Gangs of New York Page #23

JENNY:

I did, yes.

AMSTERDAM:

Good, because I didn't want to act hasty. I can never tell for sure what

you're thinking, and sometimes I'm not always sure what you're saying...

GENT 2

(interrupting)

Excuse me, we have to finish and...

AMSTERDAM:

(to Gent 2)

Excuse me. We'll conclude in a moment.

(back to Jenny)

Where do you settle?

JENNY:

Amsterdam, what are you saying?

AMSTERDAM:

I'm asking, where does anyone settle?

JENNY:

I don't know, you mean a place, a home?

AMSTERDAM:

A home yes.

GENT 1

Excuse me, but we really must conclude.

AMSTERDAM:

(ignoring him)

Well, I'm saying to you then, Jenny Everdeane, welcome home.

No one sees it coming. Amsterdam FLASHES around, swinging the BUTT of his

rifle into Gent l's midsection, doubling him over and sending him

breathless to the ground. Amsterdam SPINS again and swings the butt into

Gent 2's face, knocking him cold.

AMSTERDAM:

Fine place. Room enough for all.

(to Johnny)

Get them out of here.

GENT 2

They'll come back looking for you.

AMSTERDAM:

With whose help? The Natives? They won't help these flourishing bastards

even for ned.

(to Jenny)

Tell any who wants they can stay. If they can't pay rent they can join the

gang. But make sure the best rooms go to us. Look around ...

JENNY:

(interrupting)

I know this building.

CUT TO:

87 INT. UNDERGROUND/JACOB'S LADDER

As Jenny leads Amsterdam through a narrow tunnel. The place is like a

weird catacomb:
it is narrow and dank, filled with bones of dead animals,

of the two- and four-legged variety.

JENNY:

These lead all under the Square, into the Brewery and out again from

there. They're closed off and forgotten since the Reverend opened the

mission. Pass me the candle.

Amsterdam hands Jenny a stump of candle, which she holds high enough to

see...

... that the tunnel has opened onto a small room just above the foundation

of Jacob's Ladder. It's a graveyard, memorializing gang members gone to a

better world--or worse. Trophies from many gangs--including the bones and

skulls of some Dead Rabbits-litter the place in loose ritual fashion, as

if this were a catacomb in Palermo.

Stooping low, Jenny walks to a narrow corner of the room, where several

PAVING STONES have been laid in the rough pattern of a cross. A slab of

slate serves as a headstone, and on it, in fading paint, barely legible,

is the name "Maggie Everdeane."

JENNY:

We lived in this building till she lost her seamstress work and we went to

the Brewery. One day she slept so drunk she never woke and I brought her

back here. Dug this myself.

(beat)

Families. Give here what I gave you.

Amsterdam hands her a chest that looks like a small version of

Blackbeard's treasure box. She opens it and holds the candle close: inside

is the swag from all her cat burglaries. There's a lot of it, GLITTERING

with promise in the GUTTERING flame. Jenny starts to dig in her mother's

grave.

JENNY:

She'll keep an eye on this for us. How about some help?

He KNEELS beside her and they dig at the grave with stones and bones.

AMSTERDAM:

You trusting me with your treasure, then?

JENNY:

Just take another look at it to remind you. I can always do fine on my own.

Amsterdam reaches inside the chest, pulls out a ring and SLIPS it onto

Jenny's dirt-covered finger. She KISSES him.

JENNY:

What's mine is yours, is that it?

AMSTERDAM:

I could use this, too.

From the bag he holds up a small GOLD CROSS.

JENNY:

You making an offering to the Reverend Raleigh?

Amsterdam slips the cross into his pocket without answering and starts to

dig again.

AMSTERDAM:

Are you sure we can trust your mother?

CUT TO:

88 INT. HALLWAY/TAMMANY

BOSS TWEED listens to an angry BILL THE BUTCHER as they walk briskly down

a long marble corridor lined with formal portraits of former Tammany

worthies.

BOSS TWEED:

The building and how many?

BILL THE BUTCHER

A dozen at least of my Natives.

BOSS TWEED:

The Dead Rabbits are a wooly bunch alright.

BILL THE BUTCHER

I want at them. All of them, and Amsterdam especial. Now.

BOSS TWEED:

Not just now. It's between too late and too soon. They've become a little

too prominent for comfort, but they're still too small for you to soil

your hands. The man who killed Monk Eastman pushing around a mob of

upstarts. It's practically undignified.

BILL THE BUTCHER

To hell with any of that.

Tweed stops under a grand new PORTRAIT of himself.

BOSS TWEED:

Very well, and to hell as well with any plans you and I may have for

growth and change and even greater reward. You'll never advance anywhere

beyond the limited perimeter of your imagination.

BILL THE BUTCHER

I don't got to advance anywhere further.

BOSS TWEED:

Got to, no. But ought to.

He hands him a fancy embossed envelope.

BILL THE BUTCHER

What's this?

BOSS TWEED:

(eyes merry)

An invitation. To dinner.

CUT TO:

89 INT. JENNY AND AMSTERDAM'S ROOM/JACOB'S LADDER DAY

Better by a little than their place in the old hideout. There's even a

window that throws some LIGHT an the few bits of castoff furniture in the

room... an the bed where Jenny sleeps with her face turned to the dawn

light... and an Amsterdam, who is dressing quietly in the corner. He

checks in his coat Pocket,...finds the gold cross ... and leaves. Jenny

does nat stir.

CUT TO:

90 EXT. GRAVEYARD DAY

START CLOSE on:
Amsterdam's hand, as he places the gold cross in a small

hole at a grave site, then covers it over with dirt.

Then WE SEE:
Amsterdam is kneeling at his father's grave.

AMSTERDAM:

He never had his own cross. Thanks.

Now he STANDS and TURNS. Jenny is half-hidden behind an elm tree.

AMSTERDAM:

Your touch is light, but as a tracker you work awful heavy. Come ahead.

Now that I met your mother, you should come and meet my father.

As Jenny starts to WALK towards the grave, we see for the first time ...

... that we are in the country, a graveyard in an open field with an

astonishing PANORAMA of New York and the East River. (MATTE) The cemetery

is atop a hill, and the East River, busy with ferries and vessels of

trade, glistens in the near distance. Just beyond it is Manhattan Island:

low buildings, winding narrow streets, houses surrounded by open land. A

BREEZE off the river rustles Jenny's dress and blows her hair as she steps

up to the grave site, looks at the headstone and sees ...

... it is blank. No name, no date. Clean stane.

JENNY:

You should finish the stone.

AMSTERDAM:

It'll be finished when everything's finished. That's when helll rest. The

hand that killed him is the hand that will bury him in peace.

He holds up his open hand, covered in dirt.

JENNY:

It was Bill killed him, not you.

AMSTERDAM:

With my hand on the knife.

JENNY:

And his hand on yours!

AMSTERDAM:

And me feeling the life go out of my father! He looked at me ... he looked

at me and he swore me with his eyes. I could feel his spirit... I say I

could feel it rising... flowing through the knife like blood into my own

heart.

JENNY:

You talk like he lives in you.

AMSTERDAM:

I don't want him to live, I want him dead! I kill Bill and I'm free of

them both!

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