Apocalypse Now Redux Page #2

The two of them move over to Willard and pick him up.

SERGEANT:

Come on Captain, Let's go take a

shower.

WILLARD:

Don't be an ass.

SERGEANT:

(to private)

Get hold of him good. We're going

to take a shower, Captain.

They drag him into the shower, and turn on the cold water.

SERGEANT:

Stand under this, Captain.

Willard shudders and yells as they begin to clean him up.

EXT. MILITARY COMPOUND - DAY

A darkly painted Huey lands in a guarded military compound

somewhere in Nah Trang. The two enlisted men jump out of

the helicopter, leading Willard, who seems in much better

shape. As he gets out he sees a platoon of new men drilling

in the hot hazy sun. They are clean and pale.

MEN (Chanting)

I wanna go to Vietnam.

I wanna kill a Vietcong-

WILLARD (V.O.)

I was going to the worst place in

the world, and I didn't even know

it yet. Weeks away and hundreds

of miles up river that snaked

through the war like a circuit

cable...plugged straight into Kurtz.

He follows the escort across the fields as the platoon

drills.

WILLARD (V.O.)

It was no accident that I got to

be the caretaker of Colonel Walter

E. Kurtz's memory, any more that

being back in Saigon was an

accident. There was no way to

tell his story without telling my

own. And if his story is really a

confession, then so is mine.

They approach a civilian-type luxury trailer. It is

surrounded by concertina wire, and its windows have grenade

protection, but it still seems out of place in this austere

military base.

CLOSER ON WILLARD

He stands before the door for a moment, as the M.P.s

guarding the trailer check his papers.

INT. TRAILER - DAY

Cool and comfortable, furnished like home. Pictures on

the walls, certificates, photos of Presidents Kennedy,

Johnson and Nixon and other mementos decorating the room.

A small table is covered with linen and place settings for

three.

Willard enters. He salutes, and the COLONEL salutes him

back.

COLONEL:

(to Willard)

Captain. Good. Come on in.

WILLARD:

Thank you, sir.

COLONEL:

Stand at ease.

Willard notices somebody O.S. and reacts.

WILLARD:

General.

The General crosses over to a cabinet and picks up a pack

of cigarettes, as the CAMERA REVEALS a CIVILIAN; probably

with the Department of Defense, sitting at the bar, and a

GENERAL sitting on a sofa.

The colonel turns and offers Willard a cigarette from the

pack.

COLONEL:

(to Willard)

Do you want a cigarette?

WILLARD:

No thank you, sir.

COLONEL:

(indicating civilian)

Captain, have you ever seen this

gentleman before?

WILLARD:

No, sir. Not personally.

COLONEL:

You've worked a lot on your own,

haven't you, Captain?

WILLARD:

Yes, sir, I have.

COLONEL:

Your report specifies intelligence,

counter-intelligence with Com-Sec,

I Corps.

WILLARD:

I'm not presently disposed to

discuss those operations, sir.

There is a pause as the colonel lights his cigarette, then

moves to the sofa. He bends down and picks up a dossier,

looks at it.

COLONEL:

Did you not work for the CIA in I

Corps?

WILLARD:

(pause)

No, sir.

COLONEL:

Did you not assassinate a government

tax collector...Quang Tri province

June 18, 1968?

Willard doesn't answer.

COLONEL:

Captain?

WILLARD:

Sir, I am unaware of any such

activity or operation, nor would I

be disposed to discuss an operation,

if it did in fact exist, sir.

A pause. Willard is tired and confused and hung over, but

he is handling himself well. The general rises.

GENERAL:

I thought we'd have a bit of lunch

while we talked. I hope you brought

a good appetite, Captain.

Willard gets up and moves towards the dining table with

the general and the civilian. They sit down.

GENERAL:

I noticed that you have a bad hand

there. Are you wounded?

WILLARD:

Had a little fishing accident on R

and R, sir.

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