The Ghost and the Darkness Page #2

CUT TO:

STARLING coughing like crazy, hands over his face which is caked

with dust- he and Patterson stare out at an absolutely dreary

desert.

PATTERSON:

(shouting toward Starling)

"Breathtaking" doesn't begin to do it

justice.

(As Starling starts to

laugh, his mouth opens

and sand flies in, and

his coughing fit returns

and)

CUT TO:

THE DESERT. ENDLESS. LATER IN THE DAY.

CUT TO:

THE TWO OF THEM, bent over, arms covering their faces as the dust

gets worse- a wind has kicked up.

CUT TO:

THE TRAIN, TRYING TO MAKE IT UP A STEEP GRADE. STILL LATER.

Patterson and Starling are walking beside the train now, helping

to push it, trudging through the dust. All the other passengers

spread out behind them, also pushing- the train obviously needs

all the assistance it can get.

CUT TO:

INSIDE A RAILROAD CAR, EARLY EVENING.

Patterson and Starling, filthy, sit together. Starling has nodded

off. Patterson has a book open in his lap-

-we can tell there are drawings of African animals- not all that

accurate.

Now Patterson's eyes close and he sleeps.

CUT TO:

THE TRAIN POUNDING THROUGH THE NIGHT.

Stokers shovel coal. They are exhausted but they keep at it.

CUT TO:

PATTERSON. WAKING IN THE CAR, RUBBING HIS EYES. IT'S DAWN.

He stares out-

-and from his face it's clear something special has happened. And

now, at last-

CUT TO:

SOMETHING SPECIAL- and what it is, of course, is Patterson's first

view of the Africa of his imagination.

Because the desert has ended, and now there are grasses and trees

and one more thing-

-bursts of animals. On both sides of the train.

A flock of birds materializes here, a cluster of gazelles doing

there amazing leap there.

Patterson is like a kid in a candy store.

CUT TO:

PATTERSON AND STARLING, back outside in the engine seat again.

Starling points-

STARLING:

Aren't they amazing?

CUT TO:

WHAT HE'S POINTING AT: Some giraffes running along, their absurd

shape suddenly graceful as they eat up the ground in incredibly

long strides.

CUT TO:

PATTERSON AND STARLING, staring out.

PATTERSON:

You know the most amazing thing

about them?- they only sleep five

minutes a day.

(Starling glances at him-

clearly, he didn't know that)

CUT TO:

A FAMILY OF HYENAS. Close by, loping in their scary way.

STARLING:

Don't much like them.

PATTERSON:

(nods)

The females are bigger- only animal

here like that- have to be or they

wouldn't survive because the males

eat the young.

CUT TO:

STARLING studying Patterson. Clearly, he didn't know that, either.

CUT TO:

SOME HIPPOS moving along. Starling turns to Patterson.

STARLING:

Anything special about them?

PATTERSON:

Just that they fart through their

mouths.

(beat)

Must make kissing something of a

gamble.

STARLING:

(laughs)

I've lived in Africa a year and I

don't know what you know. How long

have you been here?

PATTERSON:

(looks at his watch)

Almost three hours.

(beat)

But I've been getting ready all my

life.

(Now, from them-)

CUT TO:

A BUNCH OF IMPOVERISHED-LOOKING NATIVE WOMEN. They hold children

who wave at the passing train. The children are more impoverished

looking than their mothers.

STARLING:

(suddenly touched)

Every time I see something like that,

I know we're right to be here- to

bring Christianity into their lives,

enrich their souls.

PATTERSON:

Beaumont says it's to end slavery.

STARLING:

(shrugs)

We all have our reasons. Mine is

simply to make them understand

happiness, accept salvation, know the

serenity that comes-

(interrupts himself)

-best I stop. One of the by-products

of my belief is that I can become

amazingly boring. But I know God smiles

on me.

PATTERSON:

(They really like each other)

Have you got that in writing?

(Starling, amazingly good

natured, laughs. And now-)

CUT TO:

A WHITE CLAW.

PULL BACK TO REVEAL

Hundreds of white claws.

KEEP PULLING BACK TO REVEAL

They aren't claws at all, they're thorns as sharp as claws and

they're on a twenty-foot high thorn tree.

And there are dozens of those trees, packed together. All mixed in

with other trees, low and stunted, and thick underbrush and baked

red rocks-

-now the train begins to slow.

Smoke drifts across.

A bunch of wildebeest scatter off the tracks.

STARLING (over)

Welcome to Tsavo.

(on the word)

CUT TO:

TSAVO.

We have arrived at the train station area and what we see is a

place that is still being built. There are tin shacks; a water

tower is under construction-

-men are working everywhere, for that's what Tsavo is: a place for

work.

THE TRAIN goes slower still.

No one stands idly around here.

But no one looks happy either.

ONE MAN is apart from the rest: this is SAMUEL.

An ageless Masai, tall and slender, he has a smile that can light

the world.

CUT TO:

PATTERSON AND STARLING as they step off the train.

STARLING:

(indicating Samuel,

who is approaching)

Samuel is camp liaison- absolutely

indispensable- the only man here

everyone trusts.

PATTERSON:

(softly)

Does he speak English?

SAMUEL:

(not softly enough)

And very poor French.

STARLING:

(introducing)

Samuel- John Patterson.

SAMUEL:

(as they shake)

The bridgebuilder-

(gesturing to the

working men)

-we have been getting ready for

you.

PATTERSON:

Excellent. Could I see the bridge

site?

(Samuel nods)

STARLING:

I've got medical supplies to

deliver. Come along to the hospital

when you're done.

(starting off)

SAMUEL:

I will bring him, Nigel.

We should realize by now that Samuel's was the voice we heard at

the very beginning of the picture.

CUT TO:

PATTERSON AND SAMUEL, starting to walk. They pass the water tower.

Standing on top of it in a precarious position is an extremely

powerful INDIAN. He waves to Samuel who waves back. This is SINGH.

WORKERS study Patterson as he moves by. Not smiling. Up ahead,

some SIKHS are erecting tents. Not smiling.

PATTERSON:

Why do the workers look unhappy?

SAMUEL:

Because they are here.

(beat)

Because Tsavo is the worst place in

the world.

(He points ahead)

Come, John- to the bridge.

(And on that-)

CUT TO:

THE RAILROAD TRACKS as the camera pans along.

CUT TO:

THE RIVER in the distance as they walk toward it.

And here is as good a place as any to explain just what the spot

where the movie takes place was like.

There were five hundred men working for Patterson. And they lived

in a spread out area. A bunch of Indian coolies who might have

come from the same town back in their country might choose to live

in one cluster of tents. A group of natives might be in another

cluster.

What we have then, as far as living places are concerned, are

dozens of clusters of tents. (Eventually, as the terror began,

these areas all got surrounded, each with its own thorn fence.)

The places we'll come to know best are, among others, Patterson's

living area, the hospital tent area, the area by the river where

the bridge is to be built, etc., etc.

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