Silkwood

---

- Name?

- Karen Silkwood.

- Drew Stephens.

- Dolly Pelliker.

Hi, Ham.

- Good-bye.

- All right.

All right, see you.

So then the woman got up...

and she was dressed

in a long white dress...

just like an angel.

And she called for the people

to come on up...

and this kid came up

with an arm...

that was almost pitch black

from blood poisoning.

But that woman held that arm...

and she prayed over it...

and it turned pink

right in front of your eyes.

And then it fell right off.

I was there, Wesley.

I was sitting right there.

When I was in the service,

I saw this gook...

drink a glass of milk

through his pecker.

What? Then what happened?

Didn't follow him home

to find out.

This is dry processing...

the heart of

the production process.

Come on in, trainees.

This brown powder

you see here. ..

is mixed plutonium

and uranium oxide.

And these trained technicians...

are fabricating it

into fuel pellets.

Karen, could you explain...

the procedures

in this glove box?

Yeah. what we're doing is

we're blending and mixing...

the plutonium and uranium oxide

into correct ratios.

And then we sift it

for impurities.

And then it's fed

into the slugging press...

which makes the pellets.

This is the slugging press...

where the powder

is turned into pellets.

What about radiation effects

from all this material?

We've all seen a poor guy...

suffering

the effects of sunburn.

Radiation is like that.

It's the kind of thing

that can't hurt you...

unless you're careless with it.

Hey, Wesley?

Come here. I need the help

of a trained technician here.

Come here.

Put it back in!

Hey, Georgie. You know

that 0' girl Jeane Dixon...

the one with the stars

on her palms?

She was on Johnny Carson

one night. ..

and she's telling

how her niece phoned her up.

Niece goes, "I got to catch

this airplane to Houston."

And Jeane Dixon goes...

"Now, don't you get on

that airplane."

And by golly,

that airplane crashed.

What do you make of that?

She's got the gift, all right.

Or maybe she just

tells everybody she knows...

not to get on planes,

and then one day...

one crashes

and that's her lucky day.

Drew says he's got

to work an hour overtime. ..

so he can't leave till 7:00.

OK. Sh*t!

I forgot to get permission.

I don't know.

I believe in that stuff.

Sometimes it happens

where I know things.

Can you tell if

I'm getting this weekend off?

- Go see my kids?

- It don't work like that.

I can't sit here

and find out just anything.

I have to wait for it

to smack into me.

- Lunch!

- I got to find Hurley.

Karen,

you never monitor yourself.

Come back here

and do it like the rest of us.

"Karen,

you never monitor yourself."

I'll get you, girl.

Know what happens to girls

that don't monitor themselves?

Your nipples turn green.

There's nothing they can do.

Where they going to park

a contaminated truck?

It'll stay that way

twenty-five thousand years.

They can put it in space.

Hell, put it in orbit.

- Yeah, in orbit.

- Put it on the moon.

- What's going on?

- They cooked a truck.

There was a leak

in one of the barrels.

Dolly tell you

I have to work late?

Yeah.

The whole weekend's screwed up.

I forgot to get permission.

Now I can't find Hurley.

You better find him.

Heard those guys on the truck

didn't monitor themselves.

That's a surprise.

- New guy in X-ray.

- See y'all later.

- What's his name?

- OK. Take care.

Winston something.

Do you like him?

As a matter of fact,

he's the type I hate.

Curtis, what is that?

Gilda's got some recipe

from a magazine...

about putting pineapple

in everything.

She puts pineapple in pineapple.

What you got?

What do you want?

- Mystery meat.

- It's no mystery.

What's that?

Peanut butter again?

Lay off my sandwich.

I don't want that.

- Hey, Thelma.

- Hi, honey.

How's your daughter doing?

She's had

one of them remissions.

If you believe in them.

Thank the Lord I got six others.

Mr. Hurley?

I hear you want the weekend off.

- I know it's late.

- we can't give it to you.

This plant's operating

24 hours a day on a deadline.

- You know that.

- Yeah.

How about if I get somebody

to switch with me?

Most people are working

a double shift now.

So, anyway...

don't everybody

volunteer at once.

We have a revival, Karen.

And you?

Jimmy and me are going

to Oklahoma City for a concert.

Curtis would have a fit.

Promised my kid

I'd take him to Gar Creek.

How about you, Carl?

I got to work myself.

- what the hell was that?

- It's a test.

How do you know?

This is a test.

This is only a test.

You always say that.

You know some poor son

of a b*tch got his ass fried.

What I don't get is

how we have all these tests...

but never go through the drill.

If this was a real

airborne contamination...

we're supposed

to get out of here.

We can't do the drill.

It might stop production

for ten minutes.

If it had been the real thing,

they'd shut down the plant...

and I could have had

the whole weekend.

Karen, I've been thinking.

If you'll work

the next shift back-to-back. ..

I'll switch with you.

Don't tell Curtis, hear?

You mean Curtis

still doesn't like me?

No, but you know how he is.

What are they doing

to that truck?

Move on out, OK?

Dolly.

You coming, or aren't you?

What's there to do down there?

Nothing. There's nothing

to do down there.

All right. I'll come.

She's coming!

It's not going to be a party,

so don't blame me.

It stinks around here.

That's home. That's what I left.

They'll be back

in a little while.

Just went to get some beer.

This is great, Linda.

Come on. Come on in.

Oh, boy.

You look so big.

Go on. Say hi to your mama.

Donny, come here.

Denise, Donny,

come sit over here.

Donny? Donny, come.

It's OK, son. Go ahead.

That's such a pretty dress.

I know. Linda made it for me.

Did you get that baseball

I sent you?

You all remember Drew?

- I'm so happy to see you.

- where were you, Mama?

I was up near Oklahoma City.

I told you that.

- Are you Mama?

- I'm Mama. That's right.

Mama's going to take you

to the beach for the weekend.

Am I going?

You're going,

and we'll stay in a motel. ..

and get those little pieces

of soap all wrapped up.. .

You should have talked to me.

I got the weekend off.

I'm taking them out to Daddy's.

I talked to Linda.

You should have talked to me.

You can take them out

for a while if you want to.

Scoot through.

What am I supposed to eat here?

- French fries.

- Sh*t.

Don't say that, Dolly.

Donny,

you're not eating anything.

- I've got to use the bathroom.

- Go ahead.

Mom, can I buy a coke?

OK. Here you go.

Drew, you help Tammy.

Nobody'll see her up there.

- I couldn't go.

- You couldn't go.

Do you still sleep with Mama?

Sh*t!

Don't say that, Mama.

Don't drip it in my fries!

Old McDonald had a farm.

E-I-E-I-O

Yeah, here we are.

All right, Tammy,

don't forget your moose.

Drew, help me get her out

of the back seat, will you?

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