Raising Arizona Page #2

He spins and grabs his car-door handle. Locked. He tries the

back door. Locked.

VOICE OVER:

...But I was beginning to think...

As we hear the wail of an approaching siren, Hi takes it on

the heel and toe.

VOICE OVER:

...that revenge is the only argument

makes any sense.

FLASH:

On Hi against the mug-shot wall.

ED:

Turn to the right!

SHERIFF (O.S.)

Don't forget his latents, Ed!

CLOSE ON HI'S HAND

We see his right hand being efficiently manipulated by Ed's

two hands:
She is rolling each of his inked fingers into the

appropriate space on an exemplar sheet.

HI (O.S.)

Hear about the paddy-wagon collided

with the segment mixer, Ed? Twelve

hardened criminals escaped.

Ed's hand lingers on top of his. Hi's other hand enters to

rest on top of hers.

HI (O.S.)

Got a new beau?

ED (O.S.)

No, Hi, I sure don't.

Hi slips a ring off his own finger and slides it onto Ed's.

HI (O.S.)

Don't worry, I paid for it.

LOW ANGLE CELL BLOCK CORRIDOR

The surly Mopping Con has now worked his way up to the

foreground.

Hi is being escorted past him to his cell.

VOICE OVER:

They say that absence makes the heart

grow fonder, and for once they may

be right.

Halfway up the corridor Hi points casually at the floor.

HI:

You missed a spot.

The Mopping Con turns to watch him recede.

CON:

Grrrr...

HIGH ANGLE CELL:

Same high shot with Moses on the top bunk, Hi on the lower.

VOICE OVER:

More and more my thoughts turned to

Ed, and I finally felt the pain of

imprisonment.

MOSES:

An' momma would frow the live crawdad

in a pot of boiln' water. Well one

day I decided to make my own

crawdad...

We begin to crane down to tighten on the absently staring

Hi.

VOICE OVER:

...an' I frew it in a pot, forgettin'

to put in the water, ya see...

Moses' voice is mixing down as we lose him from frame.

VOICE OVER:

...and it was like I was makin'

popcorn, ya see... The joint is a

lonely place after lock-up and fights

out...

We are now very close on Hi, staring.

VOICE OVER:

...when the last of the cons has

been swept away by the sandman.

HI'S POV

The underside of the top bunk.

A sudden flash whitens and fades to leave the image of Ed,

smiling behind her camera, softly supered on the underside

of the bunk.

BACK TO HI:

He wearily turns his head to profile on the pillow and shuts

his eyes.

VOICE OVER:

But I couldn't help thinking that a

brighter future lay ahead - a future

that was only eight to fourteen months

away.

Eyes closed, he is illuminated by a flash.

PAROLE BOARD ROOM

Hi and the same three officers.

CHAIRMAN:

Got a name for people like you, Hi.

That name is called recidivism.

SECOND MAN:

Ree-peat O-fender.

CHAIRMAN:

Not a pretty name, is it, Hi?

HI:

No Sir, it sure ain't. That's one

bonehead name. But that ain't me

anymore.

CHAIRMAN:

You're not just tellin' us what we

wanna hear?

HI:

No Sir, no way.

SECOND MAN:

'Cause we just wanna hear the truth.

HI:

Well then I guess I am tellin' you

what you wanna hear.

CHAIRMAN:

Boy, didn't we just tell you not to

do that?

HI:

Yessir.

CHAIRMAN:

Okay then.

TRACKING:

Over Hi's shoulder as he strides toward a door marked

"Processing" and flings it open.

It is the familiar booking room. Ed looks up from her camera,

having just snapped a picture of another suspect against the

hatched wall.

HI:

I'm walkin' in here on my knees, Ed -

a free man proposin'.

Hi c*cks a finger at the suspect.

HI:

Howdy Kurt.

ED'S ROOM

As she nervously frets at her white bridal gown in front of

a mirror.

VOICE OVER:

And so it was.

SHERIFF (O.S.)

Don't forget the boo-kay, Ed!

CLOSE SHOT ED:

Gazing earnestly into the camera. A congregation is seated

behind her - the bride's side wearing police blues; the

groom's side, Hawaiian shirts.

ED:

I do.

CLOSE SHOT HI:

Also staring into the camera.

HI:

You bet I do.

REVERSE:

Over their shoulders, the minister.

MINISTER:

Okay then.

FLASH:

On the newlyweds smiling at the camera.

FLASH:

On the newlyweds smiling at each other, profile to the camera.

HIGH WIDE SHOT TRAILER PARK

In the middle of a vast expanse of desert.

VOICE OVER:

Ed's pa staked us to a starter home

in suburban Tempe...

INT. MACHINE SHOP

Hi is working the drill press, wearing goggles and sweat-

stained overalls.

VOICE OVER:

...and I got a job drilling holes in

sheet metal.

Next to him idly stands Bud, a veteran of the shop, with a

grimy face and a pair of goggles pushed up on his forehead.

BUD:

So we was doin' paramedical work in

affiliation with the state highway

system-not actually practicin',

y'understand - and me and Bill's

patrollin' down Nine Mile -

HI:

Bill Roberts?

BUD:

(barking)

No, not that motherscratcher! Bill

Parker! Anyway, we're approachin'

the wreck, and there's a spherical

object arestin' on the highway...

He pauses to blow and pop a bubble with his chewing gum.

BUD:

...And it don't look like a piece a

the car.

VOICE OVER:

Mostways the job was a lot like

prison, except Ed was waitin' at the

end of every day...

CASHIER'S WINDOW

Hi is scowling at his paycheck. Behind the barred window a

fat cashier grins.

VOICE OVER:

...and a paycheck at the end of every

week.

CASHIER:

Gummint do take a bite, don't she?

EXT. TRAILER

Hi sits in a lawn chair in front of the trailer. Ed sits on

his lap, his arms around her. Both are wearing sunglasses,

looking at the setting sun. The scene is suffused with a

warm yellow light.

VOICE OVER:

These were the happy days, the salad

days as they say...

As the sun sets, the light is turning from yellow to amber.

Hi and Ed watch, their heads following its slow downward

arc.

VOICE OVER:

...and Ed felt that having a critter

was the next logical step. It was

all she thought about.

The amber is turning to a more neutral dusky light as the

sun has set. Hi and Ed continue to stare at the point where

it disappeared.

VOICE OVER:

...Her point was that there was too

much love and beauty for just the

two of us...

The dusk is slipping away into darkness.

VOICE OVER:

...and every day we kept a child out

of the world was a day he might later

regret having missed.

We are by now holding on pitch black. Crickets chirp. From

the darkness:

ED:

That was beautiful.

A CALENDAR:

Ed is crossing off the last day on the calendar before a day

circled in red.

VOICE OVER:

So we worked at it on the days we

calculated most likely to be

fruitful...

INT. TRAILER

Hi is wearily entering after a long day at work, clutching

his lunchpail.

VOICE OVER:

...and we worked at it most other

days just to be sure.

Ed flies into frame and leaps into his arms, covering him

with kisses.

TRAILER BEDROOM:

In each other's arms, Hi and Ed roll over on the bed.

VOICE OVER:

Seemed like nothing could stand in

our way now...

We pan with them rolling and continue off them to the night

table, on which sits a framed pair of photographs of Hi,

probably taken by Ed: One shows him full face, the other in

profile.

EXT. TRAILER TWILIGHT

Ed sits in a lawn chair knitting a booty. Hi stands in Bermuda

shorts and an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, hosing down the

minuscule patch of front lawn.

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