Script 7

CELLBLOCK FIVE -- NIGHT
Andy nods to the GUARD. The guard BUZZES him through.
RED'S CELL -- NIGHT (1966) 212
Red hears Andy coming, moves to the bars. He watches Andy come up to the second tier and pause before his cell.
VOICE: (O.S.) Lights out!
(The lights bump off. Andy sits in his bed looking at his poster).
RED'S CELL -- NIGHT
Red sits in the dark, a bundle of nerves, trying to hold himself still. He feels like he might scream or shake to pieces. The seconds tick by, each an eternity.
(V.O.) RED: I have had some long nights in stir. Alone in the dark with nothing but your thoughts, time can draw out like a blade...
(A FLASH OF LIGHTNING outside his window sends harsh barred shadows jittering across the cell. A storm breaking).
(V.O.) RED:That was the longest night of my life...
CELLBLOCK FIVE -- MORNING
(KA-THUMP! The master lock is thrown. The cons emerge from their cells and the headcount begins. Red looks back to see if Andy's in line. He's not. Suddenly the count stalls:
GUARD: Man missing on tier two! Cell 245!
The head bull, HAIG, checks his list:
HAIG: Dufresne! Get your ass out here, boy! You're holding up the show! (no answer) Don't make me come down there now! I'll thump your skull for you!
(Still no answer. Glaring, Haig stalks down the tier, clipboard in hand. His men fall in behind).
HAIG: Dammit, Dufresne you're putting me behind! You better be sick or dead in there, I shit you not!
(They arrive at bars. Their faces go slack. Stunned. Softly:
HAIG: Oh my Holy God.
NORTON'S OFFICE -- MORNING
Norton kicks his shoes off, opens the box -- and gulls out Andy's grimy work shoes. He stares blankly. What the fuck indeed.
An ALARM STARTS BLARING throughout the prison. He looks up.
PRISON -- DAY
Norton and Hadley stride across the grounds, ALARM BLARING.
NORTON: I want every man on that cellblock questioned! Start with that friend of his!
HADLEY: who?
CELLBLOCK FIVE -- RED'S CELL -- DAY
Red watches as Norton storms up with an entourage of guards.
NORTON: Him.
Red's eyes widen. Guards yank him from his cell.
ANDY'S CELL -- DAY
Norton steps to the center of the room, working himself up into a fine rage:
NORTON: What do you mean "he just wasn't here?" Don't say that to me, Haig! Don't say that to me again!
HAIG: But sir! He wasn't!
NORTON: I can see that, Haig! You think I'm blind? Is that what you're saying? Am I blind, Haig?
HAIG: No sir!
(Norton grabs the clipboard and thrusts it at Hadley).
NORTON: What about you? You blind? Tell me what this is!
HADLEY: Last night's count.
NORTON: You see Dufresne's name there? I sure do! Right there, see? "Dufresne." He was in his cell at lights out! Stands to reason he'd still be here this morning! I want him found! Not tomorrow, not after breakfast! Now!
(Haig scurries out, gathering men. Norton spins to Red).
NORTON: Well?
RED: Well what?
NORTON: I see you two all the time, you're thick as thieves, you are! He must'a said something!
RED: No sir, Warden, not a word.
(Norton spreads his arms evangelist-style, spins slowly around).
NORTON: Lord! It's a miracle! Man up and vanished like a fart in the wind! Nothin' left but some damn rocks on the windowsill and that cupcake on the wall! Let's ask her! Maybe she knows! What say there, Fuzzy Britches? Feel like talking? Guess not. Why should you be different?
(Red exchanges looks with the guards. Even they're nervous. Norton scoops a handful rocks off the sill. He hurls them at the wall one at a time, shattering them, punctuating his words:
NORTON: This is a conspiracy! (SMASH) That's what this is! (SMASH) It's one big damn conspiracy! (SMASH) And everyone's in on it! (SMASH) Including her!
(He sends the last rock whizzing right at Racquel. No smash. It takes a moment for this to sink in. All eyes go to her. The rock went through her. There's a small hole in the poster where her navel used to be. You could hear a pin drop. Norton reaches up, sinks his finger into the hole. He keeps pushing...and his entire hand disappears into the wall).
ANGLE FROM BEHIND POSTERNorton rips the poster from before our eyes. Stunned faces peer in...to reveal the long crumbling tunnel in the wall.

SHAWSHANK PRISON -- WIDE SHOT -- DAY
Virgin landscape. Charming rural road. Suddenly, State Police cruisers rocket up the road with SIRENS AND LIGHTS.
(V.O.) RED: In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank Prison.
FIELD -- DAYShawshank is half a mile distant. WE TRACK ALONG a muddy creel as STATE TROOPERS and PRISON GUARDS scour the brush. A TROOPER fishes a prison uniform out of the creek with a long stick.(V.O.) RED: All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock-hammer damn near worn down to the nub. (V.O.) RED: I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Andy did it in less than twenty.

ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHT
Once again, we see Andy using the rock-hammer to scratch his name into the cement. Suddenly, a palm-sized chunk of cement pops free and hits the floor. He stares down at it.
ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHT
Andy lies in the dark, studying the chunk of concrete in his hands. Considering the possibilities. Wrestling with hope.
(V.O.) RED: Oh, Andy loved geology. I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, a million years of mountain-building there.
ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHT
Andy stands peering at the small hole left by the fallen chunk. Carefully runs his fingertip over it.
(V.O.) RED: Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes, really. Pressure and time.
ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHTRita is now on the wall, hanging down over Andy's back.(V.O.) RED: And a big damn poster. Like I said. In prison, a man'll do most anything to keep his mind occupied.

PRISON YARD -- DAY
Andy strolls along, whistling softly, hands in both pockets. TILT DOWN to his pantleg. Concrete grit trickles out.
(V.O.) RED: It turns out Andy's favorite hobby was totin' his wall out into the exercise yard a handful at a time... I guess after Tommy was killed, Andy decided he'd been here just about long enough.
NORTONS OFFICE
Again we see: Andy working. Norton pokes his head in.
NORTON: Lickety-split. I wanna get home.
ANDY: Just about done, sir.
(Norton crosses to the wall safe and works the dial, his back turned. This time, though, we stay on Andy:
He pulls up his sweater, yanks out a large black book and a stack of files, lays them on the desk. He then grabs the real ledger and files, jams them down his pants and smoothes his sweater down. He picks up the bogus stack, crosses to Norton, and shoves everything in).
HALLWAY -- NIGHT
(Norton exits his office and strolls off whistling. PUSH IN on the open door. We see Andy at the guard's desk, pulling Norton's dress shoes from their box).
NORTON'S OFFICE -- MINUTES LATER
(Andy sorts through Norton's three suits. He pauses, checking the gray pinstripe. Nice).
(V.O.) RED: Andy did like he was told. Buffed those shoes to a high mirror shine.
CELLBLOCK FIVE
The guard BUZZES Andy through. Andy walks toward us.
(V.O.) RED: The guard simply didn't notice. Neither did I. I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a man's shoes?
ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHT
The lights go out. Andy places the last chess piece. Gazes up at Racquel. Smiles. Pulls the rope from under his pillow. He stands and unbuttons his prison shirt,
TUNNEL -- NIGHT
Andy, again wearing prison clothes, inches down the tunnel.
SHAFT -- NIGHTAndy squeezes through the hole head-first, emerges to the waist, He reaches for the opposite wall, manages to snag a steel conduit with his fingers.Andy snags the conduit again. He contorts out of the hole and dangles into the shaft. We now see the purpose for the rope: the plastic bag hangs from his ankle with about two feet of slack.Andy goes down the wall, using pipes as a latter. He drops the last few feet to the bottom.

He approaches the ceramic sewer pipe and kneels before it. Pulls out a huge rock and raises it and waits for thunder. Once, twice -- third time lucky. An enormous eruption of sewage cascades into the air as if rocket-propelled, the Mount St. Helens of shit. Andy is instantly coated black. He turns away and heaves his guts out. The shit keeps coming.

IN THE SEWER PIPE -- NIGHT
Andy peers down through the hole, playing his penlight around. The inside diameter is no more than two feet. Tight squeeze. Coated with crud. It seems to go on for miles. No turning back. He wriggles into the pipe and starts crawling, plastic bag dragging behind.
(V.O.) RED: Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit-smelling foulness I can't even imagine. Or maybe I just don't want to.