Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

1

You Red Welby?

Yes, ma'am. How may I help you?

I heard there's three billboards

out on Drinkwater Road...

you're in charge of renting

them out, that right?

I didn't know we had any billboards

out on Drinkwater...

- Where is Drinkwater Road?

- there's a Road out past the Sizemore got put in.

Turn-off nobody uses

since the highway,

You are right.

Got three billboards out there. Nobody's

put nothing up out there since... 1986.

That was 'Huggies'.

How much to rent out

all three of 'em the year?

A year?

You wanna pay for three billboards

on a road no-one goes down

unless they got lost or they're retards,

for a year?

Quick, ain't ya, Welby?

Well...

since what I say goes these days

down at the Ebbing Advertising Desk,

I'm gonna strike you a real

good deal on those billboards,

now, what was it you said

your name was, Mrs...?

What's the law on what ya can

and cannot say on a billboard?

I assume it's ya can't

say nothing defamatory,

and ya can't say, 'F***' 'Piss' or 'C*nt'.

That right?

Or...

Anus.

Well I think I'll be alright then.

Here's five thousand for the first month.

I assume that'll cover it.

Here's what the billboards oughta say.

Why don't ya draw up a little contract

betwixt us while you're at it,

make sure nobody rents them

billboards out from under me?

I guess you're Angela Hayes' mother.

That's right, I'm Angela Hayes' mother.

Name's Mildred.

How long before you've got 'em put up?

Oh, shall we say by...

Easter Sunday?

That'd be perfect.

- Hey! What the hell's this?!

- Que?

- How come Chief Willoughby? what?

- What?

- Yeah!

- Huh!

How come what?

What?!

Listen, I better start getting

some straight answers outta you

you Put that down.

What the Hell is this?

Hey you?

What the f*** is this?

- What the f*** is what?

- This! This!

- Advertising, I guess.

- Advertising what?

Something obscure?

I'll say! Yeah!

Don't I know your face from some place?

- I dunno, do ya?

- Yeah.

Yeah, I do.

I could arrest you right

now, if I wanted to.

- For what?

- For... emptying out your bucket there. It's against the...

being bad against the environment laws.

Before you do that,

Officer Dixon,

How about you go have yourself a look

at that first billboard over there,

and then we can have ourself a conversation

about the motherfucking environment.

How about that?

F*** me.

Don't...

Dixon, you goddam a**hole, I'm

in the middle of my goddam Easter dinner...

Sorry, kids.

I know, Chief, and I'm sorry for

calling ya at home and all, but uh,

I think we've got kind of a problem...

No. No. Go back.

Alright.

Sorry I'm late, Denise.

Did you put up those

billboards to f*** with the cops yet?

They're up.

You go, girl! You go f*** those cops up!

What the f*** do you think you're

doing, Welby, buncha billboards like that,

you didn't think there'd be some

kinda ramifications? Legally?

What's the legal ramifications, Cedric?

You want me to explain the legal

ramifications, a little punk like you?

And don't call me Cedric.

Ain't contravening no laws on propriety, ain't

contravening no laws on any f***ing thing.

- I checked all this up.

- Oh yeah, where'd you check all this up?

In a...

- book.

- Which book, genius?

Book called 'Suck my ass,

it's none o' your business'.

F***.

How long has this person, or persons,

rented these billboards out for?

Oh, the year.

And how long she actually paid for?

The year.

So it's a she, isn't?

Ain't at liberty to divulge

that kinda information, Chief.

Mildred Hayes, perhaps?

Ain't at liberty to divulge

that kinda information, Chief.

Do you really wanna f*** with the

Ebbing Police Department, Red?

Do ya?

I guess.

- He said what?! To your face?!

- No crime has been committed here.

C'mon Defamation of

character ain't a crime?

It isn't defamation if she's

simply asking a question.

- What are you, an idiot?

- Don't call me an idiot, Dixon.

I didn't call you an idiot. I asked if

you was an idiot. It was a question.

He got ya, Cedric!

- That's it. C'mon man.

- Don't go fly off the handle!

- Why in hell you keep that man on?

- He's a good man. At heart.

- He tortured a guy in custody, Bill.

- There was no...

real evidence to support that.

Take 'em down.

- Hah?

- Take that sh*t down.

- Take what sh*t down?

- Hey boy.

You think I wouldn't take you out,

right here on Main Street, Red?

I Thought you only take

out black dudes, Dixon...

That's it. No no.

Stop it! Don't; you ever f***ing

touch me, you motherf***er.

Are you drunk?

Are you drunk right now?

- Get up

nobody never goes down that road, anyways.

Unless they got lost, or they're retards.

Well, don't be nervous, is the main

thing, and it'll go just fine.

Don't look into the camera, obviously.

Let's hold for this car.

In three, two, one.

So, Mildred Hayes, why did

you put up these billboards?

Well, my daughter, Angela, she got abducted, and

she got raped and murdered seven months ago,

on this self-same stretch o' road here,

Whatcha watching, Momma? The stupid news?

It seems like the local police department is

too busy goin' round torturing black folks

to be bothered doing anything

about solving actual crime,

I thought these here billboards

might concentrate their minds some.

F***.

I don't know what the police are

doing, to be honest with you.

I do know my daughter's burnt body

is lying six feet under the ground

while they're eating Krispy Kremes

and busting eight year-olds for

skateboarding in parking lots.

And Chief Willoughby, why single him out?

Well, he's the head of 'em, ain't he?

The buck's gotta stop at somewhere.

And the buck stops at Willoughby?

Yeah, the buck stops at Willoughby.

Dead right it does.

You alright there, fella?

Looks like we got a war on our hands.

Can we talk?

I'd do anything to catch the

guy who did it, Mrs. Hayes.

But when the DNA don't match

no-one who's ever been arrested,

and when the DNA don't match

any other crime nationwide,

and when there wasn't a single eyewitness

from the time she left your house

to the time we found her, well,

right now there ain't too

much more that we can do

you Could pull blood from every

man and boy in this town,

over the age of eight.

There's civil rights laws

prevents that, Mrs. Hayes,

and what if he was just

passing thru town...

Pull blood from ever' man

in the country, then.

And what if he was just

passing thru the country?

If it was me,

I'd start up a database,

every male baby what's

born, stick 'em on it,

and as soon as they done something

wrong, cross reference it

make a hundred percent certain

it was a correct match,

then kill 'em.

Yeah, well, there's

definitely civil rights laws prevents that.

I'm doing everything I

can to track him down,

I don't think those

billboards is very fair.

The time it's took you to get out here

whining like a b*tch, Willoughby,

some other poor girl's probably out

there being butchered right now,

but I'm glad you've got your priorities

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