Full Metal Jacket Page #9

JOKER:

How can you shoot women and children?

RAFTERMAN gags.

DOORGUNNER:

Easy. You just don't lead 'em so much.

(laughs)

Ain't war hell?

DISSOLVE TO:

63 EXT. LZ HUE--DAY

The

helicopter lands.

JOKER and RAFTERMAN jump out, duck down low

and

move away through pink smoke blown by the

rotor blades.

Marines run

by carrying wounded on stretchers.

JOKER:

(to a

sergeant)

Top, we want to get in the sh*t.

MASTER:

SERGEANT:

Down the road, two-five.

JOKER:

Two-five.

Outstanding! Thanks, Top.

DISSOLVE TO:

64 EXT. ROAD TO HUE--DAY

A:

road next to a small canal on the outskirts of

Hue.

Tanks, trucks

and marines are moving into the city

past a column of refugees heading

the other way.

JOKER and RAFTERMAN catch up to a Lieutenant,

salute

him and walk alongside.

JOKER:

Excuse me! Sir ... we're

looking for First

Platoon, Hotel two-five. I got a bro named

Cowboy there.

TOUCHDOWN:

You people one-one?

JOKER:

No, sir. We're reporters for Stars and Stripes.

TOUCHDOWN:

Stars and Stripes.

JOKER:

Yes, sir.

TOUCHDOWN:

I'm Cowboy's platoon commander. Cowboy's

just down

the road in the platoon area.

JOKER:

Oh. You mind if we

tag along, sir?

TOUCHDOWN:

No problem. Welcome aboard.

By the way, my

name's Schinoski. Walter J. Schinoski. My

people

call me Mister Touchdown. I played a

little ball for Notre Dame.

JOKER:

Notre Dame?

TOUCHDOWN:

(laughing)

Yeah.

JOKER:

All right!

TOUCHDOWN:

You

here to make Cowboy famous?

JOKER:

Ha! Never happen,

sir.

TOUCHDOWN:

Well, if you people came looking for a

story,

this is your lucky day. We got Condition Red

and we're

definitely expecting rain.

JOKER:

Outstanding, sir. We

taking care of business?

TOUCHDOWN:

Well, the N.V.A. are

dug in deep. Hotel

Company's still working this side of the river.

Street by street and house by house. Charlie's

definitely got his

sh*t together. But we're still

getting some really decent kills

here.

JOKER:

We heard some scuttlebutt, sir, about the

N.V.A. executing a lot of gook civilians.

TOUCHDOWN:

That's affirmative. I saw some bodies about

half a klick this side

of Phu Cam Canal.

JOKER:

Can you show me where, sir?

TOUCHDOWN:

Here's the canal...

65 EXT. MASS GRAVE--DAY

JOKER:

stands looking down into a large open grave

at a row of white,

lime-covered corpses.

Journalists, marines and civilians are grouped

around the grave.

A work detail leans on their shovels, their faces

covered with bandanas against the stench.

JOKER:

(voice over)

The dead have been covered with lime. The

dead

only know one thing. It is better to be

alive.

JOKER approaches a

young lieutenant-- CLEVES.

JOKER:

Excuse me. Good

morning, Lieutenant.

LT. CLEVES

Good morning.

JOKER:

I make it twenty. Is that the official body

count, sir?

LT. CLEVES

(sharply)

What outfit are you men with?

JOKER:

Sir, we're reporters from Stars and Stripes.

LT.

CLEVES:

(warms up)

Oh, I see.

JOKER:

I'm

Sergeant Joker and this photographer's

Rafterman.

RAFTERMAN:

starts shooting pictures of the

Lieutenant.

LT. CLEVES

I'm Lieutenant Cleves. I'm from Hartford,

Connecticut.

JOKER:

Have you got a body count, sir?

LT. CLEVES

We think it's twenty.

JOKER:

Do you know how it

happened, sir?

LT. CLEVES

Well, it seems the N.V.A.

came in with a list

of gook names. Government officials,

policemen, ARVN officers, schoolteachers.

They went around their

houses real polite and

asked them to report the next day for

political

re-education. Everybody who turned up got

shot. Some

they buried alive.

A marine COLONEL who has been watching JOKER

turns from the group arourzd the grave and strides

up. JOKER snaps to

attention.

COLONEL:

Marine !

LT. CLEVES

Colonel.

COLONEL:

Marine, what is that button on your

body

armor?

JOKER:

A peace symbol, sir.

COLONEL:

Where'd you get it?

JOKER:

I don't

remember, sir.

COLONEL:

What is that you've got written

on your

helmet?

JOKER:

"Born to Kill," sir.

COLONEL:

You write "Born to Kill" on your helmet and

you wear a

peace button. What's that

supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?!

JOKER:

No, sir.

COLONEL:

You'd better get your head

and your ass wired

together, or I will take a giant sh*t on you!

JOKER:

Yes, sir.

COLONEL:

Now answer my question or

you'll be standing

tall before the man.

JOKER:

I:

think I was trying to suggest something

about the duality of man,

sir.

COLONEL:

The what?

JOKER:

The

duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir.

COLONEL:

Whose

side are you on, son?

JOKER:

Our side, sir.

COLONEL:

Don't you love your country?

JOKER:

Yes,

sir.

COLONEL:

Then how about getting with the program?

Why don't you jump on the team and come

on in for the big win?

JOKER:

Yes, sir!

COLONEL:

Son, all I've ever asked

of my marines is that

they obey my orders as they would the word

of God. We are here to help the Vietnamese,

because inside every

gook there is an

American trying to get out. It's a hardball

world, son. We've gotta keep our heads until

this peace craze blows

over.

JOKER:

Aye-aye, sir.

DISSOLVE TO:

66 EXT.

FIELD--DAY

JOKER and RAFTERMAN Walk through a field

toward a pagoda.

67 EXT. PAGODA--DAY

Marines are moving supplies. Some men are rest

ing on the ground. A helicopter flies overhead.

Music:
Sam the Sham's

"Wooly Bully."

JOKER:

Hey, bro, we're looking for First

Platoon,

Hotel two-five.

MARINE:

Around the back.

JOKER and RAFTERMAN lualk to the back of the

building.

JOKER:

(to another marine)

First Platoon?

MARINE:

Yeah, through there.

68 INT. PAGODA COURTYARD--DAY

Through a moon-door opening on to the pagoda

courtyard, We see COWBOY

shauing. Other marines

are sprawled around the courtyard walls.

JOKER walks up behind COWBOY.

JOKER:

Hey, Lone Ranger.

COWBOY:

Holy sh*t!

JOKER:

You old motherf***er.

COWBOY:

It's the JOKER.

JOKER:

What's happenin'?

They hug each other.

COWBOY:

Boy, I hoped I'd never see

you again, you

piece of sh*t!

JOKER:

(laughs)

What's happening, man?

COWBOY:

Oh, I'm

just waiting to get back to the land

of the big PX.

JOKER:

Yeah? Well, why go back? Here or there,

samey-same.

COWBOY:

Been getting any?

JOKER:

Only your sister.

COWBOY:

Well, better my sister than my mom, though

my mom's not

bad.

COWBOY leads JOKER to the center of the courtyard.

COWBOY:

This is my bro Joker from the Island. And

this is...

JOKER:

Rafterman.

COWBOY:

...Rafterman. They're from

Stars and

Stripes. They'll make you famous.

Adlibs of "All

right!"

COWBOY:

We're the Lusthog Squad. We're

life-takers

and heartbreakers.

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