Slow Burn
- R
- Year:
- 2000
- 97 min
- 85 Views
1
Of all the ways
the most dangerous
is the mirage.
In those shimmering, sparkling
depths, you see whatever you want...
water, wealth, dreams.
That's the promise,
and that's the curse.
When the sand swallowed
the widow mcteague,
the desert turned her silver box
into a mirage.
In 1907, her second husband
squandered his last pesos...
Pursuing what he'd almost had.
Thirty years later, her grown
children began to believe...
They saw a way
After the war, one of their
sons imagined he saw a way...
To get back the life he'd discarded
at the recruiting office.
Finally, 12 years ago,
his granddaughter saw me.
Humidity's about six percent.
That means it takes a grown-up
four quarts a day just to sweat.
If you run dry, your blood gets
thick, your tongue turns hard,
and you're dead in 19 hours.
I'll remember that.
Oh, she was the last thing
you'd expect to find out here.
She belonged.
Hi, mom.
Which is more than I can say
for catalina.
- Hey, dad.
- Hi. Jacob mcteague.
Come on up.
Frank Norris.
A couple of handshakes.
The ordinary greetings. Just what
you'd do with any strangers.
But out here you don't stay
strangers for long. Trina.
Over the next months,
we became a family... of sorts.
I didn't catch your name.
Catalina.
Catalina. Oh.
- You sold the house, didn't you?
- I sold the trailer, yeah,
to get the truck so we don't get
stranded out here. Stranded?
What were you thinking?
Come on. Piece...
trina, come here. There's
something I wanna show you.
I'm sick and tired of hearing... we found
her watch, the key, we found the Bible.
We're so close. Jacob, we found Paulina's
watch two and a half years ago!
- Did I ever show you this?
- Here. It's volcanic.
Stop it! Come here. Come here.
I've had it with you! Stop it!
other side of the salt flats.
Five thousand degrees.
What? I can't... I can't
take this anymore.
I can't do this anymore.
Oh, come on.
No, leave me alone! It takes thousands
of years to lay those things down.
We're gonna find it.
It's out there.
Hey, it doesn't matter.
Is it for me?
Yes, it is.
I got somethin' else for you.
Somethin' very special.
That's for you.
Put it around your neck.
I won't disappoint you,
daddy. I promise.
I know you won't.
What do you say
we light your cake?
I miss mama.
Tell me what to do.
But even then, we all knew
catalina wasn't coming back.
Three hundred and fifteen
degrees.
Three hundred and forty.
- It's probably over there.
- Maybe.
"Maybe." It is!
Probably. So they went on,
day after day, year after year,
until there was only her...
And the search.
I'm sorry. Your geodes aren't
bringin' in what they used to.
Since you promised this'd be your last
season, that shouldn't be a problem, right?
What you got planned, Frank?
A surprise.
Oh, yeah?
What is this?
a nice new dress,
and then you walk me into town?
No, it's to celebrate your new life...
In Cancun.
I know this guy who works in one
They need people who can speak both languages.
You know, fit in with the clientele.
I told him you'd be just right for it.
No. For you.
- For people that belong there.
- Oh, come on.
- You're a beautiful young lady.
- What are you now, my dad?
No. No.
Tsk. Aw, gee.
Let me do it.
- No.
- Come on! You can't do...
I have this dream, Frank.
I'm in a grocery store.
I wake up
and my heart is pounding,
because I don't
belong there, and...
Any place I go
is a foreign country.
I've never been to a dance.
I've never been to a library.
I've never been
in a swimming pool.
I never... never...
I'm not gonna wake up
Right? I mean, um,
this is, um...
this is me. This is it.
Uh...
I've grown up.
I mean, look at me, Frank.
Look hard.
Who would want this?
Jesus! Look at you.
You're catalina's little girl.
Get your money back! And I'm
not goin' to Cancun either.
- We had a deal.
- No deal!
This desert killed
four generations of my family!
- Do you wanna make it five?
- I will not be the last loser in a chain of losers!
You know why? Because I
learned about this desert.
I respect it,
and I listen to it.
- Why do you have to be so goddamn stubborn over this?
- Because this is all I got!
What if you find Paulina
and the diamonds aren't there?
- Shut up! Shut up!
- Then what are you gonna have?
those diamonds!
Oh, Jesus, I'm sorry.
No, you know what?
Don't need a daddy anymore.
Maybe tomorrow, Tracy.
Some dreams die hard.
Because in this desert,
under that burning eye,
there's always another dreamer.
You're thinkin' again, aren't ya?
Yeah.
I was thinkin' about what's gonna
happen when we get across the border.
See? I'm in this hellhole,
fightin' for our lives,
you're sittin' in some ice cream parlor
in El Paso with a banana in your mouth.
Come on.
I still... I still say...
That if we never plan where we wanna
go, we ain't never gonna get there.
When are you
gonna learn, duster?
The future ain't gonna happen unless you make
the most of it right here and right now.
It could be so good, Marcus.
You hit the jackpot when you got
chained to me, and what did I get?
Hey! There we go.
See, discipline.
Mental toughness.
Get some, if you
wanna be like me.
What if I don't wanna be like you?
I heard that.
Marcus, wait up.
You think bugs
get itchy, Marcus?
Because if they get itchy,
they'd itch on the inside,
'cause the skeleton's
on the outside.
Bugs don't get itchy! Why not?
Their lives are too goddamn
short, that's why. What is that?
What is that?
Holy sh*t!
Congratulations, pal. You ain't the only
one out here dead between the ears.
You sure know how
to pick an easy mark.
This sucker's been
out here so long,
we might find
some antique jewelry.
Marcus, I'm gonna
leave this for it, okay?
Ain't that sweet? Sending flowers
while I grope the stiff.
Hey, Marcus, these little
pictures are everywhere.
- Huh?
- You think they mean somethin'?
What have we got here? Ring.
Oh, Jesus! Na...
hey, duster, you remember
our little conversation?
Which one?
The one about all the things you miss if
you ain't livin' in the here and now.
Aah, f*** ya.
The here and now here or wh-when
you were talking before?
Forget it. I take it all back.
Don't need no chain,
to have you drag me down.
I knew it the day mama said,
"meet your cousin."
In the lottery of life, how
the hell did I draw you?
I don't know why we got what we got,
but we gave ourselves a combine.
And no matter what, we put everything we
are, everything we got in the combine,
'cause that's what's
gotten us through.
Sometimes what we share is good,
and sometimes it's bad.
But right now...
right now it's this, Marcus.
You did it.
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"Slow Burn" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/slow_burn_18312>.
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