Big Fish

FADE IN:

A RIVER.

We’re underwater, watching a fat catfish swim along.

This is The Beast.

EDWARD (V.O.)

There are some fish that cannot be

caught. It’s not that they’re fasteror stronger than other fish. They’rejust touched by something extra. Call

it luck. Call it grace. One such fish

was The Beast.

The Beast’s journey takes it past a dangling fish hook,

baited with worms. Past a tempting lure, sparkling in the

sun. Past a swiping bear claw. The Beast isn’t worried.

EDWARD (V.O.)(cont’d)

By the time I was born, he was alreadya legend. He’d taken more hundred-

dollar lures than any fish in Alabama.

Some said that fish was the ghost ofHenry Walls, a thief who’d drowned inthat river 60 years before. Others

claimed he was a lesser dinosaur, leftover from the Cretaceous period.

INT. WILL’S BEDROOM - NIGHT (1973)

WILL BLOOM, AGE 3, listens wide-eyed as his father EDWARDBLOOM, 40’s and handsome, tells the story. In every gesture,

Edward is bigger than life, describing each detail withabsolute conviction.

EDWARD:

I didn't put any stock into suchspeculation or superstition. All I

knew was I’d been trying to catch thatfish since I was a boy no bigger than

you.

(closer)

And on the day you were born, that wasthe day I finally caught him.

EXT. CAMPFIRE - NIGHT (1977)

A few years later, and Will sits with the other INDIAN GUIDESas Edward continues telling the story to the tribe.

2.

EDWARD:

Now, I’d tried everything on it:

worms, lures, peanut butter, peanutbutter-and-cheese. But on that day Ihad a revelation: if that fish was the

ghost of a thief, the usual bait wasn’tgoing to work. I would have to use

something he truly desired.

Edward points to his wedding band, glinting in the firelight.

LITTLE BRAVE:

(confused)

Your finger?

Edward slips his ring off.

EDWARD:

Gold.

While the other boys are rapt with attention, Will looksbored. He’s heard this story before.

EDWARD:

I tied my ring to the strongest linethey made -- strong enough to hold up abridge, they said, if just for a fewminutes -- and I cast upriver.

INT. BLOOM FRONT HALL - NIGHT (1987)

Edward is chatting up Will’s pretty DATE to the homecomingdance. She is enjoying the story, but also the force ofEdward’s charisma. He’s hypnotizing.

EDWARD (cont’d)

The Beast jumped up and grabbed itbefore the ring even hit the water.

And just as fast, he snapped cleanthrough that line.

WILL, now 17 with braces, is fuming and ready to leave. His

mother SANDRA -- from whom he gets his good looks andpracticality -- stands with him at the door.

EDWARD:

You can see my predicament. My weddingring, the symbol of fidelity to mywife, soon to be the mother of mychild, was now lost in the gut of anuncatchable fish.

3.

ON WILL AND SANDRA

WILL:

(low but insistent)

Make him stop.

His mother pats him sympathetically, then adjusts his tie.

WILL’S DATE

What did you do?

EDWARD:

I followed that fish up-river and downriver

for three days and three nights,

until I finally had him boxed in.

Will regards his father with exasperated contempt.

EDWARD:

With these two hands, I reached in andsnatched that fish out of the river. I

looked him straight in the eye. And I

made a remarkable discovery.

INT. TINY PARIS RESTAURANT (LA RUE 14°) - NIGHT (1998)

WILL, now 28, sits with his gorgeous bride JOSEPHINE. This

is their wedding reception, crowded with their friends andfamily. They should be joyful, but Will is furious.

Edward has the floor, ostensibly for a toast. The room is

cozy and drunk.

EDWARD:

This fish, the Beast. The whole time

we were calling it a him, when in factit was a her. It was fat with eggs,

and was going to lay them any day.

Over near the doorway, we spot Sandra, just returned from therestrooms. She looks gorgeous. She couldn’t be any happierif this were her own wedding.

EDWARD:

Now, I was in a situation. I could gutthat fish and get my ring back, butdoing so I would be killing thesmartest catfish in the Ashton River,

soon to be mother of a hundred others.

Will can’t take any more. Josephine tries to hold him back,

but he gets up and leaves. Edward doesn’t even notice.

4.

EDWARD (cont’d)

Did I want to deprive my soon-to-beborn

son the chance to catch a fish

like this of his own? This lady fishand I, well, we had the same destiny.

As he leaves, Will mutters in perfect unison with his father-

EDWARD AND WILL:

We were part of the same equation.

Will reaches the door, where his mother intercepts him.

SANDRA:

Honey, it’s still your night.

Will can’t articulate his anger. He just leaves.

EDWARD:

Now, you may well ask, since this ladyfish wasn’t the ghost of a thief, whydid it strike so quick on gold whennothing else would attract it?

(closer; he holds up his ring)

That was the lesson I learned that day,

the day my son was born.

He focuses his words on Sandra. This story is -- and hasalways been -- about her more than anyone.

EDWARD:

Sometimes, the only way to catch anuncatchable woman is to offer her a

wedding ring.

A LAUGH from the crowd.

Edward motions for Sandra to get up here with him. As she

crosses, we can see that thirty years of marriage has notlessened their affection for each other.

As they kiss, Edward tweaks her chin a special little way.

The crowd APPLAUDS.

Edward toasts the happy couple. Josephine covers well forher absent husband, a smile as warm as summer.

Edward downs his champagne in a gulp.

EXT. OUTSIDE LA RUE 14° - NIGHT

We come into the middle of an argument on the sidewalk.

Occasional PASSERSBY take notice, especially as it gets moreheated. Both men are a little drunk.

5.

EDWARD:

What, a father’s not allowed to talkabout his son?

WILL:

(disbelieving)

I am a footnote in that story. I am

the context for your great adventure.

Which never happened! Incidentally!

You were selling novelty products inWichita the day I was born.

EDWARD:

(shaking his head)

Jesus Christ.

WILL:

Friend of yours? Did you help him outof a bind?

EDWARD:

Come on, Will. Everyone likes thatstory.

WILL:

No Dad, they don’t. I do not like the

story. Not anymore, not after athousand times. I know all the

punchlines, Dad. I can tell them as

well as you can.

(closer)

For one night, one night in your entirelife, the universe does not revolvearound Edward Bloom. It revolves

around me and my wife. How can you notunderstand that?

A long beat, then...

EDWARD:

(low)

Sorry to embarrass you.

Will won’t let him get the last word.

WILL:

You’re embarrassing yourself, Dad. You

just don’t see it.

ANGLE ON Edward. Fine. A hand to wave, enough of you.

He walks away.

6.

ANGLE ON Will, still fuming with righteous anger. It’s then

we FREEZE FRAME.

WILL (V.O.)(cont’d)

After that night, I didn’t speak to myfather again for three years.

INT. A.P. NEWSROOM (PARIS) - DAY

A typically busy day. On hold with the phone cradled underan ear, Will sorts through a bundle of mail dropped on hisdesk.

WILL (ON PHONE)

(without pauses)

William Bloom with the Associated Press

if I could just...

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