Days of Heaven Page #19

244EXT. FIELDS

Everything seems normal in the fields.

Then, as you listen, a strange new sound begins to rise from

them, a wild sea-like singing. As the camera moves over the

fields and down into the wheat it swells in a crescendo

until...

245TIGHT ON LOCUSTS

Suddenly we see them up close, devouring the

stalks in a fever, the noise of their jaws magnified a

thousand times.

They slip into the Belvedere, under the sash and

wainscoting, turning up first in places it would seem they

could never get into: a jewelry case, the back of a radio,

the works of a music box, a bottle with a miniature ship

inside, etc.

246EXTREME CLOSEUPS

Their eyes are dumb and implacable. They seem to

have a whole hidden life of their own.

247INT. KITCHEN

Little by little they gather in numbers. Ursula

first sees one on the drainboard. She swats it with a

newspaper. Others sprout up. One by one she picks them up

with a tongs and drops them into the stove. This method

is too slow. She begins to use her fingers. She moves with a

quick, nervous energy, even as she understands this is

futile. At last claustro-phobia seizes her. She spins around

with a shriek, lashing out at everything in sight.

248INT. MASTER BEDROOM

In the bedroom overhead, Abby wakes up from one

nightmare into another. She jumps out of bed and goes to the

window. The locusts pelt against the pane like shot. She

throws the bolt. Suddenly a crack shoots through the glass.

She jumps back and watches in horror as a sliver of the pane

falls in. They are free to enter.

249SERIES OF ANGLES

Suddenly they are everywhere: on the

clothesline, in the pantry, in hats and shoes and the seams

of clothing. Not a nook or cranny is safe from penetration.

250TIGHT ON CHUCK - SLOW MOTION

Chuck, asleep in the deep of the wheat, bolts up

in slow motion. His hair is seething with them.

251EXT. BONANZA - FURTHER ANGLES

Panic hits the bonanza. Workers tie string

around their pant cuffs to keep the insects from crawling up

their legs, then rush out to the fields with gongs, rattles,

pot lids, scarecrows on sticks, drums and horns and

other noisemakers to scare them off.

Some pray. Others run around like madmen, stamping and

yelling, ignored by the gathering host. A couple get into a

fistfight.

A storm flag is run up the flagpole. A tractor blasts out an

S.O.S. The peacocks huddle under the stoop.

252TIGHT ON CHUCK

Chuck gives Benson his orders.

CHUCK:

Offer fifty cents a bushel for them. Get out the

reapers.

See what you can harvest.

253HIGH DOWN ANGLE

The locusts snap through the air. Bill, swatting

at them with a shovel, stops to gag. One has flown into his

mouth.

254TIGHT ON GEARS

They jam up the gears of the machinery with the

crush of their bodies.

255INT. MASTER BEDROOM

Abby throws a sheet over herself, but they get

in under it. She thrashes around madly, then with a cry goes

limp.

256CHUCK AND BENSON

Benson reports back to Chuck. A team of horses

races by, nearly bowling them over.

BENSON:

We can't get the machines out. They're jamming

up the gears.

There's a good chance they'll pass on south, though.

Unless...

unless a wind comes up.

CHUCK:

What happens then?

BENSON:

They'll set down and walk in.

257SIGNS OF DAMAGE

The locusts devour not just the crops but every

organic thing:
pitchfork handles, linens on the clothesline,

leather traces, flowers in the window boxes, etc. Soon a

large area of wheat is eaten down to stubble.

Bill looks away from a tree for a second. When he turns back

it has been stripped to a wintry bareness.

258EXT. WIND GENERATOR, OTHER ANGLES

The vanes of the wind generator begin gently to

stir. Little by little the wind picks up. A dust devil spins

across the yard. The grass lists by the well. A power line

moans.

259EXT. FIELDS

As the sun dips below the horizon, the locusts

pour in like a living river, walking along the ground like a

procession of Army ants. The roar of their wings is

deafening. The air hisses and pops with their electric

frenzy.

260STOCK AND MATTE SHOTS - SUNSET

And these are but the advance elements of a main

force which looms like a silver cloud on the horizon.

261EXT. BONFIRE - NIGHT

WORKERS dump bushels of the insects into a

bonfire. A MAN with an abacus keeps track of what each is

owed.

262SAME FIELDS - NIGHT

The wind has picked up. Chuck, Bill and Abby

have come out to the fields with a dozen WORKERS to

investigate the extent of the damage. The insects buzz

around blindly in the light of their lanterns, which they

carry Japanese-fashion at the ends of cane poles.

263TIGHT ON CHUCK - NIGHT

Chuck inspects the grain.

CHUCK:

There's nothing we can do but wait. They're

either going to take it all or they're not.

He covers his face with his hands. The others shy back at

this display of grief, startling in one so formal. Their

jostled lanterns cast a dance of lights.

Bill, moved to real sympathy, takes him by the shoulders.

BILL:

Come on. They might still lift. Hey, I've seen a

wind like this lay

down and die. Don't give up now.

CHUCK:

(ignoring him)

We could at least make sure they don't get the

people on south.

He breaks open the mantle of his lantern, still unsure what

he should do. Some of the flaming kerosene splashes onto the

crops nearby, setting them ablaze. Bill drops his rattle and

swats the fire out with his coat.

BILL:

What're you doing? Watch it! What're you, crazy?

There's

still a chance, don't you see?

Chuck goes to his horse. Bill grabs him by the sleeve. Does

he really mean to set the fields on fire? Chuck pushes him

aside. Bill, frantic, turns to the others for support.

BILL:

Stop him, or it's all going up.

They, however, are too uncertain of their ground to

intervene. Chuck turns on Bill.

CHUCK:

What does it matter to you?

Chuck slings fire out of the broken lantern onto the crops

next to Bill -- a sudden, hostile gesture that catches them

all by surprise. Independent of his will, the truth is

forcing its way up, like a great blind fish from the bottom

of the sea.

He slings the fire out again. A patch lands on Bill's

pantleg. Bill slaps it out.

BILL:

What's got into you?

They stare at each other. Bill backs off like a cat, sensing

Chuck knows the truth, but at a loss to understand how he

could.

CHUCK:

Why do you care? I gave my life for this land.

Chuck walks towards him. Suddenly Bill turns and takes off

running. Chuck swings at him with the lantern. Bill escapes

behind the building wall of flame that springs up between

them.

The whirr of the locusts stops for a moment--they seem at

times to have a collective mind--then, just as mysteriously,

resumes.

ABBY:

Stop, Chuck!

Chuck leaps on his horse. She tries to drag him off but is

thrown aside and almost trampled underfoot. Now the others

join in, trying to knock away the lantern or catch his

stirrup. He eludes them and rides off after Bill, leaving a

slash of flame behind him in the grain. They tear off their

coats to swat it out, in vain--already it stretches a

hundred yards.

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