3:10 to Yuma Page #13

(CONTINUED)

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CONTINUED:
(2)

WADE (CONT'D)

I told you not to go this way. I

told you there’d be trouble.

DOC POTTER:

It was Mister McElroy’s decision.

Wade glances aside at Doc Potter...

...then returns his bitter gaze on Dan.

WADE:

Give me the key.

Dan digs the HAND-CUFFS KEY out of his pocket...

...then hurls it out into the field of tall grass.

Everybody watches the key sail through the air, swallowed up

first by the darkness, then by the endless field of grass...

...and Wade just can’t believe it. He zeroes in on Dan. Lifts

his rifle. And ruthlessly wallops Dan across the jaw with the

rifle butt. AND DAN BLACKS OUT.

EXT. CAMP #2, FIELD - NIGHT

DAN COMES TO SEVERAL MINUTES LATER. Doc Potter sits him up

with William’s help. Butterfield hovers anxiously behind...

DOC POTTER:

Easy does it. Easy.

DAN:

(weak)

Where is he.

WILLIAM:

He’s gone. Took our horses with

him. I found this in the grass.

...it’s the HAMMER SHOTGUN. Taking the gun as he pushes

himself to his feet. He’s wobbly, but otherwise fine.

BUTTERFIELD:

He went that way.

DAN:

It’s the fastest way out of the

pass. He’ll be looking for help

getting those cuffs off.

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

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95 CONTINUED:

DAN (cont'd)

(to William)

Find his tracks, son.

DOC POTTER:

We’re going after him.

DAN:

There’s no reward for getting him

halfway to that train, is there?

BUTTERFIELD:

No, sir.

Doc Potter considers this as Dan loads his SHOTGUN...

96 EXT. BLASTING CAMP, MOUNTAINS - DAY

ANGLE ON-- BEN WADE as he cautiously approaches a freshly dug

railroad tunnel. BOOM! A LOW RUMBLING EXPLOSION rocks the

mountain range and shakes the ground (and vibrates camera).

Something big is happening on the other side of the tunnel.

OVER BEN as he emerges from the tunnel to see-

DOZENS OF CHINESE WORKERS moving about, laying track. Tents

line the graded earth, sprinkled with woks and bowls.

(CONTINUED)

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CONTINUED:

A labyrinth of squalid housing. The workers themselves are

thin and beat to hell. They wear umbrella-like hats to ward

off the SCORCHING SUN.

A cloud from the recent explosion billows in the distance.

Wade rides cautiously through the camp. He betrays no

emotion, perhaps he has none... ...he’s on a mission, his

eyes scanning the workers.

INT. TRAIN CAR, BLASTING CAMP - DAY

CLOSE ON:
WALTER BOLES (48) sucking a cigar at his desk as he

feeds leftover SCRAMBLED EGGS to a PET MONKEY on a leash...

...a sleepy-eyed PROSTITUTE lays on a couch behind him at the

head of the train car. The windows have all been curtained. A

bookish TELEGRAPH OPERATOR mans the TELEGRAPH CONSOLE nearby.

Three RAILROAD ENFORCERS sit about, including ZEKE (44) who’s

meticulously filing his nails. A BULLWHIP dangles on his hip.

Boles feeds his PET MONKEY as Zeke speaks long-sufferingly:

ZEKE:

Says they want forty dollars each

month now. Like them Irish up

north. Goddamn Coolies. They’ll

work fine with my left boot up

their asses.

BOLES:

If I could teach a monkey to lay

track...

ZEKE:

What we need’s some Negroes brung

in here, Mister Boles. Show these

Chinamen what real work is.

Just now, Boles sees -- Wade riding outside...

...sifting through the DUSTY HAZE like a ghost.

BOLES:

Holy Christ...

ZEKE:

What. What is it.

BOLES:

(pause)

That’s him.

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98 INT./EXT. WORKER TENT, BLASTING CAMP - DAY

A TENT FLAP abruptly peels back to reveal Wade in the opening

of a CHINESE FAMILY’s tent. A APACHE RIFLE in his hands...

...there are several people inside. A MATRIARCH. Three YOUNG

DAUGHTERS. And a GRANDMOTHER. All of them go still when Wade

enters their tent.

Wade scans the tent for threats, noticing a HAMMER and CHISEL

lying on a stool. He closes the TENT FLAP and advances on the

frightened family...

...pointing to his HAND-CUFFS and the HAMMER and CHISEL.

WADE:

You. Break the hand-cuffs. You help

me. With the hammer.

Without warning, a VOLLEY OF GUNFIRE rips into the small tent

from every direction. Dishes explode and splinters fly...

...the CHINESE FAMILY hits the dirt with Wade. The MATRIARCH

pinning her screaming daughters to the ground.

Wade glances at the CHINESE FAMILY who seem unhurt, but

terrified, the children screaming in Chinese.

BOLES O.S.

I got five guns on you out here,

Ben Wade. You best come on out

99 EXT. BLASTING CAMP, MOUNTAINS - DAY

Dan leads our dwindling group through the first tunnel and

into the blasting camp, staring at the conditions of the

CHINESE WORKERS.

...we notice William caught by the haunted eyes of a teenage

CHINESE WORKER hauling a basket full of rocks past the group.

BUTTERFIELD:

The horses.

He’s pointing at the TRAIN CAR where their horses are hitched

to a post. THEY HEAR A MAN SCREAM INSIDE...

...the train car is perched on some rails in the middle of

the camp. Two TELEGRAPH WIRES connect the car to a chain of

TELEGRAPH POLES.

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100 EXT. TRAIN CAR, BLASTING CAMP - DAY

CLOSE ON:
WADE as Zeke SHOCKS his BARE TORSO with an EXPOSED

WIRE that extends from A BLASTING BOX...

...the two other RAILROAD ENFORCERS gather around with Boles

and the TELEGRAPH OPERATOR. The PROSTITUTE is in the window.

BUTTERFIELD (O.S.)

What the hell is going on here.

The two RAILROAD ENFORCERS whirl around with their guns...

...and our group stops instantly. Dan lowers his SHOTGUN. He

glances at Wade. And the exhausted outlaw just smiles back.

BOLES:

Mister Butterfield.

BUTTERFIELD:

Mister Boles.

BOLES:

All finished in Bisbee.

(no reply)

Better hurry. We making the last

blasts through the mountain this

week.

Butterfield nods, tense. Boles waltzes over to him now...

...the two men face to face, which unsettles Butterfield.

BOLES (CONT'D)

So what’re you doing in my neck of

the woods, Mister Butterfield.

BUTTERFIELD:

That’s our prisoner. We’re taking

him to Contention. Putting him on

the prison train to Yuma.

BOLES:

What prisoner. I don’t see anybody

that’s a prisoner.

BUTTERFIELD:

Come now, Mister Boles. That’s Ben

Wade you have there.

(CONTINUED)

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100 CONTINUED:

BOLES:

Ben Wade gunned down my kid brother

in front of me. Six years ago in

Abilene.

WADE:

Your brother was a lying, bilking

card sharp. That is, if he’s the

a**hole I remember. He could, of

course, have been another a**hole I

killed who I forgot about.

Boles flushes red, glancing at Zeke...

...who SHOCKS Wade again. Wade just glares at Zeke, burying

the pain. And there’s a sudden pang of fear in Zeke’s eyes.

He stops and Wade finally slumps, held up only by his HANDCUFFS

which are looped over a hook attached to the train.

Dan glances aside at William...

...wishing he didn’t have to see that.

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