Apocalypse Now Page #24

The air strike hits with all its force. Balls and rain

of fire sweeps down on the temple, the enemy, everything.

It is the biggest firework show in history.

The wall Kurtz was standing on, and he falls with it.

Willard sees this and makes his way toward him as the

air strike continues. All around us is a spectacle of

MUSIC and light and fire and overwhelming color.

276 TRACKING SHOT ON WILLARD

following Kurtz's trail in the mud. He has crawled on

all fours back into the jungle to die. He stalks Kurtz

into the jungle ; moving around and cutting off the

crawling Kurtz

KURTZ:

Go away -- hide yourself.

WILLARD:

What are you doing?

KURTZ:

Going back - to the jungle to

die.

WILLARD:

I'm taking you back. You can

still live.

KURTZ:

I had immense plans.

WILLARD:

I'm gonna get you out of here.

KURTZ:

I was on threshold of great

things.

Willard slings Kurtz's bleeding body around his neck,

holding his hand, dragging hom through the jungle. The

spectacle continues in the b.g.

277 EXT. THE P.B.R. - THE RIVER

This wreck of a boat is still afloat. Willard crawls

out of the jungle, carrying the dying Kurtz and manages

to get him onto the boat.

278 EXTREME FULL SHOT

The spectacle of total psychedelic war: the fortress of

Nu Mung Ba.

FADE OUT.

FADE IN.

279 EXT. THE TEMPLE - MORNING

The entire temple is devastation. Vultures by the hundreds

circle overhead. There are a few survivors. Everywhere

is smoke and heaps of bodies. Colby, a Sergeant, and

some Montagnards sit near them.

Their eyes are red and glazed, their jaws hang slack and

they tumble occasionally. They stagger away from the

field of slaughter. Willard looks down and sees something.

Moves over to it, kicks several bodies away and in the

f.g. below is Lance, dead.

Colby stumbles over. Willard holds Lance up by his hair.

COLBY:

Who is he?

WILLARD:

He was the tragedy -- the tragedy

of this war.

CUT TO:

280 THE P.B.R.

battered, moving slowly down the river.

281 TIGHTER VIEW

Colby is at helm. Kurtz lies feverish, delirious.

Willard sits by him. As the boat moves, Montagnards, those

left alive, come and pay their respects by the riverbanks.

Colby takes an automatic weapon and FIRES it into the air.

Some of the natives move in terror, frightened of him.

The battle is not over.

KURTZ:

Don't. Don't frighten them away.

Willard looks down at him.

WILLARD:

So you understand this?

Kurtz looks up at him, past him with fury, longing in his

eyes. There is a slight smile.

KURTZ:

Do I not?

282 EXT. RIVER - MED. VIEW

The boat moves as though naturally carried by the river.

KURTZ:

My river... my people... my jungle...

my ideas... my country...

my wife...

(he looks at Willard)

... my death.

WILLARD:

You had immense plans... immense plans...

KURTZ:

Yes...

WILLARD:

I'm taking you back.

Kurtz looks up to him, then an expression of overwhelming

intense and hopeless terror, hopeless despair. A whisper

at some image, at some vision, he cries out twice, a cry

that is no more than a breath.

KURTZ:

The horror, the horror.

We HEAR the distant SOUND of HELICOPTERS approaching.

The SOUND of ROTORS in the distance. They look up,

craning their eyes at the sky. Colby points.

COLBY:

There.

Over the jungle mountains the small formation of MEDEVAC

helicopters hooping toward them.

COLBY:

(continuing)

How did they know?

WILLARD:

They must have seen the fire.

The helicopters are closer now but high up. Two of

them breaking off, spiraling in TOWARD US.

COLBY:

They're coming to rescue us.

They're Medevac.

283 CLOSE SHOT ON WILLARD

He stares up at the sky.

WILLARD:

(to himself)

They're coming to take us back.

Copters directly overhead.

WILLARD:

(continuing)

Yeah.

COLBY:

Colonel Kurtz, he's dead.

WILLARD:

Yeah.

He raises his M-16 and FIRES the entire clip at the ap-

proaching rescue helicopter.

284 FULL SHOT - THE COPTER

It frantically pours on the power and wheels up to the

sky.

285 FULL SHOT - WILLARD, COLBY

WILLARD:

Yeah.

Colby takes his rifle and joins Willard in FIRING at

the retreating American helicopters.

286 HELICOPTER'S POV - ON THE BOAT

The men in the boat FIRING AT US as we fly further into

the air, the boat getting smaller and smaller.

WILLARD (V.O.)

... Don't remember a lot about my

rehabilitation... but I was sent

back to the world before the fall

of Saigon...

287 EXT. MARINA DEL RAY - EXTREME HIGH ANGLE - NIGHT

MOVING DOWN back to the pleasure boat at the Marina.

Pause. Willard is very silent.

WILLARD:

I never answered questions about

Kurtz -- I gave them a few of his

unimportant papers -- but for the

most part I saved everything.

There were other letters, personal

ones written earlier to his wife.

I brought them to het. I watched

the fall of Saigon on television

in a bar in Alameda...

289 EXT. CALIFORNIA NEIGHBORHOOD - DAY

A bright clear day in a scrubbed-clean California neigh-

borhood. Some kids are playing in the street.

Willard, years later, dressed as a civilian, proceeds past

the lawn to the attractive home, carrying a packet under

his arm. He passes a lanky, young teen-aged boy working

on a motor-scooter. Willard looks at him. The boy

looks back.

WILLARD:

Hi.

Then the door opens, and KURTZ'S WIFE is standing at the

door. She is still beautiful, blonde, and dressed in

mourning even though she doesn't wear black. There is a

sense of purity about her, though she is not young.

KURTZ'S WIFE

Come in, Captain Willard.

He enters.

289 INT. KURTZ'S HOME - DAY

Everything good and secure and desirable about America.

She stands in the center of the room, a little nervous.

KURTZ'S WIFE

Can I get anything for you?

There are pictures of Kurtz, not too many... but he is

there in the various stages of his career.

Then she sits suddenly, and Willard sits by her.

KURTZ'S WIFE

(continuing)

Did you know him very well?

WILLARD:

You get to know each other pretty

well out there.

KURTZ'S WIFE

And you admired him?

WILLARD:

He was a remarkable man. It was

impossible not to --

KURTZ'S WIFE

Love him... Yes, it is true.

That's the hard part for me... I

knew him better than anyone ... I

knew him best.

WILLARD:

You knew him best.

KURTZ'S WIFE

You were his friend... You must

have been, if he had given you

this...

(the packet)

If he sent you to his home. He

was the best this country had --

he was --

WILLARD:

Yes, I know...

KURTZ'S WIFE

I'll never get over it -- But

I'll always remember him...

WILLARD:

Both of us...

KURTZ'S WIFE

Men looked up to him...

(she loses herself

in a thought)

He died as he lived...

WILLARD:

His death was -- yes, he died as

he lived.

KURTZ'S WIFE

Were you with him, when...

WILLARD:

Yes I was... He said his last

words to me.

Pause.

290 MED. CLOSE SHOT ON WILLARD

A little of the madness is still with him. He knows what

she will ask.

KURTZ'S WIFE

What were they?

291 MED. CLOSE SHOT ON KURTZ'S WIFE

KURTZ'S WIFE

Tell me.

292 MED. CLOSE ON WILLARD

remembering that incredible day moving down the river.

Our VIEW LOOSENS

KURTZ'S WIFE

Tell me what he said.

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