The Wild Bunch Page #4

New Horses

8 Across the border

(The horses of the wild bunch are swimming through the Rio

Grande.)

ANGEL:
Mexico lindo.

L. GORCH:
I don't see nothing so lindo about it.

T. GORCH:
Just looks like more of Texas for me.

ANGEL:
You have no eyes.

(The bounty hunters are passing the dead body of Ethan, who was

shot by Pike)

THORNTON:
Got a half hour of light. Let's go.

9 Dreaming of washers

(Mexican farm in the desert. Sundown.)

SYKES:
Hello little fella.

(SYKES chuckles, caressing a baby. Mexican women, old. wild bunch

arriving.)

(Conversation (women, children, men, boys) continues in Spanish in

background)

(The wild bunch arrives.)

SYKES:
Them other fellas.

PIKE:
They are not coming.

SYKES:
None of them.

PIKE:
No.

SYKES:
But I got horses and saddles for them.

PIKE:
We'll need them, they won't.

L. GORCH:
Now about sharing up.

PIKE:
Sharing up will be the same as always.

L. GORCH:
Me and Tector don't think that he (pointing at Angel)

ought to get the same amount. He's just starting out, and this is

our opening for a new territory.

T. GORCH:
That's right. I figure a share to that old goat

(pointing at Sykes) for watching the horses is a share too much.

(Sykes spitting at the ground)

L. GORCH:
So, we decided, it ain't fair.

PIKE:
If you two boys don't like equal shares, why the hell don't

you just take all of it?

(Tector and Lyle look dazzled)

PIKE:
Why don't you answer me, you damned yellow livered trash?

L. GORCH:
Now Pike, you know...

PIKE:
I don't know a damned thing except I either lead this bunch

or end it up right now.

L. GORCH:
We divide it up just like you say.

ANGEL:
Chick, chick, chick, chick...

(They open the bags with the 'money' with their knifes, washers

are falling out)

L. GORCH:
Silver rings...

DUTCH:
Silver rings, you butt! Them's washers! Damn!

PIKE:
Bastards1

(Sykes laughing)

L. GORCH:

Washers!

Washers.

We shot our way out of that town for a dollar's worth of steel

holes!

PIKE:
They set it up.

L. GORCH:
They? Who the hell is "they"?

SYKES:
(laughing hysterically)

"They"?

"They" is just plain and fancy "they".

That's who "they" is.

Caught you, didn't they?

Tied a tin can to your trail!

Led you in and waltzed you out again!

Oh my, what a bunch!

Big tough ones.

Here you are with a handful of holes, a thumb up your ass, and a

big grin to pass the time of day with.

"They"! (more angry)

Who the hell is "they".

PIKE:

Railroad men.

Bounty hunters.

Deke Thornton.

SYKES:
(looks shocked)

Deke Thornton?

He was one of them?

L. GORCH:
How the hell come you didn't know that!

ANGEL:
Hey, gringo. (laughing)

You can have my silver.

(Tector tries to pull out his gun, but Angel is faster.)

Come on, gringo, don't kill me.

Por favor.

You can have the silver.

(Sykes taking his rifle)

But don't kill me.

Please.

PIKE:
Go on, go for it.

Fall apart.

DUTCH:
Walk softly, boys.

(They are sitting down. Sykes giving Tector a bottle of whiskey)

DUTCH:
What's our next move?

PIKE:
I figure Agua Verde is the closest.

Three days maybe.

We'll get the news and go to the border.

Maybe a payroll, maybe a bank.

L. GORCH:
Maybe that damn railroad!

DUTCH:
That damn railroad you're talking about sure isn't getting

no easier.

SYKES:
And you boys ain't getting any younger either.

PIKE:
We must start thinking beyond our guns.

Those days are closing fast.

L. GORCH:
(calm)

All your planning and talking damn near got us shot over a few

lusy bags of washers.

This was going to be me and Tector's last job befor we quit

heading south.

We spent our time and money getting ready for this!

PIKE:
You spent time and money running whores while I spent my

stake setting it up!

(Lyle throwing a washer at Pike, he catches it)

Hell I should have been running whores instead of steeling army

horses!

(All laughing)

L. GORCH:
While you did the planning me and Tector was getting our

bell rope pulled by two, two, mind you, Hondo whores!

(All cackle until end of scene)

DUTCH:
And Pike was dreaming of washers!

L. GORCH:
He was.

DUTCH:
You were matching whores in tandem.

L. GORCH:
What's that.

T. GORCH:
One behind the other.

L. GORCH:
That's right! That'S what we was doing!

(Also children who watch the scene from a distance, laughing)

10 "Being sure is my business"

(Night in the desert: Thornton and the bounty hunters)

Coffer:
Mr Thornton. You rode with Pike. What kind of man are we

up against.

THORNTON:
The best. He never get caught.

[For Thornton being seperated from Pike, Pike already became a

kind of legend, maybe by knowing the alternatives.]

(Night in the desert: Pike and Dutch)

(Night in the Mexican farm, Angel with guitar singing, Mexican

women watching, Dutch and Pike sleep in their clothes under a

blanket near the fire.)

PIKE:
This was going be my last.

Ain't getting around any better.

I'd like to make one good score and back off.

DUTCH:
Back off to what?

Have you got anything lined up.

PIKE:
Pershing's got troops spread out all along the border.

Every one of those garrisons will get a payroll.

[The US goverment called out it's army, led by General Pershing,

to defend its border against the raids of Pancho Villa.]

DUTCH:
That kind of information is kind of hard to come by.

PIKE:
I didn't say it's going to be easy, but it can be done.

DUTCH:
He'll be waiting for us.

PIKE:
I wouldn't have it any other way.

(Remembering sequence Pike, how Thornton get caught)

(Women, laughing, obviously a noble whorehouse)

THORNTON:
(Correctly dressed) Come on Pike, let's go.

PIKE:
(Half naked, with two women) You sound like you're all

caught up.

THORNTON:
(Pushing away a beautiful woman) Enough to know we've

overstayed our welcome.

PIKE:
What's wrong with you?

We've got plenty of money to spend and no worries in the world.

They're not going to look for us in their own backyard.

THORNTON:
How can you be so damned sure?

PIKE:
Being sure is my business. (sentence echoes)

(knocking on the door)

THORNTON:
(To the woman who wants to open the door) Hold it.

PIKE:
Relax. It's just some champagne we ordered. (sentence

echoes)

(The door opens, men enter with guns, shooting, Thornton got hit,

Pike escapes. The last sentences of Pike echo through the scene.)

Man 1:
Did you get him.

Man 2:
No, he got away.

(end of remembering sequence)

11 Learning from being wrong

DUTCH:
Man, you sure must have hurt that railroad.

They spent a lot of money setting up that ambush.

PIKE:
I caught up with them.

Two or three times.

There was a man named Harrigan.

He used to have a way of doing things.

I made him change his ways.

And a hell of a lot of people just cann't stand being wrong.

DUTCH:
Pride.

PIKE:
And they cann't forget it.

That pride, being wrong, or learn by it.

DUTCH:
How about us, Pike.

You reckon we learned being wrong today?

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