Memphis Belle Page #9

63 OMITTED

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65

66 EXT. MEMPHIS BELLE

It has clouded up a bit. It's quiet. The crew is

gathered on the left side of the plane. Phil is still

asleep on the wing. Dennis is looking over his flimsies

and Clay is whittling a model of the Belle out of soft,

white wood. The other guys are nervous, anxious, jumpy.

Val is compulsively doing sit-ups, one after another.

(CONTINUED)

48.

CONTINUED:

Rascal can't keep still, he's drumming his fingers on

his knees, bouncing his legs up and down, etc. Eugene

is running his St. Anthony medal up and down its chain

while Jack is doing sleight of hand, pulling sticks of

gum out of Eugene's nose and ears. Luke is fooling

around with his dog. Danny is writing in a composition

book. Virge is oiling and cleaning the tools in his

toolbox. One slips out of his hand and drops into the

box with a clang. Eugene, Jack and Rascal jump.

RASCAL:

Jesus!

EUGENE:

Virge, do you have to?

VIRGE:

Sorry, I just...

EUGENE:

(to Jack)

Stop it! Leave me alone!

CLAY:

Seven to one we're not going.

VAL:

Let's just go. Just get it over

with.

JACK:

I'd rather get it over by going

to a nice little French target.

RASCAL:

Yeah, so if we have to bail out,

we could hide in some little

French girl's hayloft.

VIRGE:

Is that all you think about,

Rascal?

RASCAL:

Gotta make up for you, Virgin.

Take up the slack.

Virge shoves him. Rascal goes for him. Eugene grabs

Rascal, Clay grabs Virge.

DENNIS:

Okay, men, calm down. Getting

excited isn't going to do any

good. Relax. Be more like Phil.

(CONTINUED)

49.

66 CONTINUED:
(2)

Luke and Val exchange a look -- if Dennis only knew.

Then Jack grabs Danny's composition book.

JACK:

What're you writing, Danny Boy?

Poetry! We have a poet on the

plane!

EUGENE:

Give it back, King Kong.

Eugene snatches the book from Jack, tosses it to Clay,

who tosses it to Virge, who gives it back to Danny.

VAL:

Read us something you wrote, Danny.

DANNY:

No...

RASCAL:

I wanna hear some poetry!

VIRGE:

Come on, come on.

DANNY:

Nothing's finished.

DENNIS:

Don't be shy, Danny.

Jack takes out his harmonica and starts playing a little

of "Danny Boy." Danny blushes. They all look at him,

waiting. Reluctantly, Danny opens his book.

CLOSE SHOT - NOTEBOOK

Everything is crossed out. He turns a page or two. Same

thing, everything is crossed out.

ON DANNY:

Everyone is watching him. He looks down at the book and

pretends to read. He starts nervously.

DANNY:

'I know that I shall meet my fate

Somewhere among the clouds above;

Those that I fight I do not hate,

Those that I guard I do not

love...'

(CONTINUED)

50.

66 CONTINUED:
(3)

He hesitates. They're listening. It's very quiet, just

the harmonica. Danny recites from memory.

DANNY:

'Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,'

'Nor public men, nor cheering

crowds,

A lonely impulse of delight

Drove to this tumult in the

clouds;

I balanced all, brought all to

mind,

The years to come seemed waste of

breath,

A waste of breath the years behind,

In balance with this life, this

death.'

Long, long silence. The words have expressed the feelings

of each of these men, the attraction to the fight

and the fear of it; the threat of death and the excitement

of its closeness. We FOCUS ON Dennis -- he's

particularly struck by the poem. This is a moment

suspended in time -- then it's abruptly broken when the

JEEP races up, SKIDS to a halt and the Lieutenant yells

to Dennis.

LIEUTENANT:

Captain, you're going up!

Takeoff's in five minutes!

The Jeep speeds away. The men quickly grab their clothes

and equipment and start towards the hatches. Val shakes

Phil awake and helps him down from the wing. Clay pulls

on his jacket and speaks to Luke.

CLAY:

Okay, Lieutenant, it's a deal.

LUKE:

I'm not giving you my dog.

CLAY:

I don't want that flea-bitten,

mangy pooch anyway.

Clay jogs off to the waist hatch. Luke puts the dog

down, pats him, then also heads for the waist hatch. The

dog watches him go, then charges across the field toward

the control tower.

67 INT. COCKPIT

Luke climbs into his seat and plugs himself in.

(CONTINUED)

51.

CONTINUED:

LUKE:

Let's do the preflight check again

for good luck.

Dennis picks up his clipboard and pencil, then hesitates.

DENNIS:

Luke, if we could decide right now,

do we go or do we stay... what

would you choose?

LUKE:

Are you kidding? Go! I can't

wait!

He grabs the clipboard and pencil from Dennis.

LUKE:

Fuel transfer valves. Open.

He starts going through the checklist for the third time.

68 EXT. CONTROL TOWER BALCONY

The CO nods to the S-2, who points a flare GUN in the air

and FIRES. A green flare shoots up.

69 INT. COCKPIT

Dennis flips a switch on the pilot's control panel.

70 EXT. MEMPHIS BELLE

The prop on ENGINE one begins turning, then COUGHS and

BELCHES a white cloud of smoke. The prop whirls into

invisibility.

71 INT. RADIO ROOM

Danny is sitting at his desk, tuning his radio, making

notes and eating a candy bar. Rascal and Clay are sitting

on the floor against the left aft bulkhead. Rascal

compulsively shuffles a deck of cards. Clay is whittling

again. Jack and Eugene sit against the right aft bulkhead.

Jack practices his magic on Eugene, making a coin

disappear, then pulling it out of Eugene's nose. Eugene

is praying and tries to brush Jack away. But Jack persists,

pulling a piece of gum out of Eugene's ear.

72 EXT. MEMPHIS BELLE

ENGINE TWO COUGHS and STARTS UP.

52.

73 INT. NOSE

Phil's desk is vibrating so much it's hard to keep things

in order. His maps slide onto the floor. He picks them

up, then his compass falls off, then his ruler. He picks

them up and puts them in place, then his maps slide to

the floor again.

74 EXT. MEMPHIS BELLE

ENGINE THREE WHIRLS into action. Then ENGINE FOUR STARTS

UP. ENGINES are POUNDING, rattling the ground all over

the field.

75 OMITTED

&

76

77 EXT. CONTROL TOWER BALCONY

The CO is on the control tower balcony, watching the

scene through binoculars. Bruce comes out of the control

room, steamed that his efforts to stop the Belle have

failed.

78 EXT. MEMPHIS BELLE

Les signals to the ground crew to pull the chocks out

from under the front wheels. As two members of the

ground crew do it, we see them up CLOSE, then we PULL

BACK WITH them and the plane is revealed with all four

ENGINES POUNDING, props whirling with tremendous speed

and power. The plane begins to move forward.

78A EXT. BASE

The ROAR of ENGINES is deafening as twenty-two planes

start moving off the hardstands onto the runways, getting

into position for takeoff. There's no turning back now.

The sheer mechanical and human effort to get to this

point is monumental, exciting. Once they're in line,

we see them FROM ABOVE -- plane after plane after plane

after plane, ENGINES ROARING, the air wrinkled with their

fumes, waiting to go.

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