The Green Mile Page #15

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FAT LADY:

Hope he's good and scared. Hope he

knows the fires are stoked, and

that Satan's imps are waiting.

ANGLE ON DOOR:

Del enters, horrified to see Percy waiting at Old Sparky.

Paul gives Del's arm a reassuring squeeze, leads him

forward...

IN A TIGHT SERIES OF SHOTS:

The clamps are applied. The straps are drawn tight.

PERCY:

Roll on one.

The lights brighten on a RISING HUM. Witnesses look up.

ON THE MILE:

Coffey looks up as the overheads flare hotter and hotter,

whispers to the mouse in his hands:

COFFEY:

You be still, Mr. Jingles. You be

so quiet and so still.

RESUME EXECUTION CHAMBER

PERCY:

Eduard Delacroix, you have been

condemned to die by a jury of your

peers, sentence imposed by a judge

in good standing in this state.

You have anything to say before

sentence is carried out?

Del tries to speak. Doesn't quite manage the first time.

Licks his lips and tries again.

DEL:

I sorry for what I do. I give

anything to take it back, but I

can't. God have mercy on me.

(whispers to Paul)

Don' forget 'bout Mouseville.

Paul and Brutal nod--and are stunned as:

PERCY:

No such place. That's just a fairy

tale these guys told you to keep

you quiet. Just thought you should

know, f*ggot.

The stricken look in Del's eyes tells us a part of him had

known all along. Paul and Brutal would both like to deck

Percy right about now, and he knows it--he gives them a "what

are you gonna do about it" smile.

Nothing they can do. Paul nods to Harry, who takes the black

mask from the back of the chair and rolls it down over Del's

head, leaving the top of his shaved head exposed.

PERCY:

takes the sponge and bends down to the bucket of brine. The

other don't see it, but we do:

Percy only pretends to dip the sponge and soak it. It never

touches the water. He straightens up and places the sponge

atop Delacroix's head, hiding it with his hands.

The cap is lowered. Paul and the others haven't yet realized

what's happened. THUNDER BOOMS and LIGHTNING CRASHES as Percy

hides a smile, steps back to address the condemned:

PERCY:

Electricity shall now be passed

through your body until you are

dead, in accordance with state

law. God have mercy on your soul.

TIGHT ON PAUL:

as realization starts to dawn. He stares at the bucket, then

across the floor to Delacroix, coming to terms with the

evidence of his eyes--there's no water on the floor or

dripping down the sides of Del's neck.

Paul's eyes widen. A stunned beat of horror. He starts to

open his mouth to scream "NO!", but Percy beats him to it

with:

PERCY:

Roll on two.

Van Hay flicks the switch. WHAM. The electricity hits home

and Del rocks forward, riding the current.

Then things start to go horribly wrong.

The HUMMING loses its steadiness and starts to waver with a

CRACKLING SOUND. Tendrils of smoke begin curling from under

the cap, a mixture of burning hair and sponge. Brutal shoots

Paul a horrified look. Paul responds with a harsh whisper:

PAUL:

It's dry!

Delacroix begins twisting and jittering in the chair, his

masked face snapping violently from side to side, his legs

pistoning up and down in his restraints.

There's a MUFFLED POP from under the cap, like a pine knot

exploding in a hot fire. Smoke starts coming through the

fabric of the mask, puffing upward. Del is being cooked

alive. Paul spins to the partition, hollering--

PAUL:

JACK!

--but Brutal grabs his arm, whispers fiercely:

BRUTAL:

Don't you tell him to stop. Don't

you do it. It's too late for that.

Paul turns back, helpless. The other guards are trading wild

looks, unable to believe what's happening. Even Percy looks

aghast--he was expecting something, but not this.

Del begins SCREAMING--the wild, hysterical sound of an animal

being shredded alive in a hay baler. The HUMMING goes uneven

and ragged, the lights rising and falling...

ON THE MILE:

...as Del's screams rise and fall with them, echoing up the

corridor. Coffey's shaking and screaming too, as if feeling

Del's pain. Mr. Jingles squirms out of his grasp and goes

squeaking in terror toward the restraint room door...

BILLY:

HE'S COOKIN' NOW! THEY COOKIN' HIM

GOOD! NEAR ABOUT DONE, I RECKON!

RESUME EXECUTION CHAMBER

Wrong. Del's nowhere near about done. He's slamming back and

forth in the chair hard enough to shake the platform,

twisting hard against the leather restraints. We hear BONES

BREAKING. A WOMAN'S SCREAMS. Witnesses start rising to their

feet:

WITNESSES:

What the hell's happening to

him?...Are those clamps going to

hold?...Christ, the smell!...Is

this normal?

The mask bursts into flame on Delacroix's face. Van Hay

hollers through the wire mesh, horrified:

VAN HAY:

SHOULD I KILL THE JUICE?

PAUL:

NO! ROLL, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, ROLL!

Harry scoops up the bucket of water to throw it.

PAUL:

No water! No water! You crazy?

Harry backs off with a look of dazed understanding--you don't

throw water on a man getting juiced. Right. He drops the

bucket, races to get the chemical fire extinguisher instead.

The flaming mask peels away, revealing Del's charring face.

His eyeballs are misshapen globs of burning white jelly blown

out of their sockets. The ATTENDING DOCTOR faints dead away.

Pandemonium now in the room. People shouting and hurrying to

exit, chairs falling over, women screaming:

FAT LADY:

Stop it, stop it, oh can't you see

he's had enough?

Hal grabs Paul by the shoulder, spins him around.

HAL:

Why don't you shut it down?

PAUL:

He's still alive! You want me to

shut down while he's still alive?

Hal is horrified at the thought. Del is jittering and

screaming, rocking from side to side, smoke pouring from his

nostrils and mouth, his tongue sizzling purple-black.

The witnesses are crowding and shoving to get out, but the

back door is locked. All they can do is cluster there.

Paul sees Percy with his head turned away. He grabs him,

forces his head around.

PAUL:

You watch, you son of a b*tch!

Harry steps up, the extinguisher in his hands. Waiting. Del

finally slumps over. He still vibrating, but now it's just

the effect of current flowing through his body.

PAUL:

Kill it!

Van Hay kills the current. The HUMMING DIES. Brutal grabs the

extinguisher from Harry, shoves it into Percy's hands.

BRUTAL:

You do it. You're running the

show, ain't you?

Percy, sick and dazed, aims the extinguisher and hoses the

smoking corpse. Hal is near the back, calming the crowd:

HAL:

It's all right, folks, it's all

under control. Just a power surge

from the storm, that's all,

nothing to worry about...

PAUL:

Dean, get doc's stethoscope.

Dean drops to the doctor's bag, digs through it, hands up the

stethoscope. Paul plugs them into his ears. People are

moaning and sobbing at the back of the room:

MAN:

Oh my God! Is it always like this?

Why didn't somebody tell me? I

never would have come!

Paul wipes some foam away from Delacroix's chest, places the

stethoscope pad to the raw flesh. He nods to Brutal--it's

over.

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