Damsel Page #2

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Rapunzel inspects him curiously, through her cell window,

from high above.

17 YEAR OLD RAPUNZEL

Only the witch knows the way.

YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD

What witch?

The prince hops from his horse, stepping toward the tower

wall. Rapunzel is silent.

YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD (CONT’D)

What is your name?

17 YEAR OLD RAPUNZEL

I am Rapunzel.

YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD

I am honored to meet you Rapunzel.

I am Prince Edward of Thessia.

Their eyes locked, even in the distance.

YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD (CONT’D)

Are you a prisoner?

17 YEAR OLD RAPUNZEL

What is that?

7.

YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD

Do you wish to leave your tower?

17 YEAR OLD RAPUNZEL

My only wish is to see the world

outside of these walls. I’ve

braided lengths of my hair into a

rope that I might soon climb down.

YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD

Rapunzel, let down your hair!

Rapunzel vanishes from her window seal, appearing moments

later, fastening the rope of hair to an iron sconce.

She tosses it out her window. It unravels, floating downward

until it whips its final stretch.

Rapunzel’s heart races.

YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD (CONT’D)

I’m afraid it’s not yet long enough

to reach.

17 YEAR OLD RAPUNZEL

Might I climb down and jump?

YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD

Still too high, I am afraid.

Rapunzel sinks.

Edward’s face twists with intrigue.

YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD (CONT’D)

I will fashion a ladder high enough

and will return with an army to

free you!

17 YEAR OLD RAPUNZEL

You will? How I hope you will!

Please!

Excitement flitters in the innocent girl’s voice. She melts.

YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD

My loyalty is yours. I vow it, my

princess.

17 YEAR OLD RAPUNZEL

Then, I shall be in waiting until

you’ve returned, Prince Edward of

Thessia!

8.

BRAUN (V.O.)

Rapunzel held young Prince Edward’s

vow dear, locking it deep in her

heart. She fell, madly in love and

waited for him to return, that they

might live together in happiness

forever after.

CUT TO:

EXT. STONE TOWER PRISON - NIGHT

The soldiers’ armor, a metallic clank, as they ride atop

their galloping steeds.

The orange glow of their torches reflects from their silver

gear. 25 knights, lead by Young Prince Edward.

The crest of Thessia’s golden lion, waves.

Rapunzel’s rope of woven hair still hangs from the iron

sconce. Floating high above the ground.

Soldiers urgently move and assemble sections of a grand

ladder.

INT. STONE TOWER PRISON - CONTINUOUS

Edward steps through the window of the bleak cell to find

that all of Rapunzel’s possessions have been cleared away.

CUT TO:

EXT. MOUNTAIN PASS - MORNING

A single white tower rising over an ivory castle.

A man-made fortress among nature’s magnificent beauty.

Nestled among the majestic redwoods, atop a southern

mountain.

A grand staircase stretches to the entryway of the forgotten

structure of stone.

BRAUN (V.O.)

Having learned of Prince Edward’s

plot to free Rapunzel, the witch

took her to a secluded castle atop

a mountain, so that she might never

meet another living soul again.

9.

INT. IVORY FORTRESS - TOWER PRISON - CONTINUOUS

Rapunzel lies sobbing on her new cell’s stone floor.

RAPUNZEL:

Please! I cannot stay here!

Please help me. Please don’t make

me stay here.

Her entire life in solitary confinement. She begs in prayer

through breathless tears.

RAPUNZEL (CONT’D)

I don’t want to be alone anymore.

Help me. Set me free. Give me

freedom!

Her face is stained in tears. Dark circles under her young

eyes.

A white dove lands on Rapunzel’s window seal. She notices it

and wipes her tears away. Catching her breath, she reassures

herself.

RAPUNZEL (CONT’D)

He will come. He will come. He

will find me.

FADE TO:

INT. IVORY FORTRESS - TOWER PRISON - DAY (20 YEARS LATER)

Rapunzel’s finger nails are caked in dirt. Bloody from

picking.

RAPUNZEL:

He will come. He will come. He

will find me.

She’s lost count of the days. Her movements have become

twitches of insanity. Erratic.

BRAUN (V.O.)

For 30 years Rapunzel lived alone

in the high tower cell. Nourished

only by the dark magic of her

captor.

She sits in the corner, masked in the dark shadow of her

prison. She brushes her own hair. Babels. Trying to

remember

10.

RAPUNZEL:

He will come. He will find me.

Her clothing is stained. Age lines crease at the corners of

Rapunzel’s face.

The white dove comes to her window. She erupts in a bout of

insane anger. With a scream of frustration, she rushes

toward the bird. It flies away.

Her screams echo through the redwood forest surrounding the

Ivory Fortress.

Isolation.

BRAUN (V.O.)

When Rapunzel had finally lost all

hope, the darkness consumed her and

her golden heart turned black as

night.

CUT TO:

INT. IVORY FORTRESS - TOWER PRISON

Her prayer has changed. Furious. Malicious.

RAPUNZEL:

Give me revenge. Revenge against

the one who kept me. Revenge

against the one who abandoned me.

Revenge against the one who mocks

me while I beg for freedom.

Rapunzel; Ominous, backlit by the moon which glows through

her tower’s window.

BRAUN (V.O.)

Rapunzel surrendered her innocence

for vengeance and her prayer was

answered. The forces of darkness

filled her with a power so great,

that she might have her revenge.

A red cardinal lands on her window’s ledge.

CUT TO:

INT. IVORY FORTRESS - TOWER PRISON - DAY

Rapunzel sits on her bed, gazing out the window of her

prison.

11.

Her captor, the witch, arrives. Shuffles through a set of

iron keys, sliding one into Rapunzel’s cell door.

As though she were a caged bird-

WITCH:

My pretty girl.

Strange, considering Rapunzel’s aged face.

The door creeks open. The witch quickly locks it behind her.

Alone in the cell with her “daughter”, whose back is turned.

Rapunzel grins, deviously. At last.

The witch begins to brush Rapunzel’s hair.

WITCH (CONT’D)

I’ve missed you my child.

A powerful rage swells.

RAPUNZEL:

Have you, Mother?

INT. IVORY FORTRESS - GRAND THRONE ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Glistening white-stone walls stretch high. Pillars.

Grandeur.

The giant bolted doors at the entry of the grand throne room

creek against a persistent force. They strain and begin to

twist until they shatter inward.

Powerful, snake-like roots, forking as they grow, enter the

opulent space.

Leaves unfurl, creating a new archway of thick vines and

bramble.

Massive stained glass windows shatter as the castle’s new

skeleton of living-wood wraps inward.

The throne room becomes wilderness with remnants of white-

stone.

She brings the outside world she’s longed for, to her.

INT. IVORY FORTRESS - TOWER PRISON - CONTINUOUS

Rapunzel’s scalp begins to bleed black in the witch’s hands.

12.

The witch sets the brush on the bed and stands, backing away

from Rapunzel.

The blackness runs to the tips of Rapunzel’s hair until her

mane has lost all of its golden hue to the darkness.

Rapunzel eyes the witch over her shoulder, oozing contempt.

WITCH:

What is this?

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