Rebel Without a Cause Page #15

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JIM looks over the edge.

Rear view. Spectators. A siren wail approaches. The kids

wheel and scatter, panicking past the camera.

Close shot. MOOSE. Looks at JIM. Runs.

Close shot. GOON. Turns. Runs.

Med. shot. JIM seen between legs of hurrying kids. The

sirens and the pounding of their feet on the hard turf. JIM

is sitting on the edge of the bluff. PLATO rushes in, stops

short as he sees him.

PLATO:

Come on, Jim! We got to get out of

here!

JIM doesn't move. PLATO grabs his arm and yanks.

PLATO:

Get up! Get up! Come on!

JIM stands. PLATO pushes him.

PLATO:

Go on! Move!

They start away, PLATO still pushing from behind.

Med. shot. JUDY. She is standing alone in the wind on the

emptying plateau. JIM and PLATO move past in the distance.

JIM sees her and stops.

Close shot. JUDY. She is shuddering violently but there

are no tears. She seems not to see or hear or be aware of

anything around her.

Full shot. JIM and PLATO watching JUDY. JIM moves toward

her, camera panning with him and leaving PLATO behind. JIM

stands before JUDY until she notices him. He shakes his

head for all the sorrow he feels, but no words come.

Tentatively he offers her his hand. After a moment, she

takes it. She knows only that help is being offered and

that she will accept it with trust. JIM leads her away

toward the car.

DISSOLVE TO:

High long shot. JIM's street. Night. There is no movement

anywhere. In the house bordering the street a few lights

still burn. JIM's car approaches out of distance and slows

when it reaches the alley.

Med. shot. JIM's car as it slows and stops. JIM, JUDY and

PLATO in the front seat. JUDY has the door open before the

car even stops. She is shaking, agitated and withdrawn.

JUDY:

(hardly audible)

This is fine--

She gets out and starts away, leaving door open.

JIM:

(calling quietly)

Judy. Will you be okay?

PLATO looks at him. JUDY hesitates. JIM raises a hand to

her in a shy farewell. She smiles vaguely, then hurries

away from them.

Near JIM's backyard (alley). JIM and PLATO.

JIM:

I got to go in. You better get

home too.

(touches PLATO)

Hey--what?

PLATO:

Why don't you come home with me? I

mean nobody's home at my house--and

I'm not tired, are you? I don't

have many--people I can talk to.

JIM:

Who has?

PLATO:

If you want to come we could talk

and then in the morning we could

have breakfast like my dad used

to--

(pauses--then

excitedly as though

an idea had suddenly

struck him)

Gee...if you could only have been

my father...we could...

JIM:

(interrupting)

Hey...you flipped--or something?

You better take off...

PLATO:

(suddenly, pleasantly)

O.K. G'night. I got to pick up my

scooter. See you tomorrow.

JIM:

Yeah.

PLATO turns, walks up the alley to the street. JIM goes

into his kitchen door.

Hallway. JUDY's house. Three doors open onto it: one is

closed--this is JUDY's room:--another, leading into BEAU's

room is open, but the room beyond is dark: the third, also

open, reveals the bedroom of JUDY's parents. As JUDY comes

into the hallway, the parents, who are reading in their

beds, look up. JUDY hesitates, then starts toward her own

room.

BEAU (O.S.)

(quietly)

Hello, little cute sister.

JUDY stops. BEAU appears at his door in white pajamas, a

small ghost. JUDY looks at him.

BEAU:

Hello, darling, baby-pie, glamor-

puss, sweetie--

JUDY touches BEAU's head and tries to smile.

JUDY'S FATHER

(calling from his bed)

Beau! You belong in bed!

BEAU flees. JUDY turns without another glance at her

parents, and opens the door of her room.

Inside bedroom of JUDY's parents. As JUDY slams her bedroom

door o.s., the FATHER reacts. Perhaps, he wishes she had

given him a chance to say goodnight. The MOTHER, who use

reading glasses, looks up at the slam. Then she looks over

at her husband, shrugs when she catches his gaze, and goes

back to her magazine.

Inside JIM's living room. The television is on, but only a

hum comes from it, and the screen is a flickering gray. The

FATHER sits lumpily in a chair by the fireplace, still

dressed but with his collar open. The sound of JIM's step

in the dining room makes him open his eyes. Fear of facing

his son makes him shut them again. The boy comes in, a

bottle of milk in his hand. Seeing his FATHER there, he

stops short--his impulse is to flee. Instead he comes in

and looks down at the sleeping man whose eyelids, fluttering

in the FATHER's masquerade of sleep, make him seem to be

having a dream. JIM is torn between his desire to leave and

his need to speak. He turns off the television quietly,

then lies down on the couch across the way. He mumbles the

things he would say to his FATHER and the answers he feels

he would get. The old man opens his eyes once, sees the boy

there, head banging upside down from the couch. Then he

shuts them again.

Upside down long shot. Room (JIM's viewpoint). Suddenly,

inverted in his vision, the MOTHER appears at the head of

the stairs, in bathrobe and nightgown. She pauses a moment,

then runs down crying:

MOTHER:

He's home! You're home! You're

all right!

The camera rights itself suddenly.

JIM as he completes his turn, pulling his head up and sitting.

FATHER as he pretends to awaken with a start.

Full shot, room as the MOTHER hurries to JIM, holds him,

inspects him, kisses him.

MOTHER:

What happened, darling. We were so

worried. I was going to take a

sleeping pill, but I wouldn't till

I knew you were home.

JIM:

I have to talk to someone, Mom. I

have to talk to you both. And Dad

this time you got to give me an

answer.

FATHER:

Go ahead.

JIM:

I'm in terrible trouble.--You know

that big high bluff near Miller-

town Junction?

FATHER:

Sure--there was a bad accident

there. They showed the pictures on

T.V.

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