Maverick Page #15

MAVERICK -Rev. 11/15/93 87A. *

82 82

CONTINUED:

MAVERICK:

I'd kiss you, but too many people.

JOSEPH:

So on your way.

He smiles.

MAVERICK:

(wringing his hands

still)

How'm I going to explain I got

away with my hands still attached?

JOSEPH:

Lie. Tell them you got us all

drunk on firewater and escaped

in the confusion.

MAVERICK:

Think anyone will believe that?

JOSEPH:

You people will believe anything.

(beat)

Don't worry --besides, I got the

old dunce up to a thousand dollars.

I can pay you what I owe you now.

MAVERICK:

Why not two thousand?

JOSEPH:

Be too much.

MAVERICK:

Just need another twenty-four.

He counts.

JOSEPH:

Don't insult me by counting it.

MAVERICK:

Sorry, but lately my friends have

been stiffing me.

JOSEPH:

(an arm around

Maverick)

What are friends for...?

They react and exit.

MAVERICK -Rev. 11/15/93 87B.

82A EXT. INDIAN VILLAGE -MORNING 82A

Maverick rides away from Village --crosses stream.

83 EXT. TRAIL -DAY 83

Maverick, riding along a trail going the opposite direction

as when he left.

TURNING IN TRAIL

Rocks on either side. As he takes it he sees a...

RIDERLESS HORSE:

The rider, face down, lies moaning in deep pain. His

body is at a funny angle --legs could be broken.

MAVERICK:

reining in, dismounting.

MAVERICK:

Hang on.

GUY ON GROUND:

Groaning is louder.

MAVERICK:

kneeling, gently turning the guy over.

CLOSEUP -GUY

He's the first person we saw in the movie, the guy with

the wandering eye who witnessed the hanging.

MAVERICK:

Has no idea who the guy is.

WANDERING EYE:

He whispers. As Maverick bends close -

(CONTINUED)

88.

83 CONTINUED:
83

ANGEL AND GUY WITH BURNED FACE

appearing behind him and while he is unaware, burned face

grabs his gun from its holster while Angel delivers a

vicious kick to the back of the head.

MAVERICK:

falling to the ground, stunned, in sudden pain. He

starts to rise -

--but too late -

--Angel delivers another terrible kick --this one flush

in the stomach. Maverick gasps.

ANGEL:

Another kick into the stomach. This one harder.

Maverick is beginning to go pale. Impossible to breathe

now.

ANGEL:

Should have paid your cowhands

more, Maverick.

(and now kicks

Maverick brutally

in the neck --)

Lucky for you I'm not the kind who

minds being made a fool of.

As he gestures for others to join him in beating the hell

out of Maverick -

ANGEL:

I never would have let you make

the poker game --but before you

done what you done, I might have

let you live.

MAVERICK:

trying to retaliate as best as he can -

--but the attack was too sudden, too vicious -

--and as the beating continues -

84 EXT. HANGING TREE -DAY 84

The sky. THUNDER.

--we are back at the shot that ended the opening

sequence -

(CONTINUED)

89.

84

CONTINUED:
84

--Maverick's hanging.

The rattlers are moving out of the burlap sack.

They wriggle closer to Maverick on his horse.

His horse is a rock.

Maverick struggles to free himself harder than ever, all

he's got and more and

The rattlers will not stop --will --not --stop -The

horse sees the rattlers now ---

and doesn't budge.

Maverick in desperation increases his efforts.

THUNDERCLAPS.

Lightning.

The rattlers start to curl.

Totally without warning, Maverick's horse bolts.

Maverick's body drops into space.

He hangs helpless in mid-air.

The rattlers continue to curl.

Maverick fights somehow to free his neck from the

noose ---

trying somehow to find a way to survive.

No good.

Not enough breath.

His body's struggling becomes more feeble.

Then more feeble still.

He is a strong and powerful man but in the last hours he

has been in gunfights, been beaten half to death ---

his energy is going.

Going.

Almost gone now.

(CONTINUED)

90.

84

CONTINUED:
(2) 84

His body hangs motionless in space.

Nothing left.

As his eyes start to close -

85

EXT. HANGING TREE -DAY 85

--the LOUDEST THUNDERCLAP of all. Deafening ---

and the whole goddam branch Maverick is hanging from

is ripped from the tree, and as it falls hard to the

ground, Maverick with it ---

the rattlers are all around him. He's landed stunned

in their midst.

It's impossible to tell which one of them will strike

first. Now -

TWO GNARLED HANDS

That's all we see at first, just the hands. One of them

grabs the burlap sack, the other starts scooping up the

rattlers, putting them back inside.

No fear of consequences. One-two-three-four-five-six,

and the rattlers are gone from view. And once they

are -

PULL BACK to reveal...

the MAGICIAN, for that, we will learn, is the name of the

woman we are looking at.

Little old woman, more precisely.

Weird-looking little old woman, more precisely still. She

is dressed in clothing that neither fits nor matches.

When she talks, she talks very loudly. Clearly she

doesn't get a lot of company. Right now she isn't

talking at all, just staring at Maverick's still body.

Mounted on her strange little cart is the biggest buffalo

gun you ever saw. It is what blasted the tree branch to

the ground. And smoke still drifts out of the barrel and

hangs in the air.

Now she takes a foot, pushes Maverick over so he's on his

back.

Next she aims the huge weapon at Maverick's heart.

(CONTINUED)

91.

85 CONTINUED:
85

THE MAGICIAN:

I'm a gonna kill you.

MAVERICK:

Barely able to speak. Still, this latest piece of news

is not so much upsetting as it is strange.

MAVERICK:

(whispered)

... if you're going to do that...

why didn't you just let me

hang...?

THE MAGICIAN:

coming closer.

THE MAGICIAN:

'Cuz then you wouldn't have know'd

your crime.

MAVERICK:

(blinking up)

... who are you...? And what's my

crime...?

THE MAGICIAN:

I'm nobody --nobody a-tall -

(a bit ticked)

--never mind who I am --it don't

matter a whit who I am -

(more)

--how dare you ask who I am? -it's

none of your business who I

am --the subject under discussion

is you and your crime -

(bigger)

--the crime you're gonna die

for -

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