The Last of the Mohicans Page #20

HAWKEYE:

Out the northern sally-port. Strike

for the east side of the swamp until

you clear the French picket line.

Head north over the ridge, then come

about southeast and fork left in

Little Meadow and you're free of the

outpost and skirmishers...

A COLONIAL:

(grumbles)

Should've skinned outta this long

ago.

COLONIAL #2

Got no families, Captain. Figured

we'd stay and give 'em a hand even

though...

HAWKEYE:

(to Colonial #2)

I'll cover them from the top of the

casement.

JACK:

(in amazement)

You're not coming with us?

Hawkeye shakes his head.

HAWKEYE:

Got a reason to stay.

JACK:

That reason wear a blue dress and

work in the surgery?

LOW LAUGHTER:

HAWKEYE:

(dry)

It does and it is a better lookin'

reason than you, Jack Winthrop.

(more laughs)

Push hard, 'cos you got to clear the

French outpost by dawn.

(sticks out his hand

and grasps Winthrop's)

Good luck, Jack.

The men split up...

CUT TO:

FIRE - HAWKEYE

wanders among the dancers and musicians clustered in groups,

lit by the firelight.

Someone catches his eye and he moves in that direction...

HAWKEYE'S POV:
CORA

in the shadows, leaning against the wall, searching... we

sense she's been looking for him. He comes up to her. She

turns in surprise.

CLOSER:

Somehow she breathes easier because he's there. She's in a

white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Hawkeye leads her

away from some of the people.

CORA & HAWKEYE

Hawkeye takes Cora's hand. Cora is awakening to a new spirit,

a new wind blowing through a new land, a new self-

determination... She's drawn to this rough yet graceful man

with his direct manner. Hawkeye settles against a wall. She

leans next to him.

Their shoulders touch.

CORA:

To her everything about him seems to be somehow right. She's

discovered that the passions and outrage that move him, move

her... And her readiness to give herself to what stirs the

deepest resonances of her soul is the same as his.

HAWKEYE:

looks at her. She's beautiful in the firelight. Cora's eyes

find his and she folds into his arms. His lips find hers and

tears stream down her face. She's suffused with an elation

she can't explain. In the night before doomsday a romance is

born in rebellion amid the huddled people in this small

stockade ripped from the black earth of the forests of a

wild continent.

CUT TO:

INT. BARRACKS - DAY

LOW & WIDE

Door CRASHES inwards. Twelve British sentries storm in. Four

bear torches.

REVERSE:
HAWKEYE, UNCAS, CHINGACHGOOK, TWO COLONIALS & SOME

MOHAWKS:

are out of the bunks and moving with them with tomahawks,

knives, a flintlock...

SERGEANT (O.S.)

You! Halt!

BRITISH SENTRIES

their muskets aimed mostly at Hawkeye.

SERGEANT:

As you were!!

Hawkeye freezes. The others slow down, indecisive... Hawkeye

drops his tomahawk and says something in Mohican to restrain

Chingachgook and Uncas. The British in the torchlight with

the long muskets and bayonets are an image out of Goya.

SERGEANT:

Take him!

Hawkeye's spun around and while his hands are bound.

CHINGACHGOOK:

(Mohican; subtitled)

Why do they make my son prisoner?

HAWKEYE:

(Mohican; subtitled)

I helped Winthrop and the others

leave... This fight is not yours,

father. I love you and my brother.

And you should leave this place now

and go to Can-tuck-ee...

CHINGACHGOOK:

(Mohican; subtitled)

What will they do with my white son?

One of the guards - scared to death by Chingachgook -

nervously fingers his musket.

GUARD:

Get back from him!

HEYWARD:

enters.

HAWKEYE:

shrugs in answer to Chingachgook's question.

HAWKEYE'S

moved out. As he passes Heyward, his eyes lock on his.

CUT TO:

INT. MUNRO'S QUARTERS - DAY

CORA:

CORA:

He saved us! We are alive only because

of him...

WIDEN:

Heyward, Munro, Cora. We've entered mid-argument. An adjutant

comes and goes.

Heyward and Munro are sensitive to appearances in front of

the adjutant. Cora couldn't give a damn.

MUNRO:

The man encouraged the colonials to

desert in this very room, in my

presence. He is guilty of sedition

and must be tried and hanged like

any other criminal, regardless of

what he did for my children.

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