on the tank with them. Giosu soon
spots Dora in the procession leaving the camp. Giosu and Dora are reunited
and are extremely happy to see each other. In the film, Giosu is a young boy;
however, both the beginning and ending of the film are narrated by an older
Giosu recalling his father's story of sacrifice for his family.

Script notes

69

70
Life of Brian (1979)
Brian Cohen is born in a stable next door to the one in which Jesus is born,
which initially confuses thethree wise men who come to praise the future King
of the Jews. Brian grows up an idealistic young man who resents the continuing
Roman occupation of Judea. While attending Jesus' Sermon on the Mount,
Brian becomes infatuated with an attractive young rebel, Judith. His desire for
her and hatred for the Romans lead him to join the People's Front of Judea, one
of many fractious and bickering independence movements, who spend more
time fighting each other than the Romans.
After several misadventures, and escaping from Pontius Pilate, the fugitive
winds up in a line-up of would-be mystics and prophets who harangue the
passing crowd in a plaza. Forced to come up with something plausible in order
to blend in and keep the guards off his back, Brian babbles pseudo-religious
truisms, and quickly attracts a small but intrigued audience. Once the guards
have left, Brian tries to put the episode behind him, but he has unintentionally
inspired a movement. He grows frantic when he finds that some people have
started to follow him around, with even the slightest unusual occurrence being
hailed as a "miracle". After slipping away from the mob, Brian runs into Judith,
and they spend the night together. In the morning, Brian, completely naked,
opens the curtains to discover an enormous crowd outside his mother's house
who proclaim him the Messiah. Brian's mother protests, "He's not the Messiah,
he's a very naughty boy." Brian finds himself unable to change their minds
because his every word and action are immediately seized as points of doctrine.
The hapless Brian finds no solace at the PFJ's headquarters, where people fling
their afflicted bodies at him demanding miracle cures. After sneaking out the
back, Brian is finally captured and scheduled to be crucified . Meanwhile, a huge

71
crowd has assembled outside the palace. Pilate (together with the visiting
Biggus Dickus) tries to quell the feeling of revolution by granting them the
choice of one person to be pardoned. The crowd, however, shouts out names
containing the letter "r", mocking Pilate'srhotacistic speech impediment.
Eventually, Judith appears in the crowd and calls for the release of Brian, which
the crowd echoes since the name also contains an "r". Pilate agrees to "welease
Bwian".
His order is eventually relayed to the guards, but in a scene that parodies the
climax of the filmSpartacus, various crucified people all claim to be "Brian of
Nazareth" and the wrong man is released. Various other opportunities for a
reprieve for Brian are denied as, one by one, his "allies" (including Judith and
his mother) step forward to explain why they are leaving the "noble freedom
fighter" hanging in the hot sun. Hope is renewed when a crack suicide squad
from the Judean People's Front (not to be confused with the People's
Front of Judea) come charging towards the Romans, but rather than fighting to
release Brian or the other prisoners, they commit mass suicide as a political
protest. Condemned to a long and painful death, Brian finds his spirits lifted by
his fellow sufferers, who break into song with "Always Look on the Bright Side of
Life." [6]

Script notes

72

73
Lilies of the Field (1963)
Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier) is an itinerant handyman/jack-of-all-trades who
stops at a farm in theArizona desert to obtain some water for his car. There he
sees several women working on a fence, very ineptly. The women, who speak
very little English, introduce themselves as German, Austrian and Hungarian
nuns. The mother superior, the leader of the nuns, persuades him to do a small
roofing repair. He stays overnight, assuming that he will be paid in the morning.
Next day, Smith tries to persuade the mother superior to pay him by quoting
Luke 10:7, "The laborer is worthy of his hire." Mother Maria Marthe (Lilia Skala,
called "Mother Maria"), responds by asking him to read another Bible verse
from the Sermon on the Mount: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Mother Maria likes things done her way. The nuns have essentially no money
and subsist by living off the land, on what vegetables the arid climate provides,
and some milk and eggs. Even after being stonewalled when asking for
payment, and after being persuaded to stay for a meal, and against his better
judgment, Smith agrees to stay another day to help them with other small jobs,
always with the faint hope that Mother Maria will pay him for his work.
As Smith's skills and strengths become apparent to the nuns, they come to
believe that he has been sent by God to fulfill their dream of building a chapel
for the townsfolkwho are Mexican and impoverishedas the nearest church is
miles away.
When Sunday comes, Mother Maria informs Smith that he will be driving the
sisters to Mass in his station wagon. (The nuns have no vehicle and thus

74
ordinarily would walk the long distance to church.) Smith is invited to attend the
Catholic Mass, celebrated by a roving priest not in a church but outdoors, but he
declines because he is a Baptist. Instead, he takes the opportunity to get a
proper breakfast from the trading post next door. In talking to the proprietor,
Juan (Stanley Adams), Smith learns about the hardships that the nuns, led by
the unyielding Mother Maria, overcame to emigrate from Eastern Europe over
the Berlin Wall only to barely scratch out a meager living on the farm that was
willed to their order. Juan humorously tells Homer that he considers prayer and
belief in religion a form of "insurance", and suggests that is why Homer is
helping the nuns without being paid.
Though he has come to realize how unlikely it is that he will be paid, and partly
out of respect for all the women have overcome, Smith stays longer and finds
himself driven to work on at least clearing the construction site for the chapel.
He rationalizes that it would be too hard for the sisters to move the heavy
beams. After losing another duel of Bible quotes with Mother Maria, Smith
acknowledges that he has always wanted to be an architect, but couldn't afford
the schooling. His unfulfilled dream impels him to agree to undertake the
(unpaid) job of building the sisters a chapel.
To earn money to buy some "real food" to supplement the spartan diet the nuns
are able to provide him, Smith gets a part-time job with the nearby construction
contractor, Ashton (director Ralph Nelson, uncredited), who is impressed that
Smith can handle nearly every piece of heavy equipment he owns. Smith
supplements the nuns' diet as well, shopping for groceries to stock up their
kitchen and delighting them with treats such as lollipops.
To pass the evenings, Smith (whom the nuns call "Schmidt") helps the sisters
improve their rudimentary English (only Mother Maria speaks the language

75
well enough to converse with him) and joins them in singing. They share their
different musical traditions with one another: their Catholicchants and his
Baptist hymns. He teaches them to join him in the call-and-response song
"Amen" byJester Hairston (dubbed by Hairston in the film).
Smith, determined that the building will be constructed to the highest
standards, insists that the work be done by him and only him. Meanwhile, the
nuns write letters to various philanthropic organizations and charities asking for
money for supplies, but all their requests are denied. As word spreads about the
endeavor, locals begin to show up to contribute materials and to help in
construction, but Smith rebuffs all offers of assistance in the labor. As he gains a
larger and larger audience for his efforts, the locals, impressed with his
determination, but no less dogged than he, will content themselves no longer
with just watching. They find ways to lend a hand that Smith cannot easily turn
down the lifting of a bucket or brick, for example. Once the process is in
motion, they end up doing as they intended, assisting in every aspect of the
construction, as well as contributing materials. This greatly accelerates the
progress, much to the delight of everyone but Smith.
Even Ashton, who has long ignored Mother Maria's pleas, finds an excuse to
deliver some more materials. Almost overnight, Smith finds that he's become a
building foreman and contractor. Enduring the hassles of coordinating the work
of so many, the constant disputes with Mother Maria, and the trial of getting
enough materials for the building, Smith brings the chapel to completion,
placing the cross on the spire himself and signing his work where only he and
God will know.
It is the evening before the Sunday when the chapel is to be dedicated. All the
work has been done and Smith is exhausted. Now that there is nothing more to

76
keep Smith among them, Mother Maria, too proud to ask him outright to stay,
insists that he attend the opening Mass next day to receive proper recognition
from the congregation. She speaks enthusiastically of all that "Schmidt" still can
do to aid the town, such as building a school. Making no reply to any of this,
Smith tricks Mother Maria, as part of the night's English lesson, into saying
"thank you" to him. Until then, she stubbornly had thanked only God for the
work, assistance, and gifts that Smith had provided to the nuns. It is a touching
moment between two strong personalities.
Later that evening, as he leads the nuns in singing "Amen" once again, Smith
slips out the door and, still singing the lead, the nuns' voices chiming softly
behind him, he takes one last look at the chapel he built. Mother Maria hears
him start up his station wagon, but remains stolidly in her seat, singing along
with the rest of the sisters, as Smith drives quietly off into the night.

Script notes

77

78
The Lion King (1994)
n the Pride Lands of Africa, a lion rules over the animals as king. The birth of
King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi's son Simba creates envy and resentment in
Mufasa's younger brother, Scar, who knows his nephew now replaces him as
heir to the throne. After Simba has grown into a young cub, Mufasa gives him a
tour of the Pride Lands, teaching him the responsibilities of being a king and
the circle of life. Later that day, Scar tricks Simba and his best friend Nala into
exploring a forbidden elephant graveyard, despite the protests of Mufasa's
hornbill majordomo Zazu. At the graveyard, three spotted hyenas named
Shenzi, Banzai and Ed attack the cubs before Mufasa, alerted by Zazu, rescues
them and forgives Simba for his actions. That night, the hyenas, who are allied
with Scar, plot with him to kill Mufasa and Simba.
The next day Scar lures Simba to a gorge and tells him to wait there while he
gets Mufasa. On Scar's orders, the hyenas stampede a large herd of wildebeest
into the gorge. Mufasa rescues Simba, but as Mufasa tries to climb up the
gorge's walls, Scar throws him back into the stampede, where he is trampled to
death. After Simba finds Mufasa's body, Scar convinces him he was responsible
for his father's death and advises Simba to flee the kingdom. As Simba leaves,
Scar orders Shenzi, Banzai and Ed to kill the cub, but Simba escapes. That night,
Scar announces to the pride that both Mufasa and Simba were killed in the
stampede and steps forward as the new king, allowing a pack of hyenas to live
in the Pride Lands.
After running far away, Simba collapses from exhaustion in a desert. Timon and
Pumbaa, a meerkatand a warthog, find him and nurse him back to health.
Simba subsequently grows up with them in the jungle, living a carefree life with
his friends under the motto "hakuna matata" ("no worries" in Swahili). When he

79
is a young adult, Simba rescues Timon and Pumbaa from a hungry lioness, who
turns out to be Nala. She and Simba reconcile and fall in love. Nala urges Simba
to return home, telling him the Pride Lands have become a wasteland with not
enough food and water. Feeling guilty over his father's death, Simba refuses
and storms off, leaving Nala disappointed and angry. As Simba exits the jungle,
he encounters Mufasa's mandrill friend and advisor, Rafiki. Rafiki tells Simba
that Mufasa is "alive" and takes him to a pond. There Simba is visited by the
ghost of Mufasa in the sky, who tells him he must take his rightful place as the
king of the Pride Lands. Simba realizes he can no longer run from his past and
goes home. Nala, Timon, and Pumbaa join him, and agree to help him fight.
At the Pride Lands, Simba sees Scar hit Sarabi and confronts him, but Scar taunts
Simba over his "part" in Mufasa's death. However, when Scar pushes Simba to
the edge of Pride Rock, he reveals that he killed Mufasa. Enraged, Simba roars
back up and forces Scar to reveal the truth to the pride. Timon, Pumbaa, Rafiki,
Zazu, and the lionesses fend off the hyenas while Scar, attempting to escape, is
cornered by Simba at the top of Pride Rock. Scar begs Simba for mercy, saying
he is family and placing the blame on the hyenas. Simba says he does not
believe Scar anymore but spares his life and commands him to forever leave the
Pride Lands. Scar meekly walks past him, but then attacks his nephew. After a
fierce fight, Simba throws his uncle off Pride Rock. Scar survives the fall, but is
attacked and eaten alive by the hyenas, who overheard his attempt to betray
them.
With Scar and the hyenas gone, Simba ascends to the top of Pride Rock and
takes over the kingdom as the rain falls again. Sometime later, with Pride Rock
restored to its former glory, Simba looks down happily at his kingdom with Nala,
Timon, and Pumbaa by his side; Rafiki presents Simba and Nala's newborn cub
to the inhabitants of the Pride Lands, and the "circle of life" continues.

Script notes

80

81
Little Big Man(1970)
n the present day, 121-year-old Jack Crabb, residing in a hospice, recounts his
plentiful life story to a curious historian. Among other things, Crabb claims to
have had been a captive of the Cheyenne, a gunslinger, an associate of Wild Bill
Hickok, a scout for General George Armstrong Custer, and the sole white
survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Jack begins his story in a flashback to 1859 when he was 10 years old where he
and his older sister Caroline (Carole Androsky) survive the massacre of their
parents by the Pawnee, and are taken back to a Cheyenne village. Caroline
escapes, but Jack is reared by the good-hearted tribal leader Old Lodge Skins. As
Jack gets older, he unwittingly makes an enemy of another boy, Younger Bear;
however, Younger Bear eventually owes his life to Jack since he saved his life
from a Pawnee Indian. Jack is given the name "Little Big Man" because he is
short but very brave. In 1865, when Jack is 16, he is captured by U.S. cavalry
troopers during a skirmish and renounces his Native American upbringing in
order to save himself. He is put in the care of Reverend Silas Pendrake and his
sexually frustrated wife, Louise, who tries to seduce Jack. When he witnesses
Mrs. Pendrake having sex with the soda shop owner, Jack leaves the Pendrake
household, and religion.
The following year, Jack becomes the apprentice of the snake-oil salesman
Merriweather. The two are tarred and feathered when their customers realize
that Merriweather's products are fraudulent. One of the angry customers is
Jack's now-grown sister, Caroline, with whom he reunites. She attempts to mold
her brother into a gunslinger named the Soda Pop Kid. Jack meets Wild Bill
Hickok at a saloon, and Hickok takes a liking to the young man. When Hickok is

82
forced to kill a man in self-defense, Jack loses his taste for gunslinging and
Caroline deserts him.
Another year or so later, Jack becomes a partner in a general store and marries a
Swedish woman named Olga (Kelly Jean Peters). Unfortunately, Jack's business
partner turns out to be a thieving scoundrel. The famous cavalry officer George
Armstrong Custer suggests the couple restart their lives further west and assures
them they have nothing to fear of Indians. They set out, but their stagecoachis
ambushed by Cheyenne warriors. Olga is abducted and Jack sets out in search
for her. He is reunited with Old Lodge Skins. Younger Bear has become a
contrary, a warrior who does everything in reverse. Jack makes friends with the
hwame Little Horse, but continues on his search for Olga.
Jack eventually becomes a "muleskinner" in Custer's 7th Cavalry. He takes part
in a battle against the Cheyenne, but when the troopers begin killing women
and children, Jack turns on them. Jack discovers a Cheyenne woman, Sunshine
(Aime Eccles), giving birth. He returns with her to Old Lodge Skins's tribe.
Sunshine becomes his wife and bears him a child. Jack again encounters
Younger Bear, not a Contrary anymore, who is now the henpecked husband of
the long-lost Olga. Olga does not recognize Jack, who makes no attempt to
make her remember him. Sunshine asks Jack to take in her three widowed
sisters as wives and to father children with them. He is reluctant at first, but
finally agrees.
Custer and the 7th Cavalry make a surprise attack on the Cheyenne camp at the
Washita River. A now-blind and elderly Old Lodge Skins is saved by Jack, but
Sunshine, their child, and her sisters are killed. Jack tries to infiltrate Custer's
camp to exact revenge, but loses his nerve. Disheartened, Jack becomes the
town drunk in Deadwood, South Dakota. While in a drunken stupor, he is

83
recognized by Wild Bill Hickok, who gives him money to get cleaned up. Hickok
is shot and killed while playing cards and, with his last breath, asks Jack to bring
some money to a widow he was having an affair with. Jack visits the widow, now
a prostitute who turns out to be Louise Pendrake. Jack gives her the money that
Hickok intended for her to use to start a new life, but rebuffs her sexual
advances. This scene provides an homage to Hoffman's role in the movie The
Graduate and his seduction by Mrs. Robinson.
Jack soon becomes a trapper and hermit. His mind becomes unhinged after
coming across an empty trap with a severed animal limb. He prepares to
commit suicide, but sees Custer and his troops marching nearby, and decides to
return to his quest for revenge. Custer hires him as a scout, reasoning that
anything Jack says will be a lie, thus serving as a perfect reverse barometer. Jack
tricks Custer into leading his troops into a trap at the Little Bighorn by truthfully
telling Custer of the overwhelming force of Native Americans hidden within the
valley. As Custer's troops are slaughtered by the combined Sioux and Cheyenne
group, he begins to rave insanely. The mad Custer attempts to shoot Jack, but is
killed by Younger Bear, who then carries Jack away from the battlefield. Having
thus discharged his life debt, Younger Bear tells Jack that the next time they
meet, he can kill Jack without becoming an evil person.
Back at the Indian camp, Jack accompanies Old Lodge Skins to a nearby hill, the
Indian Burial Ground, where the old man, dressed in full Chief's regalia, has
declared "It is a good day to die", and decides to end his life with dignity. He
offers his spirit to the Great Spirit, and lies down at his spot at the Indian Burial
Ground to wait for death. Instead, it begins to rain. Old Lodge Skins is revealed
to still be alive, and says, "Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it
doesn't". They return to his tepee to have dinner.

84
Jack's narrative ends and he dismisses the historian, while thinking with
sadness about the memories of a world which is no more.

Script notes

85

86
The Little Foxes (1941)
The focus is on Southern aristocrat Regina Hubbard Giddens (Bette Davis), who
struggles for wealth and freedom within the confines of an early 20th-century
society where a father considered only sons as legal heirs. As a result, her
avaricious brothers, Benjamin (Charles Dingle) and Oscar (Carl Benton Reid), are
independently wealthy, while she must rely for financial support upon her sickly
husband Horace (Herbert Marshall), who has been away undergoing treatment
for a severe heart condition.
Having married the much-maligned, alcoholic Birdie (Patricia Collinge) solely to
acquire her family'splantation and its cotton fields, Oscar now wants to join
forces with Benjamin to construct a cotton mill. They approach their sister with
their need for an additional $75,000 to invest in the project. Oscar initially
proposes a marriage between his son Leo (Dan Duryea) and Regina's daughter
Alexandra (Teresa Wright) first cousins as a means of getting Horace's
money; but Horace and Alexandra are repulsed by the suggestion. When
Regina asks Horace outright for the money, he refuses. She tells him his refusal
is not important since he will die soon and she is waiting for that day to come.
Alexandra overhears the conversation.
Ben and Oscar, aware of Horace's refusal, pressure Leo into stealing Horace's
railroad bonds from his personal security box at the bank to complete the sum
needed to construct the mill. After returning home from an impromptu trip to
his security box at the bank, Horace informs Regina of the theft of his bonds.
Regina, realizing her two brothers stole the bonds through Leo, who works at
the bank, schemes to acquire a larger share of the mill by blackmailing her
brothers about their theft. Immediately, Horace states he is changing his will to
leave Alexandra everything except the railroad bonds which, he will claim he

87
freely lent to Leo. This story will thwart any attempt by Regina to blackmail her
brothers over their theft and will deny her any claim to an ownership stake in
the mill.
Regina then argues with Horace about her contempt for him; and, when he
suffers a heart attack, she makes no effort to get him his medicine from upstairs.
Horace climbs the stairs to get his medicine but collapses on the way up. The
final scenes of the film involve a dying Horace surrounded by family, a doctor
and servants who await the chance he may survive. Eventually, Horace dies,
leaving no one to contradict Regina if she accuses her brothers of theft. She thus
blackmails her brothers, demanding that she be given 75% ownership of the
mill business, and they are left with no choice but to accept her demand.
Alexandra hears this conversation; and, upon the brothers' leaving, she
confronts her mother about the nature of her father's death on the stairway.
Alexandra states the importance of not idly watching people do evil, and Regina
tells her daughter that she cannot do anything to stop her from leaving the
household. Alexandra runs away with newspaperman David (Richard Carlson).
Regina is left wealthy, but completely alone.

Script notes

88

89
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
n 1912, 13-year-old Indiana Jones is horseback riding with his Boy Scout troop
in Moab, Utah. While scouting caves, Indy discovers a group of grave robbers
who have found a golden crucifix belonging to Coronado and steals it from
them, hoping to donate it to a museum. The men give chase through a passing
circus train, leaving Indy with a bloody cut across his chin from a bullwhip and
new phobia of snakes. Indy escapes, but the local sheriff makes him return the
crucifix. Impressed with Indy's bravery, the leader of the robbers gives Indy his
fedora.
In 1938, Indy recovers the crucifix off the coast of Portugal and donates it to
Marcus Brody's museum. Later, Indy is introduced to Walter Donovan, who
informs him that Indy's father, Henry Jones, Sr., has vanished while searching
for the Holy Grail, using an incomplete inscription as his guide. Indy then
receives Henry's Grail diary via mail from Venice. Realizing that he would not
have sent the diary unless he was in trouble, Indy and Marcus travel to Venice,
where they meet Henry's Austriancolleague, Dr. Elsa Schneider. Beneath the
library where Henry was last seen, Indy and Elsa discover the tomb of a First
Crusade knight, which also contains a complete version of the inscription that
Henry had used, this one revealing the location of the Grail. They flee, however,
when the catacombs are set aflame by the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword,
a secret society that protects the Grail from evildoers. After a speedboat chase,
Indy and Elsa capture one of the Brotherhood, Kazim, and Indy tells him that his
goal is only to find his father and that he has no interest in finding the Grail.
Kazim tells him that Henry is being held in Castle Brunwald on the AustrianGerman border. Marcus later reveals a map drawn by Henry of the route to the
Grail, which begins in Alexandretta.

90
At Castle Brunwald, Indy rescues Henry, but learns that Elsa and Donovan are
actually working with the Nazis, and are using him to find the Grail for them.
Meanwhile, Marcus is captured in Hatay, Turkeywhile waiting with Sallah for the
Joneses. The Joneses escape from Castle Brunwald and recover the diary from
Elsa at a Nazi rally in Berlin, barely escaping from an accidental face to face
encounter withAdolf Hitler, who autographs Henry's diary. They board a
Zeppelin to leave Germany, but the Zeppelin soon turns around and the Joneses
escape in a parasite biplane. They crash while engaging in adogfight with the
Luftwaffe due to Henry's accidentally shooting the plane's tail off, but Henry
redeems himself on the ground by alarming a flock of birds to take flight in
front of the Luftwaffe fighter causing the pilot to crash.
The two meet up with Sallah in Hatay, where they learn of Marcus's abduction.
The Nazis are already moving toward the Grail's location, using the map
possessed by Marcus. In exchange for a Rolls-Royce Phantom II, the Sultan of
Hatay has given the Nazis full access to his equipment for the expedition,
including a large tank. Indy, Henry, and Sallah find the Nazi expedition, which is
ambushed by the Brotherhood. During the battle, Henry is captured by Nazi
officer Vogel while attempting to rescue Marcus from the tank; Kazim and his
comrades are killed. The younger Jones pursues the tank on horseback and,
with the aid of Sallah, saves Henry and Marcus. He is then caught up in a fight
with Vogel, and barely escapes before the tank goes over a cliff, killing Vogel.
Indy, Henry, Marcus, and Sallah catch up with the surviving Nazis, led by
Donovan and Elsa, who have found the temple where the Grail is kept but are
unable to pass through the three protective booby traps. Donovan shoots Henry,
mortally wounding him, in order to force Indy to risk his life in the traps to find
the Grail and use its healing power to save Henry. Using the information in the
diary and followed by Donovan and Elsa, Indy safely overcomes the traps

91
(circular blades, a word puzzle, and an invisible bridge across a bottomless pit),
and reaches the Grail's chamber, which is guarded by a knight. He has been
kept alive for seven hundred years by the power of the Grail, which is hidden
among dozens of fake Grails. Elsa betrays Donovan by deliberately giving him a
golden chalice, which causes him to decay into dust upon drinking from it. Indy
then uses his expert knowledge to find the true Grail, a plain cup of a carpenter,
which the knight warns cannot be taken beyond the great seal at the temple's
entrance. Indy fills the Grail with holy water and takes it to Henry, which they
give to him to drink along with pouring the rest on his gunshot wound, instantly
healing him. Elsa then takes the Grail past the great seal, ignoring and
forgetting the knight's warning. The temple begins to rapidly collapse and, even
as Indy attempts to save her, Elsa falls to her death into an abyss because she is
unable to let go of her obsession with the Grail. Indy nearly suffers the same
fate, but is saved by Henry, who convinces him to let it go. While the knight
watches them, the Joneses, Marcus, and Sallah then narrowly escape the
collapsing temple. Afterwards, Henry reveals the origins of Indy's nickname to
the group as the name of the family's former Malamute before they all ride off
into the sunset.

Script notes

92

93
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Ariel, a sixteen-year-old mermaid princess, is dissatisfied with underwater life
and is curious about the human world. With her best friend Flounder, Ariel
collects human artifacts and goes to the surface of the ocean to visit Scuttle the
seagull, who offers very inaccurate knowledge of human culture. She ignores
the warnings of her father King Triton, the ruler of Atlantica, and his adviser and
court composer Sebastian that contact between merpeople and humans is
forbidden.
One night, Ariel, Flounder, and an unwilling Sebastian travel to the ocean
surface to watch a celebration for the birthday of Prince Eric on a ship. Ariel
quickly becomes enamored with Eric. The birthday celebration is cut short by a
violent storm which wrecks the ship and tosses Eric overboard Ariel saves the
unconscious Eric from drowning and brings him to shore. She sings to him, but
quickly leaves as soon as he regains consciousness to avoid being discovered.
Fascinated by the memory of her voice, Eric vows to find who saved and sang to
him, and Ariel vows to find a way to join him and his world. Noticing a change in
Ariel's behavior, Triton questions Sebastian about her behavior and learns of her
love for Eric. Furious, Triton confronts Ariel in her grotto, where she and Flounder
store human artifacts, and destroys the objects with his trident to her dismay.
After Triton leaves, two eels namedFlotsam and Jetsam convince Ariel to visit
Ursula the sea witch.
Ursula makes a deal with Ariel to transform her into a human for three days in
exchange for Ariel's voice, which Ursula puts in a nautilus shell. Within these
three days, Ariel must receive the "kiss of true love" from Eric. If Ariel gets Eric to
kiss her, she will remain a human permanently, otherwise, she will transform
back into a mermaid and belong to Ursula. Ariel agrees and is then given

94
human legs and taken to the surface by Flounder and Sebastian. Eric finds Ariel
on the beach and takes her to his castle, unaware that she is the one who had
saved him earlier. Ariel spends time with Eric, and at the end of the second day,
they almost kiss but are thwarted by Flotsam and Jetsam. Angered at their
narrow escape, Ursula disguises herself as a beautiful young woman named
Vanessa and appears onshore singing with Ariel's voice. Eric recognizes the
song and, in her disguise, Ursula casts a hypnotic enchantment on Eric to make
him forget about Ariel.
The next day, Ariel finds out that Eric will be married to the disguised Ursula.
Scuttle discovers that Vanessa is actually Ursula in disguise, and informs Ariel
who immediately pursues the wedding barge. Sebastian informs Triton, and
Scuttle disrupts the wedding with the help of various animals. In the chaos, the
nautilus shell around Ursula's neck is broken, restoring Ariel's voice and
breaking Ursula's enchantment over Eric. Realizing that Ariel is the girl who
saved his life, Eric rushes to kiss her, but the sun sets and Ariel transforms back
into a mermaid. Ursula reveals herself and kidnaps Ariel. A furious Triton
confronts Ursula and demands Ariel's release, but the deal is inviolable. At
Ursula's urging, Triton agrees to take Ariel's place as Ursula's prisoner, giving up
his trident. Ariel is released as Triton transforms into a polyp and loses his
authority over Atlantica. Ursula declares herself the new ruler, but before she
can use the trident, Eric hits her with a harpoon. Ursula tries to strike down Eric,
but Ariel interferes, causing Ursula to inadvertently kill Flotsam and Jetsam.
Enraged, Ursula uses the trident to grow into monstrous proportions.
Ariel and Eric reunite on the surface just before Ursula grows past and towers
over the two. She then gains full control of the entire ocean, creating a storm
and bringing sunken ships to the surface. Just as Ursula attempts to kill Ariel,
Eric steers a wrecked ship towards Ursula, impaling her with the ship's

95
splintered bowsprit. With Ursula destroyed, Triton and the other polyps in
Ursula's garden revert into their original forms. Realizing that Ariel truly loves
Eric, Triton willingly changes her from a mermaid into a human and blesses her
marriage to Eric. Ariel and Eric marry on a ship and depart.

Script notes

96

97
Local Hero (1983)
"Mac" MacIntyre (Peter Riegert) is a typical 1980s hot-shot executive working
for Knox Oil and Gas in Houston, Texas. The eccentric chief of the company, Felix
Happer (Burt Lancaster), chooses to send him (largely because his surname
sounds Scottish) to Scotland to acquire the village of Ferness to make way for a
refinery. Mac (who is actually of Hungarian extraction) is a little apprehensive
about his assignment, complaining to a co-worker that he would much rather
take care of business over the phone and via telex machines. Happer, an avid
astronomy buff, tells Mac to watch the sky, especially around the constellation
Virgo, and to notify him immediately if he sees anything unusual.
Upon arriving in Scotland, Mac teams up with local Knox representative Danny
Oldsen (Peter Capaldi). During a visit to a Knox research facility in Aberdeen, Dr
Geddes (Rikki Fulton) and his assistant Watt (Alex Norton) inform them about
the scope of the company's plans, which entail replacing Ferness with the
refinery. They also meet (and admire) marine researcher Marina (Jenny
Seagrove).
Mac ultimately spends several weeks in Ferness, gradually adapting to the
slower-paced life and getting to know the eccentric residents, most notably the
hotel owner and accountant, Gordon Urquhart (Denis Lawson ) and his wife,
Stella (Jennifer Black). As time passes, Mac becomes more and more conflicted
as he presses to close the deal that will spell the end of the quaint little village
he has come to love. Ironically, the villagers are tired of the hard life they lead
and are more than eager to sell, though they feign indifference to induce a
larger offer. Mac receives encouragement from an unlikely source: Victor
(Christopher Rozycki), a capitalistic Soviet fishing boat captain who periodically

98
visits his friends in Ferness (and checks on his investment portfolio, managed by
Gordon).
Meanwhile, Danny befriends Marina, who is under the impression the company
is planning to build a research centre at Ferness. During a date, he discovers
that Marina, who seems more at home in the water than on land, has webbed
toes. While watching some grey seals, Danny mentions that sailors used to
believe they were mermaids, and Marina tells him the sailors were wrong.[3]
As the deal nears completion, Gordon discovers that Ben Knox (Fulton Mackay),
an old beachcomberwho lives in a snug driftwood shack on the shore, owns the
beach through a grant from the Lord of the Isles to his ancestor. MacIntyre tries
everything to entice Ben to sell, even offering enough money to buy any other
beach in the world, but the owner is content with what he has. Ben picks up
some sand and offers to sell for the same number of "pound notes" as he has
grains of sand in his hand. A suspicious MacIntyre declines, only to be told there
could not have been more than ten thousand grains.
Happer finally arrives on site, just in time to forestall a potentially nasty
confrontation between some of the villagers and Ben; Happer mistakes the
mob for a welcoming committee. When Mac informs him of the snag in the
proceedings, he decides to negotiate personally with Ben and in the process,
discovers a kindred spirit. Happer opts to locate the refinery offshore and set up
an astronomical observatory instead. He instructs MacIntyre to go home to
implement the changes. Danny brings up Marina's dream of an oceanographic
research facility and suggests combining the two into the "Happer Institute", an
idea that Happer likes. Later, Danny finds Marina swimming offshore and tells
her the good news. A sombre MacIntyre returns to his Houston apartment. The
film then cuts back to a shot of the phone booth in Ferness; the telephone rings

99
unanswered and Mac's lost, top of the range (1980s) digital watch remains in a
rock pool; alarm faltering for the start of trading on one of the main markets as
the music of Mark Knopfler's "Going Home" plays out to the credits.

Script notes

100

101
Looking for Richard (1996)
Pacino plays both himself and the title character. The movie guides the audience
through the play's plot and historical background.[3] Pacino and several fellow
actors, including Penelope Allen and Harris Yulin,[4] act out scenes from the
play.[5]

In addition, the actors comment on their roles. Pacino also features other actors
famous for performing Shakespeare, such as Vanessa Redgrave, Kenneth
Branagh, John Gielgud, Derek Jacobi, James Earl Jones, and Kevin Kline.[6]
Pacino includes interviews with Shakespeare scholars and ordinary people on
the street.

Script notes

102

103
Look Who's Talking (1989)
Mollie is an accountant living in New York City who has an affair with Albert, a
womanizing executive who is married with two children, and becomes
pregnant. During her pregnancy, Mollie and Albert keep their indiscretion
secret, under the idea she was artificially inseminated, and that Albert plans to
leave his wife Beth and their two children to be with her. Mollie and her friend
Rona happen to catch Albert fooling around with his interior decorator Melissa
and he admits he is planning on living with her after his divorce is finalized.
Mollie leaves upset, and immediately goes into labor. She gets into a cab where
the driver, James Ubriacco, recklessly speeds through downtown traffic in order
to get her to the hospital on time, and he is inadvertently a witness to her son
Mikey's birth. Mikey then begins to make commentary on his life and interacts
with things through an inner voice which can also communicate with other
babies.
Hoping to get her life back on track, Mollie becomes a dedicated single mother;
refusing to be superficial about hopeful fathers, but rejecting several men over
small quirks that may reflect badly upon Mikey in the future. She meets James
again at her apartment building and discovers he used her mailing address to
set up residency in order to get his grandfather Vincent into a nice care home.
She agrees to continue the ruse when he agrees to babysit Mikey, which almost
comes to a halt when he takes the baby out to the airport, where he is a parttime commercial pilot while she is taking a nap (leading her to believe he'd
kidnapped Mikey). A year passes, and James, realizing his feelings for Mollie
cause him to start sabotaging her dates, she soon realizes the bond he and
Mikey share and decides to give him a chance. After a visit to James'
grandfather at his new home, James takes her for flying lessons and she realizes

104
she's falling for him, but when they become intimate, she imagines their life
together and resists. James tells Mollie that he loves her, but she says the she
only wants what is best for Mikey and kicks him out. Back at work, Mollie is
forced by her boss to continue to work with Albert, who insists upon seeing
Mikey and she agrees. But when Albert visits, he meets James and the two get
into an argument, the secret upsetting James he asks Mollie if she loves Albert
and she claims she doesn't know. When he suggests the idea of being the
closest thing to a father Mikey has, Mollie tells him that he's like a big kid and is
not responsible enough to be a father. James calls her out for using Mikey to
push men away including himself and he storms out. At the playground, Mikey
is told by his friends what "daddies" are, and he realizes he wants James to be
his daddy. James comes to the apartment and tells Mikey that he won't be
around any more, and Mollie listens over the baby monitor as he pours his heart
out to Mikey who admits he'll miss James too.
Mollie takes Mikey to Albert's office to meet him, but when Albert claims he
doesn't want the responsibility of being a father, Mollie realizes he hasn't
changed and she and Mikey ruin several pieces of his furniture before storming
out and putting Albert out of their lives for good. Back at home, she receives a
call from Vincent's home telling her that he's a disruptive influence and abusive
to the staff, and she rushes over to clear up the error, managing to convince
them to keep Vincent as he was given a chocolate stash that James had earlier
instructed an orderly (who didn't speak English) not to let him have more than
one a day or it would cause these outbursts. James arrives and he and Mollie
make up. Meanwhile, Mikey wanders off on his own, searching for James when
he sees a taxi cab outside. After making his way out to the alley he gets into a
car and is towed away while Mollie and James search frantically for him. After
spotting him, James and Mollie give chase in his cab and eventually cut off the

105
tow truck, but discover Mikey had gotten out of the car and is now standing in
the middle of heavy traffic. James and Mollie run to reach him and take him to
safety, where Mikey unofficially asks James to be his father by saying his first
word "Da-da". James and Mollie realize that Mikey already sees James as his
father, and they decide to give it a chance, kissing passionately while Mikey
considers telling him he needs a new diaper, before deciding to wait.
Nine months later, Mollie gives birth to her and James' daughter Julie. When
Mikey greets his half-sister she "tells" him she had a day he wouldn't believe.

Script notes

106

107
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
In the Second Age of Middle Earth, the Dark Lord Sauron forges the One Ring in
Mount Doom to conquer the land. An alliance of men and elves battle Saurons
forces in Mordor, where Isildur destroys Sauron by chopping off the Ring from
his body. However, the Rings power corrupts Isildur to prevent its destruction.
Isildur is assassinated by Orcs, but the Ring is lost for 2500 years until
discovered bySmagol who is consumed by the Ring and later named Gollum.
After 500 years, it abandons him, only to be unexpectedly recovered by a Hobbit
named Bilbo Baggins.
Sixty years later, Bilbo celebrates his 111th birthday and is visited by his friend
Gandalf the Grey. Bilbo reveals he intends on leaving the rural Shire to stay with
the elves of Rivendell, and leave his inheritance to his nephew Frodo. After
literally vanishing from his party, Bilbo prepares to leave but Gandalf convinces
him to leave the Ring behind for Frodo. Concerned about the Ring, Gandalf
investigates its origins discovering the truth and warns Frodo, revealing
Saurons spirit survived and a captured Gollum informed Saurons forces of
Bilbos home. Gandalf catches Samwise Gamgee, Frodos friend, eavesdropping
and forces him to accompany Frodo to the village of Bree. Gandalf goes to
Isengard to speak to Saruman the White, learning Sauron has unleashed the
Ringwraiths to retrieve the Ring. Saruman is revealed to be aiding Sauron, and
he imprisons Gandalf on the roof of his towerOrthanc.
Frodo and Sam meet fellow Hobbits, Merry and Pippin, but they have to hide
from the Ringwraiths. Arriving in Bree, they learn Gandalf is missing, but are
joined by a mysterious ranger named Strider who escorts them to Rivendell. The
Hobbits are ambushed by the Ringwraiths, one stabbing Frodo with a deathly
morgul blade until Strider fends them off. Frodo is taken to Rivendell by

108
Striders lover, the Elvin princess Arwen, and is healed by her father Lord Elrond.
Gandalf arrives, having escaped Isengard on an eagle. Elrond holds a council to
decide the fate of the Ring, Frodo volunteering to throw it into Mount Doom,
which is the only way to destroy the Ring and Sauron along with it. He forms the
Fellowship of the Ring, accompanied by Gandalf, Sam, Merry, Pippin, dwarf
Gimli, elf Legolas, Boromirof Gondor, and Strider, actually revealed to be
Aragorn, a descendant of Isildur and rightful king of Gondor. Bilbo gives Frodo
his old sword Sting as a weapon.
The Fellowship set out but when Saruman magically blocks off their path, they
must venture into the dwarf Mines of Moria. They discover all of the dwarves
have been slain by Orcs, and Gollum is secretly stalking them. They are attacked
by the enemy accompanied by a troll but escape, only for a fiery demonic Balrog
to awaken. Gandalf prevents the Balrog from pursuing the group, but is
dragged into a chasm by the beast, believed to be dead. Aragorn leads the
mourning Fellowship to Lothlrien, home of Galadriel and Celeborn. Galadriel
privately informs Frodo that the Ring will be a burden, and one of his friends
will try to take the Ring. Meanwhile, Saruman forms an army of Uruk-hai to hunt
down the Fellowship and bring the carrier of the Ring unharmed.
The group sail on to Parth Galen, where Boromir attempts to take the Ring from
Frodo. Afraid of losing his friends to the Ring, Frodo decides to go off alone. The
Uruk-hai arrive, and in the commotion, Merry and Pippin are taken captive,
believed to be carriers, and Boromir is fatally shot with three arrows by the Urukhai commander Lurtz. Aragorn beheads Lurtz and helps the dying Boromir find
peace. Sam pursues Frodo, informing him he must follow him as a promise he
made to Gandalf. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli go to rescue Merry and Pippin,
while Frodo and Sam head for Mordor.

Script notes

109

110
Lulu on the Bridge (1998)
Jazz saxophone player Izzy Maurer (Harvey Keitel) is shot in the chest during a
performance at a jazz club by a deranged man. Izzy survives the seven-hour
operation, but loses his left lung, ending his music career. A young aspiring
actress named Celia Burns (Mira Sorvino) walks into the Chez Pierre restaurant
in New York City where she works as a waitress. She and her boss talk about the
shooting. Later she purchases Izzy's latest CD.[Note 1]
Following his recovery, Izzy stays to himself and avoids his friends. Gradually he
ventures outside and adapts to his new life. His former girlfriend Hannah (Gina
Gershon) invites him to a dinner attended by a retired famous actress, Catherine
Moore (Vanessa Redgrave), who is now a successful film director, and her film
producer friend, Philip Kleinman (Mandy Patinkin). For the first time in a long
time he has a good time. Catherine is looking for a young actress to play the
part of "Lula" in her upcoming film version ofPandora's Box. Walking home that
night Izzy discovers a dead body, finds a bag lying nearby, and rushes home in
fear. Later he examines the contents of the bag and finds a small box containing
a stone with a red mark. As he examines the stone he hears voices speaking in
foreign tongues.
That night, as he lay awake in bed, the stone emits a strange blue light and
elevates above the nightstand. The next morning he calls the number written on
a napkin he found in the bag and Celia picks up the phone just as she's
listening to Izzy's CD. He asks to meet, and she invites him over. When he
arrives he demands to know what she knows about the dead man, Stanley Mar
(Greg Johnson), and the strange rock. He turns out the lights and shows her the
rock's mysterious blue light. Drawn to the rock, Celia touches it and encourages
him to touch it too. "It's the best thing, it really is. It's like nothing else," she

111
says. They feel elated by the experience, which makes them feel more
connected to everything around them. He tells her, "The way I feel now, I could
spend the rest of my life with you." After he leaves, Celia runs after him and
invites him back to her apartment where they make love. In the coming days,
they fall deeply in love. She gets him a job at her restaurant, but when a
customer comes on to her, Izzy causes a scene and they both get fired.
Celia is up for a part in Catherine's film, Pandorah's Box, and with Izzy's help
and connections, she gets the part of Lulu.[Note 2] Izzy plans to meet Celia in
Dublin, where the film is being shot. Shortly after she leaves, Izzy is attacked by
men in his apartment demanding to know why he killed Stanley Mar. He is
taken away and held prisoner. He meets a mysterious Dr. Van Horn (Willem
Dafoe) who tells Izzy how disappointed he is in him. Izzy has no idea what he's
talking about, but Van Horn seems to know details about Izzy's pasthis real
name, childhood incidents, and catching fireflies with his brother at their
summer house on Echo Lake. When Van Horn begins to delve into Izzy's
relationships with his father and brother, Izzy responds, "Don't do this to me."
When reminded that he refused to play music at his father's funeral, he breaks
down in tears. One night, Van Horn storms into Izzy's cell and tell him, "You're
not worthy. You've lived a bad dishonest life." Having learned about Celia, Van
horn now demands that Izzy reveal her whereabouts. Izzy refuses to
acknowledge that he even knows her. As he leaves, Van Horn says, "May God
have mercy on your soul."
Meanwhile, Celia is unable to reach Izzy and she suspects that something is very
wrong. She fears that Izzy has abandoned her. One night she takes out the rock
and the blue light appears, but now it only produces in her an overwhelming
sadness. Distressed, Lulu takes the rock and walks to Ha'penny Bridge, where

112
she drops the stone into the dark river below. The following day, Van Horn and
his men find Celia in Dublin and attempt to kidnap her. They chase her through
the streets to Ha'penny Bridge where she had dropped the stone. As they close
in, she jumps into the river.
Back in New York, Izzy finally manages to escape his prison. He learns from the
producer of Celia's disappearance and nearly collapses. The producer gives him
a videotape of some of Celia's scenes. Later at a jazz club, he asks his friends,
"Am I a good person or a bad person?" Back at his apartment he watches the
videotape of Celia and weeps.
After being shot at the jazz club by the deranged man, Izzy is taken away in an
ambulance. On the way to the hospital, his heart stops and Izzy Maurer dies, just
as the ambulance passes a young aspiring actress named Celia Burns. She sees
the ambulance pass and makes the sign of the cross.

113

114
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome(1985)
Fifteen years after defeating Lord Humungus, Max Rockatansky crosses the
Australian desert in a camel-drawn wagon when he is attacked by a pilot named
Jedediah and his son in a Transavia PL-12 Airtruk , stealing his wagon and
belongings. Continuing on foot, Max follows their trail to the seedy community
of Bartertown. While refused entry at first, Max is brought before the founder
and ruler of Bartertown, the ruthless Aunty Entity. She offers to resupply his
vehicle and equipment if he completes a task for her.
Aunty explains that Bartertown depends on a crude methane refinery powered
by pig feces, which is run by a dwarf called Master and his giant bodyguard
Blaster. "Master Blaster" holds an uneasy truce with Aunty for control of
Bartertown; however, Master has begun to challenge Aunty's leadership. Aunty
instructs Max to provoke a confrontation with Blaster in Thunderdome, a
gladiatorial arena where conflicts are resolved by a duel to the death. Max
enters the refinery to size up Master Blaster and befriends Pig Killer, a convict
sentenced to work for slaughtering a pig to feed his family. Max finds his stolen
vehicle in Master Blaster's possession, and helps disarm his booby-trapped
engine to converse with him. Here he discovers that Blaster is exceptionally
strong but extremely sensitive to high-pitched noises.
Max then faces Blaster in the Thunderdome and uses his weakness to gain the
upper hand. He refuses to kill him after discovering he is developmentally
disabled and has the functional mentality of a child, telling Aunty it was not part
of their deal, revealing her plot. Master, previously unaware of this covert deal
to kill Blaster, is furious and vows to shut down the refinery and, by extension,
Bartertown. An enraged Aunty has Blaster executed, Master imprisoned, and
Max exiled, bound, masked, and sent on a horse in a random direction to the

115
wasteland. As his horse perishes in a sinkhole, Max frees himself and presses
on.
Near death, Max is found by a desert dweller named Savannah Nix, who hauls
him back to her home, a primitive community of children and teenagers who
live in an oasis. The children, survivors of a crashed Boeing 747, were left by
their parents who went to find civilization. They believe Max to be the flight
captain, returned to fix the plane and fly them to civilization. Max denies this
and insists that they remain in the relative safety of the oasis, knowing that the
only "civilization" within reach is Bartertown.
Some of the children, led by Savannah, leave anyway, determined to find the
prophesied "Tomorrow-morrow Land. Max stops them by force, but another
tribe member known as Scrooloos, sets them free during the night and leaves
with them. Their leader, Slake M'Thirst, asks Max to go after them, and he
agrees, taking a few of the children with him to help. They find Savannah's
group in danger but are unable to save one of the children from a sinkhole.
With no supplies left, they are forced to head for Bartertown.
The group sneak in via the underground, and, with Pig Killer's help, free Master
and escape in a train-truck, destroying Bartertown's methane refinery in the
process. Aunty leads the inhabitants in pursuit, catching up to the train. Max's
group slows them down while Scrooloos hijacks one of the pursuing vehicles,
which happens to be Max's stolen vehicle. The group comes across Jedediah
and his son, and Max coerces Jedediah into helping his group escape with their
plane. Max uses his vehicle to clear a path through Aunty's men, allowing the
plane to take off and escape, leaving him at Aunty's mercy. Aunty spares his life,
having come to respect him; she says sardonically, "...Ain't we a pair?", and
departs to presumably make good on her vow to rebuild Bartertown.

116
Jedediah flies the children to the coast, where they discover the ruins of Sydney.
Years later, the children have established a small society of themselves and
other lost wanderers in the ruins. Savannah, now leader of the group, recites a
nightly story of their journey and the man who saved them. Still alive in the
desert, Max wanders on to places unknown.

Script notes

117

118
Magnolia (1999)
The narrator recounts three instances of incredible coincidences and suggests
that forces greater than chance play important roles in life.
Police officer Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) is sent to investigate a disturbance at a
woman's apartment and finds a body in her bedroom closet. Dixon, a
neighborhood boy, tries to tell him (by rapping) who committed the murder but
Jim is dismissive. From there Jim goes to the apartment of Claudia Wilson.
Claudia's neighbors had called the police after she had a loud argument with
her estranged father, children's game show host Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker
Hall) and then blasted music while snorting cocaine. Unaware of her addiction,
Jim is immediately attracted to her and prolongs the visit. He asks her on a date
that night; she says yes.
Jimmy hosts a long-running quiz show called What Do Kids Know? and is dying
of cancer; he has only a few months to live. That night the newest child prodigy
on What Do Kids Know?, Stanley Spector (Jeremy Blackman), takes the lead as
the show begins. He is hounded by his father for the prize money and
demeaned by the surrounding adults, who refuse to let him use the bathroom
during a commercial break. When the show resumes, he wets himself and
freezes, humiliated when everyone realizes what happened. As the show
continues an inebriated Jimmy sickens, and he orders the show to go on after
he collapses onstage. But after Stanley's father berates him for freezing on air,
Stanley refuses to return for the final round.
Donnie Smith, a former What Do Kids Know? champion, watches the show from
a bar. Donnie's parents spent all of the money he won as a child, and he has just
been fired from his job at Solomon & Solomon, an electronics store, due to

119
chronic lateness and poor sales. But he is obsessed with gettingoral surgery,
thinking he will land the man of his dreams after he gets braces. He hatches a
plan to get back at his boss by breaking in and stealing the money he needs for
his braces.
Like Jimmy, the show's former producer, Earl Partridge, is dying of cancer. Earl's
trophy wife, Linda, collects his prescriptions for morphine while he is cared for
by a nurse, Phil Parma. Earl asks Phil to find his estranged son, Frank Mackey, a
motivational speaker who is peddling a pick-up artist self-helpcourse to men.
Frank is in the midst of an interview with a journalist who reveals that she knows
that Frank had to take care of his dying mother after his father, Earl, abandoned
the family. An angry Frank storms out of the interview when Phil finally gets
through to him.
Linda goes to see Earl's lawyer, begging him to change Earl's will. She admits
she married Earl for his money, but now loves him and does not want it. The
lawyer suggests she renounce the will and refuse the money, which would then
go to Frank. Linda rejects his advice and leaves in a rage. When she gets home
Linda berates Phil for seeking out Frank, but later apologizes. She then drives to
a vacant parking lot and washes down handfuls of prescription medicine with
alcohol. Dixon finds Linda in her car, near death, and calls an ambulance after
taking money from her purse.
Before his date with Claudia, Jim takes fire during a pursuit and loses his gun.
When he meets Claudia they promise to be honest with each other, so he
confesses his ineptitude as a cop and admits he has not been on a date since he
was divorced three years earlier. Claudia says he will hate her because of her
problems, but Jim assures her they do not matter. They kiss, but she runs off.

120
Jimmy Gator goes home to his wife Rose and confesses that he has cheated on
her. She asks why Claudia does not talk to him, and Jimmy admits that Claudia
believes he molested her. Rose demands to know if it is true, but Jimmy says he
cannot remember whether or not he abused Claudia. Rose tells Jimmy he
deserves to die alone, and she walks out on him. Jimmy decides to kill himself.
Meanwhile, Donnie takes the money from the Solomon & Solomon safe. As he
drives away, he realizes his mistake in stealing and decides to return the money.
However, he cannot get back in as his key had broken off in the lock earlier. As
he tries to climb a utility pole to get on the roof, he is seen by a passing Jim.
Suddenly, frogs begin to fall from the sky. As Jimmy is about to shoot himself,
frogs fall through his skylight, causing him to shoot the TV instead. Rose crashes
her car in front of Claudia's apartment, but makes it inside safely and reconciles
with her daughter. Earl dies as Frank watches. Linda's ambulance crashes in
front of the emergency room. Donnie is knocked from the pole and smashes his
teeth.
The next morning, Jim counsels Donnie and helps him return the money; his
gun falls from the sky. Frank goes to the hospital to be with Linda, who will
recover from her attempted suicide. Stanley, on his way to bed, tells his father
that he needs to be nicer to him, though his father does not respond as Stanley
had hoped, telling him to go to bed. Jim goes to see Claudia, telling her he
wants to make things work between them; she smiles in reply.

121

Script notes

122

123
M*A*S*H (1970)
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake, commander of the MASH unit 4077, requests
two new surgeons for his unit. Captains Duke Forrest and Hawkeye Pierce share
a jeep to the post, discovering that they share a taste for alcohol and similar
views about many issues. Blake assigns them to the night shift, billeting them
with Major Jonathan Hobson, a Midwestern preacher and surgeon.
Despite their dislike of authority and penchant for making wisecracks and
pulling pranks, the new doctors exhibit exceptional surgical skills and
commitment to their job, gaining the respect of their colleagues. They become
annoyed by Maj. Hobson's religious fervor and insist that Blake have Maj.
Hobson rebilleted. Friction mounts between the major and the new captains;
when Major Hobson's prayers begin to annoy everyone, Col. Blake arranges to
have him sent stateside.
Pierce and Forrest also request a chest surgeon for the unit. When the new man,
Captain John McIntyre, arrives, he displays exceptional skill, but resists their
attempts to draw him into their social circle. During a recreational football
game, Hawkeye suddenly remembers playing football against McIntyre in
college and introduces McIntyre to everyone as Trapper John.
The Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ) tent occupied by the three surgeons,
known as The Swamp, becomes a central gathering point. The surgeons enjoy
the company of Father Mulcahy, the Catholicchaplain, although they are not
strongly religious, but Duke (an avowed Protestant), wants to seek out a
Protestant chaplain. A chaplain is found, but the "Swampmen" object to his
habit of ghostwriting cheerful letters for soldiers without checking the
seriousness of their wounds. After a patient dies the day after a letter saying

124
"Everything is fine and I'll be home soon", the Swampmen lash him to a
wooden cross and make him believe they intend to burn him alive.
Captain Waldowski is prone to regular fits of depression. When he announces
his decision to commit suicide, the Swampmen stage a "Last Supper", summon
everyone to bid him farewell and then give him a sedative. While he is sedated,
they hook him to a harness and drop him from a helicopter, ending the
depression.
The Swampmen have frequent conflicts with Captain Frank Burns. Burns, even
though he has never had surgical training, nonetheless considers his work
infallible, and holds himself above the Swampmen. After one of his patients
dies, he angrily blames an orderly. First Duke and then Trapper get into a
fistfight with Burns.
When the new Chief Nurse, Major Margaret Houlihan arrives, she considers the
well-groomed and courtly Burns to be the superior doctor. After Henry Blake
names Trapper John as his Chief Surgeon (based on demonstrated ability),
Burns and Houlihan get drunk and stay late in her tent, preparing a highly
negative report for Gen. Hammond. The next day the Swampmen tease Burns
and Houlihan. Trapper John calls Houlihan "Hot Lips"; Hawkeye provokes Burns
into a fight. Henry is finally forced to send Burns stateside.
Ho-Jon, the Korean houseboy working in the Swamp, is drafted into the South
Korean army. After being wounded, he arrives at the 4077th for treatment. After
rehabilitation, he resumes his position as Swampboy and the Swampmen
decide to send him to Hawkeye's old college. To raise funds, Trapper poses as
Jesus Christ, selling autographed photos and making personal appearances.

125
A U.S. Congressman whose son is wounded in combat demands that Trapper
and Hawkeye fly to Japan to perform an "emergency surgery." The surgery
proves to be routine and the doctors spend much of the recovery period playing
golf. Hawkeye reconnects with a friend, "Me Lay" Marston, who serves as an
anesthesiologist for the Army but also helps a local doctor run a combination
pediatric hospital and whorehouse. Me Lay asks the boys to look at a sick baby,
who does require emergency surgery. Hawkeye and Trapper blackmail the
hospital's commanding officer into permitting the operation and talk Me Lay
into adopting the orphan baby.
Trapper and Hawkeye return to find the 4077th overwhelmed by casualties. A
continuous flow of wounded pours into the hospital for two weeks. All
personnel work around the clock performing operations. Everyone becomes
exhausted and irritable; the Swampmen begin harassing Maj. Houlihan. She
complains to Gen. Hammond, who begins an investigation of Col. Blake's
conduct. The Swampmen intercede, smoothing matters over with the General.
Summer arrives and Col. Blake is sent to Tokyo for three weeks, Colonel DeLong
fills in. Col. DeLong is unfamiliar with the type of high-volume, high-speed
surgery used at the 4077th; after an angry confrontation with Hawkeye, DeLong
gains respect for the work. Eventually the Swampmen get bored and decide to
convince DeLong they need psychiatric evaluation. When he sends them to a
diagnostic unit, they escape custody and visit a brothel.
General Hammond's unit has a football team. Because he has stocked it with
professional players who were drafted, he makes a tidy profit playing other units
and betting on the results. The Swampmen organize their own team and tell
Col. Blake to ask Hammond to assign neurosurgeon Oliver Wendell Jones to the

126
4077. Jones, unbeknownst to Hammond, is a former star known as
Spearchucker.
In the game, the Swampmen incapacitate one of Hammond's pros by injecting
him with a sedative during a pileup. They use Corporal Radar O'Reilly's ESP
abilities to detect upcoming plays and employ a trick play to win the game
28-24 and make an enormous profit.
As Duke and Hawkeye wait for their deployments to expire, they become bored.
To keep them busy, Henry Blake has them teach two new doctors their shortcuts. One learns capably, but the other needs to be sent home. On the journey
back from Korea, they feign battle fatigue to get favorable treatment and
impersonate chaplains to avoid work. They say goodbye when they reach the
US; each rejoins his family.

127
The Mask (1994)
Stanley Ipkiss is a shy and unlucky bank clerk working at the local Edge City
bank. He is frequently picked on by everyone around him like the Bank
President's son Mr. Dickey, his ruthless landlady Mrs. Peenman, and the
mechanics Irv and Burt Ripley who ripped him off. The only exception of this is
his Jack Russell Terrier Milo and his co-worker and best friend Charlie
Schumaker. Meanwhile, gangster Dorian Tyrell operates a nightclub called the
Coco Bongo while plotting to overthrow his boss Niko. One day, Tyrell sends his
singer girlfriend Tina Carlyle into Stanley's bank to record its layout, in
preparation to rob the bank.
Stanley is attracted to Tina, and she seems to reciprocate. After being denied
entrance to the Coco Bongo, he finds a wooden mask near the city's harbor.
Placing it on his face transforms him into a zoot-suited, green-faced, bizarre
trickster known as the Mask, who is able to cartoonishly alter himself and his
surroundings at will. After surprising his ruthless landlady Mrs. Peenman,
Stanley exacts revenge on the auto mechanics Irv and Burt Ripley and scares off
a street gang that attempts to rob him by turning a balloon into a Tommy gun.
The next morning, Stanley encounters detective Lieutenant Kellaway and
newspaper reporter Peggy Brandt investigating the Mask's activity of the
previous night. Stanley even stands up to Mr. Dickey. To attend Tina's
performance and, despite being sought by the local police, he again becomes
the Mask to raid the bank, inadvertently foiling Tyrell's plan in the process. At
the Coco Bongo, Stanley ogles and eventually dances exuberantly with Tina,
whom he ends up kissing. Following a confrontation with Tyrell, Stanley flees
leaving behind a scrap of cloth from his suit that transforms back into his
pajamas as Tyrell is taken away by the arrival of the police.

128
Kellaway implicates Stanley in the bank-robbery based on his pajamas, but
Stanley flees and later consults an expert on masks named Arthur Neuman, who
tells him that the object is a depiction of Loki, the Norse god of darkness and
mischief. Stanley attempts to show Arthur his Mask persona, but it only works as
an ordinary mask. That night, Stanley transforms into the Mask and meets Tina
at the local Landfill Park, but the meeting is interrupted by Kellaway, who
attempts to arrest him. Stanley tricks a large group of police officers into joining
him in a mass-performance of the Desi Arnaz song "Cuban Pete". Stanley takes
off the mask and flees with Peggy, but she betrays him to Tyrell for a $50,000
bounty. Tyrell tries on the mask and becomes a malevolent green-faced being.
Forced to reveal the location of the stolen money, Stanley is kept hostage in one
of the mob's cars while Tyrell's henchmen reclaim the money. Stanley is later
given to Kellaway, along with a rubber green mask, to be detained.
When Tina visits Stanley in his cell, he urges her to flee the city. Tina thanks
Stanley for treating her with respect and tells him that she knew that he was the
Mask all along. She attempts to leave the city, but is captured by Tyrell's enforcer
Orlando and taken to a charity ball at the Coco Bongo hosted by Niko and
attended by the city's elite, including the mayor Mitchell Tilton. Upon arrival, the
masked Tyrell kills Niko, and prepares to destroy both the club and Tina. Milo
helps Stanley escape, and Stanley brings Kellaway as a cover and hostage in a
desperate attempt to stop Tyrell.
After the brief, initial success of securing the assistance of Charlie, Stanley is
spotted by Orlando and captured. Tina tricks Tyrell into taking off the mask,
which is recovered and donned by Milo, turning the dog into a cartoonish
pitbull who defeats Tyrell's men, while Stanley fights Tyrell himself. After
recovering the mask, Stanley uses its abilities to save Tina by swallowing Tyrell's
bomb and flushing Tyrell down the drain of the club's ornamental fountain. The

129
police arrive and arrest Tyrell's remaining henchmen, while Kellaway attempts
to arrest Stanley once again. Tilton arrives and debunks Kellaway's statements,
announcing to everyone that Tyrell was The Mask all throughout, and orders
Kellaway to release Stanley. He then goes on to tell Stanley that he is a hero and
thanks him for saving lives, and all charges against Stanley are dropped. Tilton
then tells Kellaway that they will have a talk in his office in the morning.
As the sun rises the following day, Stanley, Tina, Milo, and Charlie take the mask
back down to the harbor. Tina throws the mask into the water, and she and
Stanley celebrate their victory as they kiss. Charlie attempts to retrieve the mask
for himself, only to find Milo swimming away with it.

Script notes

130

131
The Mask of Zorro (1998)
In 1821, Don Diego De La Vega (Anthony Hopkins) fights against the Spanish in
the Mexican War of Independence as Zorro, a mysterious swordsman who
defends the Mexican peasants and commoners of Las Californias. Don Rafael
Montero (Stuart Wilson), the governor of the region, learns of De La Vega's alter
ego, and attempts to arrest him. De La Vega's wife is killed during the scuffle.
Montero imprisons De La Vega and takes his infant daughter, Elna, as his own.
Twenty years later Montero returns to California as a civilian, alongside Elna
(Catherine Zeta Jones), who has grown into a beautiful woman. Montero's
reappearance coincides with De La Vega's escape from prison. He encounters a
thief, Alejandro Murrieta ( Antonio Banderas), who, as a child, once did Zorro a
favor. De La Vega decides that fate has brought them together, and agrees to
make Alejandro his protg, grooming him to be the new Zorro. Murrieta agrees
to undergo De La Vega's training regimen in order to be able to take revenge on
Captain Harrison Love (Matt Letscher), Montero's right-hand man, who was
responsible for killing Murrieta's brother, Joaquin.
While still being trained, Murrieta steals a black stallion resembling Tornado
from the local garrison. De La Vega scolds Murrieta, claiming that Zorro was a
servant of the people, not a thief and adventurer. He challenges Alejandro to
gain Montero's trust instead. Murrieta poses as visiting nobleman named Don
Alejandro del Castillo y Garca, with De La Vega as his servant, and attends a
party at Montero's hacienda. At the party he gains Elna's admiration and
enough of Montero's trust to be invited to a secret meeting where several other
noblemen are present. Montero hints at a plan to retake California for the Dons
by buying it from General Santa Anna, who needs money to fund his upcoming
war with the United States.

132
Montero takes Murrieta and the noblemen to a secret gold mine known as "El
Dorado", where peasants and prisoners are used for slave labor. Montero plans
to buy California from Santa Anna using gold mined from Santa Anna's own
land. De La Vega uses this opportunity to become closer to Elna, though he
identifies himself as "Bernardo" the servant, learning that Montero told Elna
that her mother died in childbirth. While walking in a market, Elna meets the
woman who was her nanny. De La Vega sends Murrieta, dressed as Zorro, to
steal Montero's map leading to the gold mine. Zorro duels Montero, Love, and
their guards at the hacienda. When Zorro escapes, Elna attempts to retrieve
Montero's map from the swordsman, but he seduces her, leading to a
passionate kiss before he flees.
Terrified of Santa Anna's retribution if he discovers that he is being paid with his
own gold, Montero decides to destroy the mine and kill the workers. De La Vega
tells Murrieta to release the workers on his own so that De La Vega can reclaim
Elna. Murrieta sets off, feeling betrayed by Diego's vendetta. De La Vega
corners Montero at the hacienda and reveals his identity, but Montero captures
him by threatening Elna. As he is taken away, De La Vega tells Elna the name
of the flowers she recognized upon her arrival in California, convincing her that
he is her father. She releases De La Vega from his cell and they proceed to the
mine, where Murrieta and De La Vega defeat Love and Montero. Elna and
Murrieta free the workers before the explosives go off, and then find the
mortally wounded De La Vega. He makes peace with Murrieta before dying,
passing the mantle of Zorro to him, and gives his blessings for his marriage to
Elna. In a closing sequence they are shown to be living together with a son
named Joaquin, in honor of Murrieta's brother.ontero decides to

Script notes

133

134
Meet Joe Black (1998)
Billionaire media mogul William "Bill" Parrish is considering a merger between
his company and another media giant, while also about to celebrate his 65th
birthday with an elaborate party being planned by his eldest daughter Allison.
He begins to hear mysterious voices, which he tries with increasing difficulty to
ignore. His youngest daughter Susan, an internal medicine resident, is involved
with one of Bill's board members, Drew. She is considering marriage, but her
father can tell she's not passionately in love. When
she asks for the short version of his impassioned speech, he simply says, "Stay
open. Who knows? Lightning could strike!"
Susan meets a vibrant young man at a coffee shop. She is instantly enamored
but fails to even get his name. Minutes after their encounter (but unbeknownst
to her), the man is struck by multiple cars in what appears to be a fatal motor
vehicle accident. Death arrives at Bill's home in the body of the young man,
explaining that Bill's impassioned speech has piqued his interest. Given Bill's
"competence, experience, and wisdom," Death says that for as long as Bill will
be his guide on Earth, he will not have to die. Making up a name on the spot,
Death is introduced to the family as "Joe Black."
Bill's best efforts to navigate the next few days knowing them now to be his
last fail to keep events from going rapidly out of his control. Drew is secretly
conspiring with a man bidding for Parrish Communications. He capitalizes on
Bill's strange behavior and unexplained reliance on Joe Black to convince the
board to vote him out as Chairman, using information given to him
inadvertently by Bill's son-in-law, Quince, to push through approval for the
merger which Bill had decided to oppose. Quince is devastated.

135
Although confused by the sudden reappearance of Joe, believing him to be the
young man from the coffee shop, Susan eventually falls deeply in love with him.
Joe is now under the influence of human desires and becomes attracted to her
as well. Bill angrily confronts him about his relationship with his daughter, but
Death (personified in Joe) declares his intention to take Susan with him for his
own.
As his last birthday arrives, Bill appeals to Joe to recognize the meaning of true
love and all it encompasses especially honesty and sacrifice. Joe comes to
understand that he must set aside his own desire and allow Susan to live her
life. He also helps Bill regain control of his company, exposing Drew's
underhanded business dealings to the board by "revealing" himself to be an
agent of theInternal Revenue Service and threatening to put Drew in jail.
Bill devotes his remaining hours of life to his daughters at his party. Joe says a
last goodbye to Susan, who seems to finally sense his true identity. As fireworks
appear in the distance, Susan watches as Joe and her father walk out of view.
Bill expresses trepidation but Joe assures him that he has nothing to fear. After a
few moments, Joe reappears alone. The spirit has departed, leaving the young
man from the coffee shop, unaware of how he got here. Susan is now aware that
her father has gone on to his reward. She asks, "What do we do now?" The man
she knows as Joe replies, "It will come to us."

Script notes

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137
Men in Black (1997)
Men in Black (M.I.B.) is a secret non-government agency that polices and
monitors extraterrestrial activity on Earth and keeps it secret from the public. The
agency operates from an underground base at a Triborough Bridge and Tunnel
Authority ventilation station inBattery Park, New York City. MIB members use
neuralyzers to erase witnesses' memories of alien sightings. The MIB is
monitoring about 1500 aliens around the world, most of them in the vicinity
ofNew York City.
One night, Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) and his partner, Agent D (Richard
Hamilton) intercept a truck containing illegal immigrants and Mikey, an
extraterrestrial disguised as a human who attempts to pass to the United States.
Mikey starts to run and K is forced to kill it when it tries to attack a border patrol
officer, and K is forced to neuralyze him. D, realizing that he is too old, asks K to
neuralyze him into "retirement." Later, the MIB leader Zed (Rip Torn) suggests
that K search for a new partner.
Meanwhile, James Edwards (Will Smith) is a New York Police Department officer
pursuing a crime suspect on foot. After catching up with the incredibly fast and
agile fugitive on a rooftop, Edwards sees the man's irises blink horizontally, and
realizes he is not human. The fugitive then commits suicide by jumping off the
roof. K arrives at the precinct station, questions Edwards before neuralyzing him,
and leaves the cop an MIB business card. Later, Edwards goes to the secret
headquarters and competes with several others to qualify to join the MIB. After
the tests, K takes him aside (while the others are neuralyzed) and offers him the
position. Edwards accepts and his identity is erased, becoming Agent J.

138
Suspicious of why extraterrestrials are suddenly leaving the planet en masse,
the M.I.B. investigate a farmer named Edgar (Vincent D'Onofrio), who has been
acting strangely after an alien craft crashed on his farm. Edgar has been killed
and his skin used as a disguise by a "Bug," a member of a giant cockroach-like
species that are at war with several other alien races, including the Arquillians.
An Arquillian prince hiding in Brooklyn who is disguised as a human jewelry
store owner named Rosenberg is attacked along with his alien friend, and tells J
as he dies that "the galaxy is on Orion's belt."
M.I.B. informant Frank the Pug (Tim Blaney), a Remoolian disguised as a small
lapdog, explains that the missing galaxy is a massive source of energy housed
in a small jewel. Edgar the Bug figures out the galaxy is hanging on the collar of
Rosenberg's cat Orion, which refuses to leave the prince's body at the morgue.
Orion has been taken care of by Dr. Laurel Weaver (Linda Fiorentino). J arrives at
the morgue just as Edgar kidnaps Weaver and grabs the galaxy. The Arquillians
deliver an ultimatum to M.I.B. to secure the galaxy within an hour, or they will
destroy Earth to keep the galaxy away from the Bug species.
Edgar the Bug arrives at the site of two disguised flying saucers, the observation
towers of the New York State Pavilion at Flushing Meadows, and forces Weaver
to come along with him, but she refuses, saying she wants to stay where she is.
The Bug escapes on one saucer, but K and J are close behind and fire more
powerful weapons, destroying the ship. The Bug sheds Edgar's skin and
swallows J and K's guns. K tells J to stop the Bug from getting onto the other
ship, then insults the Bug until he too is swallowed. J messes with the Bug by
crushing cockroaches and saying they are his relatives, provoking the
extraterrestrial.

139
The Bug is blown open from the inside by K, who located his gun in the Bug's
stomach. As J and K sit on the ground covered in slime, the insect tries to attack
again, but is destroyed by Weaver, using J's gun. The three return to M.I.B.
headquarters and K tells J that he has not been training him as a partner, but
rather as a replacement. J, upon K's request, neuralyzes K, using a coma cover
story to allow him to return to his civilian life and the young woman he left
behind after he became an agent. A few days later, it is revealed that Weaver
also joined M.I.B. and is now J's new partner, Agent L.
The camera rapidly pulls back, showing that Earth and the Milky Way galaxy are
also inside an alien jewel being used as a marble in a cosmic game.

Script notes

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141
Men of Honor (2000)
Carl Brashear (Gooding, Jr.) leaves his native Kentuckyand the life of a
sharecropper in 1948 by joining the United States Navy. As a crew member of
the salvage ship USS Hoist, where he is assigned to the galley, he is inspired by
the bravery of one of the divers, Master Chief Petty Officer Leslie William "Billy"
Sunday (De Niro). He is determined to overcome racism and become the first
black American Navy diver, even proclaiming that he will become a master
diver. He eventually is selected to attend Diving and Salvage School inBayonne,
New Jersey, where he arrives as aboatswain's mate second class. He finds that
Master Chief Sunday is the leading chief petty officer and head instructor, who
is under orders from the school's eccentric, bigoted commanding officer to
ensure that Brashear fails.
Brashear struggles to overcome his educational shortcomings, a result of his
leaving school in the 7th grade in order to work on his family's failing farm. He
receives educational assistance from his future wife, an aspiring doctor who
works part-time in theHarlem (New York City) Public Library. Brashear proves
himself as a diver by rescuing a fellow student whose dive buddy abandons him
during a salvage evaluation. Unfortunately, due to the racism of the
commanding officer (Hal Holbrook), the student who fled in the face of danger
is awarded a medal for Brashear's heroic actions. Likewise, during an
underwater assembling task where each student has to assemble a flange
underwater using a bag of tools, Brashear's bag is cut open. Brashear
nevertheless finishes the assembly and graduates from diving school, earning
the quiet and suppressed admiration of Master Chief Sunday and his fellow
divers. Master Chief Sunday is later demoted to senior chief by the
commanding officer for standing up for Brashear and allowing him to pass.

142
The paths and careers of Brashear and Sunday sharply diverge. Brashear rises
quickly through the ranks, even becoming a national hero in the 1966
Palomares B-52 crash (Spain) for recovering a missing atomic bomb and for
saving the life of Navy crew. Sunday continually loses his composure around
officers who disrespect his accomplishments, until he is finally demoted to chief
petty officerand relegated to menial duties. He becomes a brooding alcoholic
displeased with his rank, relatively low for someone with so many years of
service.
The two eventually meet again after Brashear's left leg was so mangled by the
atomic bomb incident that he feels that his only chance to return to active duty
and a relatively normal life is for it to be amputated and replaced with a
prosthesis. Until this time, no Navy man had ever returned to full active duty
with a prosthetic limb. Sunday again trains Brashear and aids him in his fight
against the US Navybureaucracy and an antagonistic Navy captain (a former
lieutenant and their former Hoist executive officer) in order to return to full
active duty and fulfill his dream of becoming a master diver. They succeed in
getting Brashear reinstated.
In the epilogue, it is noted that two years later Brashear becomes a master diver.
It is added that he does not retire from the Navy for another nine years.

Script notes

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144
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)
As a child, Joan has a violent and supernatural vision. She returns home to find
her village burning. Her sister Catherine tries to protect her by hiding her from
the attacking English forces, part of a longstanding rivalry with France. Joan,
while hiding, witnesses the brutal murder and rape of her sister. Afterward, Joan
is taken in by distant relatives.
Several years later at Chinon, the Dauphin and soon to be King of France,
Charles VII (John Malkovich), receives a message from the now adult Joan (Milla
Jovovich), asking him to provide an army to lead into battle against the
occupying English. After meeting him and his mother-in-lawYolande of Aragon
(Faye Dunaway) she describes her visions. Desperate, he believes her prophecy.
Clad in armour, Joan leads the French army to the besieged city of Orlans. She
gives the English a chance to surrender, which they refuse. The armies'
commanders, skeptical of Joan's leadership, initiate the next morning's battle
to take over the stockade at St. Loup without her. By the time she arrives on the
battlefield, the French soldiers are retreating. Joan ends the retreat and leads
another charge, successfully capturing
the fort. They proceed to the enemy stronghold called the "Tourelles". Joan
gives the English another chance to surrender, but they refuse. Joan leads the
French soldiers to attack the Tourelles, though the English defenders inflict
heavy casualties, also wounding Joan. Nevertheless, Joan leads a second attack
the following day. As the English army regroups, the French army moves to face
them across an open field. Joan rides alone toward the English and offers them
a final chance to surrender and return to England. The English accept her offer
and retreat.

145
Joan returns to Rheims to witness the coronation of Charles VII of France. Her
military campaigns then continue to the walls of Paris, though she does not
receive her requested reinforcements, and the siege is a failure. Joan tells King
Charles VII to give her another army, but he refuses, saying he now prefers
diplomacy over warfare. Believing she threatens his position, Charles conspires
to get rid of Joan by allowing her to be captured by enemy forces. She is taken
prisoner by the pro-English Burgundians atCompigne, who sell her to the
English.
Charged with the crime of heresy, based on her claim of visions and signs from
God, she is tried in an ecclesiastical court proceeding, which is forced by the
English occupation government. The English wish to quickly condemn and
execute Joan, as English soldiers are afraid to fight while she remains alive.
Bishop Cauchon expresses his fear of wrongfully executing someone who might
have received visions from God. About to be burned for heresy, Joan is
distraught that she will be executed without making a final confession. The
Bishop tells her she must recant her visions before he can hear her confession.
Joan signs the recantation. The relieved Bishop shows the paper to the English,
saying that Joan can no longer be burned as a heretic. Whilst in her cell, Joan in
confronted by an unnamed cloaked man (Dustin Hoffman), who is implied to be
Joan's conscience. The man makes Joan question whether she was actually
receiving messages from God.
The frustrated English devise another way to have Joan executed by the church.
English soldiers go into Joan's cell room, rip her clothes and give her men's
clothing to wear. They then state she conjured a spell to make the new clothing
appear, suggesting that she is a witch who must be burned. Although
suspecting the English are lying, the Bishop abandons Joan to her fate, and she
is burned alive in the marketplace of Rouen.

146
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
Nearly 500 residents of the agricultural community of Milagro in the mountains
of northern New Mexico face a crisis when politicians and business interests
make a backroom deal to usurp the town's water in order to pave the way for a
land buy-out. Due to the new laws, Joe Mondragon is unable to make a living
farming because he is not allowed to divert water from an irrigation ditch that
runs past his property.
Frustrated, and unable to find work, Joe visits his father's field. He happens
upon a tag that reads "prohibited" covering a valve on the irrigation ditch. He
kicks the valve, unintentionally breaking it, allowing water to flood his fields. He
decides against repairing the valve and instead decides to plant beans in the
field. This leads to a confrontation with powerful state interests, including a
hired gun brought in from out of town.
An escalation of events follows, leading to a final showdown between law
enforcement and the citizens of Milagro.

Script notes

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148
Miracle on 34th Street(1947)
Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) is indignant to find that the person (Percy Helton)
assigned to play Santa in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is
intoxicated. When he complains to event director Doris Walker ( Maureen
O'Hara), she persuades Kris to take his place. He does such a fine job that he is
hired as the Santa for Macy's flagship New York City store on 34th Street.
Ignoring instructions to steer parents to buy from Macy's, Kris directs one
shopper (Thelma Ritter) to another store. She is so impressed, she tells Julian
Shellhammer (Philip Tonge), head of the toy department, that she will become a
loyal customer. Kris later informs another mother that archrivalGimbels has
better skates.
Fred Gailey (John Payne), Doris's attorney neighbor, takes the young divorce's
second-grade daughter Susan (Natalie Wood) to see Kris. Doris has raised her to
not believe in fairy tales, but Susan's lack of faith is shaken when she sees Kris
conversing in Dutch with an adopted girl who does not know English. Doris asks
Kris to tell Susan that he is not really Santa Claus, but Kris insists he is.
Doris decides to fire him, worried that he is delusional and might harm
someone. However, Kris has generated so much good publicity and goodwill for
Macy's that a delighted R. H. Macy (Harry Antrim) promises Doris and Julian
generous bonuses. To alleviate Doris's misgivings, Julian has Granville Sawyer
( Porter Hall) give Kris a "psychological evaluation". Kris easily passes, but
antagonizes Sawyer by questioning Sawyer's own mental health.
The store expands on the marketing concept. Anxious to avoid looking greedy
by comparison, Gimbels implements the same referral policy throughout its

149
entire chain, forcing Macy's and other stores to escalate in kind. Eventually, Kris
accomplishes the impossible: he reconciles bitter rivals Mr. Macy and Mr.
Gimbel ( Herbert Heyes).
Pierce (James Seay), the doctor at Kris's nursing home, assures Doris and Julian
that Kris is harmless. Kris makes a deal with Fred he will work on Susan's
cynicism while Fred does the same with Doris, disillusioned by her failed
marriage. When Susan reveals her wish for a house, Kris reluctantly promises to
do his best.
Kris learns that Sawyer has convinced impressionable young employee Alfred
that he is mentally ill simply because he is generous and kind-hearted. When
Kris confronts Sawyer and finds him to be intractable, Kris raps Sawyer on the
head with his cane. Sawyer exaggerates his pain in order to have Kris confined
to Bellevue Hospital. Tricked into cooperating, and believing Doris to be part of
the deception, a discouraged Kris deliberately fails his mental examination and
is recommended for permanent commitment. However, Fred persuades Kris not
to give up.
At a formal hearing before New York Supreme Court Judge Henry X. Harper
(Gene Lockhart), District Attorney Thomas Mara (Jerome Cowan) gets Kris to
assert that he is Santa Claus and rests his case, believing he has prima facie
proven his point. Fred argues that Kris is not insane because he actually isSanta
Claus. Mara requests the judge rule that Santa Claus does not exist. In private,
Harper's political adviser, Charlie Halloran (William Frawley), warns him that
doing so would be disastrous for his upcoming reelection bid. The judge buys
time by deciding to hear evidence before ruling.

150
Doris quarrels with Fred when he quits his job at a prestigious law firm to
defend Kris. Doris calls his resignation an "idealistic binge" over some "lovely
intangibles". He replies that one day she might discover that those "lovely
intangibles" are the only worthwhile things.
Fred calls Mr. Macy as a witness. When Mara asks if he really believes Kris to be
Santa Claus, Macy starts to equivocate, but when pressed, he recalls the good
will Kris has spread and states, "I do!" On leaving the stand, Macy fires Sawyer.
Fred then calls Mara's own young son (Bobby Hyatt), who testifies that his father
told him that Santa was real. Outmaneuvered, Mara concedes the point.
Mara then demands that Fred prove that Kris is "the one and only" Santa Claus
on the basis of some competent authority. While Fred searches frantically,
Susan, by now a firm believer in Kris, writes him a letter to cheer him up, which
Doris also signs. When a mail sorter (Jack Albertson) sees Susan's letter, he
suggests clearing out the many letters to Santa taking up space in the dead
letter office by delivering them to the courthouse.
Fred presents Judge Harper with three of those letters addressed simply to
"Santa Claus" and delivered to Kris, asserting the U.S. Post Office (and therefore
by extension the Federal Government) has thus acknowledged that he is the
Santa Claus. When Harper demands "further exhibits", mailmen dump the
entire contents of 21 full mailbags onto the bench in front of Harper. Harper
dismisses the case.
On Christmas morning, Susan is disappointed that Kris could not get her what
she wanted. Kris gives Fred and Doris a route home that avoids traffic. Along the
way, Susan sees the house of her dreams with a "For Sale" sign in the front yard.
Fred learns that Doris had encouraged Susan to have faith and suggests they

151
get married and purchase the house. He then boasts that he must be a great
lawyer since he did the impossible by proving Kris was Santa Claus. However,
when they spot a red cane inside the house that looks just like Kris's (and which
Kris had been without on Christmas morning), he is not so sure that he did such
an impressive thing after all.

Script notes

152

153
Meet the Parents (2000)
Gaylord "Greg" Focker (Ben Stiller) is a nurse living in Chicago. He intends to
propose to his girlfriend Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo), but his plan is disrupted when
he learns that Pam's sister's fiance had asked Pam's father for permission before
proposing. Greg and Pam travel to Pam's parents' house to attend Pam's sister's
wedding. Greg hopes to propose to Pam in front of her family after receiving her
father's permission, but this plan is put on hold when the airline loses his
luggage, including the engagement ring.
At the Byrnes' home on Long Island, Greg meets Pam's father Jack (Robert De
Niro), mother Dina (Blythe Danner) and their beloved cat Mr. Jinx. Jack
immediately takes a dislike to Greg and openly criticizes him for his choice of
career as a male nurse and whatever else he sees as a difference between Greg
and the Byrnes family. Greg tries to impress Jack, but his efforts fail completely.
Greg becomes even more uncomfortable after he receives an impromptu lie
detector test from Jack and later learns from Pam that her father is a retired CIA
counterintelligence officer.
Meeting the rest of Pam's family and friends, Greg still feels like an outsider.
Despite efforts to impress the family, Greg's inadvertent actions make him an
easy target for ridicule and anger: he's asked to lead a prayeralthough he's
Jewish, and starts reciting the lyrics from the song "Day by Day" from the
musical "Godspell," he accidentally destroys an urn that contains the ashes of
Jack's deceased mother (and Jinx urinates in them afterwards), then he
accidentally hits Pam's sister's eye during a pool volleyball mishap; uses a
malfunctioning toilet that floods the Byrnes' back yard with sewage; sets the
wedding altar on fire and inadvertently leads Jack to think he is a marijuana
user. Jack himself, conducts a background check on Greg's MCAT scores and

154
thinks that Greg never actually took the MCAT's, and he inspects Greg's found
luggage (which is not actually his) containing sexual toys and gimmicks. Later,
Greg loses Jinx and replaces him with a stray whose tail he spray paints to make
him look like Mr. Jinx. The stray cat trashes the house, and the Byrnes arrive at
the scene.
The entire Byrnes family, including Pam agree that it is best for Greg to leave.
Desperate to save himself, Greg reveals that he's seen Jack talking to strange
characters, and is planning a secret mission after Pam's sister's wedding, thus
lying about being retired from the CIA. Jack angrily explains that the secret
mission was a surprise honeymoon for the newlywed couple, and Greg realizes
that he's only dug himself deeper. Greg reluctantly goes to the airport and is
detained by airport security after he refuses to check in his luggage,
remembering what happened last time.
Back at the Byrnes' household, Jack tries to convince his wife and Pam that Greg
would be an unsuitable husband, as he is completely dishonest and stupid.
Upon receiving retribution from both his wife and Pam (and proof that Greg did
indeed ace the MCAT's), Jack realizes that Pam truly loves Greg. Jack rushes to
the airport, convinces airport security to release Greg, and demands that he be
honest about everything that transpired. Greg admits that he loves Pam, and
everything he did before was out of desperation to win Jack's approval. Jack
admits that maybe he had been too hard on Greg, and he brings him back to
the Byrnes' household.
Greg proposes to Pam. She accepts, and her parents agree that they should now
meet Greg's parents. After Debbie's wedding, Jack views footage of Greg
recorded by hidden cameras that he had placed strategically around their
house.

Script notes

155

156
Mission Impossible 2 (2000)
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), while vacationing, is alerted by the IMF that someone
has used his identity to assist Russian bio-chemical expert Dr. Vladimir
Nekhorvich (Rade Serbedzija) of Biocyte Pharmaceuticals to enter the United
States, only to kill him in a subsequent plane crash. Nekhorvich, an old friend of
Ethan, had forewarned the IMF of his arrival, planning to deliver a new
bioweapon, Chimera, and its cure, Bellerophon, both of which he was forced to
develop by Biocyte, into the IMF's hands. With his death, IMF is worried that the
virus is out in the open, believing that rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray
Scott) is responsible. IMF assigns Ethan to recover it. Ethan is told that he can
use two members of his team to help him, but the third person to help him
must be Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton), a professional thief presently
operating inSeville, Spain, as she will be able to get close to Ambrose, being an
ex-girlfriend.
After recruiting Nyah, Ethan meets his team--computer expert Luther Stickell
(Ving Rhames) and pilot Billy Baird (John Polson) in Sydney, Australia, where
Biocyte laboratories are located along with Ambrose's headquarters. As Ethan
and the others stake out Biocyte, Nyah gets close to Ambrose and begins to
work him for information related to the Chimera virus. At a horse racing event,
Ambrose quietly meets with Biocyte's CEO, John C. McCloy (Brendan Gleeson),
and shows him a video of the Chimera virus affecting one of Nekhorvich's
colleagues, taken from Biocyte, so he can blackmail McCloy into cooperating
with them. Nyah is able to pocket the video footage long enough to transfer it to
Ethan and his team, who learn that the Chimera virus has a 20-hour dormant
period before it causes death through mass destruction of the victim's red blood
cells. Bellerophon can save the victim only if used within that 20-hour window.

157
The IMF team kidnaps McCloy and learns that Nekhorvich had actually injected
himself with Chimera, the only way he could smuggle the virus from Biocyte,
and had all the known samples of Bellerophon, now presently in Ambrose's
hands. Ambrose had forced McCloy to sell him the virus for 37,000,000 in
exchange for the samples of Bellerophon. Ethan's team plans to break into
Biocyte and destroy the virus. Ambrose, posing as Ethan, tricks Nyah into
revealing Ethan's plan. Ambrose secures Nyah and prepares to raid Biocyte
himself to secure the virus. Ethan is able to destroy all but one sample of the
virus before Ambrose interrupts him, and a firefight ensues. Ethan learns that
Ambrose is holding Nyah and stops firing, during which Ambrose orders Nyah
to retrieve the last sample. When she does so, she injects herself with it, thus
preventing Ambrose from simply killing her to get it. As Ambrose takes Nyah
and Ethan escapes from the laboratory in the ensuing gun battle between
Ambrose's men and Biocyte security, Ethan starts a 20-hour countdown before
the virus takes over Nyah's body.
Ambrose opts to let Nyah wander the streets of Sydney in a daze, intending to
trigger a Chimera pandemic in Australia, and orders McCloy to effectively hand
over enough control of Biocyte to make him the majority shareholder;
Ambrose's plan is now to make a fortune when prices of Biocyte's stock
skyrocket due to demand for Bellerophon. Ethan's team is able to locate and
infiltrate the meeting, stealing the samples of Bellerophon while taking out
many of Ambrose's men. Luther and Billy locate Nyah, who has wandered to a
cliff side, intent on killing herself to prevent Chimera from spreading. As the two
IMF agents bring Nyah to Ethan, he and Ambrose engage in a fist fight. With
little time left on the 20-hour countdown, Ethan finally gains the upper hand
over Ambrose and kills him, and Luther injects Nyah with Bellerophon. IMF
clears Nyah's crimin

Script notes

158

159
Mission to Mars (2000)
In 2020, the Mars I spacecraft, en route to planet Mars, is commanded by Luke
Graham with fellow astronauts Nicholas Willis, Sergei Kirov, and Rene Cot.
Upon arrival, the team discovers a crystalline formation in theCydonia region, by
which they suspect an extrusion from a subsurface geothermal column of water,
useful to future human colonization. After reporting this to the World Space
Station, they hear a strange sound on their communications system, which they
assume to be interference from their planetary rover. While they scan the
formation with radar, a large vortex kills Nicholas, Sergei, and Rene.
After the vortex subsides, a large humanoid face is exposed in the adjacent
mountain. ISS having received Luke's message; a second ship is readied for a
rescue mission - the Mars II containing Commander Woody Blake, CoCommander Jim McConnell, and mission specialists Terri Fisher and Phil
Ohlmyer. As the ship enters Mars orbit, micrometeors breach the hull. During
repair, the external fuel tanks are overlooked, causing a leak and later explosion.
The crew then board the REMO ("Resupply Module") orbiting Mars. Tethered to
the others, Woody launches himself at the module, but is unable to properly
land on it. Terri tries to rescue Woody, but knowing she would run out of fuel
before reaching him, Woody removes his helmet, killing himself to save her.
When the survivors arrive on the surface of Mars, they find Luke living on the
produce of a greenhouse, whereupon he reveals that the crystalline structure
looks humanoid, and that the noise represents a map of human DNA in XYZ
coordinates, but missing a pair of chromosomes. To complete the sequence, the
crew dispatches a robotic rover to reproduce the completed signal. Following
the transmission, an opening appears in the side of the mountain, which Jim,

160
Terri, and Luke enter, while Phil remains at the repaired emergency return
vehicle with orders to launch, with or without them, at the agreed time.
The opening seals behind them, disrupting radio communication with Phil, and
a three-dimensional projection depicts the planet Mars, covered with water,
being struck by a large asteroid and rendered uninhabitable. A Martian then
reveals that the natives of Mars evacuated their world in spacecraft, whereof one
landed on Earth to create humans, who could one day land on Mars and be
recognized as descendants. An invitation is offered to one astronaut to follow
the Martians to their new home. Jim accepts the invitation and is launched in an
oxygenated capsule, while the others return to Phil, and subsequently to Earth.

Script notes

161

162
Mister Roberts (1955)
In the waning days of World War II, the United States Navy cargo ship Reluctant
and her crew are stationed in the "backwater" areas of the Pacific Ocean.
Theexecutive officer/cargo chief, Lieutenant Junior Grade Douglas A. "Doug"
Roberts (Henry Fonda), tries to shield the dispirited crew from the harsh and
unpopular captain, Lieutenant Commander Morton (James Cagney). Eager to
join the fighting, Roberts repeatedly requests a transfer. Morton is forced by
regulation to forward his requests, but refuses to endorse them, which means
they are always rejected. Roberts shares quarters with Ensign Frank Thurlowe
Pulver (Jack Lemmon). Pulver spends most of his time idling in his bunk and
avoids the captain at all costs, so much so that Morton is actually unaware that
the ensign is even part of the crew.
Roberts surreptitiously requests, and is granted crewliberty from one of
Mortons superiors; a port captain wishes to reward the Reluctant's crew for
meeting a difficult resupply schedule. The liberty is to supposed to be at their
next resupply stop, but when the ship reaches an idyllic South Pacific island,
Morton denies the crew their much-needed shore leave. In private, Morton tells
Roberts that the crew will not get liberty as long as he continues to request a
transfer and writes letters regarding disharmony aboard the ship, which
endanger Morton's chances of promotion. Morton strikes a bargain with
Roberts: In exchange for never requesting another transfer, never bending
Morton's rules, and never revealing what has made him change his attitude,
Morton will grant the crew liberty.
Ashore, the crew lets loose after months of pent-up frustration. Many crewmen
are arrested and hauled back to the ship by the military police and the shore
patrol. The next morning, Morton is reprimanded by the port captain and

163
ordered to leave port immediately. Morton is almost speechless with rage at the
black mark on his sterling record.
Meanwhile, the crewmen are mystified by Roberts's new strictness. Morton
deceives them into thinking that Roberts is trying to get a promotion. When a
crew member informs Roberts of a new Navy policy which might assist him in
getting a transfer despite the captain's opposition, Roberts refuses to take
advantage of it.
News of the Allied victory in Europe depresses Roberts further, knowing the war
may end soon without his ever seeing combat. Inspired by a patriotic radio
speech celebrating VE Day, Roberts throws Morton's prized palm tree overboard.
The captain demands the identity of the culprit, but no one steps forward. He
eventually realizes that Roberts is the only person aboard with the nerve to do it.
Morton summons him to his quarters and accuses him of the deed. An open
microphone reveals to the crew what changed Roberts.
Weeks later, Roberts receives an unexpected transfer. "Doc" (William Powell),
the ship's doctor and Roberts' friend, confides to him that the crew risked courtmartial by submitting a transfer request with Morton's forged imprimatur.
Before he leaves, the crew presents Roberts with a handmade medal, the Order
of the Palm, for "action against the enemy".
Several weeks later, Pulver, who has been appointed cargo officer, receives a
couple of letters. The first is from Roberts, who speaks enthusiastically about his
new assignment aboard the destroyer USSLivingston during the Battle of
Okinawa. He goes on to say that he would rather have the Order of the Palm
than the Congressional Medal of Honor. The second letter is from a college
classmate of Pulver's who is also assigned to the Livingston, which reveals that

164
Roberts was killed in a kamikaze attack shortly after the first letter had been
posted.
Incensed, Pulver throws the captains replacement palm tree overboard. He then
marches into Morton's cabin, openly bragging about it and brazenly
demanding to know why Morton has cancelled the showing of a film that night.
Morton slowly shakes his head, realizing that his problems have not gone away.

Script notes

165

166
Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
n 1965, Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) is a professional musician and
composer who has been relatively successful in the exhausting life of a
musician. However, in an attempt to enjoy more free time with his young wife,
Iris (Glenne Headly), and to enable him to compose a piece of orchestral music,
the 30-year-old Holland accepts a high school teaching position.
Unfortunately for Holland, he is soon forced to realize that his position as a
music teacher makes him a marginalized figure in the faculty's hierarchy. Many
of his colleagues, and some in the school's administration, including the
school's principal (Olympia Dukakis) and vice principal (William H. Macy),
resent Holland and question the value and importance of music education
given the school's strained budget.
However, he quickly begins to win many of his colleagues over. In the
classroom, Holland finds success utilizing rock and roll as a way to make
classical music more accessible to his students. Reluctantly, he starts to see his
students as individuals and begins finding ways to help them excel.
When Iris becomes pregnant, Holland uses the money saved up to produce his
orchestration in order to buy a house. Their son Cole is born during the summer
following his first year as a teacher. When school resumes, Holland is put in
charge of the school marching band. The school's football coach Bill (Jay Thomas
) helps him in exchange for allowing an academically challenged football
player/wrestler named Louis Russ ( Terrence Howard) to play the drums for
academic credit so he can keep his spot on the wrestling team.

167
At home, Holland's lack of quality time with his wife creates tension. When their
son Cole is diagnosed as deaf, Holland reacts with hostility to the news that he
can never teach the joys of music to his own child. His wife willingly learns
American Sign Language to communicate with their son. However, Holland,
acting out of frustration and resentment, learns at a much slower rate, causing
further estrangement within the family.
Over three decades, Holland forms closer relationships with his students at John
F. Kennedy High School than with his own son. At one point in the film, he is
briefly tempted by the shining talent of a young female student who invites him
to leave his stressful, unsatisfying life and run off to New York City with her. In a
conversation with Cole, Holland coldly claims that Cole, being deaf, can never
understand what music means to him. Cole lashes out and reveals that he does
appreciate music but needs his father to reach out to him. The incident
encourages Holland to find different ways for Cole and other deaf children to
experience music, and he puts on a concert for them during which he sings and
signs Beautiful Boy, directing the song towards Cole.
Holland addresses a series of challenges created by people who are either
skeptical of, or hostile towards, the idea of musical excellence within the walls of
the average middle-class American high school. Holland inspires and touches
the lives of many of his students but always seems to have too little time for
himself or his family, forever delaying the composition of his own orchestral
work. Ultimately, he reaches an age when it is too late to realistically find
financial backing or ever have the composition performed.
In 1995, the adversaries of the Kennedy High music program win a decisive
institutional victory. The school's former vice principal, now promoted to
principal, works with the school board to eliminate funding for the music

168
program along with other fine arts programs, thereby leading to Holland's early
retirement at the age of 60. Holland realizes that his career in music is likely
over. He believes that his former students have mostly forgotten him and is
dejected at his failure to ever have his composition, which he views as his life's
work, performed.
On his final day as a teacher, Iris and Cole, now an adult and a teacher himself,
arrive to help Holland pack up. Sensing his disappointment over his selfperceived lack of achievement, Iris and Cole lead Holland to the school
auditorium where he is surprised to find a gathering of many of his former
students, now grown. Hearing that their beloved teacher is retiring, the students
have secretly returned to the school to celebrate his career.
Holland's orchestral piece, never before played, has been distributed to the
students by Iris and Cole. One of his most musically challenged students (Alicia
Witt as a child and Joanna Gleason as an adult), who is now governor, sits with
her clarinet. The students ask their former teacher to serve as conductor for the
premiere performance of Mr. Holland's Opus ("The American Symphony"). As
Holland conducts the orchestra of his former students, a proud Iris and Cole
look on, appreciating the affection and respect that Holland receives. Holland,
overwhelmed with emotion, finally realizes his masterpiece.

Script notes

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170
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
The parallel city of Monstropolis is inhabited by monsters and powered by the
screams of children in the human world. At the factory of Monsters, Inc.,
employees called "scarers" venture into children's bedrooms to scare them and
collect their screams, using closet doors as portals. This is considered a
dangerous task because the monsters believe children are toxic and that
touching them would be fatal. However, production is falling as children are
becoming harder to scare and the company's chairman Henry J. Waternoose III
is determined to find a solution. The top scarer is James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, who
lives with his friend and assistant Mike Wazowski and has a rivalry with the everdetermined chameleon-like monster Randall Boggs. During an ordinary day's
work on what is known as the "Scarefloor", another scarer accidentally brings a
child's sock into the factory, causing the Child Detection Agency (CDA) to arrive
and cleanse him. Mike is frequently ridiculed by the company's clerk Roz for
never completing his paperwork on time.
While working late at the factory, Sulley discovers that Randall left an activated
door on the scarefloor and a young girl has entered the factory, much to Sulley's
horror. After a few failed attempts to put her back, he places her in his bag and
hides when Randall arrives and returns the door to storage. Mike is at a
restaurant on a date with his girlfriend Celia when Sulley comes over to him for
help, but chaos erupts when the girl is discovered in the restaurant, and the CDA
is called. Sulley and Mike escape the CDA and take the girl home, discovering
that she isn't toxic after all. Sulley quickly grows attached to the girl and names
her "Boo". The next day, they smuggle her into the factory and Mike attempts to
return her through her door. Randall discovers that Boo is in the factory after

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seeing Mike in the newspaper with her. He tries to kidnap Boo, but instead
kidnaps Mike by mistake.
In the basement, Randall reveals to Mike that he has built a torture machine
called the Scream Extractor, which would make the company's current tactics
redundant. Randall straps Mike to the chair for experimentation, but Sulley
stops Randall by unplugging the machine and reports Randall to Waternoose.
However, Waternoose is revealed to be in allegiance with Randall and exiles
Mike and Sulley to the Himalayas. The two are taken in by the Abominable
Snowman, who tells them they can return to the factory through a nearby
village. Sulley heads out, but Mike refuses to follow him out of frustration.
Sulley returns to the factory and rescues Boo from the Scream Extractor. Mike
returns to apologize to Sulley and inadvertently helps Sulley defeat Randall in a
fight.
Randall pursues Mike and Sulley as they race through the factory and ride on
the doors heading into storage, taking them into a giant vault where millions of
closet doors are stored. Boo's laughter activates the doors and allows the chase
to pass in and out of the human world. When Randall attempts to kill Sulley,
Boo is able to defeat Randall before Sulley and Mike trap him in the human
world using a door to a trailer park, where he is beaten up by a pair of hillbillies.
They are finally able to access Boo's door, but Waternoose and the CDA send it
back to the Scarefloor. Mike distracts the CDA, while Sulley escapes with Boo
and her door while Waternoose follows. While arguing with Sulley, Waternoose
reveals that he is working with Randall to kidnap kids and build the Scream
Extractor in order to keep the company from going out of business and put an
end to the energy crisis. The CDA appears after hearing Waternoose's confession
and arrest him. The CDA's leader is revealed to be Roz, who has been

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undercover for over two years trying to expose Waternoose's plot and thanks
them for the help. Sulley and Mike say goodbye to Boo and return her home; on
Roz's orders Boo's door is shredded. Sulley becomes the new chairman of
Monsters Inc., and thanks to his experience with Boo, he comes up with a plan
to end the company's energy crisis.
Months later, Sulley's leadership has changed the company's workload. The
monsters now enter children's bedrooms to make them laugh, since laughter is
ten times more powerful than screams. Mike takes Sulley aside, revealing he
has almost rebuilt Boo's door, requiring only one more piece which Sulley took
as a memento. Sulley enters and reunites with Boo.

Script notes

173

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The Mummy (1999)
In Thebes, Egypt, 1290 BC, high priest Imhotep engages in an affair with Ancksu-Namun, the mistress of Pharaoh Seti I. When the Pharaoh discovers their
tryst, Imhotep and Anck-su-Namun kill him. As Seti's guards arrive, Imhotep
flees while Anck-su-Namun kills herself, intending for Imhotep to resurrecther.
After Anck-su-Namun's burial, Imhotep and his priests steal her corpse and
travel to Hamunaptra, the city of the dead, where they begin the resurrection
ceremony. However, the group is intercepted by Seti's bodyguards, the Medjai,
before the ritual could be completed, and Anck-su-Namun's soul is sent back to
the Underworld. Imhotep's priests are all mummified alive. Imhotep himself is
sentenced to immortal agony, condemned to suffer the Hom Dai curse: having
his tongue removed and then being buried alive with flesh eating scarab
beetles. Imhotep is buried under high security, sealed away in asarcophagus at
the feet of a statue of the Egyptian god Anubis, and kept under strict
surveillance by the Medjai, since if Imhotep were ever to resurrect, the entire
world would be doomed.
In 1923, well over 3000 years after Imhotep was buried, a unit of the French
Foreign Legion battle with Tuareg nomads at Hamunaptra. The unit is swiftly
overwhelmed, leaving only two survivors: cowardly Hungarian thief Beni Gabor
flees, while his American friend and soldier Rick O'Connell is cornered. The
nomads suddenly flee in terror when they hear sinister whispers, and Rick
quickly follows them when the ground appears to come to life. Watching from
afar, the Medjai, watching over the Tuaregs and the Legion, decide to let the
desert kill O'Connell.
Three years later, Jonathan Carnahan presents his sister Evelyn, a Cairo librarian
and aspiringEgyptologist, an intricate box and map which Jonathan says he

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found in Thebes. After the pair discover the map leads to Hamunaptra, Jonathan
reveals he stole it from an American adventurer, soon revealed to be Rick
O'Connell, who survived the desert only to end up in prison. Evelyn and
Jonathan visit Rick; he tells them that he knows the location of the city, and
makes a deal with Evelyn to lead them there, once Evelyn saves him from being
hanged by bribing the prison warden with a share in the promised treasure.
Rick led Evelyn, Jonathan, and the warden to the city, where the group
encounters a band of American treasure hunters led by the famed British
Egyptologist Dr. Allen Chamberlain and guided by Beni, who O'Connell is less
than pleased to discover on the boat. Shortly after reaching Hamunaptra, the
warden is killed by a scarab. The expeditions are then attacked by the Medjai,
led by the warrior Ardeth Bay. Ardeth warns them of the evil buried in the city,
but despite his warning, the two expeditions continue to excavate in separate
portions of the city. Evelyn searches for the famous Book of the Living, a book
made of pure gold, as the history of such a book was what first interested her in
Egypt. Instead of finding the book, however, she, Rick, and Jonathan stumble
upon the statue of Anubis and the remains of Imhotep buried underneath. The
team of Americans, meanwhile, discover a chest with ancient engravings that
Chamberlain deciphers as saying that any and all who open the box are cursed
if Imhotep is awakened. While Beni refuses to assist them and flees, the
Americans open the chest to find the black Book of the Dead, accompanied by
canopic jars carrying Anck-su-Namun's preserved organs. Chamberlain steals
the Book of the Dead while each of the Americans pockets a jar as loot.
At night, Evelyn takes the Book of the Dead and reads a page aloud, accidentally
awakening Imhotep. A cloud of locusts descends on the city, devouring the local
diggers and trapping the two expeditioners inside the pyramid. One of the
Americans, Burns, is left behind in the confusion and is attacked by Imhotep,

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losing his eyes and tongue. The Medjai rescue Burns, and escort the
expeditioners back to Cairo, but Imhotep follows them with the help of Beni,
who bargains with Imhotep; the creature promises not to kill Beni in return.
Imhotep absorbs the life from Chamberlain and the Americans, returning to full
strength, and bringing the 10 plagues back to Egypt. Seeking a way to stop
Imhotep, Rick, Evelyn and Jonathan meet Ardeth at a museum. After Evelyn
reveals that Imhotep referred to her as Anck-su-Namun in Hamunaptra, Ardeth
and museum curator Terrence hypothesize that Imhotep wants to resurrect his
lover again and will do so by sacrificing Evelyn. Evelyn muses that if the Book of
the Dead brought Imhotep back to life, the Book of the Living can kill him again.
As they deduce the location of the Book of the Living, Imhotep corners the
group with an army of slaves. Evelyn agrees to accompany Imhotep if he spares
the lives of the rest of the group. Imhotep goes back on his word and leaves his
slaves to kill the group anyway. However, Rick discovers an entrance to the
sewers and they escape. Terrence sacrifices himself just to buy the others time to
escape.
Imhotep, Evelyn and Beni return to Hamunaptra, pursued by Rick, Jonathan,
and Ardeth. Imhotep awakens Anck-su-Namun, and prepares to sacrifice Evelyn,
but she is rescued after an intense battle with Imhotep's mummified priests.
Jonathan reads from the Book of Amun-Ra, awakening a group of mummified
warriors, who kill Anck-su-Namun. When Evelyn reads from the Book, Imhotep
becomes mortal again and Rick stabs him, forcing him into the River of Death.
Rapidly decaying, Imhotep leaves the world of the living, vowing revenge with
the same words he carved into his sarcophagus, Death is only the beginning.
While looting treasure from the pyramid, Beni accidentally sets off an ancient
booby trap and is trapped by a swarm of flesh-eating scarabs as Hamunaptra
collapses into the sand. The heroes escape, although they lose the Book of

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Amun-Ra in the process. Ardeth rides away as Rick and Evelyn kiss and, with
Jonathan, ride off into the sunset on a pair of camels laden with Beni's treasure.

Script notes

178

179
Music of the Heart (1999)
The film opens with violinist Roberta Guaspari having been deserted by her US
Navy husband and feeling devastated, almost suicidal. Encouraged by her
mother, she attempts to rebuild her life and a friend from student days
recommends her to the head teacher of a school in the tough New York area of
East Harlem. Despite a degree in music education, she has little experience in
actual music teaching, but she's taken on as a substitute violin teacher. With a
combination of toughness and determination, she inspires a group of kids, and
their initially skeptical parents. The program slowly develops and attracts
publicity.
Ten years later, the string program is still running successfully at three schools,
but suddenly the school budget is cut and Roberta is out of a job. Determined to
fight the cuts, she enlists the support of former pupils, parents and teachers and
plans a grand fund-raising concert, 'Fiddlefest', to raise money so that the
program can continue. But with a few weeks to go and all participants furiously
rehearsing, they lose the venue. Fortunately, the husband of a publicist friend is
a violinist in the Guarneri Quartet, and he enlists the support of other wellknown musicians, including Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman. They arrange for
the concert to be mounted at Carnegie Hall.
Other famous musicians, including Mark O'Connor, Michael Tree, Charles Veal
Jr., Arnold Steinhardt,Karen Briggs, Sandra Park, Diane Monroe, and Joshua
Bell, join in the performance, which is a resounding success.
The film's end credits declare that the Opus 118 program is still running
successfully. They also report that the school's funding was restored during the
making of the film.

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My Left Foot (1989)
The film opens with Christy Brown, who has cerebral palsy, being taken to a
charity event, where he meets his handler, a nurse named Mary Carr. She
begins reading his autobiography. Christy could not walk or talk, but still
received love and support from his family, especially his mother. One day, while
Christy was still a young boy, he is the only person home to see his mother fall
down a flight of stairs while in labor. He is able to get the attention of some
neighbors, who come to his mother's rescue. His father, who had never really
believed in Christy, becomes a supporter when, one day, when he is about ten,
Christy uses his left foot (the only part of his body he can fully control) to write
the word "mother" on the floor with a piece of yellow chalk.
Consequently, Christy seeks a hobby in painting. He is included by the young
people in his neighborhood in their activities, such as playing street football,
etc. However, when he paints a picture and gives it to a girl he likes, she returns
it to him. His father loses his job and the family faces exceptionally difficult
hardships. Christy, to his mothers dismay, devises a plan to help his brothers
steal coal. Christys elder sister, who was always very nice to him, gets pregnant
and has to get married and leave home. Christy's mother, who had been
gradually gathering some savings in a tin in the fireplace, finally saves enough
to buy him a wheelchair.
Christy meets Dr. Eileen Cole, who takes him to her school for cerebral palsy
patients and persuades a friend of hers to hold an exhibition of his work. Christy
falls in love with Dr. Cole, but in the subsequent dinner, he learns she is
engaged to be married. As a result, Christy considers suicide. He and his mother
build Christy his own private studio, but his father soon thereafter dies of a
stroke. During the wake, Christy instigates a brawl. At this point, Christy starts

181
writing his autobiography, My Left Foot. Dr. Cole returns and they resume their
friendship. Meanwhile, at the fete, Christy asks Mary Carr to go out with him and
they leave the fete together.

Script notes

182

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My Life (1993)
Detroit, Michigan, 1963: Bob Ivanovich is a young boy, who prays one night for
a circus in his backyard the next day after school. After school the next day, he
runs home eagerly, followed by his friends. To his disappointment, no circus
awaits. Angrily, Bob retreats to the closet in his room, his personal retreat space.
Thirty years later, Bob Jones (Keaton) now runs a Los Angeles public relations
firm. He is happily married to Gail (Kidman), who is pregnant with their first
child. Bob is horrified to learn that he has been diagnosed with aterminal illness
(kidney cancer) and might not live to see their baby born.
Bob begins to make home movies, to immortalize himself, to be shown after his
death to his son, so he'll know who his father was, showing him how to
cookspaghetti, how to drive, etc. He also begins to visit a Chinese healer named
Mr. Ho (Dr. Haing S. Ngor), who urges him to listen to his heart, which is calling
him to forgive, and that life is always giving him invitations if he would just
listen. At his wife's urging, they fly to his hometown of Detroit to attend the
wedding of his brother Paul (Whitford). While in the area, Bob visits his
childhood home. Also while there, they attempt to mend fences with his
estranged family, which does not go well. Bob criticizes his brother for not
moving to California like he did, and his father resents Bob moving thousands
of miles away and changing his name.
Bob returns to California with a heavy heart, sadly saying to his wife, "This is my
last trip home." During a visit with Mr. Ho, he advises Bob to go into his heart
"soon." Bob teaches his son by camera how to shave, play basketball, and how
to start a car by jumper cable. He also confronts a childhood fear by finally riding
a formidable roller coaster. During the ride, a young companion urges him to let

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go of the railing as the descent begins, but Bob firmly holds on. (A metaphor of
his fear of letting go of life.) He is living on borrowed timebeyond the date the
doctors gave him, as he says to his wife after getting off the coaster, "Today is DDay. Death Day. I was supposed to be dead by today."
Gail's contractions increase, and soon she is in the hospital, to give birth to their
baby. Bob and Gail have a happy time with their newborn but soon, Bob's
condition worsens, now that the cancer has reached his brain. Hospice care is
arranged for Bob. Bob makes a final visit to Mr. Ho, and asks him what the light
is he keeps seeing. Mr. Ho replies it is "the life of the self" and urges him to get
his "house in order (life and personal affairs)."
A hospice nurse, Theresa (Queen Latifah), moves in to help, but Bob is sinking
fast. Bob and Gail finally call his family to inform them of what's going on. Bob's
family comes west for the first time to visit. Bob makes peace with his family at
last. Bob's childhood wish is finally granted by a circus in the backyard.
As his father shaves him, Bob shows that he has at last made peace by telling his
father he loves him. Bob finally comes to terms with his life as he dies
peacefully, surrounded by the loving, supportive bosom of his family. Next is
shown Bob on a metaphysical roller coaster, this time letting go of the railing,
raising his arms freely in the air this time, metaphorically letting go of life, and
finally enjoying the ride of life. Bob rides toward a beautiful, shining, ethereal
light. (Presumably Heaven.) A year later, his son and wife watch him on video,
reading Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham to his son.

Script notes

185

186
Mystery Men (1999) Transformation
Invisible Boy claims to become invisible when no one, including himself, is
watching. How can he know this? He just feels invisible. The test comes when
his group of dubious superheroes must bypass electronic "seeing eyes" in order
to enter a supervillain's fortress. Everyone closes their eyes as Invisible Boy takes
off his clothes and maneuvers through the electronic surveillance area. If he
isn't really invisible, the fortress' defense system will kill him. He makes it
through, disables the defenses, and shouts that he did it. When his teammates
opens their eyes, he immediately becomes visible again. One of them says,
"Maybe you should put some shorts on or something, if you wanna keep
fighting evil today." (David K. Miller)
Roy is a pussycat who wants to be considered dangerous. Calling himself Mr.
Furious, he allies himself with a bunch of misfits also claiming to have
superpowers. Never quite mustering enough fury to do anything more than to
key a car or break off its hood ornament. When the woman he has fallen in love
with is in danger, though, he truly transforms into Mr. Furious.
Mr. Furious: Rage... taking over...
Casanova Frankenstein: Yes, yes, we've heard that before. Mr. Furious: No.
Rage... REALLY taking over...
(David K. Miller)

Script notes

187

188
The Natural (1984)
Roy Hobbs is a boy who is a skilled baseball player, often playing catch with his
father Ed (Alan Fudge). One day, his father suffers a fatal heart attack and drops
dead near a tree on the family property. When the same tree is later struck by
lightning, Hobbs considers this a sign and fashions the heart of the tree's trunk,
seen glowing after the trunk is split in two by the lightning, into a bat, which he
dubs "Wonderboy" and carves a lightning bolt into the bat.
In 1923, a 19-year-old Hobbs (Robert Redford) is a promising pitcher who threw
eight no-hitters in 1922. One night, he informs his girlfriend and neighbor, Iris
(Glenn Close), that he has been called up for a try-out with the Chicago Cubs,
which they celebrate by spending the night together in a barn. On the way to
Chicago with his manager Sam Simpson (John Finnegan), the train stops at a
carnival and Hobbs is challenged to strike out "The Whammer" (Joe Don Baker),
the top hitter in the Majors (it is insinuated that The Whammer also plays for the
Cubs), and Hobbs proceeds to do so. Sportswriter Max Mercy (Robert Duvall),
travelling with Whammer, acts as the umpire and later draws a cartoon of the
event.
Hobbs also encounters Harriet Bird (Barbara Hershey), a beautiful, alluring
woman, who becomes fixated on him after he strikes out Whammer. After
reaching Chicago, Bird lures Hobbs to her hotel room, shoots him, then
commits suicide by jumping from her hotel room window. It is later, revealed
that Bird, a serial killer, kills rising athletes with a silver bullet, having only days
earlier, already, murdered a star football player, named Johnny Serowski, as well
as, an Olympic decathlete. This gun-shot wound puts an end to Hobbs'
promising baseball career.

189
Sixteen years later, in 1939, a 35-year-old Hobbs re-emerges and is signed to
the New York Knights as a hard hitting right fielder, much to the ire of the
team's manager and co-owner Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley). Pop is angered over
being saddled with a "middle-aged" rookie and does not play him or even let
him practice with the team. After sitting on the bench for a number of weeks
while the team slump continued, Pop tells Hobbs that he is sending him down
to the Minors to play Class B ball. An argument ensues with Hobbs telling Pop
that it took him 16 years to get to the majors and that he wouldn't go down.
Eventually Pop gives in and allows Hobbs to take batting practice the next day.
There Hobbs shows his hitting ability with Wonderboy, hitting every pitch from
the teams starting ace Al Fowler into the Knights Field stands for a home run.
During the next game, the team's star player, right fielder "Bump" Bailey
(Michael Madsen), angers Pops after causing the centre fielder to drop a catch,
and Pop sends Hobbs in to pinch hit for his first start in the majors, telling him
to "Knock the cover off the ball". After taking a first pitch strike, Hobbs literally
does just that, knocking the cover off the baseball and winning the game just as
lightning strikes in the sky above the stadium signalling the start of a heavy
downpour. The next day, Iris, now living in Chicago, hears of his presence in
Majors while dining at her favorite soda shop. Bump sees that his position is in
jeopardy since he and Hobbs both play right field. He later dies after crashing
through an outfield fence. Hobbs then becomes the league's sensation by
turning the Knights' fortunes around which is shown in vignettes of newspaper
articles detailing the games.
Hobbs' success prompts Mercy to try harder to unearth his background since he
knows he's seen him before, but can't finger exactly where. Later, Hobbs is
summoned to a meeting with the principal owner of the team, The Judge
(Robert Prosky). The Judge has an agreement with Pops that if the Knights fail to

190
win the pennant at the end of the season, Pops' share of the team reverts to the
Judge. However, if they win, Pops can buy his share back. To ensure the team
loses, the Judge had the teams chief scout stock the roster with unknown
players like Hobbs. When Hobbs refuses a bribe to throw the season, gambler
Gus Sands (Darren McGavin) and the Judge devise a plan to manipulate him
though Memo Paris (Kim Basinger), Pop's niece and Bump's girlfriend until his
death.
At the end of a Knights practice, one of Hobbs' team mates Boone (Mike Starr)
asks him to pitch him one, telling him that he wanted to hit it into the stands.
Hobbs sent down a fastball that stuck in the cage netting, much to the surprise
of his team mates who knew nothing of his past as an incredible left handed
pitcher. Mercy, watching practice from the stands and seeing the pitch, finally
remembers where he had seen Hobbs before. Later, after showing Hobbs the
drawing he had done of him striking out The Whammer in 1923, Mercy
introduces Hobbs to Gus and Memo. Although she is his niece, Pop tells Hobbs
that be believes that Memo is "bad luck" and that bad luck has a way of rubbing
off on others, but they begin a relationship and Hobbs soon falls into a playing
slump.
At Wrigley Field in Chicago against the Cubs, Hobbs comes to bat having
already struck out twice in the game. Iris, having watched his first two at bats
fail, stands up so he can see her. Hobbs promptly hits the game-winning home
run, causing the ball to shatter the scoreboard clock. Hobbs makes his way to
her as quickly as he can after the game and they have a quick talk at her favorite
soda shop. As she hurries off into a cab, he pleads for her to come to the next
day's game, but she is noncommittal. The press then dubs Iris "The Lady in
White" and lands her picture on the front page of the paper along with Hobbs,
prompting panic from Gus and Memo. So much that Memo calls to tell him she

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misses him and taunts him with visions of
what they will do once together again. Hobbs hangs up, but Memo, pretending
he is still on the phone says,
"I love you, too". Gus asks if she is still playing a game, and she assures him that
she is. After the game the following day, she is waiting for him and he asks her if
they can go for a walk. Hobbs confides to her about the shooting and how he
lost his way in life. As they talk at her apartment, Hobbs sees a glove and ball,
which prompts Iris to reveal that she has a son whose father lives in New York.
They hug before he leaves for his train.
With Hobbs hitting again, the Knights surge into first place, needing just one
more win to clinch the pennant. Hobbs again refuses a payoff from Gus to throw
the game and it's revealed that Bump was the person they were paying off to
lose previously. During a party at Memo's new apartment (paid for by Gus), she
feeds him tainted food which causes him to collapse and be rushed to the
hospital. By the time he awakens in the maternity ward (due to overcrowding),
the Knights have lost their last three games, forcing them to a one-game playoff
against the Pittsburgh Pirates. When his doctor arrives, he informs him that the
silver bullet from the shooting has been eating away the lining of his stomach,
meaning it could burst at any time and kill him instantly. Memo visits after
finding out that he can't play due to his health and is surprised to find he wants
to anyway. She then asks him not to so they can run away together with money
that Gus gives them so they can buy into a business and be well off. After a visit
by his teammates, Hobbs awakens to The Judge in his room, holding a
briefcase. The Judge offers him doubled what he was paying Bump, twenty
thousand dollars. When Hobbs again declines, he reveals the crime scene
pictures from the Harriet Bird shooting, showing that Max had put all the pieces
together. During the attempted bribe, The Judge admits that there is another

192
player that has been paid off and that no matter what Hobbs does, the Knights
will lose. The last person to see Hobbs before he is released is Iris. He is feeling
dejected that what has kept him from playing all this time might finally take it
away now that he's reached where he's wanted to be. He blames himself, not
Harriet for failing to achieve his full potential, but she insists he is a great player
and he had no clue that simply getting to know an interesting woman would
hurt him this much.
Before the playoff game, Hobbs visits The Judge in his office to return the bribe.
The Judge reacts with disbelief that he'd still play knowing that the crime scene
pictures have come to light. Memo responds in anger by picking up a gun and
shooting it at his feet while screaming at Hobbs how much she hates him for
ruining their perfect ending. Gus calls him a washed up loser who was less than
he'd given him credit for. Roy then heads out to the locker room to prepare for
the game, catching Pop talking about how much he wanted to win the pennant.
He then reveals his presence and that he intends to help Pop win. During the
game after giving up a 2 run homer in the 4th, Hobbs realizes that the Knights'
starting pitcher Fowler is the player the Judge bribed. Hobbs confronts him on
the mound, telling him not to throw the game. Fowler replies he will start
pitching when Hobbs starts hitting. Iris, in the stands with her son, asks an usher
to deliver a note to Hobbs. It finally conveys what Iris has been struggling to tell
Hobbs since they reconnected: that her son is his from the night they spent
together before he left for Chicago. Once he reads the notes, he's shocked and
looks up into the stands, but can't find them.
The Knights are trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the 9th and Hobbs comes up to bat
with two out and runners on first and third. After opening with two balls, the
Pirates take their starting pitcher Youngberry out of the game despite being on
a 3-hit shutout. They bring in a young, left handed Nebraskan farm boy named

193
John Rhoades who like Hobbs had been in his youth, was a highly touted
prospect with a blazing fastball. Down to his last strike, Hobbs hits a foul ball so
hard it splinters the Wonderboy in two. He then turns to the bat boy, Bobby and
asks him to pick him out a winner. He returns with the "Savoy Special", the bat
that Hobbs helped him to make. Hobbs then hits a homer into the lights on top
of the right field stands, which wins them the pennant. He then runs the bases
under the showering lights as his team rejoices.
The screen fades to a wheat field on the family farm that Iris had told Hobbs she
still owned and would never get rid of, with Hobbs playing catch with his son as
Iris looks on, echoing the opening scene with Hobbs and his own father at the
start of the film.

Script notes

194

195
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Prologue
Mickey Knox and his wife Mallory stop at a roadside caf in the New Mexico
desert. A group of rednecks arrive and one begins sexually harassing Mallory.
She briefly encourages him before beating him to a pulp. Mickey and Mallory
then murder all but one of the diner's patrons, culminating in a morbid game of
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe to decide who lives and dies. After executing the
waitress Mabel, the couple ensures that the only survivor remembers their
names before they embrace and declare their undying love.
Part I
Mickey and Mallory camp out in the desert, and Mallory reminisces about when
they first met. Aflashback (done in the style of a TV sitcom, including a
laughtrack) shows Mickey as a deliveryman who came to the house where
Mallory lived with her sexually abusive father, her neglectful mother, and her
younger brother, Kevin. Mickey and Mallory fall in love instantly and leave
together, as Mickey steals a car that belongs to Mallory's father. Soon Mickey is
arrested and imprisoned for grand theft auto, but he subsequently escapes from
a prison work farm during a tornado and returns to Mallory's house. The two kill
Mallory's parents, but spare Kevin, and go on the road together and get
"married" on the side of a bridge, celebrating by taking a hostage. Furious with
Mickey's notion that they have a threesome, Mallory drives to a nearby gas
station, where she flirts with the mechanic. They begin to have sex on the hood
of a car, but Mallory kills him when he recognizes her as a wanted killer. During
this time, Mickey rapes the hostage.

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Part II
The pair continue their killing spree, ultimately claiming fifty-two victims in New
Mexico, Arizona, andNevada. Pursuing them is Detective Jack Scagnetti, who
became obsessed with mass murderers after witnessing his mother being shot
and killed by Charles Whitman when he was eight. Beneath his heroic facade,
he is a violent psychopath, once strangling a prostitute to death. The killers are
also followed by self-serving tabloid journalist Wayne Gale. Gale profiles Mickey
and Mallory on his show, American Maniacs, soon elevating them to cult hero
status.
Mickey and Mallory become lost in the desert and encounter Warren Red Cloud,
a Navajo Indian, and his young grandson. After the two fall asleep, the Navajo,
hoping to expel the demon he perceives in Mickey, begins chanting beside the
fire, invoking nightmares in Mickey about his abusive parents. Mickey wakes up
in a rage and fatally shoots Red Cloud before he realizes what he is doing. It is
the first time Mallory and Mickey feel guilty for a murder. Fleeing from the
scene through the desert, they stray onto a field of rattlesnakes and are both
bitten.
They drive to a drugstore to find snakebite antidote, but the pharmacist sets off
the silent alarm before Mickey kills him. Soon police cars arrive and Mallory is
captured and subsequently beaten by the police. A gunfight breaks out between
Mickey and the others. Scagnetti arrives and tells Mickey that unless he
surrenders, he will cut off Mallory's breasts. Mickey gives up his guns, but
attacks Scagnetti with a knife. The police taser him and the scene ends with
Mickey and Mallory being beaten by a group of vengeful policemen as a
Japanese news crew fronted by a female reporter films the action.

197
Part III
The story picks up one year later: the homicidal couple have been imprisoned,
and are due to be moved to a mental hospital after being declared insane.
Scagnetti arrives at the prison and encounters Warden Dwight McClusky, with
whom he plans to murder the two criminals. McClusky will arrange for Scagnetti
to be the driver for the Knoxes' transfer. Alone with the pair, Scagnetti will
murder them, then claim that they tried to escape.
Meanwhile, Gale has persuaded Mickey to agree to a live interview that will air
immediately after theSuper Bowl. Mallory is held in solitary confinement
elsewhere in the prison, awaiting her transport to the mental hospital. During
the interview, Mickey gives a speech about how murder provides
enlightenment and declares himself a "natural born killer". His words inspire
the other inmates (who are watching the interview on TV in the recreation room)
and incite them to riot.
McClusky, upon learning of the riot, orders the interview terminated despite
Gale's vehement protests. Mickey is left alone with Gale, the film crew and
several guards. Using a lengthy joke as a diversion, Mickey overpowers a guard
and grabs his shotgun. He kills most of the guards with it and takes the
survivors hostage, leading them through the prison riot. Gale follows, giving a
live television report as people are beaten and killed around him.
Scagnetti enters Mallory's cell and attempts to seduce her. Mallory rebuffs his
efforts, smashing his face against the wall and breaking his nose. The guards
and Scagnetti subdue her. Still live on national television, Mickey engages in a
Mexican standoff with Scagnetti, eventually feigning a concession. Mallory then
approaches Scagnetti from behind and slashes his throat with a shank. To

198
Scagnetti's horror, Mickey tells him that he was out of shotgun shells during the
standoff. Mallory then picks up Scagnetti's gun and kills him.
Mickey and Mallory continue to escape through the riot torn prison, with Gale's
entire TV crew getting killed. Gale himself snaps, succumbing to Stockholm
syndrome, and begins to shoot at the guards with a pistol that he has taken
from one of the dead guards. After being rescued by a mysterious prisoner
named Owen Traft, the trio of Mickey, Mallory, and Gale run into McClusky and a
heavily armed posseof guards. The trio takes cover in a blood-splattered shower
room. McClusky threatens to storm the shower room; Mickey, in turn, threatens
to kill both Gale and a guard on live TV, and the prisoners walk out the front
door. McClusky and his guards are quickly massacred by hordes of inmates.
Mickey and Mallory steal a van and kill the last guard; Owen's fate is unknown.
Escaping to a rural location, they give a final interview to Gale, whose ear they
have seemingly removed (implied, but as a camera track reveals), before they
tell him he must die also. He attempts various arguments to change their
minds, finally appealing to their trademark practice of leaving one survivor;
Mickey informs him they are leaving a witness to tell the tale, his camera. Gale
accepts his fate and extends his arms as if on a cross as they shoot him dead
while his unattended camera continues to roll. The couple is shown several
years later, in an RV, with Mickey driving and a pregnant Mallory watching their
two children play.

199
Needful Things (1993)
A mysterious proprietor named Leland Gaunt (von Sydow), claiming to be from
Akron, Ohio, opens a new antiques store called "Needful Things" in the small
town of Castle Rock, Maine.[1] The store sells various items of great personal
worth to the residents (some of which, like a pendant that eases pain or a toy
which predicts the outcome of horse races, are clearly supernatural). Gaunt
demands payment both in cash and in small "favors", usually pranks played by
his customers on their neighbors. Gaunt's first customer is a kid named Brian
Rusk (Meier) who buys off a rare baseball card in exchange for a prank.[2]
Gaunt makes an impression on the town's people, who he also has pull some
pranks. One of whom is a corrupt boat salesman and gambler named Danforth
Keeton (Walsh) who embezzled tax money to pay off his gambling debts.
Keeton is paranoid that people are on to him and relays his fears to Gaunt.
Gaunt also sells Keeton a toy horse race that works in his favor. Gaunt also learns
of the rivalry between the Catholic priest, Father Meehan and Protestant
reverend Willie Rose. The first hint of Gaunt's true nature is when he has Brian
throw apples at the house of Whilma Jerzyck, and frames Nettie Cobb. Likewise,
Gaunt has another customer kill Nettie's dog, in return for a jacket. This sparks a
violent fight between Nettie and Whilma, which gets them both killed. Brian
witnesses the investigation and tries to talk to Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Harris)
about what Gaunt had him do, but is too scared to come forward. It is at this
point it becomes apparent that Gaunt is not human, but a demon (heavily
implied to be Satan himself).
Sheriff Pangborn later approaches Brian when he's alone at the lighthouse, and
asks whats got him scared. Brian explains that Gaunt is a monster before trying

200
to kill himself. Pangborn manages to stop him, but Brian is hospitalized.
Meanwhile, Pangborn begins to suspect that Gaunt may not be what he seems,
and Gaunt takes a personal measure towards Pangborn by selling a necklace to
his girlfriend Polly that has a placebo effect that helps with her arthritis. Gaunt's
pranks spread throughout the town and its citizens, making paranoia and anger
spread with it. Keeton becomes afraid that everyone including his wife Myrtle is
out to get him, and Gaunt convinces him that he's his only ally.
Later on, Gaunt starts selling his customers guns, encouraging them to kill
whoever wronged them, playing on their greed and fear. In addition to this,
Gaunt has another prank played on Polly to make it seem that Pangborn is in on
Keeton's embezzlement. Gaunt also has Keeton attack Pangborn and his deputy
Norris Ridgewick at the police station, and Pangborn breaks up a fight between
Ridgewick and Keeton. Shortly after this, Keeton manages to escape Ridgewick
by kicking him in the groin, then goes home to kill his wife. Following this,
Gaunt has Keeton place explosives around the town's Catholic church, where
Pangbron talks to Meehan. Pangborn relays his new suspicions that Gaunt is the
Devil, but Meehan refuses to believe him. The church explodes, but Pangborn
and Meehan manage to escape with their lives. Meehan believes that Reverend
Willy Rose is behind this, and leaves to fight him.
Following this, a riot sparks throughout the town, with Gaunt watching from the
sidelines as Pangborn tries to restore order. Pangborn pulls a gun on Meehan
and Rose, and Gaunt encourages him to shoot them, but Pangborn fires into the
air, much to Gaunt's disappointment. Getting everyone's attention, Pangborn
convinces everyone to come to their senses, exposing Gaunt's true nature and
web of manipulation. Everyone stops fighting and admits their pranks, but
Keeton, despondent after everything, walks up to Pangborn and Ridgewick,
pointing a gun at them with a bomb strapped to him, threatening to blow

201
everyone up, but is talked down by Pangborn. Keeton turns against Gaunt and
tackles him through the store window, setting off the bomb, destroying Needful
Things.
Defeated, but completely unharmed Gaunt emerges from the burning wreckage
of his store, and saying that this wasn't his best work. Gaunt walks up to
Pangborn and Polly, telling them they make a cute couple, and he will
encounter their grandson in 2053, then departs, presumably to continue his
vicious, evil work. He leaves in the same sinister black car (revealed as similarly
supernaturally indestructible in the extended cut), in which he arrived at the
beginning of the film.

Script notes

202

203
The NeverEnding Story (1984)
Bastian Balthazar Bux (Barret Oliver), a shy and friendless bibliophile child,
hides in a bookstore, interrupting the grumpy bookseller, Mr. Coreander
(Thomas Hill). Bastian asks about one of the books he sees, but Mr. Coreander
advises against it; despite which, Bastian seizes the book, leaving a note
promising to return it, and hides in the school's attic to read. The book describes
the world of Fantasia threatened by a force called "The Nothing"; where the
Childlike Empress (Tami Stronach) who rules over Fantasia has fallen ill, and has
summoned Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) to discover the cure. Atreyu is therefore
given AURYN. As Atreyu sets out, the Nothing summons Gmork (voiced by Alan
Oppenheimer), a werewolf, to kill Atreyu.
Atreyu's quest directs him to the advisor Morla the Ancient One in the Swamps
of Sadness, where his beloved horse Artax is lost to the swamp. Atreyu continues
alone, and is surprised when Morla reveals itself as a giant tortoise. Bastian,
reading, is also surprised and lets out a scream, which Atreyu and Morla appear
to hear. Morla does not have the answers Atreyu seeks, but directs him to the
Southern Oracle, ten thousand miles distant. In the walk through the Swamps,
Atreyu is rendered unconscious and rescued by the luckdragon Falkor(voiced by
Alan Oppenheimer). Two gnomes who helped restore Atreyu explain the Oracle,
including the trials that one must face before reaching it. Atreyu completes one
trial and is perplexed when the second trial, a mirror that shows the viewer's
true self, reveals a boy matching Bastian's description; whereupon Bastian
throws the book aside, but cautiously continues. Atreyu, past the trials, stands
before the Oracle, who tells him the only way to save the Princess is to find a
human child to give her a new name, beyond the boundaries of Fantasia. Atreyu
and Falkor then flee before the Nothing, and Atreyu is knocked from Falkor's

204
back into the Sea of Possibilities, losing AURYN in the process. He wakes on the
shore of an abandoned town, and finds a series of paintings depicting his quest.
Here Gmork reveals himself, and explains that Fantasia represents humanity's
imagination, and that the Nothing represents adult apathy and cynicism against
it. Upon hearing himself named, Atreyu kills Gmork with a stone knife. Atreyu
and AURYN are then recovered by Falkor. Fearing his quest has failed, Atreyu
and Falkor approach the Empress's Ivory Tower, where Atreyu apologizes for his
failure. As the Nothing starts to consume the Ivory Tower, knocking Atreyu
unconscious in the process, the Empress pleas directly to Bastian to give her a
new name before it is too late; whereupon Bastian shouts the name "Moon
Child", and finds himself before the Empress, who reveals that his imagination
can re-create Fantasia. With this done, Bastian rides Falkor over the restored
Fantasia, and sees Atreyu reunited with Artax. In the real world, the bullies that
chased down Bastian at the start of the film, are themselves chased by Bastian
and Falkor. A narrator states that Bastian had many more wishes and
adventures, and adds: "but that's another story".

Script notes

205

206
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
In the 1930s West Virginia, along the Ohio River, Reverend Harry Powell, a serial
killer, flees the scene of his latest victim. Powell is a self-anointed preacher with
a penchant for switchblade knives; a misogynist who is both attracted to and
repulsed by women. He travels rural roads, preaching in small towns, and
seems to believe he is doing God's work. The letters "L-O-V-E" are tattooed on
one hand and the letters "H-A-T-E" on the other, which Powell uses as symbols in
impromptu sermons. In one small town, police arrest Powell for driving a stolen
car and sentence him to jail, unaware that he is a murderer.
Meanwhile, a local family man named Ben Harper ends up killing two people in
a bank robbery. Before his arrest, he arrives home to his two young children,
John and Pearl. Ben convinces them to keep the secret of where he has hidden
the money: inside Pearl's rag doll. Immediately afterwards the police arrive and
arrest Ben, and John is shocked by the way the police roughly pin down and
overpower his father.
Harper and Powell share a cell where Powell, soon to be released, tries
unsuccessfully to learn the location of the missing bank loot. Harper does not
give away the entire secret, but lets slip enough to allow Powell to work out that
Harper's children must know where the money is. Harper ends up executed for
his crimes, leaving Powell to woo and marry Harper's widow, Willa, once Powell
is set free from jail.
While Powell charms most of the townsfolk, Young John is the only one who
doesn't trust him. John denies Powell the knowledge of the money's hiding
place, though he must constantly remind the younger and more trusting Pearl
to keep the secret. Eventually Willa discovers that Powell is searching for the

207
money despite his denying it earlier. However, the pious Willa believes he
married her in order to show her God's light rather than get the money. Powell
then murders her, dumps her body in the river, and covers it up with a story that
she had abandoned him and the children for a life of sin.
So successful is this cover story that Powell retains the trust and sympathy of the
townsfolk as a result; if anything, his position in the town becomes even more
secure. Even when Birdie Steptoe, an elderly man who spends his days drinking
on his riverboat and is friendly with John, discovers the drowned body, he
chooses to keep the secret for fear that the town will blame him for it rather than
the true killer. Nobody else in town is willing to take John's side against Powell,
who as far as they are concerned is entirely innocent.
Left to care for John and Pearl, Powell finally discovers the money hidden inside
the doll by threatening their lives. The children manage to flee with it down the
river. They eventually find sanctuary with Rachel Cooper, a tough old woman
who looks after stray children. Powell tracks them down, but Rachel sees
through his false virtue and runs him off. Powell returns after dark, as he'd
threatened to do, which leads to an all night stand-off ending in his being shot
and injured.
The police arrive to arrest Powell, having also discovered Willa's body. John
breaks down, seeing the arrest of Powell to be almost identical to the arrest of
his real father. John takes the doll and lashes it at the handcuffed Powell,
spilling the ill-gotten money, and insists that Powell can have the cash if he
wants it.
Powell is tried, convicted and sentenced for all his crimes. Several of the
townsfolk previously depicted as being his staunchest defenders are shown

208
shouting abuse at him from the public gallery and drinking. A lynch mob later
tries to take Powell from the police station but the police retreat with him out
the back, the professional executioner promising to see Powell soon. Finally,
John and Pearl have their first Christmas together with Rachel and their new
family.

209
Norma Rae (1979)
cotton mill that has taken too much of a toll on the health of her family for her to
ignore their poor working conditions. After hearing a speech by a New York
union organizer, Reuben Warshowsky, Norma Rae decides to join the effort to
unionize her shop. This causes conflict at home when Norma Rae's husband,
Sonny, says she's not spending enough time in the home.
Despite being pressured by management, when confronted, Norma Rae takes a
piece of cardboard, writes the word "UNION" on it, stands on her work table,
and slowly turns to show the sign around the room. One by one, the other
workers stop their mill machines, and eventually, the entire room becomes
silent. After all the machines have been switched off, Norma Rae is taken to jail
but is freed by Reuben.
She then decides to talk to her children and tell them the story of her life. After
discussing it with Reuben, Sonny tells Norma there's no other woman in his
mind and he will always remain with her. Norma Rae then successfully
orchestrates an election to unionize the factory, resulting in a victory for the
union. Finally, Reuben says goodbye to Norma; despite his being smitten with
her throughout the movie, they only shake hands because he knows she is
married and loves her husband, and Reuben heads back to New York.

210
Notting Hill(1999)
William "Will" Thacker (Hugh Grant) owns an independent travel bookshop in
Notting Hill. He is divorced and shares his house with an eccentric, uninhibited
Welshman named Spike (Rhys Ifans).
Will encounters Hollywood superstar Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) when she enters
his shop to buy a book. Minutes later, they collide in the street and his orange
juice spills on her clothes. Will offers his house nearby for Anna to change.
Afterwards she surprises him with a kiss.
Days later, Spike remembers that "some American girl called Anna" had phoned
and mentioned a"completely different name". Anna is at the Ritz Hotel, under
the name "Flintstone". Will is allowed in, but her press interviews are running
late and he is mistaken for a journalist. (In panic he claims he works for Horse &
Hound.) He has to interview the cast of Anna's new film Helix, which he has not
seen. After the interviews, Anna calls him back in and says she has cancelled her
evening appointment and can now go out with him. Will is delighted, before
remembering that his sister Honey (Emma Chambers) is about to have a
birthday party; Anna surprises him by saying she will go as his date.
There, at Max's (Tim McInnerny) and Bella's (Gina McKee) house, Anna feels at
home with Will's friends as they share stories of who has the most unfortunate
life. Afterwards Will and Anna climb into a private garden square. The next day
they go to a cinema, then to a restaurant, where Will overhears Anna being
mocked and defends her honour. Anna invites Will to her room at the Ritz, but
her American boyfriend, a famous film star named Jeff King (Alec Baldwin), has
arrived unexpectedly. Will pretends to be a room-service waiter; Jeff casually

211
condescends to him. Anna is apologetic; she thought King had broken up with
her. Will realises he must end things with Anna, but is unable to forget her.
Six months later, Anna turns up at Will's house unannounced. Old pin-ups of
Anna taken many years earlier have been published and she needs to hide out.
After spending the day together, Anna goes downstairs to where Will is
sleeping: they embrace, go up to the bedroom, and make love. But in the
morning they are stunned to see a horde of reporters at the door, alerted by
Spike's careless talk at the pub. Anna, angry at what she views as Will's betrayal,
tells him the scandal will follow her forever and she already regrets what
happened. Stunned and hurt, Will lets her go without further argument.
Another six months later, Anna returns to London to make a Henry James film,
which Will had earlier suggested. Will is curious enough to visit the film set;
Anna invites him to watch the day's filming, then talk. A sound engineer
provides headphones to hear the dialogue, but Will overhears Anna saying that
he is "no one, just some guy from the past". Crushed, Will leaves abruptly. The
next day, Anna comes to the bookshop with a parcel, and asks why he left. When
he explains, she says that her co-star is a notorious gossip and she was being
discreet. She wants to renew their relationship, saying that "the fame thing isn't
really real" and that she is "just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to
love her". Will hears her out, but says that if she later rejected him again he
could not handle it, and turns her down. She leaves Will's present behind, still
wrapped; it turns out to be an original Marc Chagallpainting, La Marie, that
Will owns a print of.
Will meets his friends, who are supportiveuntil Spike arrives and promptly
calls him a "daft prick", making Will realise he has made the biggest mistake of
his life by turning Anna away. Racing across London in Max's car, Will and his

212
friends search for Anna, finally reaching Anna's press conference at the Savoy
Hotel where Will, in his Horse & Hound persona, persuades her to stay in the UK
with him. Anna and Will later marry, the film concluding with a shot of Will and
a pregnant Anna on a bench in a London square.

Script notes

213

214
The Nutty Professor (1996)
At Wellman College, thousands of hamsters overrun the campus, due to the
massively obese, yet loving and kind-hearted, professor Sherman Klump (Eddie
Murphy), who accidentally releases them due to his wide belly always
accidentally hitting the button when he turns around. Meanwhile, Sherman has
constructed an experimental formula that reconstructs human DNA in a way that
allows them to lose weight instantaneously.
After class, Sherman meets and instantly falls in love with Carla Purty (Jada
Pinkett-Smith), a chemistry graduate student who is serving as a chemistry
teacher and is a big fan of his work. After dinner with his obese, impolite family
(all played by Murphy), Sherman asks Carla out on a date, which she accepts,
much to Sherman's surprise. The date begins well with Carla showing
admiration for Sherman's work, but the club's obnoxious comic Reggie
Warrington (Dave Chappelle) publicly humiliates him about his weight.
Sherman becomes depressed and has a nightmare in which he becomes a
rampaging giant and wrecks the city with a single fart that is ignited to cause an
explosion. He tests his serum on himself and loses 300 pounds in seconds.
Overwhelmed by his thinness, he goes out and buys copious amounts of
normal-sized clothing to celebrate, and a $47,000 Viper sports car on his faculty
expense account.
To conceal his true identity, Sherman adopts a fake name, "Buddy Love", and
invites Carla out on a date at the same club again (while the serum begins to
wear off). Reggie is present again and Buddy takes revenge and heckles him
mercilessly. Sherman's "Buddy" persona starts to develop an independent
personality due to the heightened testosterone levels of the transformation,

215
causing him to be overly assertive and confident. Klump's assistant Jason
witnesses Buddy fleeing the scene after he is identified as the person who left
Klump's credit card on the bar. Jason follows Buddy and witnesses the
transformation back into Klump.
The next morning, Dean Richmond (Larry Miller) has set up a meeting with
wealthy Harlan Hartley (James Coburn) at The Ritz to have Sherman explain the
serum in the hopes of gaining Hartley's $10 million donation to the science
department. Sherman arrives at The Ritz as Buddy with Carla. When the dean
spots him, Carla asks Buddy if he will take Sherman's place. He does, and he
takes all the credit of his work to Hartley. Hartley and the dean are very
impressed, and the dean invites him to the Alumni Ball the next night.
Meanwhile, Buddy picks up three beautiful women, much to Carla's anger who
dumps him and walks out. He then invites the three women back to his place for
the night so he can have sex with them.
After the falling out with Carla, Richmond gleefully telling Sherman that Buddy
will be taking his place at the Alumni Ball, and seeing a taunting video tape
from his alter ego, Sherman has had enough. He and Jason destroy all of the
serum samples. Sherman plans to set things right with Carla and get the grant
from Hartley. Unfortunately, Buddy has planned for this and hidden a sample in
one of Sherman's diet shake cans, which Sherman drinks, causing him to
transform into Buddy again. Jason tries to stop him from going to the ball, but
Buddy knocks him out and departs.
At the ball, Buddy demonstrates the effects of the serum to the audience, but
Jason arrives in time, as he has found out that Buddy's testosterone levels are at
a lethally high 60,000%. Buddy plans to drink a large sums of the potion to get
rid of Sherman for good. Jason knows that if he drinks it, it will kill Sherman and

216
possibly Buddy. The two of them get into a brief fistfight, but Sherman begins to
fight Buddy from within. Sherman eventually transforms into his regular self
and admits to the shocked audience, including his parents, of his misdeeds,
that Buddy was who he thought he and everybody else wanted him to be, and
that he should accept himself for who he is. As he leaves, Carla stops him and
asks why he lied; he says he did not believe that she would accept him, but she
says it doesn't matter if he is overweight or not. Sherman and Carla share a
dance and Hartley gives the donation to Sherman because he is "a brilliant
scientist and a gentleman."

Script notes

217

218
O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000)
hree convicts, Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), known as Everett, Pete
Hogwallop (John Turturro) and Delmar ODonnel (Tim Blake Nelson) escape
from a chain gang and set out to retrieve the $1.2 million that Everett buried.
The three get a lift from a blind man driving a handcar on a railway. He tells
them that they will find a fortune, but not the one they seek. The trio make their
way to Petes cousin Washs house. They remove their chains and sleep in the
barn, but are woken by police who have them surrounded. The police try to
smoke them out, but Washs son rescues them.
The group set out for the valley again. While driving past a lonely crossroads,
they pick up a young black man, Tommy Johnson, who claims that he sold his
soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play guitar. In need of money, the
four of them make their way to a radio broadcast tower where they record a
song for the radio as the Soggy Bottom Boys. Soon after this, they part ways with
Tommy. Unbeknownst to them, the recording becomes a major hit.
The group is driving near a river when they hear a song. They rush down to the
river, where three women are washing clothes and singing a bewitching song;
after drugging them with corn whiskey the men lose consciousness. Upon
waking, Delmar finds Petes clothes lying next to him, empty except for a toad.
Delmar is convinced that the women transformed Pete into the toad.
The two arrive in Everett's home town. He goes to confront his wife Penny about
changing her last name and telling his daughters that he was hit by a train. He
gets into a fight with Vernon T. Waldrip, his wifes new suitor. After this
incident, he and Delmar are in a cinema when a chain gang is marched in. Pete
is part of the chain gang and warns them not to seek the treasure. Later that

219
night, they rescue Pete from prison, and he tells them that he gave away the
treasures location to the police. Everett reveals that there was never any
treasure. Pete is outraged at this, and the two get into a fight. During the scuffle
they stumble upon a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob. Tommy is being held prisoner
and the Klansmen are going to hang him. The trio attempt to rescue Tommy.
Chaos ensues, and the Grand Wizard reveals himself as Homer Stokes, a
candidate in the upcoming election. The trio rush Tommy away and cut the
supports of a large burning cross. The cross falls on Big Dan, presumably killing
him.
Everett convinces Pete, Delmar and Tommy to help him win his wife back. They
sneak into a dinner that she is attending, disguised as musicians. Everett tries to
convince his wife that he is 'bona fide', but she brushes him off. The group
begins a performance of their radio hit. The crowd recognises them as the Soggy
Bottom Boys and goes wild. Homer Stokes, on the other hand, recognises them
as the group who disgraced his mob. He shouts angrily for the music to stop.
After he reveals his white supremacist views, the crowd drives him out on a rail.
Pappy ODaniel, the incumbent candidate, seizes the opportunity and endorses
the Soggy Bottom Boys. Upon learning of their fugitive status, he grants them
all full pardons. Penny accepts Everett, but she demands that he find her
original ring if they are to be married.
The group sets out to retrieve the ring, which is at a cabin in the valley where
Everett originally claimed to have hidden the treasure. When they arrive the
police arrest them, the sheriff not convinced by their claims of receiving
pardons. The valley floods and they are saved from hanging. Everett finds the
ring in a desk that is floating on the new lake, and they return to town. However,
when Everett presents the ring to his wife she tells him its the wrong one, and
demands that he get her ring back.

Script notes

220

221
October Sky (1999)
The film is set in Coalwood, West Virginia in October 1957. The coal mine is the
town's largest employer and almost every man living in the town works in the
mines. John Hickam (Chris Cooper), the mine superintendent, loves his job and
hopes that his boys, Jim (Scott Miles) and Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal ), will
one day join him in his mine. When it appears that Jim will receive a football
scholarship to attend college, this leaves Homer to fulfill his father's dream,
although his mother, Elsie (Natalie Canerday), hopes for more for her son.
In October, news of the Soviet Union's rocket launch of Sputnik 1 reaches
Coalwood. As the townspeople gather outside on the night of the broadcast,
they see the satellite orbit across the sky. Filled with awe and a belief that this
may be his chance to get out of Coalwood, Homer sets out to build rockets of his
own and enter the science fair, writing about his progress to Dr. Wernher von
Braun, one of the head engineers at NASA. Initially, his family and later his
classmates think he has gone crazy and is wasting his time, especially when he
teams up with Quentin Wilson (Chris Owen), the school's math geek who also
has an interest in rocket engineering. With the help of his friends, Roy Lee
Cooke(William Lee Scott) and Sherman O'Dell ( Chad Lindberg), and support
from their science teacher, Miss Riley (Laura Dern), the four try out their new
passion. While their first launches are failures, they begin experimenting with
new fuels and rocket designs. After several successful launches, the local paper
runs a story about them.
The next day, they are arrested accused of having started a forest fire with a
rocket that had gone astray. After John picks up Homer from the police station,
Roy Lee is seen being beaten up by hisstepfather, Vernon. John intervenes and
rescues Roy Lee, warning the drunken man that, even though Roy Lee's father is

222
dead, he will protect him as Roy Lee's father would have. In a rare display of
emotion, he tells Roy Lee that his father had been one of the best men who ever
worked for him.
The arrests, along with John's lack of support, crushes the boys' dream and they
abandon rocketry.
After a mine disaster, John is injured while rescuing "... a dozen men [who]
would have died...". One of the victims who is killed is Ike Bykovsky (Elya
Baskin), a machine shop worker who originally let Homer use the shop to build
his rockets, and then transferred to the mine for better pay. This fills Homer with
contempt for the mine, but despite this, he drops out of high school and works
the mine to provide for the family while his father recovers.
Later, Homer is inspired to look at a rocket science book Miss Riley has given
him, and learns how to calculate the trajectory of a rocket. This reveals that an
unrecovered rocket launched by the boys could not have caused the fire, as it
was unable to travel that far. Homer and Quentin calculate the precise distance
of the missing rocket and find it in a stream. The boys present their findings to
Miss Riley and the school principal, Mr. Turner (Chris Ellis). Annoyed by the
police, Turner identifies the offending projectile as a flare from a nearby airfield.
Homer returns to school, the boys return to rocket making, and soon win a
school science fair. The school decides to send Homer to the national science fair
in Indianapolis, Indiana. That night, John is almost shot in his kitchen by a man
in a drive-by shooting. John realizes this is a threat to change his strong stance
against the mining union. Homer and Jim express their concern to their father,
but John dismisses their fears, bitterly telling Homer to go "look for your
suitcase" (Homer had been doing so prior to the shooting). Fed up, Homer

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confronts his father and a heated argument ensues. Homer storms out of the
house, vowing to never return or look back.
At the national science fair, Homer's display is received very well. Overnight,
someone steals his de Laval nozzle, as well as his autographed picture of
Wernher von Braun. Homer makes an urgent phone call home for help. Elsie
implores John to end the ongoing strike so that Mr. Bolden (Randy Stripling),
the machine worker that replaced Bykovsky, can use the mine's machine shop to
build a replacement nozzle. John initially refuses, but relents when Elsie, fed up
with his lack of support for their son, threatens to leave him. With the support of
the town, Homer wins the top prize and is besieged with scholarship offers from
colleges. He is also congratulated by his inspiration Dr. von Braun, but in the
confusion does not realize the engineer's identity until after he has gone.
Homer returns to Coalwood as a hero, and visits Miss Riley, who is now dying of
Hodgkin's disease. He shows her the medal he has won, and she says she'll be
proud to tell her future students that she taught the Rocket Boys. A launch of
their largest rocket yet (called the Miss Riley) is the last scene of the film. The
rocket boys' most successful rocket reaches an altitude of 30,000 feet (9,100 m)
higher than the summit of Mount Everest. John finally shows up for a launch,
and is given the honour of pushing the firing button. As the rocket streams
upward, the film shows the view from the perspectives of many characters. As
the group looks up to the rocket, John slowly puts his hand on Homer's
shoulder and smiles.
A series of vignettes (including footage of a Space Shuttle launch and home
movie footage of the characters in the 1950s) reveal the outcomes of the main
characters' lives.

Script notes

224

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Oh, God! (1977)
God appears as a kindly old man to Jerry Landers, an assistant supermarket
manager. After a few failed attempts in trying to set up an "interview," God tells
Jerry that he has been selected to be His messenger to the modern world, much
like a contemporary Moses. Timidly at first, Landers tells his wife, children and a
religious editor of the Los Angeles Times of his encounters with God and soon
becomes a national icon of comedic fodder.
Jerry soon appears on television with Dinah Shore and describes the look God
takes when he encounters him. The next day, after Jerry is stranded from a car
breakdown, God appears as a taxi driver to take Jerry home, where they are met
by a bunch of chanting "religious nuts". Before he disappears God consoles
Jerry that he has the "strength that comes from knowing".
Skeptical at first, Landers finds his life turned upside down as a group of
theologians attempt to discredit him by challenging him to answer a series of
written questions in Aramaic while locked in a hotel room alone to prove God is
contacting him directly. To Jerry's relief after an agonizing wait, God, working as
room service, delivers food to Jerry and answers the questions. After being sued
for slanderby a charismatic preacher that God directed Jerry to call a "phony",
Jerry decides to prove his story in a court of law.
Jerry argues that if God's existence is a reasonable possibility, then He can
materialize and sit in the witness chair if He so chooses. At first, God fails to
appear and the judge threatens to charge Jerry with contempt for "what you
apparently thought was a clever stunt." Jerry argues that when everyone waited
for a moment to see what would happen when he raised the mere possibility of

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God making a personal appearance in the courtroom, that proved that He at
least deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Suddenly, without opening the doors, God appears and asks to be sworn in,
concluding the procedure with"So help me Me." "If it pleases the court, and
even if it doesn't please the court, I'm God, your honor."
God provides some miracles, first in the form of a few rather impressive card
tricks for the judge. Then, to help the people believe, he leaves the stand, walks
a few steps and, with everyone watching, literally disappears before their eyes.
His disembodied voice then issues a parting shot: "It can work. If you find it
hard to believe in Me, maybe it will help to know that I believe in you."
Sometime later, after hearing the ringing of a public telephone, Jerry meets up
with God once again. God states he's going on a trip to spend some time with
animals. Jerry expresses worry that they failed however God compares him to
Johnny Appleseed saying he was given the best seeds and they'll take root.
Jerry then says he has lost his job and that everybody thinks he's a nut, but God
assures him that there are other supermarkets and that he's in "good company."
God had said to Jerry earlier: "Lose a job; save a world". God gets ready to leave
and says that he will not be coming back. Jerry then asks what if he needs to
talk with him. God says to him "I'll tell you what, you talk. I'll listen." He then
disappears. Jerry smiles as God departs.

Script notes

227

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
In 1963 Oregon, Randle Patrick "Mac" McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a recidivist
anti-authoritarian criminal serving a short sentence on a prison farm for
statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl, is transferred to a mental institution for
evaluation. Although he does not show any overt signs of mental illness, he
hopes to avoid hard labor and serve the rest of his sentence in a more relaxed
hospital environment.
McMurphy's ward is run by steely, unyielding Nurse Mildred Ratched (Louise
Fletcher), who employs subtle humiliation, unpleasant medical treatments and
a mind-numbing daily routine to suppress the patients. McMurphy finds that
they are more fearful of Ratched than they are focused on becoming functional
in the outside world. McMurphy establishes himself immediately as the leader;
his fellow patients include Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif), a nervous, stuttering young
man; Charlie Cheswick (Sydney Lassick), a man disposed to childish fits of
temper; Martini (Danny DeVito), who is delusional; Dale Harding (William
Redfield), a high-strung, well-educated paranoid; Max Taber (Christopher Lloyd),
who is belligerent and profane; Jim Sefelt (William Duell), who is epileptic; and
"Chief" Bromden (Will Sampson), a silent Native American of imposing stature
believed to be deaf and mute.
McMurphy's and Ratched's battle of wills escalates rapidly. When McMurphy's
card games win away everyone's cigarettes, Ratched confiscates the cigarettes
and rations them out. McMurphy calls for votes on ward policy changes, to
watch the World Series, to challenge her. He makes a show of betting the other
patients he can escape by lifting an old hydrotherapy consolea massive marble
plumbing fixtureoff the floor and sending it through the window; but fails to
do so.

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McMurphy steals a hospital bus, herds his colleagues aboard, stops to pick up
Candy (Marya Small), a party girl, and takes the group deep sea fishing on a
commandeered boat. He tells them: "You're not nuts, you're fishermen!" and
they begin to feel faint stirrings of self-determination.
Soon after, however, McMurphy learns that Ratched and the doctors have the
power to keep him committed indefinitely. Sensing a rising tide of insurrection
among the group, Ratched tightens her grip on everyone. During one of her
group therapy sessions, Cheswick's agitation boils over and he, McMurphy and
the Chief wind up brawling with the orderlies. They are sent up to the "shock
shop" forelectroconvulsive therapy. While McMurphy and the Chief wait their
turn, McMurphy offers Chief a piece of gum, and Chief murmurs "Thank
you...Ah, Juicy Fruit." McMurphy is delighted to find that Bromden is neither
deaf nor mute, and that he stays silent to deflect attention. After the
electroshock therapy, McMurphy shuffles back onto the ward feigning brain
damage, before humorously animating his face and loudly greeting his fellow
patients, assuring everyone that the ECT only charged him up all the more and
that the next woman to take him on will "light up like a pinball machine and
pay off in silver dollars."
As the struggle with Ratched takes its toll, and with his release date no longer a
certainty, McMurphy plans an escape. He phones Candy to bring her friend Rose
(Louisa Moritz) and some booze to the hospital late one night. They enter
through a window after McMurphy bribes the night orderly, Mr. Turkle (Scatman
Crothers). McMurphy and Candy invite the patients into the day room for a
Christmas party; the group breaks into the drug locker, puts on music, and
enjoys a bacchanalian rampage. At the end of the night, McMurphy and
Bromden prepare to climb out the window with the girls. McMurphy says
goodbye to everyone, and invites an emotional Billy to escape with them; he

230
declines, saying he is not yet ready to leave the hospitalthough he would like
to date Candy in the future. McMurphy insists Billy have sex with Candy right
then and there. Billy and Candy agree and they retire to a private room. The
effects of the alcohol and pilfered medication take their toll on everyone,
including McMurphy and the Chief, whose eyes slowly close in fatigue.
Ratched arrives the following morning and discovers the scene: the ward
completely upended and patients passed out all over the floor. She orders the
attendants to lock the window, clean up, and conduct a head count. When they
find Billy and Candy, the other patients applaud and, buoyed, Billy speaks for
the first time without a stutter. Ratched then announces that she will tell Billy's
mother what he has done. Billy panics, his stutter returns, he starts punching
himself and then locks himself in the doctor's office. Locked inside, Billy kills
himself. McMurphy, enraged at Ratched, chokes her nearly to death until
orderly Washington knocks him out.
Some time later, the patients in the ward play cards and gamble for cigarettes as
before, only now with Harding dealing and delivering a pale imitation of
McMurphy's patter. Ratched, still recovering from the neck injury sustained
during McMurphy's attack, wears a neck brace and speaks in a thin, reedy voice.
The patients pass a whispered rumor that McMurphy dramatically escaped the
hospital rather than being taken "upstairs".
Late that night, Bromden sees McMurphy being escorted back to his bed, and
initially believes that he has returned so they can escape together, which he is
now ready to do since McMurphy has made him feel "as big as a mountain".
However, when he looks closely at McMurphy's unresponsive face, he is
horrified to see lobotomy scars on his forehead. Unwilling to allow McMurphy to
live in such a state, the Chief smothers McMurphy to death with his pillow. He

231
then carries out McMurphy's escape plan by lifting the hydrotherapy console off
the floor and hurling the massive fixture through a grated window. Chief climbs
through the window and runs off into the distance, with Taber waking up just in
time to see him escape and cheering as the others awake.

Script notes

232

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On the Waterfront (1954)
Mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) gloats about his ironfisted control of the waterfront. The police and the Waterfront Crime
Commission know that Friendly is behind a number of murders, but witnesses
play "D and D" ("deaf and dumb"), accepting their subservient position rather
than risking the danger and shame of informing.
Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a dockworker whose brother Charley "The
Gent" (Rod Steiger) is Friendly's right-hand man. Some years earlier, Terry had
been a promising boxer, until Friendly had Charley instruct him to deliberately
lose a fight that he could have won, so that Friendly could win money betting
against him.
Terry meets and is smitten by Edie (Eva Marie Saint), the sister of Joey Doyle
(Ben Wagner). She has shamed "waterfront priest" Father Barry (Karl Malden)
into fomenting action against the mob-controlled union. Terry is used to coax
Joey, a popular dockworker, into an ambush, preventing him from testifying
against Friendly before the Crime Commission. Terry assumed that Friendly's
enforcers were only going to "lean" on Joey in an effort to pressure him to avoid
talking, and is surprised when Joey is killed. Although Terry resents being used
as a tool in Joey's death, and despite Father Barry's impassioned "sermon on
the docks" reminding the longshoremen that Christ walks among them and
that every murder is a Calvary, Terry is nevertheless willing to remain "D and D".
Soon both Edie and Father Barry urge Terry to testify. Another dockworker,
Timothy J. "Kayo" Dugan (Pat Henning), who agrees to testify after Father
Barry's promise of unwavering support, ends up dead after Friendly arranges for
him to be crushed by a load of whiskey in a staged accident.

234
As Terry, tormented by his awakening conscience, increasingly leans toward
testifying, Friendly decides that Terry must be killed unless Charley can coerce
him into keeping quiet. Charley tries bribing Terry with a good job and finally
threatens Terry by holding a gun against him, but recognizes that he has failed
to sway Terry, who places the blame for his own downward spiral on his well-off
brother. In what has become an iconic scene, Terry reminds Charley that had it
not been for the fixed fight, Terry's career would have bloomed. "I coulda' been
a contender," laments Terry to his brother, "Instead of a bum, which is what I am
let's face it." Charley gives Terry the gun and advises him to run. Friendly,
having had Charley watched, has Charley murdered, his body hanged in an
alley as bait to get at Terry. Terry sets out to shoot Friendly, but Father Barry
obstructs that course of action, telling Terry that violence is pointless because as
long as Johnny is in charge, the law will always be on his side, and finally
convinces Terry to fight Friendly by testifying.
After the testimony, Friendly announces that Terry will not find employment
anywhere on the waterfront. Edie tries persuading him to leave the waterfront
with her, but he nonetheless shows up during recruitment at the docks. When
he is the only man not hired, Terry openly confronts Friendly, calling him out
and proclaiming that he is proud of what he did.
Finally the confrontation develops into a vicious brawl, with Terry getting the
upper hand until Friendly's thugs gang up on Terry and nearly beat him to
death. The dockworkers, who witnessed the confrontation, declare their support
for Terry and refuse to work unless Terry is working too and push Friendly into
the river. Finally, the badly wounded Terry forces himself to his feet and enters
the dock, followed by the other longshoremen. A soaking wet and face-scarred
Friendly, now left with nothing, swears revenge on all the workers, but his

235
threats fall on deaf ears as they enter the garage and the door closes behind
them.

Script notes

236

237
Orange County (2002)
Shaun Brumder (Colin Hanks) is a teenager from affluent Orange County,
California. Although bright and intelligent, he has very little interest in
education or studying, instead trying to lead a carefree SoCal lifestyle of surfing,
drinking, and partying. A turning point comes when Shaun's best friend Lonny
(Bret Harrison) is killed in a surfing accident, causing Shaun to rethink his own
life. One day, he finds a novel on the beach by the author Marcus Skinner, which
quickly inspires him to become a writer. Upon learning that Skinner is an
English professor at Stanford University, Shaun makes it his goal to attend
Stanford and study under him, seeing it as an opportunity to escape from his
superficial life in Orange County.
Shaun dramatically improves himself academically, obtaining high grades and
SAT scores as well as becoming the president of his graduating class. Following
the advice of his guidance counselor, Ms. Cobb ( Lily Tomlin), who tells him that
he is a "shoo-in" for acceptance, Shaun applies only to Stanford. This severely
backfires as Shaun later finds out that he is rejected from Stanford, ironically
because Ms. Cobb mixed up
his academic transcript with that of a much less intelligent student. Shaun then
reaches out to his wealthy father Bud (John Lithgow), who had left his wife and
family to marry a much younger woman (Leslie Mann), pleading him to donate
money to Stanford in order to increase his chances of being accepted. Bud,
however, disapproves of Shaun's dream of being a writer and refuses. In an
attempt to help him, Shaun's animal rights activist girlfriend Ashley (Schuyler
Fisk) successfully convinces her friend Tanya (Carly Pope) to allow Shaun to be
interviewed at his home by Tanya's grandfather, a Stanford board member, so
Shaun can explain his situation. Unfortunately, the antics displayed during the

238
interview by his dysfunctional family members, including his alcoholic,
emotionally fragile mother Cindy (Catherine O'Hara) and his dim-witted stoner
brother Lance (Jack Black), cause Shaun's interviewers to storm out in anger and
disgust.
In a last-ditch effort to get him accepted, Ashley and Lance convince Shaun to
drive to Palo Alto and plead his case directly to Stanford Admissions Director
Don Durkett (Harold Ramis). By the time the trio arrive on campus, it is
nighttime and the admissions building is already closed. While Lance distracts
(and seduces) the secretary on duty in the office, Shaun and Ashley steal the
address to Durkett's house. They arrive at his home, where Shaun shows him his
real high school transcript. Although impressed with Shaun's credentials,
Durkett is reluctant to admit him, as it is already very late in the admissions
process. After much groveling, Shaun finally convinces Durkett to go back to his
office in the Admissions Building and give it a second thought. Disaster strikes
again, however, when Ashley drugs Durkett by accident with Lance's ecstasy,
stored in an Excedrin bottle, thereby causing Durkett to become high. Things go
from bad to worse when Shaun and Ashley arrive at the Admissions Building
and find it engulfed in flames (caused by Lance carelessly starting a small fire).
They abandon thehallucinating Durkett and flee the scene to avoid being
arrested.
Ashley finally becomes frustrated with Shaun's obsession of only getting into
Stanford, and points out that his attending would mean they would be
separated, thus ending their relationship. She then angrily leaves Shaun on his
own. Depressed, Shaun wanders the campus and meets a female student who
invites him to a frat party. There, he witnesses the behavior of the Stanford coeds
and is disappointed to learn that they are just as vapid and ditzy as the girls he
knew from Orange County. After leaving the party with a more cynical view of

239
college, Shaun, by chance, runs into Professor Skinner (Kevin Kline) and is
invited to his office to chat. Skinner is amused with Shaun's belief that he must
study and work in a highly intelligent environment in order to become
successful, pointing out that many famous authors such as James Joyce and
William Faulkner grew up in places that were not intellectually stimulating, but
still became great writers. Having an epiphany, Shaun realizes his previous
misguided intentions and seeks out Ashley to apologize to her. After catching up
with her, the two also pick up Lance (who is still hiding from the police) and
drive home.
Back in Orange County, Shaun's parents seek out each other to determine how
to deal with Shaun's problem. They end up reconciling, realizing that they are
much happier together than with their respective new spouses. They also
conclude that they have not been very good parents to Shaun and, in an
attempt to make amends, Bud donates enough money to Stanford for the
construction of a brand new Admissions Building (ironically, to replace the one
that Lance burned down). This action gets Shaun accepted into Stanford.
Although Shaun is initially ecstatic, he then remembers the things that both
Ashley and Professor Skinner had told him. Shaun finally decides to stay in
Orange County with Ashley and his family because he loves them too much to
leave them, and he is now able to view living in Orange County as a positive
influence for his writing career, rather than a detriment. The film ends with
Shaun going surfing with his friends again for the first time since Lonny's death.

240
Other People's Money (1991)
Lawrence "Larry the Liquidator" Garfield (Danny DeVito) is a successful corporate
raider who has become rich buying up companies and selling off their assets.
With the help of a computerized stock analyzing program, Garfield has
identified New England Wire & Cable as his next target. The struggling company
is run by the benevolent and folksy Andrew "Jorgy" Jorgenson (Gregory Peck)
and is the primary employer in its smallRhode Island town.
After stubbornly insisting that no outsider can seize control of a business his
father began, Jorgy is finally persuaded to hire his stepdaughter Kate (Penelope
Ann Miller), a big-city lawyer, to defend against a hostile takeover. Garfield is
instantly smitten with the beautiful Kate, although he is on to her tactics and
does not waver from his goal of becoming the majority stockholder of New
England Wire & Cable. Garfield tactlessly and unsuccessfully tries to seduce her.
Despite their antagonism, Kate finds herself attracted to Garfield's bold nature.
The takeover attempt begins to fracture the New England Wire & Cable family.
Kate's mother Bea (Piper Laurie) secretly travels to Garfield's offices to offer one
million dollars in greenmail to Garfield if he'll go away, but he refuses, stating,
"I don't take money from widows or orphans." Trusted company president Bill
Coles ( Dean Jones), fearful that the takeover will leave him with nothing, offers
to let Garfield vote his shares in the company in exchange for a million-dollar
payout. Garfield agrees, but specifies that Coles will get only half as much if his
shares fail to make up the margin of victory.
Garfield concedes to Jorgy's offer to let the matter be settled at the annual
shareholder's meeting. Relying on the support of longtime friends and
investors, Jorgy makes an impassioned plea to save the company, appealing to

241
the traditions of manufacturing as opposed to the new breed of capitalism
which Larry the Liquidator represents, in which buyers of companies create no
products or jobs and are interested only in money. The shareholders seem
swayed by Jorgy's speech and boo Garfield when he gets up to give a rebuttal.
In his rebuttal, Garfield compares New England Wire & Cable to the last buggy
whip manufacturer, arguing that even though the company's product may be
high quality, changing technology has rendered it obsolete. Rather than
running a failing business into the ground, he contends that the shareholders
should follow his lead and get what value they can from the stock before the
company's inevitable demise. At least when this company is liquidated, he says,
they'll end up with a few dollars in their pocket.
When the vote is taken, the shareholders agree to give Garfield controlling
interest in the company. The margin of victory is greater than Coles' shares and
thus he does not receive the full amount he betrayed Jorgy to get.
Back at home in Manhattan, Garfield finds himself uncharacteristically
despondent after his victory, having realized he has lost his chance for a
romance with Kate. Just then, Kate calls. She's been having discussions with a
Japanese automaker that wants to hire New England Wire & Cable to
manufacture stainless steel wire cloth for making airbags, something which will
make the company profitable again. An excited Garfield invites her to dinner to
discuss it.

Script notes

242

243
Out of Africa (1985)
The story begins in 1913 in Denmark, when Karen Dinesen (a wealthy but
unmarried woman) asks her friend Baron Bror Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer) to
enter into a marriage of convenience with her. Although Bror is a member of the
aristocracy, he is no longer financially secure; therefore, he agrees to the
marriage, and the two of them plan to move to Africa to begin a dairy farm.
Upon moving to British East Africa, Karen marries Bror in a brief ceremony, thus
becoming Baroness Blixen. She meets and befriends various other colonial
residents of the country, most of whom are British. She also meets Denys Finch
Hatton (Robert Redford), a local big-game hunter with whom she develops a
close friendship. However, things turn out differently from her expectations,
since Bror has used her money to purchase a coffee plantation rather than a
dairy farm. He also shows little inclination to put any real work into it, preferring
instead to become a game hunter. Although theirs was a marriage of
convenience, Karen does eventually develop feelings for Bror, but she is
distressed when she learns of his extramarital affairs. To make matters worse,
Karen contracts syphilis from her philandering husband (at the time, cures were
uncertain) and is forced to return to Denmark for a long and difficult period of
treatment using the then-new medicine Salvarsan. Bror agrees to look after the
plantation in her absence.
After she has recovered and returns to Africa, the First World War is drawing to
an end. However, it becomes clear that her marriage to the womanizing Bror has
not changed, and she eventually asks him to move out of their house. No longer
able to have children of her own due to the effects of the syphilis, she decides to
open a school to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and also some European
customs to the African tribal children of the area. However, her coffee plantation

244
runs into financial difficulties, and she is forced to rely on bank loans to make
ends meet. Her friendship with Denys Finch Hatton develops further.
Despite her expectation and desire to have what begins as an affair turn into a
lasting relationship, Karen realizes that Denys is as impossible to domesticate as
the wild animals he hunts and often refers to. Although he moves into Karen's
house, he criticizes her desire to "own" things; this implies even people. He
refuses to commit to marriage or give up his free lifestyle and tells her that he
will not love her more just because of a "piece of paper". Karen grudgingly
continues in the relationship, knowing it will not ever be official. He decides to
invite a female mutual acquaintance on one of his safaris, which exceeds
Karen's ability to tolerate his justifications for his lifestyle and behavior. Karen
asks him to accede to her request to not take her along, and he refuses. She asks
him to move out. The plantation finally yields a good harvest at long last, but a
devastating fire breaks out in the processing shed, and the crops and all of the
factory equipment are destroyed.
Now financially broke, and her relationship with Denys over, Karen prepares to
leave Africa to return home to Denmark, just as British East Africa is becoming
Kenya Colony. She arranges to sell everything that she owns and empties the
house of all her luxurious items for a rummage sale. In the now empty house,
Denys visits her that night, and the two of them enjoy a drink and a dance. He
asks her if he might escort her to Mombasa in his biplane to begin her journey
home. She agrees and he promises to return after a few days. However, Denys
never returns, and Karen is told that his plane has crashed and that he has been
killed. Her loss now complete, Karen attends his funeral in the Ngong Hills.
With Denys gone, Karen's head servant, Farah, takes her to the station, for the
train to Mombasa.

245
Karen later became an author and a storyteller, writing about her experiences
and letters in Africa, though she never returned there.

Script notes

246

247
Overboard (1987)
Spoiled heiress Joanna Stayton (Goldie Hawn) is accustomed to the life of the
idle rich with her husband, Grant Stayton III (Edward Herrmann). While waiting
for their yacht to be repaired in the rural hamlet of Elk Cove, Oregon, she passes
the time by hiring local carpenter, Dean Proffitt (Kurt Russell), to remodel her
closet.
At first, Dean puts up with Joanna's rude and demanding behavior. However,
when Joanna refuses to pay because he didn't use cedar to build the closet,
Dean says he will only redo the cabinet for double pay. This enrages Joanna and
she tosses Dean and his tool kit overboard.
Later that night, as Joanna and Grant sail away from the harbor, she falls
overboard, developsamnesia, is rescued by a garbage scow, and is taken to the
local hospital where no one can figure out who she is. Once Grant realizes
Joanna's fallen overboard, he sails back to port to get her. After seeing Joanna's
mental state, Grant denies knowing her and returns to the yacht to embark on a
spree of parties with younger women.
After seeing her story on the local news, Dean, a widower living in squalor with
four young sons, decides to seek revenge. He goes to the hospital and tells her
that she is Annie, his wife of thirteen years and the mother of his sons. He
convinces the staff by telling them about a small birthmark on Joanna's behind,
which he saw on the yacht when Joanna was wearing a revealing swimsuit.
Joanna reluctantly goes home with him. Once there, Joanna begins caring for
the household.

248
At first, Joanna has difficulty dealing with Dean's sons and the heavy load of
chores. She soon adapts, however, and learns to cook, clean, do laundry, and
care for the pets. As she masters her responsibilities, she learns about the boys'
school and family issues and that Dean is secretly working two jobs to make
ends meet. She begins to fall in love with him and his sons and handles the
boys' family matters and money challenges with considerable wisdom and
grace.
Seeing Dean struggle, Joanna makes his dream come true by helping him
design a miniature golf course based on her untapped knowledge of the Seven
Wonders of the World. Although Dean has also fallen in love with her, he
doesn't tell her the truth about her real identity for fear that she will leave. Even
when Dean attempts to confess when she discovers a pair of monogrammed
underwear from her former life, Billy Pratt ( Michael G. Hagerty), a friend of
Dean's, says they belonged to a girl he met to cover for Dean, as Joanna initially
believed they were evidence of Dean having an affair.
Meanwhile, giving in to the pressure of Joanna's mother, Edith (Katherine
Helmond), Grant reluctantly returns to Elk Cove to retrieve her. Upon seeing
him, her memory returns immediately. She is shocked and hurt when she
realizes that Dean lied and has been using her for months. She returns with
Grant to the yacht where Edith and Dr. Korman, their bumbling psychiatrist, are
waiting.
Joanna now finds her old lifestyle stuffy and pretentious. One evening after
doing shots of tequila with the crew, she turns to Andrew (Roddy McDowall), her
loyal butler, and apologizes for her poor treatment of him. Surprised and
pleased, Andrew observes that unlike most people, she has been given an
opportunity to see life from a different station than that to which she was born.

249
Andrew also tells Joanna that she is the one who can decide how to use the new
perspective.
Realizing how happy she was with Dean and the boys, she commandeers the
yacht and turns back toward Elk Cove. When Grant finds out, he accuses her of
mutiny, admits he never loved her, and commandeers the yacht.
Meanwhile, Dean and the boys attempt to get her back with the help of Billy's
friend who is in the Coast Guard. When they catch up to the yacht, Joanna and
Dean both jump overboard. An incensed Grant attempts to shoot her with a bow
and arrow only to be unceremoniously booted overboard by Andrew, who
promptly gives his notice of resignation.
Safely aboard the smaller vessel, Dean is impressed that Joanna left Grant for
him, but she says the money and yacht are actually hers. Dean then asks her,
"What could I possibly give you that you don't already have?" She looks at the
boys, smiles, and replies, "A little girl."

Script notes

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The Paper Chase (1973)
James Hart (Timothy Bottoms) starts his first year at Harvard Law School in a very
bad way. In his contract law course with Professor Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. (John
Houseman), he assumes the first class will be an outline of the course. When
Kingsfield immediately delves into the material using the Socratic method and
asks Hart the first question, he is totally unprepared and feels so utterly
humiliated that, after class, he throws up in the bathroom.
Hart is invited to join a study group with five others:
Frank Ford (Graham Beckel), the fifth generation of Fords at Harvard
Law School

Kevin Brooks (James Naughton), a married man with a

photographic memory, but no analytical skills

Thomas Anderson (Edward Herrmann)
Willis Bell (Craig Richard Nelson), an abrasive individual who is
devoted to property law
O'Connor (Robert Lydiard)
While out getting pizza, he is picked up by an attractive woman, Susan
Fields (Lindsay Wagner). On their second date, they end up in bed.
Their relationship is complex; she resents the time he devotes to his
studies, while he is unable to get her to make a firm commitment.
When Hart and his classmates are invited to a cocktail party hosted by
Kingsfield, he is stunned to discover that Susan is Kingsfield's married
daughter. (She is, however, separated from her husband and

252
eventually gets a divorce.) She and Hart break up and get back
together several times.
Hart divides the class into three groups: those who have given up;
those who are trying, but fear being called upon in class to respond to
Kingsfield's questions; and the "upper echelon". As time goes on, he
moves from the second classification to the third.
The mounting pressure, as the course nears its end, gets to everyone.
When Hart gives Kingsfield a flippant answer, the professor gives him
a dime and tells him to telephone his mother with the news that he is
not likely to become a lawyer. Hart calls Kingsfield a "son of a bitch"
and starts to walk out. Surprisingly, Kingsfield agrees with his
assessment and invites him to sit back down, which he does. Brooks
makes an unsuccessful suicide attempt, then drops out. The study
group is torn apart by personal bickering. With final exams looming,
Hart and Ford take a hotel room and prepare feverishly for three days.
The film is an extremely faithful adaptation of the novel, but it adds
two revelations not in the book: Hart's first name and middle initial,
and the final grade that Hart gets in contract law (James T.; and 93, an
A). In both the novel and the film, Hart makes a paper airplane out of
the unopened letter containing his grades and sends it sailing into the
Atlantic Ocean.

Script notes

253

254
The Patriot (2000)
During the American Revolution in 1776, Benjamin Martin, a veteran of the
French and Indian War and a widower with seven children, is called to
Charleston to vote in the South Carolina General Assembly on a levy supporting
the Continental Army. Fearing war against Great Britain, Benjamin abstains.
Captain James Wilkins votes against and later joins the Loyalists. A supporting
vote is nonetheless passed and, against his father's wishes, Benjamin's eldest
son Gabriel joins the Continental Army.
Four years later Charleston falls to the British and a wounded Gabriel returns
home carrying dispatches. The Martins care for both British and American
wounded from a nearby battle, before British Dragoons, led by the ruthless
Colonel William Tavington, arrive, arrest Gabriel, and take captive the Negroes
who work Benjamin's land. When Benjamin's second son Thomas tries to free
Gabriel, he is shot and killed by Tavington, who then orders the Martins' house
burned, and wounded Americansexecuted. After the British leave, Benjamin
gives his next two eldest sons muskets, and they ambush the British unit
escorting a tied Gabriel. Benjamin skillfully, yet brutally, kills many soldiers with
histomahawk. A British survivor tells Tavington of the attack, earning Benjamin
the moniker of the "Ghost". Benjamin and Gabriel resolve to fight the British,
leaving the younger children in the care of Benjamin's sister-in-law, Charlotte.
On their way to the Continental Army's camp, they witness the southern
Continental Army under General Horatio Gates engaging the British Army.
Benjamin recognizes the foolishness of the action and, sure enough, the
Continentals are decisively routed.
Benjamin meets his former commanding officer, Colonel Harry Burwell, who
makes him colonel of the local colonial militia due to his combat experience.

255
Benjamin is tasked with keeping Lord Cornwallis's regiments pinned south
through guerrilla warfare. French Major Jean Villeneuve helps train the militia
and promises more French aid. Benjamin's militia harass British supply lines,
even capturing some of Cornwallis' personal effects and his two Great Danes,
and burn half the bridges and ferries leading to Charleston. Lord Cornwallis
blames Tavington for creating this reaction with his brutal tactics. However,
irritated at the lack of progress, and insulted by Benjamin's clever ploy to free
some of the captured militia, Cornwallis reluctantly allows Tavington to stop
Benjamin by any means necessary.
With the reluctant aid of Captain Wilkins, Tavington learns the identities of
some militia members and proceeds to attack their families and burn their
homes. Benjamin's family flees Charlotte's plantation as it is burned to live in a
Gullah settlement with former black slaves. There, Gabriel marries his betrothed
Anne and Benjamin commits to Charlotte. Tavington's brigade rides into the
town that supplies the militia. He assembles all the townspeople, including
Anne, into the church promising freedom in exchange for the whereabouts of
the rebels. However, after the location is given the doors are barricaded,
trapping the people as Tavington orders a distraught Wilkins to burn the church.
After discovering the tragedy, Gabriel races to attack Tavington's encampment.
In the ensuing fight, Tavington mortally wounds Gabriel. Benjamin arrives, only
to have his son die in his arms.
Benjamin mourns deeply and wavers in his commitment to continue fighting,
but is resolved when reminded of his son's dedication to the cause by finding
an American flag he repaired personally. Martin's militia, along with a larger
Continental Army regiment, confronts Cornwallis' regiment in adecisive battle at
the Battle of Cowpens. The British appear to have the upper hand until
Benjamin rallies the troops forward against their lines and Tavington rushes to

256
personally target him. The two duel and Tavington gains the upper hand,
delivering several wounds to Benjamin. A beaten Benjamin slumps to his knees,
and Tavington prepares to deliver the coup de grce. At the last second,
however, Benjamin dodges the attack and counters with a bayonet through
Tavington's torso, and subsequently his neck, avenging his sons' deaths and
defeating Tavington. The battle is a Continental victory and Cornwallis is forced
to retreat. After many eventual retreats, Cornwallis is besieged at Yorktown,
Virginia where he surrenders to the surrounding Continental Army and the
long-awaited French naval force. After the conflict ends, Benjamin returns with
his family and discovers his militia men rebuilding his homestead in their new
nation.

Script notes

257

258
Pay It Forward (2000)
When Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osment) begins seventh grade in Las Vegas,
Nevada, his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet (Kevin Spacey) gives the
class an assignment to devise and put into action a plan that will change the
world for the better. Trevor's plan is a charitable program based on the
networking of good deeds. He calls his plan "Pay It Forward", which means the
recipient of a favor does a favor for three others rather than paying the favor
back. However, it needs to be a major favor that the receiver cannot complete
themselves.
Trevor does a favor for three people, asking each of them to "pay the favor
forward" by doing favors for three other people, and so on, along a branching
tree of good deeds. His first good deed is to let a homeless man named Jerry
(Jim Caviezel) live in his garage, and Jerry pays the favor forward by doing car
repairs for Trevor's mother. Trevor's efforts appear to fail when Jerry relapses into
drug addiction, but Jerry pays his debt forward later by talking to a suicidal
woman, who is about to jump off the bridge.
Meanwhile, Trevor's mother Arlene (Helen Hunt) confronts Eugene about
Trevor's project after discovering Jerry in their house. Trevor then selects Eugene
as his next "pay it forward" target and tricks Eugene and Arlene into a romantic
dinner date. This also appears to fail until Trevor and Arlene argue about her
love for Ricky, her alcoholic ex-husband, and she slaps him in a fit of anger. The
two adults are brought together again when Trevor runs away from home and
Arlene asks Eugene to help her find him.
After finding Trevor, Arlene begins to pursue Eugene sexually. Eugene has deep
burn marks visible on his neck and face, and he initially resists Arlene's

259
overtures out of insecurity. When they finally sleep together, he is seen to have
extensive scarring all over his torso. Arlene accepts Eugene's physical
disfigurement and forms an emotional bond with him, but quickly abandons
their relationship when Ricky (Jon Bon Jovi) returns to her, claiming to have
given up drinking. Ricky's return and Arlene's acceptance of it angers Eugene,
whose own mother had a habit of taking his abusive, alcoholic father back.
When Arlene attempts to explain to Eugene that she believes Ricky has changed
for good, Eugene explains that his father intentionally burned him by knocking
him unconscious, then pouring gasoline over him and igniting it. He berates
Arlene for being "one of those women" and warns her of Ricky's potential to
abuse Trevor. When Ricky drinks again and resumes his abusive behavior,
Arlene realizes her mistake and forces him to leave.
Trevor's school assignment marks the beginning of the story's chronology, but
the opening scene in the film shows one of latter favors in the "pay it forward"
tree, in which a man gives a car to Los Angeles journalist Chris Chandler (Jay
Mohr). As the film proceeds, Chris traces the chain of favors back to its origin as
Trevor's school project. After her date with Eugene, Arlene paid Jerry's favor
forward by forgiving her own mother, Grace (Angie Dickinson), for her mistakes
in raising Arlene, and Grace, who is homeless, helps a gangmember escape
from the police. The gang member then saves a girl's life in a hospital, and the
girl's father gives Chris his new car.
Chris finally identifies Trevor as the originator of "pay it forward" and conducts a
recorded interview in which Trevor describes his hopes and concerns for the
project. Eugene, hearing Trevor's words, realizes that he and Arlene should be
together. As Eugene and Arlene reconcile with an embrace, Trevor notices his
friend Adam being bullied by gangster-like children. He pays it forward to Adam
by rushing into the scene and fighting the bullies while Eugene and Arlene rush

260
to stop him. When one of the bullies takes a switchblade out of his pocket,
Trevor is inadvertently stabbed in the abdomen and dies from his injuries. This
news is
reported on television; Arlene and Eugene are soon visited by hundreds of
people who have participated in or heard of the "Pay It Forward" movement by
gathering in a vigil to pay Trevor their respects. The bullies also show up to pay
their respects.

Script notes

261

262
Pearl Harbor (2001)
n 1923 Tennessee, two young boys, Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker, play
together in the back of an old biplane, pretending to be soldiers fighting the
Germans in World War I. After Rafe's father lands his biplane and leaves, Rafe
and Danny climb into the plane and Rafe accidentally starts it, giving the boys
their first experience at flight. Soon afterward, Danny's father (William Fichtner)
comes to take him home. He calls Rafe a "stupid boy" and beats Danny. In an
effort to protect Danny, Rafe hits Danny's father with an old propeller and calls
him a "dirty German". Danny's father reacts by saying he fought the Germans in
the trenches in France during World War I, and that he prays that no one will
ever have to see the things he saw.
Eighteen years later, in January 1941, Danny (Josh Hartnett) and Rafe (Ben
Affleck) are both first lieutenants under the command of Major Jimmy Doolittle
(Alec Baldwin). Doolittle informs Rafe that he has been accepted into the Eagle
Squadron (a RAF outfit for American pilots during the Battle of Britain). Rafe
immediately accepts the position. Rafe lies to Danny, though, saying that he was
assigned by Doolittle and had no say in the matter.
While on a train ride to New York, a nurse named Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale) tells
her fellow nurses Sandra ( Jennifer Garner), Betty (Jaime King), Martha (Sara
Rue), and Barbara (Catherine Kellner) the story of how she met Rafe four weeks
earlier after he passed his medical exam despite his dyslexia. That night, Rafe
and Evelyn enjoy an evening of dancing at a nightclub and later a jaunt in New
York harbor in a borrowed police boat. Rafe shocks Evelyn by saying that he has
joined the Eagle Squadron and is leaving the next day. He asks her not to see
him off, but is pleased to see that she comes anyway as he leaves the following
morning.

263
In the meantime, Danny, Evelyn and their fellow pilots and nurses are
transferred to Pearl Harbor, where there is little action; meanwhile, Rafe flies in
numerous dogfights with the RAF against theLuftwaffe. During one battle, Rafe
is shot down over the English Channel and presumed to be killed in action.
Danny gives Evelyn the news and she is devastated. It is then that Danny learns
from Evelyn that Rafe volunteered for the assignment.
Three months later, Evelyn and Danny realize they are developing feelings for
each other. Danny takes Evelyn for a sunset flight over the harbor and begins a
relationship with her.
On the night of December 6, Evelyn is shocked to discover Rafe, alive and well,
standing outside her door. He explains that he survived his aircraft crash and
was rescued by a French fishing boat, and has been stuck in occupied France
ever since. Danny comes soon afterward holding a telegram from Western
Union stating that Rafe is in fact alive. Rafe realizes that Danny and Evelyn are
now together and leaves feeling betrayed. He goes to the Hula bar where he is
welcomed back by his overjoyed fellow pilots. Danny finds Rafe in the bar with
the intention of making things right but a drunken Rafe will have none of it. The
two get into a fight. When the police arrive, Danny and Rafe drive away and,
after talking, eventually fall asleep in their car.
Early the next morning, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese navy begins its
attack on Pearl Harbor. The two pilots drive away in search of a still standing
airfield, while Evelyn and the other nurses rush for the hospital. The nurses
struggle to give emergency treatment to hundreds of injured, some of whom
must be turned away because they cannot be saved. Rafe and Danny manage to
get in the air in twoP-40s, shooting down seven Japanese Zeros. The next day,
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Jon Voight) delivers his Day of Infamy

264
Speech to the nation and asks the US Congress to declare a state of war with the
Empire of Japan. In the aftermath, the survivors attend a memorial service to
honor the numerous dead, including fellow nurses and pilots. Later, Danny and
Rafe are assigned to travel stateside under newly promoted Lt. Colonel Doolittle
for a secret mission. Before they leave, Evelyn reveals to Rafe that she is
pregnant with Danny's child and that she will remain with Danny, though she
claims she will always love Rafe just as much.
Upon their arrival in California, Danny and Rafe are both promoted to Captain
and awarded the silver star. Doolittle asks them to volunteer for a top secret
mission, which they both immediately accept although the risks are high. While
sitting at a bonfire on a beach, Rafe attempts to dissuade Danny from going, but
Danny decides to go anyway, thinking that Rafe is just trying to protect him.
During the next three months, Rafe, Danny and other pilots train with specially
modified B-25 Mitchell bombers, learning how to launch them with a limited
runway. In April, the raiders are sent towards Japan on board the USS Hornet,
and are informed that their mission will involve bombing Tokyo and then
landing in China. However, the Japanese discover them early, forcing the
raiders to launch from a longer distance than planned. After a successful
bombing run against Tokyo, the raiders crash-land on Japanese-occupied
territory in China in a rice paddy. The Japanese Army pin down Rafe's plane, but
Danny's crew flies over and shoots the Japanese patrol before crashing.
Rafe runs to Danny's side and attempts to pull a sharp piece of metal from
Danny's neck, but they are once again attacked by Japanese patrols. Danny is
shot during the attack while the other pilots, Red (Ewen Bremner) and Gooz
(Michael Shannon), kill off the remaining Japanese patrolmen. Holding a dying
Danny in his arms, Rafe tells Danny that he can't die because he is going to be a
father, to which the dying Danny replies that Rafe will have to be the father. The

265
remaining pilots are rescued by the Chinese. Upon his return home, a visibly
pregnant Evelyn sees Rafe getting off the aircraft, carrying Danny's coffin.
Afterward, both Evelyn and Rafe are awarded medals. Rafe is awarded his medal
by President Roosevelt. A few years later after the war ends, Rafe and Evelyn,
now married, visit Danny's grave with Danny's and Evelyn's son, also named
Danny. Rafe asks baby Danny if he would like to go flying, and the two fly off
into the sunset in the old biplane that his father had.

Script notes

266

267
The Perfect Storm (2000)
In October 1991, the commercial fishing boat Andrea Gail returns to port in
Gloucester, Massachusetts, with a poor catch. Desperate for money, Captain Billy
Tyne (Clooney), convinces the Andrea Gail crew to join him for one more late
season fishing expedition. The crew heads out past their usual fishing grounds
in the Grand Banks, leaving a developing thunderstorm behind them. Initially
unsuccessful, they head to the Flemish Cap, where their luck improves. At the
height of their fishing the ice machine breaks; the only way to sell their catch
before it spoils is to hurry back to shore. After debating whether to sail through
the building storm or to wait it out, the crew decides to risk the storm. However,
between the Andrea Gail and Gloucester is a confluence of two powerful
weather fronts and a hurricane, which the Andrea Gail crew underestimates.
After repeated warnings from other ships, the Andrea Gail loses her antenna,
forcing Captain Linda Greenlaw(Mastrantonio) of sister ship Hannah Boden to
call in aMayday. An Air National Guard rescue helicopter responds, but after
failing to perform a midair refuel, the helicopter crew ditch the aircraft before it
crashes, and all but one of the crew members are rescued by a Coast Guard
vessel, the Tamaroa. The Andrea Gail endures various problems. With 40-foot (12
m) waves crashing on top of the deck, a broken stabilizer ramming the side of
the ship, and two men thrown overboard, the crew decide to turn around to
avoid further damage by the storm. After doing so, the vessel encounters an
enormous rogue wave. Billy tells Bobby (Wahlberg) to apply full power to ride
over the wave; it seems that they may make it over, but the wave starts to break
and the boat capsizes. Billy elects to go down with his ship, the rest of the crew
are trapped and only Bobby manages to surface as he watches the boat go
under; however, without a life jacket, he has no chance of surviving. He is last

268
seen all alone among the waves. There are no survivors and the film ends with
Linda reading the eulogy at the memorial service, followed by Christina and
Bobby's mother, Ethel, consoling each

Script notes

269

270
The Phantom Menace (1999)
In response to taxation on trade routes in the Galactic Republic, the Trade
Federation organizes ablockade of battleships around the planet Naboo.
Supreme Chancellor Valorum dispatches Jedi MasterQui-Gon Jinn and his
apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi to negotiate with the Trade Federation leadership to
end the blockade. Darth Sidious, a Sith Lord and the Trade Federation's secret
adviser, orders Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray to kill the Jedi and invade
Naboo with an army of battle droids. The Jedi flee to Naboo, where Qui-Gon
saves Gungan outcast Jar Jar Binks from being killed during the invasion.
Indebted to the Jedi, Jar Jar leads them to an underwater Gungan city. There the
Jedi try but fail to persuade the Gungan leader, Boss Nass into helping the
people of Naboo, though they are able to obtain transportation to Theed, the
capital city on the surface. They rescue Queen Amidala, the ruler of the Naboo
people, and escape the planet on her royal starship, which is damaged as they
pass the Federation blockade.
Amidala's ship is unable to sustain its hyperdrive and lands for repairs on the
desert planet Tatooine. Qui-Gon, Jar Jar, astromech droid R2-D2, and Amidala's
handmaiden Padm visit the settlement of Mos Espa to buy new parts at a junk
shop. There they meet the shop's owner Watto and his nine-year-old slave
Anakin Skywalker, who is a gifted Podracer pilot and engineer, and has created a
protocol droid called C-3PO. Qui-Gon senses a strong presence of the Force
within Anakin and is convinced that he is the "chosen one" of Jedi prophecy
who will bring balance to the Force. Qui-Gon wagers Anakin's freedom with
Watto in a Podrace, which Anakin wins. Anakin joins the group to be trained as a
Jedi, leaving his mother Shmi behind. En route to their repaired starship, Qui-

271
Gon enters a brieflightsaber duel with Darth Maul, Darth Sidious' Sith
apprentice who was sent to capture Amidala.
The Jedi escort Amidala to the Republic capital planet Coruscant so she can
plead her people's case to Chancellor Valorum in the Galactic Senate. Qui-Gon
asks the Jedi Council to train Anakin as a Jedi, but the Council are concerned
that Anakin is vulnerable to the dark side of the Force and decline. Undaunted,
Qui-Gon vows to train Anakin himself. Meanwhile, Naboo senator Palpatine
persuades Amidala to make a vote of no confidence in Valorum to elect a more
capable chancellor to resolve the crisis on Naboo. Though she pushes for the
vote, Amidala grows frustrated with the corruption in the Senate and decides to
return to Naboo with the Jedi.
On Naboo, Padm reveals herself to the Gungans as Queen Amidala and
persuades them into an alliance against the Trade Federation. Jar Jar leads his
people in a battle against the droid army while Padm leads the hunt for
Gunray in Theed, eventually capturing him and his aide, Rune Haako. In a
starship hangar,
Anakin enters a vacant starfighter and inadvertently triggers its autopilot,
joining the battle against the Federation droid control ship in space. Anakin
ventures into the ship and destroys it from within, deactivating the droid army.
Meanwhile, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan battle Darth Maul, who mortally wounds QuiGon before being bisected and knocked down a pit by Obi-Wan. As he dies, QuiGon asks Obi-Wan to train Anakin. Subsequently, Palpatine is elected as the new
Supreme Chancellor and Gunray is formally arrested. The Jedi Council makes
Obi-Wan a fully fledged Jedi Knight and reluctantly accepts Anakin as ObiWan's apprentice. At a festive ceremony, Padm presents a gift of appreciation
and friendship to the Gungans.

Script notes

272

273
Phenomenon(1996)
It is the year 1935 and Waxahachie, Texas is a small, segregated town in the
midst of a depression. One evening the local sheriff, Royce Spalding, leaves the
family dinner table to investigate trouble at the rail yards. He dies after being
accidentally shot by a young black boy, Wylie. Local white vigilantes tie Wylie to
a truck and drag his body through town, for all the community to see, before
hanging him from a tree.
The sheriff's widow, Edna Spalding, is left to raise her children alone and
maintain the family farm. The bank has a note on the farm and money is scarce;
the price for cotton is plummeting and many farms are going under. The local
banker, Mr. Denby, pays her a visit. He begins to pressure her to sell the farm as
he doesn't see how she can afford to make the loan payments on her own let
alone run the farm.
A drifter and handyman, a black man by the name of Moses, appears at her door
one night, asking for work. He offers to plant cotton on all her acres and cites his
experience. Edna declines to hire him but offers him a meal instead and sends
him on his way. In desperation, Moze steals some of her silver spoons before he
leaves. Similarly desperate, Edna finally resolves to keep her family together on
the farm no matter what. When the police capture Moze with her stolen silver,
and bring him back to confirm the theft, Edna seizes the opportunity. She lies to
the police and says he is her hired man. She sees there is more to gain from the
situation because of what he knows about growing and marketing cotton, so
she chooses not to persecute him but to hire him instead.
The next day, Edna visits the banker, Mr. Denby, to relay her decision not to sell
the farm but to work the land and raise cotton. He is frustrated by Edna and her

274
decision but ultimately manipulates the situation when he unloads his blind
brother-in-law, Will, on Edna, compelling her to take him in as a lodger. Will lost
his sight in the war, but has remained fiercely independent and somewhat
marginalized since. He begins to soften, however, as he and the others living at
the farm become more and more like family while they weather life's storms
together.
Edna visits Mr. Denby once more to negotiate and save her farm from
foreclosure. She realizes she cannot make the next payment in full even if she
sells all her cotton. The bank declines Edna's request for relief, but during her
visit she learns of the Ellis County contest; a $100 cash prize is awarded to the
farmer who produces the first bale of cotton for market each season. Edna
realizes the prize money plus the proceeds from the sale of her cotton would be
enough to allow her to pay the bank and keep the farm. Edna knows she will
need more pickers though and despite his initial protests, Moze agrees to help
her find the help so they can harvest the cotton on time. Soon the farm is
teeming with people and everyone has an important job to doeven Will who
prepares the meals and feeds all the workers. Everyone is busy with the
business of survival.
Their efforts pay off as Edna and Moze eventually find themselves first in line at
the wholesaler with the season's very first bale of cotton. Moze carefully coaches
Edna on how to negotiate with the buyer and as a result he is unable to cheat
her on a price for her cotton. She lets the buyer know that if he does not pay her
a fair price, she will go to another wholesaler who will. The buyer does not want
to lose the distinction of purchasing the first crop of the season to a competitor,
so he agrees to pay Edna's asking price. It becomes clear to the buyer that Moze
is Edna's partner and has helped her throughout. That night Moze is accosted by
Ku Klux Klan members and savagely beaten. Will, who recognizes all the

275
assailant's voices as local white men, confronts and identifies them one by one;
they all run off and Moze's life is saved. Moze realizes he will have to leave the
farm permanently, however, under threat of future attacks.
The story ends, as it began, with community and in the midst of prayer. In a
highly symbolic and imaginary scene, communion is passed among the
assembled congregants at the church, hand to hand and mouth to mouth,
between both the living and the deceased. The last line of the film is spoken by
Wylie to Royce Spalding, "Peace of God. The film closes with all the characters
gathered together in church singing in unison.

Script notes

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277
Platoon (1986)
In 1967, Chris Taylor has dropped out of college, enlisted in the U.S. Army and
volunteered for combat duty in Vietnam. Assigned to a Bravo Company in
the25th Infantry Division near the ambodian border, he is quickly worn down by
the exhausting conditions, and his enthusiasm for the war wanes. One night his
unit is set upon by a group of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) soldiers, who
retreat after a brief confrontation. New recruit Gardner is killed while another
soldier, Tex, is maimed by friendly fire. Taylor is reprimanded by the ruthless
Staff Sergeant Barnes for falling asleep during watch, after being implicated by
one of the veterans. Taylor eventually gains acceptance from a tight-knit group
in his unit who socialize and use drugs in a bunker clubhouse at their base. He
finds mentors in King and the honorable Sergeant Elias and becomes friends
with other soldiers, including Lerner, Rhah, and Manny.
During a patrol, Manny is found mutilated and tied to a post while two others,
Sal, and Sandy, are killed by a booby trap in a bunker. As tension mounts, the
platoon soon reaches a nearby village where a supply cache is discovered. Using
Lerner as a translator, Barnes interrogates the village chief to determine if they
have been aiding the NVA. Despite the villagers' adamant denials, Barnes
impulsively shoots and kills the chief's wife. He then holds the chief's daughter
at gunpoint, threatening to kill her as well if the villagers do not reveal what
they know. Elias arrives and is enraged by Barnes' behavior. A fight between the
duo ensues, which is ended by the timid platoon commander, Lieutenant Wolfe,
who orders the men to leave with the villagers, destroy the enemy supplies and
burn the village down. As they leave, Taylor stops a group of soldiers from gang
raping two girls.

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Upon returning to base, Captain Harris warns that if he finds out that an illegal
killing took place, a court-martial will be ordered, which concerns Barnes who
anticipates that Elias will testify against him. On their next patrol, the platoon is
ambushed and pinned down in a firefight, in which numerous soldiers,
including Lerner and Big Harold, are wounded. Lerner is taken back to the
helicopter landing area while Wolfe calls in a mortar strike on incorrect
coordinates, resulting in many friendly fire casualties. Elias takes Taylor,
Crawford, and Rhah to intercept flanking enemy troops. Barnes orders the rest
of the platoon to retreat and goes back into the jungle to find Elias' group.
Barnes finds Elias and shoots him, then returns to tell the others that Elias was
killed by the enemy. While the platoon is extracting, they glimpse Elias, mortally
wounded, emerging from the treeline and being chased by a group of North
Vietnamese soldiers, who finish Elias. From Barnes' guilt-ridden manner, Taylor
sees that his account of what happened to Elias isn't true. At the base, Taylor is
convinced that Barnes is responsible for Elias's death. He attempts to talk his
group into fragging Barnes in retaliation when Barnes, intoxicated, enters the
room and taunts them. Taylor attacks Barnes but is quickly subdued. Barnes cuts
Taylor near his eye with a push dagger before departing.
The platoon is sent back to the combat area to maintain defensive positions,
where Taylor shares a foxhole with Francis. That night, a major NVA assault
occurs, and the defensive lines are broken. Much of the platoon, Including
Bunny, Junior, and Wolfe, are killed in the ensuing battle. During the attack,
anNVA sapper armed with explosives rushes into battalion headquarters, selfdetonating and killing everyone inside. Meanwhile, Captain Harris, the
company commander, orders his air support to expend all remaining ordnance
inside his perimeter. During the chaos, Taylor encounters Barnes, who is
wounded and seemingly crazed. Just as Barnes is about to kill Taylor, both men

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are knocked unconscious by an air strike. Taylor regains consciousness the
following morning, picks up an enemyType 56 rifle, and finds Barnes, who
orders Taylor to call a medic. Seeing that Taylor will not help him, Barnes
mockingly tells Taylor to pull the trigger. Taylor then shoots Barnes, killing him.
He then sits until reinforcements arrive and find him. Francis, who survived the
battle unharmed, deliberately stabs himself in the leg and reminds Taylor that
because they have been twice wounded, they can return home. The helicopter
flies away and Taylor, overwhelmed, weeps as he stares down at multiple craters
full of corpses, friend and foe alike.

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Pleasantville (1998)
David (Maguire) and his twin sister Jennifer (Witherspoon) lead different highschool social lives. Jennifer is shallow and extroverted; David is introverted and
spends most of his time watching television. One evening while their mother
(Kaczmarek) is away, they fight over the TV. Jennifer wants to watch a concert
onMTV, but David wants to watch a marathon ofPleasantville, a black and white
1950s sitcom about the idyllic Parker family. During the fight, the remote
control breaks, and the TV cannot be turned on manually.
A mysterious TV repairman (Knotts) shows up, quizzes David about Pleasantville,
then gives him a strange remote control. The repairman leaves, and David and
Jennifer resume fighting. However, they are transported into the Parkers' black
and white Pleasantville living room in 1958. David tries to reason with the
repairman (with whom he communicates through the Parkers' television), but
he succeeds only in chasing him away. David and Jennifer must now pretend
they are Bud and Mary Sue Parker, the son and daughter on the show.
David and Jennifer witness the wholesome nature of the town, such as a group
of firemen rescuing a cat from a tree. David tells Jennifer they must stay in
character and not disrupt the lives of the town's citizens, who do not notice any
difference between Bud and Mary Sue, and David and Jennifer. To keep the
show's plot, Jennifer dates a boy from high school but has sex with him, a
concept unknown to him and everyone else in town.
Slowly, Pleasantville begins changing from black and white to color, including
flowers and the faces of people who have experienced bursts of emotion and
personal transformation. David introduces Mr. Johnson (Daniels), owner of the
cheeseburger joint/soda fountain where Bud works, to colorful modern art via a

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book from the library, sparking in him an interest in painting. Johnson and
Betty Parker (Allen) fall in love, causing her to leave home, throwing George
Parker (Macy), Bud and Mary Sue's father, into confusion. The only people who
remain unchanged are the town fathers, led by the mayor, Big Bob (Walsh), who
sees the changes eating at the values of Pleasantville. They resolve to do
something about their increasingly independent wives and rebellious children.
As the townsfolk become more colorful, a ban on "colored" people is initiated in
public venues. Eventually, a riot is touched off by a nude painting of Betty
(painted by Johnson) on the window of Mr. Johnson's soda fountain. The soda
fountain is destroyed, books are burned, and people who are "colored" are
harassed in the street. As a reaction, the town fathers announce rules preventing
people from visiting the library, playing loud music, or using paint other than
black, white, or gray. In protest, David and Mr. Johnson paint a colorful mural on
a brick wall, depicting their world, prompting their arrest. Brought to trial in
front of the town, David and Mr. Johnson defend their actions, arousing enough
anger and indignation in Big Bob that the mayor becomes colored as well.
Having seen Pleasantville change irrevocably, Jennifer stays to finish her
education, but David uses the remote control to return to the real world.

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Pocahontas (1995)
In 1607, the Susan Constant sails to the New World from England, carrying
British settlers of the Virginia Company. On board are Captain John Smith and
the voyage's leader Governor Ratcliffe, who seeks large amounts of gold in the
New World to assure a strong position at the British court. Along the way, the
Susan Constant is caught in a North Atlantic storm, and Smith saves a young,
inexperienced crewmate named Thomas from drowning. In the Powhatan tribe
in the New World, Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, dreads being
possibly wed to Kocoum, a brave warrior whom she sees as too "serious" for her
free-spirited personality. Chief Powhatan gives Pocahontas her deceased
mother's necklace as a present. Pocahontas, along with her friends, the
gluttonous raccoon Meeko and protective hummingbird Flit, visit Grandmother
Willow, a spiritual talking willow tree, and speaks of a possibly prophetic dream
involving a spinning arrow, and her confusion regarding what her "path" in life
should be. Grandmother Willow then alerts Pocahontas to the arriving British.
Ratcliffe has the fortress Jamestown built in a wooded clearing and immediately
has the crewmen dig for gold. Smith departs to explore the wilderness and
encounters Pocahontas. They quickly bond, fascinated by each other's worlds
and develop a relationship, flouting Chief Powhatan's orders to keep away from
the British after Kocoum and other warriors engage them in a fight. Meanwhile,
Meeko meets Percy, Ratcliffe's dog, and becomes the bane of his existence.
Pocahontas introduces Smith to Grandmother Willow and avoids two other
crewmen, but Pocahontas's friend Nakoma discovers her relationship with
Smith and warns Kocoum. Later, Smith and Pocahontas meet with Grandmother
Willow and plan to bring peace between the colonists and the tribe. Smith and
Pocahontas kiss, while Kocoum and Thomas witness from afar. In a jealous rage,

285
Kocoum attacks and tries to kill Smith but is himself shot and killed by Thomas
in the struggle. Pocahontas watches in horror as Kocoum falls dead in the river,
reaching for Pocahontas one last time but instead breaking her mother's
necklace. Smith commands Thomas to leave just before the tribesmen come
and capture Smith while Kocoum's friends take Kocoum's corpse. An enraged
Chief Powhatan declares war on the crewmen, starting with executing Smith at
sunrise.
Thomas warns the crewmen of Smith's capture, and Ratcliffe rallies the men to
battle as an excuse to annihilate the tribe and find their non-existent gold. A
guilt-ridden Pocahontas visits Grandmother Willow, where Meeko hands her
Smith's compass. Pocahontas realizes Smith's compass was the spinning arrow
from her dream, which leads her to her destiny. Just as Powhatan is about to
execute Smith, Pocahontas throws herself in-between the two men, successfully
stopping Smith's execution and convincing her father to cease the hostilities
between the two groups. Both parties accept gracefully, except Ratcliffe, who
tries to shoot Chief Powhatan in anger, but Smith dives in front of the Chief and
is shot instead. The governor is then captured and arrested by his crewmen.
Meeko and Percy, now friends, give Pocahontas her mother's necklace
completely fixed. In the end, John is forced to return home to receive medical
treatment. He asks Pocahontas to come with him, but she chooses to stay with
her tribe. Smith leaves with Pocahontas and Chief Powhatan's blessing to return
in the future.

Script notes

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Ponette (1996)
Before the film begins, Ponette's mother dies in a car crash, which Ponette
herself survives with only a broken arm (she consequently must wear an arm
cast). Following her mother's death, Ponette's father (Xavier Beauvois) leaves
the young girl with her Aunt Claire (Claire Nebout), and her cousins Matiaz
(Matiaz Bureau Caton) and Delphine (Delphine Schiltz). Ponette and her cousins
are later sent to boarding school. There the loss of her mother, becomes even
more harsh and painful when she is mocked on the playground for being
motherless. [1] Not yet having come to terms with her mother's death, Ponette
searches for her.[1] Ponette becomes increasingly withdrawn, and spends most

of her time waiting for her mother to come back. When waiting alone fails,
Ponette enlists the help of her school friend Ada (Lopoldine Serre) to help her
become a "child of God" to hopefully convince God to return her mother. In the
end, Ponette visits a cemetery and cries for her mother, who suddenly appears
to comfort her and ask her to live her life and not be sad all the time. Her
mother says she cannot keep coming back, so Ponette must move on and go be
happy with her father. It is not clear to the audience whether this is intended to
portray a "real" (within the film's "universe") supernatural event (previously in
the film, Ponette had wished and prayed for them but none seemed ever to
happen), or just something Ponette imagines, since no one else is present when
the mother is shown (though again, earlier in the film we never saw anything
that appeared to be imagined). However, it appears that her mother gives her a
sweater that she did not bring to the cemetery, and her father comments when
he sees her that "I haven't seen that sweater in a while".

Script notes

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The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
The SS Poseidon, an ocean liner slated for retirement and scrapping, makes her
way across theAtlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea from New York City to
Athens. Despite protests from Captain Harrison, who fears for the ship's safety,
the representative of her new owners, Mr. Linarcos, insists that she make full
speed towards her destination to save money, preventing her from taking on
additional ballast.
Reverend Frank Scott, an heretical minister believing God helps those who help
themselves, delivers a sermon. Detective Lt. Mike Rogo and wife Linda, a
sarcastic former prostitute, deal with her seasickness. Susan and younger
brother Robin are traveling to meet their parents. Robin is interested in how the
ship works and frequently visits the engine room. Retired Jewish hardware store
owner Manny Rosen and wife Belle are going to Israel to meet their two-yearold grandson for the first time.Haberdasher James Martin is a love-shy, healthconscious bachelor. The ship's singer, Nonnie Parry, rehearses for the New Year's
Eve celebration with her band.
That evening, passengers gather in the dining room to celebrate. Harrison is
called to the bridge in response to a report of an undersea earthquake. He
receives word from the lookout that a huge waveis approaching from the
direction of Crete, at 60 mph. He issues a mayday distress signal and
commands a "hard left" turn, but it is too late. The wave hits the ship and she
capsizes.
In the dining room, survivors take stock of their predicament. Acres, an injured
waiter, is trapped at the galley door now high above. Scott surmises that the
escape route will be found "upwards", at the outer hull, now above water. Robin

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tells him the hull near the propeller shaft is only one inch (2.54 cm) thick. The
Rosens, the Rogos, Susan, Robin, Acres, Nonnie, and Martin agree to go with
Scott, using a Christmas tree as a ladder. Scott unsuccessfully tries convincing
more passengers to join them. After the group climbs to the galley, there is a
series of explosions. As seawater floods the room the survivors rush to the
Christmas tree, but the weight of everyone climbing causes the tree to fall. The
water fills up the dining room and the Poseidon begins to sink.
Acres and Scott find the galley, and the survivors make their way to a staircase.
Scott climbs its underside, then he and Rogo use a fire hose to pull the others
up, with the water quickly rising behind them. Scott leads the group to an access
tunnel. While climbing a ladder inside a funnel, the ship rocks from another
series of explosions. Acres falls and is lost.
Climbing out of the shaft, the group meets a large band of survivors led by the
ship's medic, heading towards the bow. Scott is certain they are heading for
their doom, but Rogo wants to follow them and gives Scott fifteen minutes to
find the engine room. Although he takes longer than allowed, Scott is
successful.
The group discovers the engine room is on the other side of a flooded corridor;
someone must swim through with a line to help the others. Belle, a former
competitive swimmer, volunteers, but Scott refuses her and dives in. Halfway
through, a panel collapses on him. The survivors notice something is wrong and
Belle dives in. She frees Scott and they make it to the other side. While Scott
secures the lifeline, Belle suffers a heart attack. Before dying she tells Scott to
give her "Chai" pendant, representing the Hebrew sign for life, to Rosen, who in
turn will give it to their grandson.

291
Rogo swims over to make sure Belle and Scott are all right, then leads the rest
over. When Rosen finds Belle's body he is unwilling to go on, but Scott gives
him her pendant, reminding him that he has a reason to live.
Scott leads the survivors to the propeller shaft room's watertight door, but there
is another series of explosions, and Linda falls to her death. An infuriated and
heartbroken Rogo blames her death on Scott. The explosions rupture a pipe that
releases steam, blocking their escape. Scott rants at God for the survivors'
deaths. He leaps and grabs onto the burning-hot valve wheel to shut off the
steam, then tells Rogo to lead the group before letting go of it, sacrificing
himself.
Rogo leads the remaining survivors Rosen, Martin, Nonnie, Susan, and Robin
through the watertight door and into the propeller shaft tunnel. They hear a
noise above the ship and bang on the ceiling/floor to get the rescuers' attention.
The rescuers cut through the hull and help the group out of the ship. The
survivors, the only six alive after the disaster, fly to safety by helicopter.

Script notes

292

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The Postman (1997)
In an alternate history year of 1998, an unspecified apocalyptic event known
only as "The Doomwar" erased almost all technology and caused societal
collapse, sending the continents back to the Dark Ages. Fifteen years later, in
post-apocalyptic 2013, pockets of survivors in more rural areas have formed
small villages to maintain some semblance of civilization, while others have
joined militias and warlords that prey on survivors. Horses are the standard for
travel, and bartering has replaced currency.
An unnamed nomad (Costner) enters the Oregon flatlands, trading
Shakespearean performances for food and water. In one of the towns, the
nomad is impressed into the ranks of the predominant militia, known as the
Holnists and run by General Bethlehem (Will Patton). When he escapes, the
nomad takes refuge in a dead postman's mail vehicle.
Wearing the postman's uniform and carrying the mail bag, he arrives in
Pineview claiming to be a postman from the newly restored U.S. government.
The Postman inspires a teenager named Ford Lincoln Mercury ( Larenz Tate) and
swears him into the postal service. The Postman also meets Abby (Olivia
Williams). When the Postman leaves for the town of Benning, he carries a pile of
mail left at the post office door by the townspeople.
During a raid of Pineview, General Bethlehem learns of the Postmans tales of a
restored government and becomes afraid of losing power if word spreads. He
burns the American flag and post office, kills Abbys husband and kidnaps Abby,
and attacks the town of Benning. The Postman surrenders but Abby saves him
from execution, and the two escape into the surrounding mountains. A

294
pregnant Abby and a seriously-wounded Postman ride out the winter in an
abandoned cabin.
When spring arrives, they cross the range and run into a girl who claims to be a
postal carrier. She reveals that Ford Lincoln Mercury organized a postal service
based on the Postman's story. They have established communications with
other settlements, creating a quasi-society and inadvertently spreading hope.
Bethlehem is still fighting to suppress the postal carriers, who are mostly
teenagers pitted against a better-equipped enemy. In the face of mounting
casualties, the Postman orders everyone to disband and writes a surrender letter
to Bethlehem. However, as Bethlehem learns to his dismay, the Postman's
example has spread farther than he could have anticipated when his men
capture a carrier fromCalifornia, and redoubles his efforts to find the Postman.
The Postman, Abby, and a small group of postal carriers travel to Bridge City.
When Bethlehem's scouts catch up, the enclave leader Tom Petty(played by
himself) helps the Postman to escape on a cable car to find volunteers for
another army.
In a recitation of King Henry V's speech prior to the Siege of Harfleur, the
Postman rallies himself and his troops to war. Bethlehem and his army meet the
Postman's army across a field. Knowing the casualties will be great if the armies
meet in battle, the Postman instead challenges Bethlehem for Holnist
leadership, with their respective troops as witnesses. The Postman wins the fight
with inspiration from the "Neither snow nor rain" inscription, and offers
Bethlehem a chance to build a new, peaceful world. Bethlehem lunges to shoot
the Postman but is shot by his former first officer. The officer surrenders, and the
rest of the militia follows.

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Thirty years later, in 2043, the Postman's grown daughter (Mary Stuart
Masterson) speaks at a ceremony unveiling a statue in tribute to her late father.
The modern clothing and technology show that the Postman's actions have
rebuilt the United States, and possibly the other nations of the world.

Script notes

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The Preacher's Wife (1996)
A voiceover by the child Jeremiah (Justin Pierre Edmund) guides the viewer
through the film.
Rev. Henry Biggs (Courtney B. Vance) is the pastor of a small struggling Baptist
church in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of New York City. Membership is
declining, Henry is pulled in a hundred directions by his parishioner's needs,
and the church's finances are in trouble. Henry is under intense pressure from
real estate developer Joe Hamilton (Gregory Hines) to sell the church's property
so that Hamiltion can build luxury condominiums on the site. Henry has also
become neglectful of his wife, Julia (Whitney Houston), and his son, Jeremiah.
Julia worries that her marriage is failing. Unsure that he can make a difference
in his parishioners' lives and beginning to lose his faith, Henry prays to God for
help, which comes in the form of Dudley (Denzel Washington), a witty and
debonaireangel. Dudley tells Henry that he is an angel sent by God to help him,
but Henry is deeply suspicious of Dudley. Julia, however, is instantly charmed
by the handsome and unflappable angel.
With Christmas approaching, Henry's schedule becomes increasingly
burdensome, and Dudley begins to spend most of his time with Julia and
Jeremiah. Rev. Bigg's secretary, Beverly (Loretta Devine), becomes comically
defensive and aggressive, believing Dudley is there to take her job. Julia's
wasp-tongued mother, Margueritte (Jenifer Lewis), is also suspicious of Dudley,
because she believes the newcomer will break up her daughter's marriage.
Dudley and Julia go ice skating, and then later spend an evening in the jazz
club where Julia once performed. After Henry confronts Dudley, Dudley realizes
that he is falling in love with Julia. Dudley turns his attention to Hamilton, and
manages to disrupt Hamilton's schemes to get Henry to sell the church. Henry

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now realizes that his family is the most important thing in his life, and he
resolves to be a better husband and father. At the church's Christmas pageant,
Henry finds his faith in God renewed and his ties to his family restored.
With his work done, Dudley gives the Biggs family a fully decorated Christmas
tree as a gift. Dudley then erases all memories of himself from everyone he has
met, and although he attends midnight service on Christmas Eve, no one
recognises him. Jeremiah, who has the faith of a child, still remembers Dudley,
and wishes him a merry Christmas.
A subplot present throughout the film focuses on Julia's singing talents. Once a
popular nightcub singer, she is now a star in the church choir. This subplot
provides for several set pieces in which the choir performs and Gospel music
plays a significant role. It also provides comic relief in the form of a
domineering choir director.

Script notes

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Priest (1994)
Father Greg Pilkington, newly assigned to St. Mary's parish in inner-city
Liverpool, is startled to discover Father Matthew Thomas is engaged in a sexual
relationship with rectory housekeeper Maria Kerrigan. Moreover, Father Thomas
is a left-wing radical and an outspoken proponent of Liberation Theology,
leading him to constant clashes and bickering with the Bishopwho
nevertheless appreciates his abilities.
While the young protagonist's personal traditional conservatism and religious
beliefs are offended by the older priest's blatant disregard for his vow of
celibacy, he struggles with his own homosexual urges, especially after he meets
Graham at a local gay hangout and the two embark on a physical relationship.
Meanwhile, student Lisa Unsworth has confided she was sexually abused by her
father, who confirms her story. Both have revealed their secret in
theconfessional, however, so Father Greg is required to honour the sanctity of
the Sacrament of Penance and not reveal what he has been told. He tries to
warn her mother to keep a close watch on her, but the naive woman believes
her daughter is safe while in the care of her husband.
When Mrs. Unsworth discovers her husband molesting Lisa and realises the
priest knew what was happening, she lashes out at him. Adding to his torment
is his arrest for having sex with Graham in a parked car. When he pleads guilty
to the charge, the story is headlined on the front page of the local newspaper
and, unable to face his parishioners, Father Greg relocates to a remote rural
parish headed by a disapproving and unforgiving priest. Father Matthew
convinces him to return to St. Mary's, and the two preside over a Mass that is
disrupted by the loud protests of those opposed to Father Greg's presence on

301
the altar. Father Matthew demands they leave the chapel. The two priests then
begin to distribute the Eucharist, but the remaining parishioners ignore Father
Greg and line up to receive communion from Father Matthew. Lisa finally
approaches the younger priest, and the two fall into each other's arms sobbing.

Script notes

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303
The Prince of Egypt (1998)
In Ancient Egypt, the descendants of Jacob are being oppressed by Seti I as they
pray for the Promised Land. Fearing that an increase of the Hebrew slaves could
lead to rebellion, Seti orders his people to throw all newborn Hebrew boys in
the Nile, but to spare the girls.
Meanwhile, Yocheved, one of the Hebrew slaves, and her two children, Miriam
and Aaron, watch in horror as the Hebrew boys are taken and ruthlessly killed by
the Egyptian soldiers. Fearing for her own newborn son's safety, Yocheved
places him in a basket afloat on the Nile. Miriam follows the basket to the
Pharaoh's palace and witnesses her baby brother safely adopted by Queen Tuya,
who names himMoses.
Twenty years later, Moses and his foster brother Rameses II are scolded by their
father for accidentally destroying a temple during one of their youthful
misadventures, though Moses tries to take the blame and says that Rameses
wants their father's approval. That evening at a palace banquet, Seti, deciding to
give Rameses this opportunity, names him Prince regent and gives him
authority over Egypt's temples. As a tribute, the high priests Hotep and Huy
offer him the captive Tzipporah, and Rameses gives her to Moses. Moses
debunks Tzipporah, and Rameses appoints him Royal Chief Architect.
Later that night, Moses helps Tzipporah escape from the palace and is reunited
with his siblings Miriam and Aaron. Miriam tries to tell Moses about his past,
but he refuses to listen and returns to the palace. The truth about his past is later
confirmed by a nightmare, and finally by Seti himself. The next day, Moses
accidentally pushes an Egyptian guard off the scaffolding of the temple when

304
trying to stop him from whipping a Hebrew slave, and the guard falls to his
death.
Ashamed and confused, Moses flees into the desert in exile, despite Rameses'
pleas to stay. After Moses defends Tzipporah's younger sisters from bandits, he
is welcomed into the tribe by their fatherJethro. After assimilating this new
culture, Moses becomes a shepherd and marries Tzipporah. While chasing a
stray lamb, Moses discovers a burning bush through which God instructs him to
guide the Hebrew slaves to their promised land, and bestows Moses'
shepherding staff with his power. Moses and Tzipporah return to Egypt, where
Moses is happily greeted by Rameses, who is now Pharaoh.
When Moses requests the Hebrews' release and changes his staff into an
Egyptian cobra, to demonstrate his alliance with God, Hotep and Huy boastfully
re-create this transformation, only to have their snakes eaten by Moses' snake.
Rather than persuaded, Rameses is hardened and increases the Hebrews'
workload. Moses and Tzipporah thereafter live with Miriam, who convinces
Aaron and the other Hebrews to trust them. Later, Moses inflicts nine of the
Plagues of Egypt; but Rameses refuses to relent, and Moses prepares the
Hebrews for the tenth and final plague. That night, the final plague kills all the
firstborn children of Egypt, including Rameses' son, while sparing those of the
Hebrews. The next day, Rameses finally gives Moses permission to free the
Hebrews.
The following morning, the Hebrews leave Egypt, led by Moses, Miriam, Aaron,
and Tzipporah. At theRed Sea, they discover that Rameses is closely pursuing
them with his army. Upon the arrival, Moses uses his staff to part the sea, while
a fire blocks the army's way. The Hebrews cross the open sea bottom; and when
the fire vanishes and the army gives chase, the water closes over the Egyptian

305
soldiers, sparing Rameses alone. Thereafter Moses leads the Hebrews to Mount
Sinai, where he receives the Ten Commandments.

Script notes

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The Prince of Tides (1991)
Tom Wingo (Nick Nolte), a teacher and football coach from South Carolina, is
asked by his mother, Lila, to travel to New York to help his twin sister's
psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein (Barbra Streisand), after his sister Savannah's
(Melinda Dillon) latest suicide attempt. Tom hates New York and reluctantly
accepts, but largely to take the opportunity to be alone and away from a life that
does not satisfy him. During his initial meetings with Lowenstein, Tom is
reluctant to disclose many details of their dysfunctional family's secrets. In
flashbacks, Tom relates incidents from his childhood to Lowenstein in hopes of
discovering how to save Savannah's life. The Wingo parents were an abusive
father and an overly proud, status-hungry mother. The father was a shrimp boat
operator and, despite being successful at that profession, spent all of his money
on frivolous business pursuits, leaving the family in poverty.
Tom is also torn with his own problems, but hides behind what he calls "the
Southern way"; i.e., laughing about everything. For example, his wife Sallie is
having an affair and her lover wants to marry her. Tom and Lowenstein begin
having feelings for each other. After Tom discovers that she is married to Herbert
Woodruff, a famous concert violinist, Lowenstein introduces Tom to her son
Bernard (Jason Gould), who is being groomed to become a musician as well but
who secretly wants to play football. Tom starts coaching Bernard along with
attending sessions with Lowenstein to help his sister. Tom discovers that
Savannah has been in such a dissociated state that she even had a different
identity, Renata Halpern. As Halpern, she wrote books to disguise the Savannah
side of her troubled life. Tom confronts Lowenstein over not revealing this
information before and they argue, during which she throws a dictionary at him.
To apologize, she asks him to dinner and their relationship becomes closer.

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Tom has a fateful meeting with his mother and stepfather, bringing up painful
memories. Tom reveals that, when he was 13 years old, three escaped convicts
invaded his home and raped him, along with his mother and sister. His older
brother, Luke, killed two of the aggressors with a shotgun, while his mother
stabbed the third with a kitchen knife. They buried the bodies beneath the
house and never spoke of it again. Tom suffers a mental breakdown, having now
let loose a key piece of Savannah's troubled life. After a session of football,
Herbert orders Bernard to return to his music lessons and prepare to leave for
Tanglewood. Tom is invited to a dinner at Lowenstein's home, along with poets
and intellectuals. Herbert is overtly rude and reveals that Tom's sister is in
therapy with his wife. Infuriated, Lowenstein voices her suspicions about her
husband's affairs. Tom takes Herbert's "million dollar" violin and threatens to
throw it off the balcony unless Herbert apologizes.
Tom spends a romantic weekend with Lowenstein at her country house.
Savannah recovers and is about to be released from the hospital when Tom
realizes that he wants to be closer to his wife and children, despite having fallen
in love with someone else. He returns home, but his last thoughts are of
Lowenstein.

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Psycho (1960)
During a lunchtime tryst in Phoenix, Arizona, a real estate secretary named
Marion Crane discusses with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, how they cannot afford
to get married because of Sam's debts. After lunch, Marion returns to work,
where a client drops off a $40,000 cash payment on a property. Her boss asks
her to deposit the money in the bank, and she asks if she can take the rest of the
afternoon off. Returning home, she begins to pack for an unplanned trip,
deciding to steal the money and give it to Sam in Fairvale, California. She is
seen by her boss on her way out of town, which makes her nervous. During the
trip, she pulls over on the side of the road and falls asleep, only to be awakened
by a state patrol officer. He is suspicious about her nervous behavior but allows
her to drive on. Shaken by the encounter, Marion stops at an automobile
dealership and trades in her Ford Mainline, with its Arizona license plates, for a
Ford Custom 300 that has California tags. Her transaction is all for naught - the
highway patrolman sees her at the car dealership and witnesses her purchase of
the newer car.
Driving on, a sudden rainstorm causes Marion to take a wrong turn, and she
decides to stop for the night at the Bates Motel, where the proprietor, a young
Norman Bates, invites her to a light dinner after she checks in. She accepts, but
then hears an argument between Norman and a woman she presumes is his
mother. Instead of dining at his home behind the motel, they eat in the motel
parlor, where he tells her about his hobby of taxidermy and his life with his
mother, Norma, who is mentally ill. Returning to her room, Marion decides to
go back to Phoenix to return the stolen money. She prepares to take a shower,
unaware that Norman is spying on her from a peephole. As she is showering, a
female figure suddenly appears and stabs her to death with a butcher knife.

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Norman appears moments after the attacker flees and believes his mother to be
responsible for the murder. He meticulously cleans up the crime scene, putting
Marion's corpse and her possessions including the embezzled money into
the trunk of her car and sinking it in the swamps near the motel.
A week later, Marion's sister Lila arrives in Fairvale and confronts Sam about the
whereabouts of her sister. A private detective named Arbogast approaches them
and confirms that Marion is wanted for stealing the $40,000 from her employer.
He eventually comes across the Bates Motel, where Norman's behavior arouses
his suspicions. After hearing that Marion had met with Norman's mother, he
asks to speak with her, but Norman refuses. Arbogast calls Lila and Sam,
informing them of what he has discovered and saying he intends to speak with
Norman's mother. He goes to the Bates' home in search of her; as he reaches
the top of the stairs, a figure suddenly appears from the bedroom and murders
him. When Lila and Sam do not hear from Arbogast, they go to the local sheriff,
who informs them that Norma Bates has been dead for ten years, following the
murdersuicide of her and her lover. Concerned, Lila and Sam make their way to
the motel. Meanwhile, Norman takes his unwilling mother from her room,
telling her he needs to hide her for a while and ignoring her objections.
At the motel, Lila and Sam meet Norman. Sam distracts him by striking up a
conversation while Lila sneaks up to the house. When Norman eventually
realizes this, he knocks Sam out and rushes to the house. Lila sees Norman
approaching and attempts to hide by going down steps that lead to a cellar.
There she finds a seated female figure and is shocked to discover that it is the
skeletal remains of Norman's mother. Lila's scream alerts Norman, who runs to
the cellar brandishing a butcher knife while dressed in his mother's clothes and
a wig. He tries to attack Lila but is subdued by Sam.

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Sitting in a detention room at the local courthouse, Norman is now permanently
trapped in the persona of his mother, whose personality he had adopted after
murdering her and her lover out of jealousy ten years prior. Guilty over her
death, and wanting to erase it, he exhumed her corpse and began to treat it as if
she were alive again. Whenever he became sexually attracted to any other
woman, the abusive Norma would take full control of his mind and kill the
woman. In this state, Norman had killed two missing girls prior to Marion, as
well as Arbogast. While Norman sits in the room, Norma's voice is heard
protesting that the murders were Norman's doing and that she "wouldn't even
harm a fly." As the film ends, Marion's car is pulled out from the swamp.

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Pulp Fiction (1994)
The narrative is presented out of sequence, structured around three distinct but
interrelated storylines: mob contract killer Vincent Vega is the lead of the first
story, prizefighter Butch Coolidge is the lead of the second, and Vincent's fellow
contract killer, Jules Winnfield, is the lead of the third.[11] Although each
storyline focuses on a different series of incidents set in different periods of
time, they connect and intersect in various ways. The film starts out with a diner
hold-up staged by "Pumpkin" and "Honey Bunny," then picks up the stories of
Vincent, Jules, Butch, and several other important characters, including mob
kingpin Marsellus Wallace, his wife, Mia, and underworld problem-solver
Winston Wolfe. It finally returns to where it began, in the diner: Vincent and
Jules, who have stopped in for a bite, find themselves embroiled in the hold-up.
There are a total of seven narrative sequencesthe three primary storylines are
preceded by identifying intertitles on a black screen:
"PrologueThe Diner" (i)
Prelude to "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
"Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife"
Prelude to "The Gold Watch" (aflashback, bpresent)
"The Gold Watch"
"The Bonnie Situation"
"EpilogueThe Diner" (ii)

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If the seven sequences were ordered chronologically, they would run: 4a, 2, 6, 1,
7, 3, 4b, 5. Sequences 1 and 7 partially overlap and are presented
from different points of view; the same is true of sequences 2 and 6. In
Philip Parker's description, the structural form is "an episodic narrative
with circular events adding a beginning and end and allowing
references to elements of each separate episode to be made
throughout the narrative."[12] Other analysts describe the structure
simply as a "circular narrative."[13]