Bird Box Page #5

25.

GIRL:

Eighty-six, forty-four, thirty.

MALORIE:

Boy. Landmarks.

BOY:

Statue. Bridge. Car. Stone.

MALORIE:

Good. Now quiet. Listen.

GIRL:

(beat, sotto)

What’s a car?

Malorie realizes: They don’t know.

The children have never seen one.

Before she can explain-

BOY:

I hear something.

Girl straightens up.

Her ear perks along her scalp.

Malorie reaches out to the shoebox.

Inside:
The flutter of tiny wings.

But otherwise silent.

MALORIE:

(sotto)

Is it...

BOY:

I don’t know.

GIRL:

I hear it, too.

And now Malorie does. A faint but rhythmic CLAPPING.

MALORIE:

Can you tell where it’s from?

Neither child answers for a moment. Then:

BOY:

It’s getting closer.

Malorie dips the oar back into the water-

26.

It yanks in her hand, nearly slipping.

The current is fast.

And now we see what’s making the noise.

A sunken BOAT, its deck still partly surfaced. Part of a

human skeleton dangles from a cabin door. This vessel is too

big to navigate these shallow waters, and now it’s debris.

Malorie’s boat is on a collision course.

And none of them sees it coming.

Their blindness makes them eerily unguarded as-The

rowboat SMASHES into the shipwreck-Lurching

everyone and everything inside--

Malorie ballasts herself with the oar but-A

backpack tips overboard and then-BOY

falls off the back-BOY

(CONT’D)

Malorie!

She felt it coming and snake-swift GRABS his leg through some

maternal instinct-

But hanging onto him starts to tip the boat over-MALORIE

Boy!

And Boy flails and splashes-And

Malorie lies flat and drops her oar but refuses to let go

of the Boy’s jacket-The

boat hits a shallow point, slowing abruptly-Boy

manages to get his hands on the boat again, coughing up

water, his breath pluming in the cold air-

Girl is quietly having a nervous breakdown, her hands on the

blindfold, ready to pull it off--

Malorie gets both hands around Boy-

Hefts him back into the boat, soaking wet, crying, bleeding-BOY

Malorie Malorie Malorie-

27.

MALORIE:

Shh shh, I got you.

BOY:

I’m cold.

MALORIE:

Girl:
a dry blanket.

Girl still considers taking off her blindfold.

Breathing quickly.

MALORIE (CONT’D)

Blanket.

Girl reaches around in the boat.

GIRL:

I can’t find the pack. Just the

food bag.

Malorie searches, too. Realizes it’s gone.

MALORIE:

Okay.

She pulls a thin, folded blanket from under her, what she’d

been using as a cushion, and drapes it over herself and Boy,

creating a little cocoon in the boat. The blanket is soaked

from the collision. It’s useless to dry the Boy.

With the blanket fully covering both the boy and her in a

makeshift fort, Malorie pulls off her blindfold.

Boy is shivering uncontrollably. Hypothermia.

His forehead is bruised.

BOY:

What do I do?

Boy tugs at his blindfold.

Peers up at Malorie with one teary eye.

MALORIE:

You need to dry off and warm up.

BOY:

B-blankets?

MALORIE:

We lost the rest, and this is too

wet. So I’m going to get some more

and bring them back. Okay?

28.

Boy nods.

MALORIE (CONT’D)

Cover up. Fort goes away.

He adjusts his blindfold.

Malorie dons her blindfold, too.

She lifts the blanket off and slaps it to the boat’s floor.

GIRL:

Are we going back? What are we

doing, are we going home?

MALORIE:

(quietly)

Shh. Listen. I have to get some

blankets. Should be in a house

nearby. I won’t be long.

GIRL:

You’re leaving us?

MALORIE:

Sit back-to-back. Listen closely.

The bird stays with you.

Malorie shoves the row boat with her one remaining oar until

it wedges against the shore.

She then takes the soaked blanket.

And very gingerly steps out of the boat.

Boy’s teeth rattle and he makes a noise when he exhales.

MALORIE (CONT’D)

Shh.

Boy screws up his face, mustering courage.

Two steps into the woods, Malorie stops.

Reaches out. Finds a branch.

On her belt:
a reel of fishing wire.

Weighted at the end with a sinker.

Malorie loops the end around the base of the branch.

Tugs at it. It’s solid.

She ventures into the trees.

The fishing wire unspools as she goes.

Pointing her back to the boat.

29.

The reel makes a sound; soft clicking.

Girl and Boy listen to it recede.

EXT. WOODS - DAY

Malorie moves with one arm out in front of her face and

another panning left and right.

She walks quickly, even blind.

She finds a tree, then navigates around it.

The reel clicks softly at her belt.

A rustling sound.

Malorie freezes. Holds her breath.

Then the sound of flapping wings, overhead. Birds.

Malorie breathes again. Visibly relieved.

She marches on.

Distantly:
tiny bell-song from a wind chime.

That suggests a back porch. A house.

Another half dozen steps puts her into a clearing.

Her foot nudges something.

She crouches down. Feels.

Stands up clutching a metal rod.

Her hands work their way up the metal-- it’s long.

She finds the end: A net.

This is a pool cleaner.

Malorie holds one end and reaches out to thump the ground

ahead of her, in an arc.

Soft thump... Soft thump... Concrete.

Malorie advances in that direction.

Ahead of her:
A dilapidated two-story HOUSE.

With a backyard pool, now scummy with algae.

The cleaner dips into the green water. Splashes.

Malorie course corrects to walk around it.

EXT. ROWBOAT - DAY

Boy is trembling so much, it agitates the budgie in the

shoebox. Its wings flutter under the lid.

30.

GIRL:

Hush.

BOY:

Please. Talk to me.

GIRL:

About what?

BOY:

Tell me something she would say.

GIRL:

Don’t click your teeth.

BOY:

What if she doesn’t come back?

GIRL:

She always comes back.

But Girl’s voice cracks when she speaks.

BOY:

(quietly)

What if she doesn’t?

INT. ABANDONED HOUSE - DAY

Sunlight pours in from bay windows, illuminating dust in the

stale air inside.

The back door vibrates with a loud thump. Again.

And then it’s forcibly kicked in by Malorie.

She steps inside. Tense.

All is quiet. It’s a five-bedroom mausoleum.

Malorie finds a chair. And a table.

It’s a breakfast table.

Nearby:
A counter. The kitchen.

She takes a step deeper into the house-

And the fishing wire goes taut. End of the line.

Malorie curses to herself.

MOMENTS LATER:

Malorie ties the reel to a table leg.

31.

She unfurls the wet blanket, drapes it over herself.

Under the sopping covers, she removes her blindfold.

HER POV:

A very narrow world. Blanket, her feet, and some of the tile

floor around her.

Just enough to navigate by.

WIDER ANGLE:

With the sunlight on her back, Malorie delves into the house.

EXT. ROWBOAT - DAY

Boy’s sounds of agony are getting louder.

Girl rocks back and forth, hugging herself.

From the woods:
Branches break.

Boy instantly goes quiet.

Girl grabs the oar.

Both sit up like rabbits, listening for a predator.

More branches crack.

The sound bounces around the forest.

No way to tell if it’s near or far.

BOY:

(sotto)

Is it her?

It isn’t.

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