Script 8

FIELD -- NIGHT
Rain is falling in solid sheets. Shawshank is half a mile distant. We see a creek...and toward the mouth of the sewer pipe that feeds into it.
(V.O.) RED: Five hundred yards. That's the length of five football fields. Just shy of half a mile.
(Fingers appear, thrusting through the heavy-gauge wire mesh covering the mouth of the pipe. Andy's face looms from the darkness, peering out at freedom. He wrenches the mesh loose, pushes himself out, and plunges head-first into the creek. He comes up sputtering for breath. The water is waist-deep.He wades upstream, ripping his clothes from his body. He gets his shirt off, spins it through the air over his head, flings the shirt away. He raises his arms to the sky, turning slowly, feeling the rain washing him clean. Exultant. Triumphant. A FLASH OF LIGHTNING arcs from horizon to horizon).

ANDY'S TUNNEL -- DAY
Once again, we see stunned faces as the Warden finds Andy's hole
(V.O.) RED: The next morning, right about the time Racquel was spilling her little secret...
MAINE NATIONAL BANK -- MORNING
The door opens. Spit-shined shoes enter. DOLLY the shoes to the counter.
(V.O.) RED: ...a man nobody ever laid eyes on before strolled into the Maine National Bank. Until that moment, he didn't exist -- except on paper.
(Off Screen) FEMALE TELLER: May I help you? It's Andy. Smiling in Norton's gray pinstripe suit.BANK -- SHORTLY LATERThe teller is cutting a cashier's check while the MANAGER carefully examines Mr. Stevens' various I.D.s.

(V.O.) RED: He had all the proper I.D. Driver's license, birth certificate, social security card. And, the signature was a spot-on match.
MANAGER: I must say I'm sorry to be losing your business. I hope you'll enjoy living abroad.
ANDY: Thank you. I'm sure I will.
TELLER: Here's your cashier's check, sir. Will there be anything else?
ANDY: Please. Would you add this to your outgoing mail?
TELLER: I'd be happy to.
(He hands her a package, stamped and addressed. Gives them a pleasant smile. Turns and strolls from the bank).
(V.O.) RED: Mr. Stevens visited nearly a dozen banks in the Portland area that morning. All told, he blew town with better than 370 thousand dollars of Warden Norton's money. Severance pay for nineteen years.
OFFICE -- DAY
A MAN in shirtsleeves is going through the mail on his desk. He finds Andy's package, rips it open. Pulls out the black ledger and files. Scans a cover letter. Holy shit. We hear a lady answer the phone, "Good Morning, Portland Daily Bugle."
SHAWSHANK PRISON -- DAYNorton walks slowly toward his office. Dazed. The morning paper in his hand. He goes wordlessly past the DUTY GUARD into his office. Shuts the door. Lays the paper on his desk.The headline reads: "CORRUPTION AND MURDER AT SHAWSHANK." Below that, the sub-headline: "D.A. Has Ledger. Indictments Expected." Norton looks up as SIRENS SWELL in the distance.

NORTON'S OFFICENorton opens his safe and pulls out the "ledger" -- it's Andy's Bible. The title page is inscribed by hand: "Dear Warden. You were right. Salvation lay within." Norton flips to Exodus - only to find the pages hollowed out in the shape of a rock-hammer.He dropsthe Bible and heads for the window.

PRISON
Police cruisers everywhere. A media circus. REPORTERS jostle for position. A colorless DISTRICT ATTORNEY steps forward into CLOSEUP, flanked by a contingent of more police.
D.A.: Byron Hadley? You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, anything you say will be used against you in a court of law...
TROOPERS move in, cuffing Hadley's hands behind his back. The D.A. drones on. FLASHBULBS POP. Hadley says nothing. His face scrunches up. He begins to cry.
(V.O.) RED: I wasn't there to see it, but I hear Byron Hadley was sobbing like a little girl when they took him away.
(Hadley sobs all the way to the car. The D.A. snaps a gaze up toward Norton's window, motions his men to follow).
NORTON'S OFFICE
Norton is staring out the window as they approach the building. He goes to his desk, opens a drawer. Inside lies a revolver and a box of shells.
(V.O.) RED: Norton had no intention of goin' that quietly.
NORTON'S OFFICE -- DAY
Norton sits blankly at his desk, revolver before him. The doorknob rattles, a VOICE is heard:
(O.S.) D.A.: Samuel Norton? We have a warrant for your arrest! Open up!
(The POUNDING starts. Norton dumps the box of bullets out on thr desk. He starts sorting them to see which ones he likes).
OUTSIDE HIS OFFICE
Troopers hustle the hapless duty guard to Norton's door as he fumbles nervously with a huge key ring.
DUTY GUARD: I'm not sure which key it is...
(He starts trying keys in the lock. And as the keys go sliding in one after another...)
NORTON'S OFFICE
...so do the bullets. Norton is riveted to the door. For every key, he loads another bullet. Methodical and grim. He gets the final bullet in just as the right key slams home. The door bursts open. Men muscle in. Somebody SHOUTS. Troopers dive in all directions as Norton raises the gun --
-- and jams it under his chin. His head snaps back as the wall goes red. His swivel chair does a slow half-turn and creaks to a final stop. Troopers rise slowly, gazing in horror.
(V.O.) RED: I like to think the last thing that went through his head...other than that bullet...was to wonder how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him.
PRISON YARD -- DAY
Mail call. Red hears his name. They pass him a postcard.
(V.O.) RED: Not long after the warden deprived us of his company, I got a postcard in the mail. It was blank. But the postmark said, "Forth Handcox, Texas."
LIBRARY -- DAY
Red sits with an atlas, tracing his finger down the page.
(V.O.) RED: Forth Handcox. Right on the border. That's where Andy crossed. (shuts the book) When I picture him heading south in his own car with the top down, it makes me laugh all over again...
MEXICO -- HIGHWAY -- DAYA red convertible rips along with Andy at the wheel, sunglasses on, big grin, warm wind in his hair.(V.O.) RED: Andy Dufresne, who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side. Andy Dufresne, headed for the Pacific.

MESS HALL -- DAY
Heywood is regaling the table with some anecdote about Andy.
(V.O.) RED: Those of us who knew him best talk about him often. I swear, the stuff he pulled.
A wild burst of laughter. PUSH IN on Red. Feeling melancholy.
(V.O.) RED: Sometimes it makes me sad, though, Andy being gone. I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are just too bright...
FIELDS -- LATE DAYConvicts hoe the fields. Cleaning up the cemetery.(V.O.) RED: ...and when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice...but still, the place you live is that much more drab and empty that they're gone.(V.O.) RED: I guess I just miss my friend.

SHAWSHANK HEARINGS ROOM -- DAY
Red enters, sits. 20 years older than when we first saw him.
MAN #1: Ellis Boyd Redding, your file says you've served forty years of a life sentence. You feel you've been rehabilitated?
RED: Rehabilitated. Let's see now. You know, come to think of it, I have no idea what that means.
MAN #2: Well, it means you're ready to rejoin society as a--
RED: I know what you think it means, Sonny. To me, I think it's a made-up word, a politician's word. A word so young fellas like you can wear a suit and tie and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
MAN: Well... are you?
RED: Not a day goes by I don't feel regret, and not because I'm in here or you think I should. I look back on the way I was then... a young stupid kid who did that terrible crime... I wanna talk to him, I wanna try and talk some sense into him. Tell him how things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone, this old man is all that's left, and I have to live with that. "Rehabilitated?" Is just a bullshit word, so you just go on ahead and stamp that form there, sonny, and stop wasting my damn time. Truth is, I don't give a shit.
CLOSEUP -- PAROLE FORMA big rubber stamp SLAMS down -- and lifts away to reveal the word "APPROVED" in red ink.