Script 6

PRISON BUS -- DUSK
Among those on board is TOMMY WILLIAMS, a damn good-looking kid in his mid-20's. The bus RUMBLES through the gate.
(V.O.) RED: Tommy Williams came to Shawshank in 1965 on a two year stretch for B&E, that's breaking and entering to you. Cops caught him sneakin' TV sets out the back door of a JC Penney.
www.shawshank.org
WOOD SHOP
(A SHRIEKING BUZZSAW slices ten-foot lengths of wood. Red runs the machine while some other OLD-TIMERS feed the wood).
(V.O.) RED:Young punk, Mr. Rock n' Roll, cocky as hell...
(Tommy is hauling the cut wood off the conveyor and stacking it, It's a ball-busting job, but the kid's a blur).
TOMMY: (slapping his gloves) C'mon there, old boys! Movin' like molasses! Makin' me look bad!
(The old guys just grin and shake their heads).
(V.O.) RED: We liked him immediately.
MESS HALL -- DAYTommy regales the old boys with his exploits:TOMMY:...so I'm backin' out the door, right? Had the TV like this... (mimes his grip) Big ol' thing. Couldn't see shit. Suddenly, here's this voice: "Freeze kid! Hands in the air!" Well I just stand there holdin' on to that TV, so the voice says: "You hear what I said, boy?" And I say, "Yes sir, I sure did! But if I drop this fuckin' thing, you got me on destruction of property too!"

(The whole table falls about laughing).
HEYWOOD: You did a stretch in Cashman, right?
TOMMY: Yeah. That was an easy piece of time, let me tell you. Work programs, weekend furloughs. Not like here.
SNOOZE: Sounds like you done time all over New England.
TOMNY: Been in and out since I was 13. Name the place, chances are I been there.
ANDY: Perhaps it's time you considered a new profession (the table falls silent) What I mean is, you don't seem to be a very good thief. Maybe you should try something else.
TOMMY: Yeah, well, what the hell you know about it, Capone? What are you in for?
ANDY: Me? Lawyer fucked me. Everyone's innocent in here. Don't you know that?
(The tension breaks. Everyone laughs).
LIBRARY -- DAY
(Tommy enters, the strut gone from his step. A little scared. He finds Andy filing shelving books).
(V.O.) RED: As it turns out, Tommy had himself a young wife and new baby girl. Maybe it was the thought of them on the streets... or his child growing up not knowing her daddy... Whatever it was, something lit a fire under that boy's ass.
TOMMY: I was thinkin' maybe trying for high school equivalency. Hear you helped a couple fellas with that.
ANDY: I don't waste time on losers, Tommy.
TOMMY: I ain't no g-ddamn loser.
ANDY: You mean that?
TOMMY: Yeah
ANDY: You really mean that?
TOMMY: Yes sir, I do.
ANDY: Good. Because if we do this, we do it all the way. One hundred percent. Nothing half-assed.
(Tommy thinks about it, nods).
TOMMY: Thing is, see... (leans in, mutters) ...I don't read all that good.
ANDY: Well... you don't read... so well. We'll get to that.
LIBRARY -- DAY
(Andy chalks the alphabet on a blackboard).
(V.O.) RED: So Andy took Tommy under his wing. Started walking him through his ABCs...
MESS HALL -- DAY
(TRACK the table to Tommy and Andy. Discussing a book).
(V.O.) RED: Tommy took to it pretty well, too. Boy found brains he never knew he had.
LIBRARY
(Tommy writes a sentence on the blackboard. Andy steps in, shows him how to reconstruct it).
(V.O.) RED: Before long, Andy started him on his course requirements. He really liked the kid, that was part of it. Gave him a thrill to help a youngster crawl off the shitheap. But that wasn't the only reason... Prison time is slow time. So you do what you can to keep going, Some fellas collect stamps. Others build matchstick houses. Andy built a library. Now he needed a new project. Tommy was it. It was the same reason he spent years shaping and polishing those rocks. The same reason he hung his fantasy girlies on the wall... In prison, a man'll do most anything to keep his mind occupied. By 1966... right about the time Tommy was getting ready to take his exams... it was lovely Racquel.
LIBRARY -- DAY
Tommy's taking the big test. Andy's monitoring the time with a stop watch. Deep silence, save for Tommy's pencil scribbling. A few old-timers are browsing the shelves. Time's up. Tommy puts his pencil down,
ANDY: Well?
TOMMY: Well. It's for shit. (gets up in disgust) Wasted a whole fuckin' year of my time with this bullshit!
ANDY: May not be as bad as you think.
TOMMY: It's worse! I didn't get a fuckin' thing right! Might as well be in Chinese!
ANDY: We'll see how the score comes out.
TOMMY: I'll tell you how the g-ddamn score comes out...
(Tommy grabs the test, wads it, slam-dunks it into the trash).
TOMMY: Two points! Right there! There's your g-ddamn score! (storms out) g-ddamn cats crawlin' up trees, 5 times 5 is 25, fuck this place, fuck it!
(Tommy is gone. Red and others stare. Andy gets up, pulls the test from the trash, smoothes it out on the desk).
WOOD SHOP -- DAY
Rest break. Tommy and Red sipping Cokes.
TOMMY: I feel bad. I let him down.
RED: That's crap, son. He's proud of you. Proud as a hen. (off Tommy's look) We been friends a long time. I know him as good as anybody.
TOMMY: Smart fella, ain't he?
RED: Smart as they come. Used to be a banker on the outside.
TOMMY: What's he in for anyway?
RED: Murder.
TOMMY: (smiles, he can't believe it) The hell you say.
RED: You wouldn't think it to look at the guy. Caught his wife in bed with some golf pro. Greased 'em both. C'mon, boy, back to work...
(Tommy has a blank stare, he thinks to himself.. oh my gog)
RED: What?
LIBRARY -- DAY
(Tommy sits before Andy and Red:
TOMMY: 'Bout four years ago, I was in Thomaston on a 2 to 3 stretch. Stole a car. Dumbfuck thing to do. About six months left to go, I get a new cellmate in. Elmo Blatch. Big twitchy fucker. Kind of roomie you pray you don't get, know what I'm sayin'? 6 to 12 for armed burglary. Said he pulled hundreds of jobs. Hard to believe, high-strung as he was. Cut a loud fart, he'd go three feet in the air. Talked all the time, too, that's the other thing. Never shut up. Places he'd been, jobs he pulled, women he fucked. Even people he killed. People that gave him shit, that's how he put it. One night, like a joke, I say: "Yeah? Who'd you kill?" So he says...
BLATCH: ...I got me this job one time bussin' tables at a country club. So I could case all the big rich pricks that come in. So I pick out this guy, go in one night and do his place. He wakes up and gives me shit. So I killed him. Him and the tasty bitch he was with. (starts laughing) And that's the best part! She's fuckin' this prick, see, this golf pro, but she's married to some other guy! Some hotshot banker. And. he's the one they pinned it on!
(He throws his head back and ROARS with laughter).
PRISON LIBRARY -- DAY
Silence. Tommy has finished his story. Red is stunned...but Andy looks like he's been smacked with a two by four. Andy says nothing. Walks stiffly away. Doesn't look back.
NORTON'S OFFICE -- DAY
NORTON: Well. I have to say, that's the most amazing story I ever heard. What amazes me most is you were taken in by it.
ANDY: Sir?
NORTON: It's obvious this fellow Williams is impressed with you. He hears your tale of woe and quite naturally wants to cheer you up. He's young, not terribly bright. Not surprising he didn't know what a state he'd put you in.
ANDY: Sir, he's telling the truth.
NORTON: Let's say for a moment Blatch does exist. You think he'd just fall to his knees and cry, "Yes, I did it! I confess! Oh and by the way, add a life term to my sentence!"
ANDY: It wouldn't matter. With Tommy's testimony, I can get a new trial.
NORTON: That's assuming Blatch is even still there. Chances are excellent he'd be released by now.
ANDY: They'd have his last known address. Names of relatives... (Norton shakes his head) Well it's a chance. isn't it? How can you be so obtuse?
NORTON: What? What did you call me?
ANDY: Obtuse. Is it deliberate? The country club will have his old time cards! W-2s with his name on them!
NORTON: (rises, he's getting pissed) Dufresne, if you want to indulge this fantasy, that's your business. Don't make it mine. This meeting's over.
ANDY: Sir, if I were to ever get out, I'd never say what goes on in here. I'd be just as indictable as you for laundering that money.
NORTON: Don't you ever mention money to me again, you sorry son of a bitch! Not in this office, not anywhere! (slaps intercom) Get in here! Now!
ANDY: I was just trying to rest your mind at ease, that's all.
NORTON: (as GUARDS enter) Solitary! A month!
(Andy gets dragged away, kicking and screaming:
ANDY: What's the matter with you? This is my chance to get out, don't you see that? It's my life! Don't you understand it's my life?
PRISON YARD -- DAY
(Mail call. Men crowd around as names are called out. Red and the boys are parked on the bleachers).
FLOYD: A month in the hole. Longest damn stretch I ever heard of.
TOMMY: It's all my fault.
RED: Ah, bullshit. You didn't pull the trigger, and you didn't convict him.
HEYWOOD: Red? You saying Andy's innocent? I mean for real innocent? Sweet Jesus. How long's he been in here now?
RED: Since '47. Going on nineteen years.
MAIL CALLER: Thomas Williams!
(Tommy raises his hand. The envelope gets tossed to him. He stares at it. Red peers over his shoulder).
RED: Board of Education.
TOMMY: The son of a bitch mailed it.
RED: Like he did. You gonna open it or stick your thumb up your butt?
TOMMY: Thumb up my butt sounds better.
(He gets hemmed in by the older men. Red snatches the letter).
TOMMY: C'mon, just throw it away. Will you please?
(Red rips it open, scans the letter. Expressionless).
RED: Well, shit.
SOLITARY -- NIGHT
(Andy listens in darkness. The FOOTSTEPS pause outside his door. The slot opens. An ELDERLY GUARD peers in).
ELDERLY GUARD: Kid passed. C-plus average. Thought you'd like to know.
(The slot closes. The FOOTSTEPS recede. Andy smiles).
PRISON CORRIDOR -- NIGHT
(We find Tommy on evening work detail, mopping the floors with bucket and pail. Mert Entwhistle comes into view).
MERT: Warden wants to talk.
(Tommy put's his mop down and followes him).
PRISON -- NIGHT
(A steel door rattles open. Mert leads Tommy outside to a gate, unlocks it. Tommy looks around).
TOMMY: Out here?
MERT: That's what the man said.
(Mert swings the gate open, sends Tommy through, turns and heads back inside. Tommy proceeds out across a loading-dockaccess for the shops and mills. Some vehicles parked. The place is deserted. He stops, sensing a presence).
TOMMY: Warden?
(Norton steps into the light).
NORTON: Tommy, Tommy. I'm asking that you keep this conversation between us. I feel awkward enough as it is. We've got a situation here. I think you can appreciate that.
TOMMY: Yes sir, I sure can. NORTON: I tell you, son, this really came along and knocked my wind out. It's got me up nights, that's the truth. NORTON: The right decision. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what that is. You understand? (Tommy nods) Think hard, Tommy. If I'm gonna move on this, there can't be the least little shred of doubt. I have to know if you what you told Dufresne was the truth.

TOMMY: Yes sir. Absolutely.
NORTON: Would you be willing to swear before a judge and jury... having placed your hand on the Good Book and taken an oath before Almighty God Himself?
TOMMY: Just gimme that chance.
NORTON: That's what I thought.
Norton drops his cigarette. Crushes it out with the toe of his shoe. Glances up toward the plate shop roof as --
HIGH ANGLE FROM PLATE SHOP ROOF (SNIPER POV)
A rifle scope pops up into frame, jumping Tommy's image into startling magnification, framed in the crosshairs. THE SNIPER rapid-fires a carbine -- BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! -- his face lit up by the muzzle flashes. Captain Hadley.TOMMY gets chewed to pieces by the gunfire. He smacks the ground in a twitching, thrashing heap. Eyes wide and staring. Dead. Surprise still stamped on his face. Silence now. Norton turns, strolls into darkness.

SOLITARY WING -- DAY(Warden open's Andy's door)NORTON: I'm sure by now, you've heard. Terrible thing. Man that young, less than a year to go, trying to escape. Broke Captain Hadley's heart to shoot him, truly it did. We just have to put it behind us, move on. ANDY: I'm done. It stops right now. Get someone else to run your schemes.

(He comes in to the cell with Andy and bows down)
NORTON: Nothing stops. Nothing. Or you will do the hardest time there is. No more protection from the guards. I'll pull you out of that one-bunk Hilton and cast you down with th Sodomites. You'll think you got fucked by a train! And the library? Gone. Sealed off brick by brick! We'll have us a little book-barbecue in the yard! They'll see the flames for miles! We'll dance around it like wild Indians! Do you understand me? Are you catching my drift? Oh am I being obtuse?
(Norton turns to the guard and says:)
NORTON: Give him another month to think about it.
PRISON YARD -- DAY
Red finds Andy sitting in the shadow of the high stone wall, poking listlessly through the dust for small pebbles. Red waits for some acknowledgment. Andy doesn't even look up. Red hunkers down and joins him. Nothing is said for the longest time. And then, softly:
ANDY: My wife used to say I'm a hard man to know. Like a closed book. Complained about it all the time. She was beautiful. I loved her. But I guess I couldn't show it, that's all. I killed her, Red. I didn't pull the trigger. But I drove her away. That's why she died. Because of me, the way I am.
RED: That don't make you a murderer. Bad husband, maybe. Feel bad about it if you want. But you didn't pull the trigger.
ANDY: No. I didn't. Someone else did, and I wound up here. Bad luck, I guess.
RED: Yeah. ANDY: It floats around. Has to land on somebody. It was my turn. I was in the path of the tornado. I just didn't expect that the storm would go on as long as it has. Think you'll ever get out of here? RED: Sure. When I got a long white beard and two or three marbles left rolling around upstairs. They'll let me out. ANDY: Tell you where I'd go. Zihuatanejo.

RED: Zihuatanejo?
ANDY: It's in Mexico. Little place right on the Pacific. You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific? They say it has no memory. That's where I want to live the rest of my life, Red. A warm place with no memory. Open a little hotel right on the beach. Buy some worthless old boat and fix it up like new. Take my guests out charter fishing.
RED: Zihuatanejo.
ANDY: You know, a place like that, I'd need a man who can get things.
RED: I don't think I could make on the outside, Andy. I've been in here most my life. I'm an institutional man now. Just like Brooks was.
ANDY: You underestimate yourself.
RED: I don't think so, In here I'm the guy who can get it for you. Outside all you need are Yellow Pages. I wouldn't know where to begin. Pacific Ocean? Shit. Like to scare me to death, somethin' that big.
ANDY: Not me. I didn't shoot my wife and I didn't shoot her lover, and whatever mistakes I made I've paid for and then some. That hotel, that boat...I don't think it's too much to ask.
RED: I don't think you should be doing this to yourself, Andy! Thats just shitty pipedreams! Mexico's way down there, and you're in here, and that's the way it is!
ANDY: You're right. It's down there, and I'm in here. I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying.
(Red snaps a look. What the hell does that mean? Andy rises and walks away. Red lunges to his feet).RED: Andy? ANDY: (turns back) Red, if you ever get out of here, do me a favor. RED: Sure Andy, anything. ANDY: There's this big hayfield up near Buxton. You know where Buxton is? RED: Lots of hayfields there

ANDY: One in particular. Got a long rock wall with a big oak at the north end. Like something out of a Robert Frost poem. It's where I asked my wife to marry me. We'd gone for a picnic. We made love under that oak. I asked and she said yes. Promise me, Red. If you ever get out, find that spot. In the base of that wall you'll find a rock that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield. A piece of black volcanic glass. You'll find something buried under it I want you to have.
RED: What? What's buried there?
ANDY: You'll just have to pry up that rock and see.
(Andy turns and walks away).
MESS HALL -- DAY
RED: I tell you, the guy is talkin' funny. I'm worried about him.
SKEET: We ought to keep an eye on him.
ZIGGER: That's fine, during the day. But at night he's got that cell all to himself.
HEYWOOD: Oh Lord. Andy come down to the loading dock today. Asked me for a length of rope. Six foot long.
SNOOZE: And, you gave it to him?
HEYWOOD: Sure I did. I mean why wouldn't I?
FLOYD: Remember Brooks Hatlen?
HEYWOOD: How the hell was I s'pose to know?
ZIGGER: Andy'd never do that. Never.
RED: I dunno, every man's got a breaking point.
NORTON'S OFFICE -- NIGHT
Andy's working away. Norton pokes his head in.
NORTON: Lickety-split. I wanna get home.
ANDY: Just about done, sir.
We follow Norton to his wife's sampler. He swings it aside, works the combination dial, opens the wall safe. Andy moves up, shoves in the black ledger and files. Norton shuts the safe.
ANDY: Three deposits tonight.
(Andy hands him the envelopes. Norton heads for the door).
NORTON: Get my stuff down the laundry. And shine my shoes. I want 'em lookin' like mirrors. (pauses at door) It's good havin' you back, Andy. Place just wasn't the same without you.
(Norton exits. Andy turns to the laundry. He opens the shoebox. Nice pair of dress shoes inside. He sighs, glances down at the old ragged pair of work shoes on his own feet).