Raising Arizona Page #7

VOICE OVER:

He was especially hard on the little

things...

CRACK - as the first shotgun spurts orange the foreground

rabbit keels over. The Biker slues the other gun around.

LOCKED-DOWN WIDE SHOT

On a rock in the foreground, a desert lizard suns himself.

The Biker is approaching in the distant background.

VOICE OVER:

...the helpless and the gentle

creatures.

CRACK - from afar, the foreground lizard is blown away.

LOCKED-DOWN LOW-ANGLE WIDE SHOT

Of the empty desert road stretching away. In the foreground

a lone desert flower blooms.

The Biker roars into frame.

VOICE OVER:

He left a scorched earth in his wake,

befouling even the sweet desert breeze

that whipped across his brow.

As the Biker roars away, the foreground flower bends with

his draft and then bursts into flame.

TRACKING ON BIKER

From in front. He twirls the shotguns in either hand and

reaches back to plunge them over his shoulders into their

holsters.

VOICE OVER:

I didn't know where he came from or

why...

We are moving in on his chest, where two crisscrossed

bandoliers carry two rows of hand grenades, their silver

pins glinting in the sun. We follow the line of one of the

bandoliers up to his right shoulder which bears the tattoo:

"Mama Didn't Love Me."

VOICE OVER:

I didn't know if he was dream or

vision...

REVERSE TRACK ON BIKER

From behind, booming down as we track. We are approaching

the crest of a rise.

VOICE OVER:

But I feared that I myself had

unleashed him...

HIGH SHOT:

Of the Biker approaching, craning down as he draws near.

VOICE OVER:

...for he was The Fury That Would

Be...

With the crane down we momentarily lose him from view over

the rise; then suddenly - ROAR - he tops the rise and, wheels

spinning, is airborne

REVERSE:

As he crashes back down to earth in the foreground and roars

away. Only now we are no longer in the desert:

We are looking down a twilight street at the end of which is

the Arizona house.

VOICE OVER:

...as soon as Florence Arizona found

her little Nathan gone.

The roar of his engine and clank of his chains recede as the

Biker gradually dissolves into thin air.

We are left looking at the empty street and the faraway

Arizona house.

The receding roar has left behind eerily beautiful singing,

a woman singing a lullaby. Faintly, behind the singing, there

is also a droning high-pitched noise.

The camera starts floating forward very close to the ground,

moving slowly toward the Arizona house. The high-pitched

drone is becoming less faint under the singing.

The camera is accelerating. The drone is growing louder - we

can now tell that it is a human scream.

As we approach the Arizona house we can see that a ladder is

propped up to a second-story window.

We are moving quite fast now. The scream all but buries the

singing.

We are rushing toward the house, toward the base of the

ladder, the sustained scream drawing us on.

We hurtle toward and then straight up the ladder with no

abatement of speed, sucked forward by the deafening scream.

We reach the top and hurtle - THWAP! - through the white

curtains of the open second-story window into the nursery to

reveal Florence Arizona, her back to us, screaming over the

crib.

We are rocketing toward her.

She is turning to us, hands pressed to her ears, mouth

stretched wide in an ear-splitting shriek and we are rushing

into an extreme close-up of her gaping mouth and her wildly

vibrating epiglottis and we

CUT TO:

EXTREME CLOSE SHOT OF HI'S EYES

As they snap open.

The screaming snaps off at the cut. The singing that the

building scream covered, however, is now audible again.

Perspiration beads Hi's forehead. He looks down toward the

foot of the bed.

THE BEDROOM:

It is now morning. Ed walks back and forth, gently bouncing

the baby as she walks. She is singing it a lullaby.

Faintly, from the next room, we can hear Gale and Evelle

snoring away like buzz saws.

HI:

(groggily)

He all right?

ED:

He's all right. He was just havin' a

nightmare.

Hi is getting out of bed.

HI:

Yeah, well...

He crosses to the bedroom window and cracks the venetian

blind. Orange light filters in.

HIS POV:

Beyond a clothes line and a septic tank, a huge orange ball

of sun is rising. We can almost hear the roar of its burning

surface.

BACK TO HI:

Looking.

HI:

...Sometimes it's a hard world for

little things.

HIS POV:

The orange sun, rumbling, perceptibly rising.

ARIZONA HOME FRONT FOYER

At the cut the rumble of the sun is snapped off by the high-

pitched ba-WEEEEeeee... of a strobe going off as a flash

picture is taken: We are looking over Nathan Jr.'s shoulder

as he stands at his open front door, facing a battery of

press people who stand out on the porch.

An obie light over a local TV news camera glares in at us;

various flashbulbs pop.

NATHAN:

No, the missus and the rest of the

kids've left town to I ain't sayin'

where. They'll be back here when

we're a nuclear fam'ly again.

VOICE:

Mr. Arizona, which tot was abducted?

NATHAN:

Nathan Jr., I think.

VOICE:

Do you have anything to say to the

kidnappers?

NATHAN:

Yeah:
Watch yer butt.

VOICE:

Sir, it's been rumored that your son

was abducted by UFOS. Would you care

to comment?

NATHAN:

(sadly)

Now don't print that, son. If his

mama reads that she's just gonna

lose all hope.

A POLICEMAN from inside the house is taking Nathan by the

elbow.

POLICEMAN:

We really have to ask you some more

questions, sir...

As Nathan allows himself to be led back into the house he

calls back over his shoulder:

NATHAN:

But remember, it's still business as

usual at Unpainted Arizona, and if

you can find lower prices anywhere

my name still ain't Nathan Arizona!

We are following the two, hand-held, as the Police leads

Nathan toward the living room.

LIVING ROOM:

The room is filled with policemen milling about in several

different uniforms: local police, state troopers, plainclothes

detectives.

The original Policeman is leading Nathan to a table where a

white-smocked technician is preparing inkpad and exemplar

sheets.

The dialogue is urgent, rapid-fire and overlapping.

POLICEMAN:

Mr. Byrum here can take your exemplars

while you talk.

MR. BYRUM has taken Nathan's right hand and is rolling its

fingers onto the inkpad.

BYRUM:

Just let your hand relax; I'll do

the work.

Nathan jerks his hand away.

NATHAN:

What is this?! I didn't steal the

damn kid!

Two men in conservative suits are approaching.

POLICEMAN:

Sir, these men are from the FBI-

NATHAN:

(bewildered)

Are you boys crazy?! All I know is I

wake up this morning with my wife

screaming-

BYRUM:

(patiently)

We just need to distinguish your

prints from the perpetrators', if

they left any.

Giving his hand back:

NATHAN:

Course! I know that!

FBI #1

Sir, we have an indication you were

born Nathan Huffhines; is this

correct?

NATHAN:

Yeah, I changed m'name; what of it?

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