Backdraft Page #4

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Don't stand and laugh. Get me up!

Yeah. Oop. Photographer.

- Think I can get on the cover of "Life"?

- Let's go.

- Is Axe a great guy?

- Huh?

He doesn't know sh*t about what I want.

[Stephen] I've got news for everybody. I'm not my old man.

A fire won't get me. I know more than he did.

I know more about fire than all of 'em.

Time for bed, Sugar Ray.

Let me get those for you.

Get outta my way. I can get my shoes off.

You're such a pain in the ass.

You always were.

What are you talkin' about? I saved your ass tonight.

Why don't they trust me anymore, huh, Brian?

Really, the guys just don't trust me anymore.

Hey, this boat could be great, don't you think?

Maybe I'll just...

just take it out on weekends.

Sean and me.

We could just float.

# ["The Show Goes On" performed by Bruce Hornsby]

[Stephen] Get it on your shoulder, Probie. It's not a football.

#What's the long face#

#What's all the cryin' for#

#Didn't you expect it#

#When you opened your door#

#Did the man with the long coat#

#With a long list of victims#

#And everybody watching knows#

#He's the one keeping the score#

#From where she sits everyone stands in judgment#

#And people watching as the curtain falls down#

#See the lights do a long slow fade#

#The show goes on#

#And the sad-eyed sisters go walkin' on#

#Everyone watchin' all along#

#The show goes on#

#As the earth turns and the summer's all gone#

#Still without you the show goes on#

You're not breaking any records, Brian.

Goddamn it! Get it on your shoulder!

All right, Stephen. Come on, Stephen!

Come on, Brian. Kick that old man's ass!

Run, damn you!

I'm comin'. I'm comin'!

Aw, sh*t!

Are you okay?

Yeah.

Run, damn you!

Oh, sh*t. Okay, roll the hose.

Are you kidding me?

- Roll that hose by myself?

- You heard me.

- What about Tim?

- Aw, sh*t. What about Tim?

For Christ's sake. Next time I'll let you win.

You got a problem with drilling, Probie?

- Is that it?

- No! I don't have a problem,

but let's just have one drill, Lieutenant,

- not one for the company and one for me.

- Roll the hose now!

I'm not gonna quit, Stephen. You hear me?

I'm not gonna quit.

My baby! My baby is still up there!

- Please, somebody!

- Where's your baby at?

How many men you got in there?

My baby is still up there. Please help me!

Hold on, Steve. Don't go up there.

- Wait for the hose line.

- Brian!

Hey, don't take that kind of sh*t from it!

Don't let it know you're scared!

- Stephen, we gotta wait for a hose team.

- No time.

Come on!

[Creaking]

- You ready?

- We gotta wait for a hose team.

Jump when I say. It won't get us.

Now! Hold your breath!

[Crying]

Stephen!

- Steve, Steve.

- All right.

- You kicked ass, Bull.

- Way to go, Bull.

Thanks.

Man, that was pretty crazy, huh?

I waited. I would've waited.

- Come on. Don't worry about it.

- You did it, man.

You did it all the way. You were really a hero.

Brian... it's not about being a hero.

I went in because there was a kid up there.

I do what I do because that's my way. And it was Dad's way.

- Maybe it's not everybody's way.

- Dad's way?

He tell you that in a f***ing seance, huh?

You said you needed to know something.

What did you learn today, huh?

What if there had been another kid up there?

Oh, I don't know.

What do you think, Brian?

Time to move on?

You're right.

You win, Stephen. You're the best.

Hey, Brian?

Brian.

Hi.

Listen, Jen, I--

I've been thinking about what you said.

If the offer's still on the table, I'd like to talk about it.

Well, great!

That's great, really great news.

The alderman'll be thrilled that you're working with us.

Marty's a good man, Brian.

Yeah.

[Rimgale] So stop me if I got this wrong.

The fire's almost out, you're upstairs on the unburned floor...

- checkin' for heat. Correct?

- Yes, sir.

- Messages for you.

- Thank you.

You've been told by your battalion chief, your captain...

and by me not to do nothin', right?

- Do nothin' until ordered, correct?

- Yes, sir.

Now the itch starts. The glory boy flash starts.

"I'm a hero. Heroes don't stand around."

- You can tell me. That's what it was?

- Yes, sir.

So you punched out a window for ventilation.

Was that before or after you noticed you were standing in a lake of gasoline?

Was that before or after you noticed...

you were standing in a lake of gasoline, you idiot?

Before, sir.

You could have burned, killed, or crispered half that company.

You wrecked the physical evidence that I use to prove that it's arson.

You know how goddamn hard it is to determine the cause.

Now go home and you think about that.

- I'll have to call him back.

- Excuse me.

- Yeah?

- Brian McCaffrey, your new assistant.

Oh, Dennis' kid. Why don't you go find a corner to hide in?

I'll get to you later. I don't wanna deal with you now.

Great.

You still standing there?

I think we should get something straight here now.

I was assigned to this office by the city.

- You better get used to me.

- I know who you were assigned by.

I knew your father too. He was a hell of a fireman.

He had a hell of a reputation.

But it don't cut slack here as far as I'm concerned.

Swayzak sends you here, fine. I gotta eat you. Those are rules.

I got nothin' to say about that.

Swayzak or no, you work for me now.

Step outta line, make one false move, you're outta here.

Don't think you're the first.

- Let's go.

- Where we goin'?

Pest control.

#Shadow, shadow#

Hi, Shadow.

Hi, Ronald. How ya doin'? Stayin' comfortable?

- I didn't think you would make it.

- I wouldn't miss this.

- Who's that?

- He works for me.

Is he a fireman? I like firemen.

You like everybody, Ronald.

Brian McCaffrey. Yeah, sure. No, that's Stephen.

He's the little one with the hat.

Oh, what a treat!

- Hey, do I know you?

- Your dad did.

- Who the hell is this guy?

- Nah, put it away.

Come on, Shadow. He lost his dad to the animal and...

you didn't even tell him who he was coming to see? Tell him.

Let me tell you about Ronald. Ronald likes telephones.

Likes to tape wooden matches to the bell strikers...

and then wrap it in cotton with gasoline.

Had a whole little thing goin', huh? And when you got bored?

What'd you do?

- He started makin' calls.

- Never proved.

Tell him about us down on State Street.

Nah. Nobody cares about that one.

It was your basic warehouse torch I was doin' for the owner.

I mean, they were a cakewalk. I just--

I just lost my concentration and my animal turned on me.

Got the whole place going like hell.

My hair was on fire, my hands,

everything. I was dead.

Then suddenly I was alive. I was pulled out of there...

by my hero, my Shadow here.

Except, he didn't see this big tub of phosphorous, did you?

Explosion lit him up so bright, left his shadow on the wall.

Still shy about rolling up your sleeves, Shadow?

Show him your stomach.

The funny thing about firemen,

night and day, they're always firemen.

[Guard] Ronald Bartel.

All right, the parole board has received...

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