Apocalypse Now Redux Page #36

CHIEF:

You got us in this mess, and now

you can't get us out, because you

don't know where the hell you're

going, do you?

(no answer)

Do you? You son of a b*tch! You

bastard!

The Chief leaves the wheel of the PBR and steps up on the

deck with his M16.

WILLARD:

(to Lance)

Lance, get the wheel!

Lance moves to take over the wheel, as Chief starts firing

his M16 madly.

CHIEF:

You savages! Come and get it, you

son of a b*tches!

He drops the M16, moves to the M60 machine gun and starts

firing madly again.

Suddenly the Chief stops short, puzzled, a small droplet

of blood lines his mouth. He coughs up a mouthful of blood,

then looks down. The head of a SPEAR has gone through his

chest. He looks up at Willard.

CHIEF:

A spear?

He remains looking directly into Willard's eyes, then starts

to fall. Willard catches him, and is pulled down to the

deck by the weight of the Chief's body. The Chief looks

up at him and suddenly reaches his hands for Willard's

throat, trying to pull Willard down on top of the spearhead,

trying to skewer him, and pull him along with him to death.

A beat as they struggle, then suddenly the Chief DIES.

EXT. RIVER - THE PBR - DAY

Lance is putting camouflage paint on the Chief.

Willard has jumped off the boat with all of his gear.

Chef looks down at him.

WILLARD:

My mission is to make it up to

Cambodia. There's a Green Beret

colonel up there who's gone insane,

and I'm supposed to kill him.

CHEF:

That's f***ing typical! Sh*t!

F***ing Vietnam mission! I'm short

and we gotta go up there so you

can kill one of our own guys?

That's f***ing great! That's just

f***ing great, man! Sh*t! That's

f***ing crazy! I thought you were

going to blow up a bridge, or some

f***ing railroad tracks, or

something!

Lance has pulled the Chief's body into the river, and jumped

in himself. Willard and Chef watches him, as he tries to

bury Chief's body in the water.

Willard turns to leave.

WILLARD:

That's all right.

CHEF:

No, wait. We'll go together. On

the boat. We'll go with you.

We'll go out there. But on the

boat, okay?

Lance gently floats Chief off downstream. We SEE the

Chief's body slowly disappear.

EXT. RIVER - PBR - NIGHT

The PBR moves up-river. The shore is lit up with burning

torches and a large wooden structure in flames. We SEE

the faces of the remaining crew, as they take in this sight.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. RIVER - THE PBR - DAY

The boat passes rows of skulls, flaming torches, men impaled

on poles, etc.

WILLARD (V.O.)

Part of me was afraid of what I

would find, and what I would do

when I got there. I knew the risks.

Or imagined I knew. But the thing

I felt the most, much stringer

than fear, was the desire to

confront him.

Lance is at the back of the boat, moving in a slow-motion

Tai Chi.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. RIVER - PBR - DAY

The PBR is slowly moving TOWARD CAMERA. Lance and Willard

are standing on the bow of the boat. Chef is at the helm.

The men stare forward in amazement. Willard has the

binoculars around his neck. He brings them up to his eyes

and looks.

WILLARD:

(to Chef)

Just keep moving.

(to Lance)

Lance, keep your hands away from

the guns.

OUR VIEW MOVES slowly behind them and we SEE that they

see.

Hundreds of Montagnard natives, body and faces painted

white, of the most savage nature, but there is a purity

about them. Men and boys stand passively on canoes side

by side, blocking the river.

There are also hundreds of other NATIVES lining the shore

on both sides, dressed in most ornate and primitive manner,

in feathers, parts of birds and animals. Fires and dead

bodies are everywhere.

OUR VIEW MOVES:

Behind the PBR, closer and closer to this fantastic human

wall blocking them. The natives accept the PBR, allowing

it to pass into them with a sort of inevitability.

VIEW ON WILLARD, LANCE AND CHEF

Reacting as they pass through the natives on canoes, then

look up toward the bask.

WHAT THEY SEE:

The temple. A magnificent fortified encampment built around

the ruins of a former Cambodian civilization.

NEW ANGLE - FULL VIEW BEHIND THE PBR AS IT PROCEEDS

The scale of this thing is enormous. Great enigmatic

Cambodian faces carved out of stone from thousands of years

ago. The fortress reaches out across the river where part

of its ruins still stand on the opposite side nod on a

small island. It's as though the river flowed into the

great rams of the sphinx-like temple. Aligning the

fortifications are concertina wire, automatic weapons

emplacements. There is even wreckage of Hueys as armed

machine gun nests. It is a strange combination of the

very modern and the very primitive. In this installation,

WE SEE LIVING families, fires, nomadic dwellings, several

HUNDRED of the most primitive MOTAGNARDS that ever existed.

Some carry spears, occasionally other emerge from the

jungle, scurrying around with the activity that the arrival

of a stranger brings. The air is heavy with the weight of

hundreds of AUTOMATIC WEAPONS. A think greasy smoke hangs

from fires that burn and around the fort. Fresh shell

craters indicate a recent battle. Near the dock, and

everywhere else, there are tangled piles of corpses, half-

submerged in the water, piles of bodies of the dead.

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