Bird Box Page #10

The abandoned cart is filled with canned goods. Toilet paper.

Freeze-dried foods. A lot like his cart.

Felix reaches over and touches one of the thawed packages...

and his fingers are wet.

FELIX:

Guys?

(louder)

Hey, is someone here?

A POUNDING on a door stops him short.

FELIX (CONT’D)

(tense)

Guys!

INT. SUPER TARGET - DAY

Four loaded shopping carts converge at the back by the deli.

Tom, Malorie, and Lucy get to Felix.

FELIX:

I think someone’s inside.

TOM:

Inside where?

More POUNDING. Nearby. Felix points-

58.

Tom shines his light past a cleared-out butcher’s counter.

The walk-in freezer door. Its HANDLE VIBRATES as something

pounds from inside.

Tom moves around the counter for the door.

MALORIE:

What are you doing?

Tom steps to the metal door. It rattles in its hinges.

WEAK VOICE (O.S.)

Let me out...

TOM:

Hello?

The voice speaks again but it’s too muffled. Tom leans in

closer. Puts a hand on the door.

TOM (CONT’D)

Who’s in there?

WEAK VOICE (O.S.)

Open the door open the door hurry

please hurry just open it...

Tom puts a hand on the handle.

FELIX:

Are you nuts?

TOM:

He’s trapped inside.

LUCY:

So? Leave him there.

TOM:

I don’t know how to do that.

He grips the handle.

Lucy and Felix join him. Malorie stays by the carts.

FELIX:

Just a crack. So you can talk.

TOM:

All right.

The POUNDING resumes. Tom slides the lock back and turns the

handle... He opens the metal door an inch...

59.

And he leans his face to the edge but doesn’t look inside-TOM

(CONT’D)

How’d you get locked in?

Bloody fingers grip the door. Someone wheezes.

WEAK VOICE (O.S.)

They did it, they tricked me, they

told me to do it then they left me

to rot like raw meat-By

Malorie, the budgies all start CHIRPING madly.

MALORIE:

Uh, Tom? Something-TOM

(to Man)

Calm down, tricked you?

WEAK VOICE (O.S.)

Just open the door and let it out,

let it loose let it see you see it-The

budgies flap their wings in a maelstrom of panic-Something

heavy presses on the metal door-And

then, the briefest glimpse of long FINGERS or TALONS at

an upper edge of the frame--what is that?-

Lucy, Felix, and Tom all lean against the door to keep it

from opening further but-THEIR

SHOES slide on the floor an inch-

WEAK VOICE (O.S.) (CONT’D)

It wants out IT WANTS OUT--

Malorie rushes in, using a cart as a battering ram-

It SLAMS on the man’s hand and he HOWLS-The

door then shuts all the way-Tom

slides the bolt locked again-

And everyone steps back. The budgies calm down again.

INT. SUPER TARGET - MOMENTS LATER

The four form a train with their carts and hurry down an

aisle back for the entrance.

60.

The front cart suddenly gets caught on something and stops

the forward momentum.

Malorie moves around to push it out of the way and then gasps

and steps back when she sees it:

A dead man. Recently dead. Gripping a box cutter that’s

stabbed into his own throat, wet blood around him.

It’s JASON. The disbeliever who left their house on day one.

Tom urges them, pressing on:

TOM:

Keep moving.

INT. HOUSE - DAY

Cheryl dusts with a dry cloth in the living room, listening

to Sinatra on the radio. Olympia watches her. Donald applies

duct tape to the curtains in the living room.

They’re all full of nervous energy.

DONALD:

Give him time. He’s got twenty-four

hours of footage to watch.

CHERYL:

Maybe they don’t get close enough

to the house for the security

cameras. You know?

Thump. Thump thump. They all stop and look up at the ceiling.

OLYMPIA:

Is that...?

DONALD:

Oh no. Greg...

More THUMPING overhead now. And then a sound. From Greg’s

vocal cords, but not quite a scream. Something else.

And it rises in pitch. Then it becomes clearer that Greg is

shrieking a word over and over: Donald’s name.

INT. UPSTAIRS HALL - MOMENTS LATER

The THUMPING is shockingly loud now. Accompanied by crashing

and breaking, as framed photos in the room topple off walls.

61.

Donald reaches the door and puts his hand on the knob, ready

to rush inside, but he stops. Steps back.

Greg has stopped HOWLING by the time Cheryl and Olympia catch

up. Olympia doesn’t reach the top steps, reluctant to get

close. Cheryl starts to panic:

CHERYL:

What are you waiting for?

DONALD:

The TV faces the door.

A final, sickening CRUNCH ends the THUMPING. Cheryl now takes

a step back as Donald grabs the doorknob again.

DONALD (CONT’D)

Greg? Greg just listen to me.

Everything’s gonna be fine. Just

take some deep breaths, okay?

No response.

BY DONALD’S SHOES, blood seeps into the hall from under the

door frame.

Donald takes a breath and squeezes his eyes shut.

He opens the door.

INT. UPSTAIRS BEDROOM

Arms outstretched, eyes closed, Donald enters the room.

The first thing to note is that the overhead lights are off.

With the sealed windows, the room is dark save for the wan,

flickering light from the TV, casting everything in blue.

DONALD:

Greg? Say something.

Donald takes a step and nearly slips on the blood-slicked

floor. But he gets his balance and keeps his eyes shut.

Donald’s foot brushes a chair leg. He steps over it...

Past more pieces of the demolished chair.

And then, in the glow of the TV: a severed finger by the

remains of the chair.

But no Greg.

Donald gropes for the TV. It buzzes softly with power.

62.

As he searches blindly for the cord, the screen becomes

partially visible, at an oblique angle.

The security footage has been paused, an image frozen in

time. The thermographic video flickers and wobbles...

But a SHAPE in shadow is nearly exposed on one side.

Just when we’re about to get a clearer view of it-- POP.

Donald shuts the TV off.

DONALD (CONT’D)

Okay, it’s off!

(opens his eyes)

Where...

Cheryl leans in, reaches to the light switch and flips it-

And then SCREAMS in shock at what she sees:

Greg’s broken, mutilated body. Hanging from the canopy bed

like a giant insect caught in a spiderweb, his broken legs

and arms twisted at inhuman angles, the rope caught on the

bedposts, gouging into his bloodied neck, suspending him.

Blood trickles onto the framed photo of his wife. And then, a

distant mechanical sound. The garage door.

INT. GARAGE - MOMENTS LATER

The garage door lowers behind the Cadillac as it pulls in.

The door reaches the ground... and then Tom and the others

climb out of the beat-up car.

Malorie takes the bird cage out on her side and makes eye

contact with Tom on the driver’s side.

She notices his attention to the car.

MALORIE:

What is it?

Tom feels the hood and roof. Traces the indentations.

TOM:

It has feet. And it’s heavy.

(to others)

Two things we didn’t know before.

Cheryl enters, pale and trembling.

63.

CHERYL:

Something happened to Greg.

Tom frowns and leaves. Lucy and Cheryl follow.

A can of yellow corn rolls to Malorie’s foot. She picks it up

and stares at it.

EXT. RIVER - DAY

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote