DAY 3:
INT. MOTOR HOME, PARENT’S BEDROOM, MORNING.
Extreme close-up of what appears to be a black hole. The camera slowly zooms out to reveal that the hole is in fact the Woman’s closed right eye with a heavy dose of black mascara. She opens this eye and begins to apply mascara to her other eye. Man enters.
WOMAN
Where are the kids?
MAN
Looking for the dog.
WOMAN
Good.
MAN
Good?
WOMAN
It’ll be a cathartic exercise for them.
MAN
Meaning?
WOMAN
Well if they can't get him back then they'll have the satisfaction that they did they're best trying.
MAN
It’s their pet.
WOMAN
You found him. You’ll find another.
MAN
I don’t think so. Did you talk to him this morning?
WOMAN
Yep.
MAN
And?
WOMAN
He's upset. What do you expect?
CUT TO:
EXT. DESERT.
Steady cam POV of someone running through the desert toward the Motor home.
CUT TO:
INT. MOTOR HOME, PARENT’S BEDROOM
MAN
I'm beginning to regret this now.
WOMAN
Ah hah, reality at last!
MAN
It was stupid coming out here again misplacing my hope on some invisible...
WOMAN
Again; you mean this isn’t the first time?
MAN
(aware of his blunder)
No – not the first.
WOMAN
How many?
MAN
Forget it it’s not important.
WOMAN
How many?!!
MAN
Six, maybe seven times.
WOMAN
I can’t believe…
CUT TO:
EXT. DESERT
Steady cam shot of runner’s POV. This time the Motor home is closer.
CUT TO:
INT. PARENT’S BEDROOM.
WOMAN
Did you think I would have come here if I knew you’d failed half a dozen times before?
MAN
Oh come on now, that's not fair. I can’t let failure stop me, even you can see that.
WOMAN
Oh it is fair sugar, it's as fair as I'm ever likely to get. You could’ve come here yourself. You didn’t need us.
MAN
And what about...?
A shout suddenly pierces the air outside.
MAN
What the hell?
CUT TO:
EXT. DESERT.
Steady cam shot facing the Girl signifying she is the running figure from the previous two steady cam shots.
GIRL
He’s gone! He’s gone!
CUT TO:
INT. MOTOR HOME, PARENT’S BEDROOM.
The Man and Woman run to the window to look out.
WOMAN
Where’s the boy?
MAN
I don’t know.
They leave room and head toward the Motor home door.
CUT TO:
INT. MOTOR HOME, KITCHEN.
A shot of Man opening the door. The camera slowly zooms out as the figure of the Girl runs toward it, her arms flaying.
The camera stops with the Girl in medium close-up.
EXT. DESERT.
GIRL
He’s gone.
The Man and the Woman are now both standing in the door way of the Motor home.
WOMAN
What do you means he’s gone? The Boy? Where has he gone?
GIRL
He found some remains. We were looking for the dog and…well he just went crazy.
MAN
Where did he find them?
Girl points.
MAN
I told you two that I searched there last night.
GIRL
He wanted to check you hadn’t missed anything.
WOMAN
So you found something last night? Why didn’t you hide it?
MAN
I did, but I was stupid enough to believe that some people would do as they’re told.
WOMAN
Okay, that doesn’t matter. Let’s just go get him. Where’s he gone?
GIRL
That’s the problem.
MAN
Where…oh no…not the cave?
GIRL
Uh huh. He went back for the headdress.
WOMAN
But why, what has that got to do with a missing dog?
GIRL
Pay back.
MAN
Pay back?
GIRL
He loses something so he takes something to replace it.
MAN
Now do you see what all this talk has done? He’s convinced there’s some ancient conspiracy going on here. We should have left this morning.
WOMAN
Well why did you have to put the thing back in the first place, it harmed no one?
MAN
Here we go again. Will someone stop blaming me for everything?
Looks at the Woman who gives him a look in return as if to say it is his fault in fact.
MAN
Okay, okay so it is my fault, but let's not argue, let's just go and get him.
WOMAN
Leave him. Let him bring it back as a souvenir. He’ll be happy and we can go today.
MAN
Okay, okay he can keep it. Let’s just go, get him back and hit the road.
WOMAN
Christ, not again? Well don’t walk under any ladders on the way up.
INT. CAVE, NOON.
Begin with a close-up of the Indian skeleton with the headdress on; a pair of hands enters the screen and lifts the headdress away.
CUT TO:
A medium close-up of the boy from behind as he turns to face the camera. He motions as if to exit the cave when he notices something on the wall.
CUT TO:
A medium close-up of the boy from side-on and at a low angle. He is staring at something painted on the walls.
CUT TO:
A close-up of the boy’s face.
BOY
Well, well, that does explain a few things, perhaps even the concern over a pile of feathers. But I’m sorry Old Man
(Then turning toward the skeleton)
And you too Cochise, these are mine now.
(Goes through gorse bush)
EXT. CLIFF TOP.
Low angle shot of the boy exiting the gorse and walking to the edge of the cliff.
CUT TO:
A panoramic shot of the Badlands. The camera pans across from screen right to left.
CUT TO:
A medium close-up of the boy as he triumphantly places the headdress on his head.
BOY
Whoop! Whoop! I am Little Running Bear and these are my lands now.
EXT. BELOW CLIFFS.
The group are ascending the cliff-top. They stop and look up towards the cliff tops as the sound of the Boy’s voice carries across to them. The father is prominent in the middle with the women in single file behind him.
WOMAN
That’s him.
GIRL
What the hell’s he shouting for. With a mouth like that he could start a landslide.
MAN
Let’s get up there then before he buries us down here!
They recommence their climb.
EXT. CLIFF TOP.
The Boy continues to hoot and mimic the stereotypical image of the Native American Indian.
CUT TO:
A close-up of a piece of flora on the ridge close by. The plant begins to twitch as if a small breeze had just blown through it.
CUT TO:
A close-up of the Boy dancing. Some of the feathers appear to flutter in the breeze.
CUT TO:
A close-up of the ridge floor as sand begins to lift into the air. The breeze is getting stronger. The Boy stops dancing and looks up and around at the sky and surroundings.
BOY
(Grinning inanely)
Oh dear, have I upset somebody?
The wind whips up even more dust around the Boy who begins to dance again.
EXT. RIDGE BELOW CLIFF TOP
The group arrive at a flat area about thirty feet below the Boy. They cannot see the Boy now for the dust storm but they can hear him.
WOMAN
What the hell is that?
MAN
Sandstorm.
GIRL
What, just up there?
EXT. CLIFF TOP.
The Boy continues to dance in the middle of the storm. Behind him in the murkiness four figures become visible. He dances for a few moments and then as the camera zooms in toward his face he suddenly notices their presence.
CUT TO:
A medium close-up of the four murky figures.
CUT TO:
A medium close-up of the Boy who is straining to see who they are. Suddenly a violent gust of wind blows off the headdress.
CUT TO:
EXT. RIDGE BELOW CLIFF TOP.
A low angled shot looking up toward the sandstorm. The headdress falls out of the dust cloud hitting the ground some ten feet from the group.
CUT TO:
EXT. CLIFF TOP.
The Boy who is struggling to stand. The four figures appear to come toward him. The storm begins to intensify and the noise of horse’s hooves is heard, growing louder and louder.
CUT TO:
The plant again, as the hooves seem to thunder past it bringing a fierce blast in its wake ripping the plant from the ground.
CUT TO:
To the Boy as wind finally propels him over the edge of the cliff.
CUT TO:
EXT. RIDGE BELOW CLIFF TOP.
The group have moved toward where the headdress fell, the Man is holding it in his hands.
GIRL
He must be in trouble.
MAN
It appears so…
WOMAN
Look out!
CUT TO:
Another low angled shot looking up at the dust cloud. This time a figure is falling toward them. They automatically jump out of the way as the Boy’s body slams into the ground.
EXT. CLIFF TOP.
Back at the cliff top the sandstorm is beginning to abate and the sound of the hooves is petering off into the distance. As the scene clears the four figures become visible. They are four Native American Indians. One is an elderly man, the GRANDFATHER, one middle-aged, the FATHER and two are teenagers, an ELDER INDIAN BOY aged about 17 and a YOUNG INDIAN BOY about age 14. They are from the Pine Ridge reservation which is located to the south of the Badlands. They approach the place where the boy fell.
EXT. RIDGE BELOW CLIFF TOP.
Cut back to the group. The Woman has the boy’s head cradled in her arms while the Girl is holding his hand. The Man is still holding the headdress but begins to squeeze it with his hands in close-up. He looks up at the cliff top and as he does so the four Indians come into view.
CUT TO:
Shot of the group from the Indians POV. The group as one seem to respond together in looking up toward the Indians. The Woman begins to rise, laying the Boy’s head gently down and assuming a position behind the Man’s right shoulder; the Girl also moves from the Boy’s body toward the Man’s left shoulder. Together they form a triangular shape pointing toward the Indians.
They assume stern, vengeful faces. Cut to shot of Indians from the group’s POV. The Father is to the extreme left with the Elder Indian Boy next to him and the Grandfather next to him. They are in a line, with a gap of a few feet separating them from the Young Indian Boy, who is on the right of them.
EXT. CLIFF TOP.
The four Indians withdraw from the cliff edge after their brief eyeball to eyeball with the group.
INDIAN FATHER
The crazy idiot; I think he must be dead.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Father – what happened?
ELDER INDIAN BOY
Yeah, that freak storm…I’ve never seen one like that.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Freak? I don’t think so.
INDIAN FATHER
(Angry)
Don’t go there father, not now, not today. We shouldn’t even be here.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I left my reasons with your cousin. I didn’t ask you to follow me.
INDIAN FATHER
What else could I do? A dream, a stupid dream warns you you’re needed here because of some old legend. And now we’re mixed up in this!
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You would not understand and yet you should.
INDIAN FATHER
I understand one thing. We could all be in big trouble here.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
But we’re innocent we didn’t touch him.
INDIAN FATHER
Try telling his family.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
If they saw it with their own eyes they would still blame us.
INDIAN FATHER
(Thinking of the boys)
No they won’t. I’ll tell them the truth that he slipped.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
But it didn’t look like he slipped.
INDIAN FATHER
(Irate)
So did we push him then?
ELDER INDIAN BOY
The wind did it; we all saw it.
INDIAN FATHER
(To Indian Grandfather)
This is you isn’t? I thought I said the stories were to stop?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And deny them their heritage?
INDIAN FATHER
Because of this: children blaming the cause of a tragic accident on a supernatural wind.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Turning to the boys)
Your father is right, it was not the wind.
INDIAN FATHER
You hear him.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
It was something inside the wind.
INDIAN FATHER
(Groaning)
Father, this is fucking serious. Don’t you think the police would love to have four crazy Indians using an old legend to escape a murder charge?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
So you…
INDIAN FATHER
Yes I remember…but that was in another life.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Don’t kill their faith because yours is finished.
INDIAN FATHER
Those ideals have no significance here.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Continuing to ignore him)
Do you believe the Gods have let us down?
INDIAN FATHER
Why do you persist with this lunacy, when a boy is probably lying dead down there?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Boy? You know what I think.
FATHER
That was the craziest excuse I ever heard you give for running off. It’s just a myth, handed down for no other reason than to scare children. It never happened.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Then why did the Boy desecrate the burial site, why does he have no respect for our faith?
INDIAN FATHER
What is faith? What are legends but ingrained falsehoods sustaining a belief that we are a superior race, forgetting what we see everyday - slaves where we once were masters.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
One day – soon – our land will be returned to us. The rivers will be pregnant with fish and the hills and plains will roar with the hooves of livestock. We will hunt again and we will sing songs to our Gods. I will not see it and neither will these two boys but their ancestors will, as long as our eyes see what others cannot.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
I believe you Grandfather.
INDIAN FATHER
You do not know what you are saying. The old Indians are dead and there are no new ones. We are in limbo between the old world and death - that is all. The only thing you are going to do is go home with your Grandfather and brother!
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
There will be a new world and a new tribe. It is the masters’ nature to destroy the goodness the land offers. He takes and never gives and when he has nothing left to destroy he will destroy himself. Then we will take back what was ours.
INDIAN FATHER
(Kindly)
Father please take them now, no more talk…
(Looks at the boys)
I should go now and talk to the white family.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
(Frightened)
Don’t go Father.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
(Apprehensive)
Yes Father. Let’s go home. There is something not right about them.
INDIAN FATHER
We can’t just leave. That’s madness. They would assume we’d killed him. I would rather talk to the police than be hunted by them. They will not take our side before them. The boy stole the headdress don’t forget, they may think we are extracting some ridiculous form of revenge for the desecration, like in some old movie or your Grandfather’s stories.
The father looks pleadingly with his eyes toward the Grandfather begging him to do as he says. A look passes between them acknowledging that a silent agreement has been reached.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Grandfather, stop him. I don’t trust them.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Your Father is right, someone must speak to them. Go then son and I will take the boys and start for home.
(Looks at his son)
God be with you.
INDIAN FATHER
I’ll be okay – you worry like the young ones.
He smiles reassuringly and goes.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Grandfather – you are afraid too?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Yes.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
Is it the family or something else?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Yes.
FADE TO BLACK.
EXT. BADLANDS, AFTERNOON.
The grandfather is hurrying away with the two boys toward Pine Ridge reservation knowing he will be unable to make it all the way before nightfall.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Grandfather.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Hurrying on not wanting to stop, knowing the child is about to quiz him)
Hurry - we need to move quickly if we wish to find a safe camp for tonight.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Safe? I knew it. There is something you’re not telling us.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
We should wait for our father.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Your father’s okay; what is going to happen to him? Someone had to go to them. We don’t want a visit from the police.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
The police will come anyway, we are witnesses.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Yes, but not murderers.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
What could we tell them?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
What your father told you. It was an accident.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
Why were you arguing with father then?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Stops and pauses before he speaks)
My skin is wrinkled and perhaps my mind is a little that way too. It is a Grandfather’s duty to entertain his young ones with stories, but now you must leave the child behind.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
What about the stone?
ELDER INDIAN BOY
What are you talking about?
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Sometimes my Father would catch Grandfather telling me stories.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And he would send you on an errand to get you away from me.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
And if you hadn’t finished the story you would write the end down for me and hide it under a special stone, so I could find it and read it later. We had a sign to let me know when it was there.
(He demonstrates by locking the two biggest fingers of his right hand together and curling the rest into his palm, holding it to his chest)
ELDER INDIAN BOY
But Grandfather we never had to do that.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Your father didn’t always hate…
Pause.
He’s right they are only stories.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
You are lying to us Grandfather…I know it; you have great faith. You would not say such things if you yourself did not believe in them.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Listen I was angry when I saw the boy mocking my people and I wanted to believe that the gods punished him for the outrage.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
What about the wind horse?
ELDER INDIAN BOY
Hey, I remember that story, and we all heard the sound of the hooves.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
So that’s what you’ll tell the police is it? The wind horse galloped in and knocked the boy off the cliff?
Grandfather looks secretly toward the eldest son urging him to back him up and calm his brother down.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
(After a pause)
You’re right Grandfather, but we should have stayed together.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Hostility toward us is inherent in some people. If your father cannot persuade them on his own, your presence will not help him.
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
But if they see we are boys just like the one that fell, surely they would know we would not have harmed him?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
My son, it matters little how many summers your face has seen.
The Grandfather turns and begins to walk on again; the two boys reluctantly follow behind, the youngest bringing up the rear.
EXT. BADLANDS, TRAIL TOWARD PINE RIDGE.
The family walking in file approaching a rocky section of the Badlands. The Grandfather leads with the eldest boy and then youngest in succession. After the Grandfather and the eldest boy have negotiated some narrow turns around the rocks, the Grandfather looks back.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Where is your brother?
The eldest boy looks behind him.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
Dawdling, I expect.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Get him, tell him to hurry up.
Eldest boy walks back along the trail. The Grandfather carries on but is stopped by a shout from the eldest boy, who is running back down the trail.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
I can’t find him; he must have run back.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You must get him; he cannot have gotten too far.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
Let him come back with my father if that’s what he wants.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
No! Go quickly. I’ll wait here.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
But…
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Go!
Eldest boy turns to go and as he does the grandfather grabs his arm.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Keep a watch; look out for anything unusual.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
What do you mean?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Go, now!
Eldest Boy runs off. Camera zooms in to a close-up of the Grandfather.
FADE TO BLACK.
EXT. SLOPES BELOW CLIFF TOP, EARLY AFTERNOON.
Youngest Boy is seen in extreme long shot running back up toward the cliffs. After several moments of climbing we see him cagily approaching the spot where the Boy fell.
EXT. RIDGE BELOW CLIFF TOP.
He creeps ever closer and we get a shot of his POV through some long grasses. His Father appears to be desperately trying to convince the group that the Boy fell accidentally, but the Man, Woman and Girl do not reply.
Their manner is silent but increasingly belligerent as if there has been a well of anger lying dormant in each of them about to burst upwards. As he creeps closer, he can see both the Woman and the Girl appear to be leaving the side of the Man and circling around his Father.
The Young Indian Boy suppresses his desire to help his Father as he is suddenly paralysed with fear, as if he feels a malevolent force in the atmosphere. As the women continue to circle his Father he can see the body of the dead Boy a few feet further away.
CUT TO:
A medium close-up of the boy side on, kneeling in the tall grass. The air around him seems to be diffusing into an orange glow, illuminating the specks of sand and grass that are floating in the air.
CUT TO:
An extreme close-up of the Man. His eyes are glowing orange and as the camera slowly zooms out the group appear to be transforming into some sort of creature and attack the Indian Father. As the camera continues to zoom out we are suddenly aware that we are watching the attack as it is reflected in a tear from below the young Indian boy’s eye. The camera continues to zoom out slowly to a medium close-up.
The boy is still surrounded with this orange glow and his eyes are wide-open with fear, watching his father being butchered. All of a sudden a streak of blood lands across his nose and left eye.
Automatically he exhales a slight wince.
CUT TO:
A medium shot of the group from behind. They all swing round immediately on hearing the boy, their faces human again. The Father is lying, bloodied, on the floor behind them.
CUT TO:
To the boy who is struggling to stop shaking with fear.
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The group. The Man motions to the women to walk either side of the grass where the boy is. He himself begins to approach from the front.
CUT TO:
A POV of the Man approaching the grass. He stops right in front of where the boy is hiding. Then in a swift movement he parts the grass, but the boy has gone. The women search in the side of the clump without joy. The Man bends down and retrieves a moccasin from the spot where the boy was hiding.
As they rejoin each other they look back down the trail leading up to the cliff. There is a puff of sand on a little rise some thirty feet away.
CUT TO:
A zoom into a medium close-up of the Man, with the Woman and the Girl’s heads visible above each of his shoulders.
MAN
Run away Goldilocks, run as fast as you can; no porridge for you today. The three bears are coming out to play.
FADE TO BLACK.
EXT. BADLANDS, TRAIL TO PINE RIDGE, AFTERNOON.
The Indian Grandfather is on his knees and appears to be praying.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
My son, they have killed you; I feel it in my heart. I sacrificed you to save the little ones and failed in my duty. Why did you follow me? I knew he had returned just as he has come before. But he is not alone this time. Now I fear that none of us will ever see home.
FADE TO BLACK.
EXT. CLIFFS, LATE AFTERNOON
The eldest boy is running across from screen right to left toward the ascent to the cliff top.
CUT TO:
A long shot of the boy climbing up toward the camera on the cliff trail. As he nears the camera he stops in medium long shot in front of the arm of a piece of grass which visually separates his body at neck level.
As he stands there he hears a low rumble or roar and looks out over the cliffs toward the noise but cannot see anything. After a moment he carries on climbing.
EXT. DESERT, RIDGE BELOW CLIFF TOP.
The camera is pointed toward the path that leads up to the flat area where the Boy fell, and after a few seconds the eldest boy comes into view. He stops stunned at what he sees as the camera pulls back to reveal both the Boy’s and the Indian Father’s bodies.
He begins to sob and walks toward his father’s body, kneeling down beside it. It is covered in blood where the skin has been ripped by the claws of the family.
In his anguish he notices the deep claw marks on his father and becomes overwrought with anguish, horror and incomprehension of what has gone on here. He caresses his father’s head and gently lays it down.
The sun is beginning its march downhill toward sunset but it is still fairly light. He wants to call out for his brother but is gripped by need not to draw attention to himself.
Somewhere in the distance he is answered by the same low roar he had heard minutes before. All of a sudden he feels an urgency to get away from there. He removes his jacket and covers the face of his father, promising to come back for his body, and swiftly runs back down the trail.
EXT. BADLANDS, ANOTHER TRAIL.
A figure running in the distance is seen in an extreme long low-level shot. There is a ridge or small hill behind him and he is framed between two bushes with branches that appear to be reaching for him. Camera slowly rises to head high (his) as he nears the bushes. He stops medium long shot between the bushes. It is the young Native Indian boy.
He turns to look back – he is breathing deeply and is scared. He is looking for something that may be after him. Low sonorous growling is heard from a distance. He audibly lets a little cry out and turns to run.
CUT TO:
A medium long shot from reverse side of bushes, as he continues to run away, the camera this time lowering to ankle level, a snake with orange eyes scuttles across the sand.
A chase ensues
A close-up of the boy with panic in his expression. Camera pulls back and over his head to reveal he has reached a narrow gorge about 50 feet down and seven/eight feet wide at its narrowest point and slightly lower.
CUT TO:
The land behind him and a growl in the near distance getting closer.
CUT TO:
An extreme long shot looking sideways on at the boy on one side of the gorge and the opposite ledge. The boy is tensing himself trying to judge whether he could leap the gap and escape pursuit.
CUT TO:
A low angled shot looking up at the boy from inside the gorge. He gestures as if to jump, or plucking enough courage up to jump.
CUT TO:
The Indian boy in long shot from behind as he turns to look back. There is a huge growl as the camera zooms in to a close-up of him.
CUT TO:
A medium shot side-on as boy swings back sharply toward gorge and jumps.
CUT TO:
A shot looking directly up from beneath the boy as he jumps across the gorge.
CUT TO:
A medium shot of boy landing awkwardly on the other side on his right knee. He bounces of the ground and desperately tries to grip the edge with a hand but is unable to and falls.
CUT TO:
A medium shot as he hits part of the gorge face as he is falling.
CUT TO:
A crane shot above a clump of trees growing under the gorge. The boy falls into shot from above and disappears into the clump.
INT. TREE.
The boy’s body falls into the branches and comes to rest. He groans in pain and begins to try to move but is wedged. Then in panic he realizes that the shaking of the leaves will give his location away.
CUT TO;
EXT. GORGE
A medium shot of tree. The branches are shaking in response to the boy’s weight and leaves are falling out in slow motion toward the ground.
CUT TO:
EXT. DESERT
The bear group approach the gorge edge.
CUT TO:
INT. TREE.
The boy in panic begins in vain to try to stop the branches shaking by grabbing them.
CUT TO:
EXT. GORGE.
A shot of a darkening sky from inside the gorge, and we hear again the muted sound of horse hooves. A wind whips up and we see it blowing through the gorge like a river running through it.
CUT TO:
EXT. DESERT, TOP OF GORGE
The bears (as humans) reach the gorge. They look into the gorge and see the wind blowing everything inside it whilst there is stillness where they are.
CUT TO:
INT. TREE.
An extreme close-up of a bloody left foot crossed over the right. Camera slowly pans along the Indian Boy’s body showing him lying in the clump, alive but hurt. He is gazing upwards through the branches as shafts of light filter in the semi darkness.
CUT TO:
A long shot through the trees back up toward the gorge edge. Three blurred figures can be glimpsed staring down, the composition matching that of the group as they looked up at the Indians back at the burial cave.
CUT TO:
A close-up of the boy. His eyes narrow as if he is trying to see exactly what is up there but can’t.
CUT TO:
A long shot of gorge as before but after a few moments the figures move away.
CUT TO:
A close-up of the boy and a relieved expression comes across his face, quickly turning to concern as he whispers one word
YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Grandfather.
EXT. BADLANDS, DESERT, NIGHT.
The Grandfather and the Eldest Boy have made a camp but are covered with blankets as they have not built a fire. The Eldest Boy is still in shock from finding his Father’s body.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You saw what no son should ever see and my heart weeps with yours. Your father, my son, was a great man, and a fine warrior. He fought with the only weapon allowed him, the justice system. But that is a tool sharp at only one end. A man must have a great deal of strength for it takes many blows to draw blood with a blunt edge.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
But his arms are lifeless now.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
They will continue to hold you up.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
And my brother.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Lowering his eyes)
Perhaps.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
But I told you Grandfather, he wasn’t there.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
But they will hunt him down.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
Who, the family? But there was no sign of them. Whatever attacked my father must have scared them away.
Pause
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
It is a long time since we sat around a fire and you listened to my stories.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
There’s no fire, and I’m not a child.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Yes, you are a man now, and we will have to make do without the fire, but let the child in you listen anyway.
Pause and the camera zooms in slowly toward the Grandfather.
Once there was a white man who came to this land. Every day he would go out to the woods to hunt bear – all kinds of bear, and kill them. One day he went out to the woods and found one by a fish creek and crept up on it with his rifle. But this was a medicine bear and he could read the hunter’s thoughts.
As the hunter cocked the gun the bear turned around and spoke to him. “Do not shoot me. Why be my enemy? Come to my house and let us live together”
The hunter went with the bear to his cave and lived with him. The bear provided him with food and shelter and showed him the ways of the mountains; how to fish and how to hunt rabbit and wild dogs.
When the bear had taught the hunter everything he knew, the man had no need of the bear’s friendship. But he knew he could not kill the bear while he was awake because the bear could read his thoughts, so one night when the bear was sleeping in the cave the white man crept over to the bear and slit his throat.
The bear woke with a start, scaring the hunter who crawled into the corner of the cave afraid that the bear was only wounded and would come and kill him. But the bear looked at the hunter and spoke softly even as his life blood seeped through the slash in his throat.
DISSOLVE
INT. CAVE.
The time is of a mythical past. A MAN is seen crouching in the corner of the cave. He is dressed in the clothes of a frontier man. He has a beard and is unkempt. It is the face of the white Man from the Motor home. The camera zooms slowly in toward him. The Grandfather continues the story in voice over.
“You have killed me, hunter, though I gave you my friendship and taught you everything I knew. But listen to me now. If I had wished I could have killed you at any time. You are a great hunter but you are no match for me.
“A year ago I had a dream that a great hunter would come and kill me. I had that dream again tonight but I did not wake and stop you because it is my destiny to die tonight. But you are cursed white hunter. I will live on in you but only in rage and deceit. The best will die with me but you are bequeathed the worst.
“When you wake tomorrow the worst in me will rise with the worst in you. You will yearn to go back to the world of men and for a while they will welcome you, but little by little they will begin to feel uncomfortable around you until they shun you completely. Then you will have no choice but to return this cave and these woods.
“You will not starve because you have my hunting knowledge, but because you do not possess the best qualities of the bear you will assume the appearance of one when you rage, only becoming a white hunter again when the anger leaves you. And thus you will live forever as a Bear man”. With this the bear lay down to die.
DISSOLVE
EXT. BADLANDS, NIGHT.
Back to a close-up of the Grandfather who continues his story.
GRANDFATHER
When the hunter woke the next morning he forgot all that the bear had said and went out to hunt and he stayed in the cave throughout the winter.
DISSOLVE
EXT. WOODS. DAY.
We see the Bear man leaving a cave in a wood. The Grandfather continues in voice over.
But when spring came he yearned for the company of men again and left the cave in the woods.
EXT. A FRONTIER TOWN.
The Bear man is arriving in a township. He gets a job at a general store, and we see him serving people and laughing and joking with them, but soon the customers drop off and people rush by the store. Finally we see him walking out of the store having lost his job. He is seen leaving the town. These scenes are accompanied by the continuous voice over of the Grandfather.
But he could not settle back in the world of the white men because he could not control the rage within his body and the people who knew him felt this rage and began to fear him.
EXT. WOODS.
The Bear man is seen heading back to the cave.
Then he remembered what the bear had told him and returned to the cave in the woods to live as a man bear but as the bear had cursed him he cursed the land and its people. He vowed to destroy all around him because he could find no joy himself he would obliterate joy for all, forever.
CUT TO:
EXT. A PLAIN.
A close-up of the Man. The camera zooms out and we see he is dressed in a Cavalry uniform and riding a horse. The camera continues to zoom out until we see the whole troop of cavalry in full charge.
CUT TO:
A low-level shot of a group of Native American Indians running toward the camera. As they run past the troop can be seen bearing down on them. The camera begins to move up toward the on rushing troop picking out the figure of the Bear man as he flashes by accompanied by a low roar, like that of a bear.
The man bear moved unseen like a ghost in the world of white men, spreading hate, greed and fear of the Indian; because the man bear recognized that in order to survive he must side with the winner. He was with the cavalry at Sand Creek and Wounded Knee and helped win the war for the white man.
CUT TO:
EXT. BADLANDS NIGHT.
A close-up of the Grandfather.
I knew bear man was here because I could sense his presence in this land as I felt it before, but I did not expect more than one and that is the thing that frightens me most. I do not know how the bear man found a wife and had cubs.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
But why did you let my father go to them?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I believe that your father knew it too.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
My father didn’t believe in the old legends and gods.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And yet he sacrificed himself? He went to them to give us time to get away. That is why I fear for your brother.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
Then we must go back and save him, if they are as you say.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
The boy was foolish to run away and I was careless. I will not risk your life even if I lose my own.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
How can you leave him at the mercy of these creatures?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
My son, the history of your people has been one of slaughter and sacrifice. We make do because we have survived against enemies bent on our eradication. What little we have been given will suffice until our lands are returned to us; even if only one Indian is left it will be enough to reclaim our birthright.
Pause
Your brother’s smart. If they do catch him I hope they’ll be too exhausted to come after us tonight. But they will come tomorrow.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
Then we will die anyway.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You will survive. When they come I will fight them and gain the glory that runs in my blood. You will escape to Pine Ridge.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
I won’t leave you to them.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You must. Someone has to warn the people that the Bear man has returned.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
No-one will believe me. You’re the only one I know that really had faith in the old myths and legends. Who’ll take my word that there actually is a race of bear men out there? Beings they think belong only in stories?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I do not know. The world is a hard place for faith. When people have nothing they blame the gods and deny their existence.
The white man denies them too even though he has everything he wants because to acknowledge them would be to interfere in the collection of worldly things.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
Then there is no hope.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
No, not if the spirit lives.
ELDER INDIAN BOY
But how can we kill what couldn’t be killed before? Why didn’t the spirits kill him when he came before?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I have seen him twice. The last time he stayed only two days. I saw him at Wounded Knee and I thought he had been praying. But he never desecrated our land like he has done this time, and he must be killed before he desecrates all within it.
Pause.
The boy trembles and is unconvinced.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Get some sleep. I will pray for our safety tonight. Put your faith in the gods my son. They will protect us
The boy smiles weakly and lies down to sleep. The Grandfather waits until the Eldest boy falls asleep and then takes out a pencil and a piece of paper. He scribbles a message on it.
The camera pans away from the Grandfather into the darkness. As it pans back there is a campfire lit in the foreground.
EXT. WOUNDED KNEE, THE INDIAN CAMP, NIGHT, THE YEAR IS 1890, WINTER.
The campfire is inside the Indian camp at Wounded Knee. The flakes of the fire intermingle with falling snow crystals. The camera zooms out slowly to reveal the Indian camp site. The people are suffering; they are tired, hungry and cold. Some however are dancing around. They are conducting the Wovoka, the ghost dance, which was supposed to bring about the fall of the white man and the return of the land to the Indians.
On the far hillside above, the fire of the soldier’s camp is visible. On the snowy ground between the two camps a snake slithers across; its eyes having an orange glow on them. As it disappears into the woods to the right of the Indian camp the roar of a bear is heard.
CUT TO:
INT. TEEPEE, NIGHT.
An Indian family, FATHER, MOTHER and BABY are asleep inside. The shadow of a bear is cast on the fabric. The bear appears to be walking around outside.
(No sound in this section except the bear roar)
CUT TO:
A close-up of the sleeping mother, as she begins to stir awake. She turns to look at the baby. A shaft of sunlight has illuminated the baby’s body. She begins to stir the child by gently rubbing its chest. Suddenly she feels something wet. She opens the baby’s shirt and finds a bullet wound bleeding.
She recoils and tries to wake her husband but he is gone. As she stands up she becomes aware that the shaft of sunlight is very narrow and is coming directly through the side of the tepee. She walks toward it to investigate. She puts his finger into the hole, recognizing immediately that this is a bullet hole from which the bullet that killed the baby travelled.
Then suddenly another shaft of sunlight bursts through the tepee at the level of her stomach. She puts out her hand caressing the ray of light and following its path toward her stomach.
CUT TO:
A low angled shot from inside the tepee with the Indian mother side-on showing the shaft of light going into her body and exiting behind her. Cut back to her now touching her stomach, pulling away bloody fingers.
She moves toward the exit of the tepee and into a snowy day.
CUT TO:
EXT. WOUNDED KNEE, MORNING.
The bloody wound is visible through her shirt. As she walks outside she looks up at the flakes of snow cascading down from the wintry sky. She puts out his fingers to catch a snowflake which turns into a bullet as it rests on the palm of her hand. She looks down at her feet and the ground is covered with bullets.
She looks back up and sees a small CHILD coming toward her. The child’s head is down as he paces toward her so that she can only see the top of his head. He stops in front of her. She gently lifts his head from below the chin. As the child’s face comes into view deep claw marks are visible running from his cheeks, across his eyes and disappearing into the hair line.
A bear growl booms from the woods and the Indian mother turns to look at the source. She sees her Husband coming from the forest after hunting. He is carrying a rifle. As she turns back the child is gone.
CUT TO:
The father as he steps out onto the field of the massacre of Wounded Knee. The soldiers are all gone but the frozen bodies of the slaughtered Indians are still there.
He finds his wife’s body outside the tepee which has been almost completely obliterated by gunfire. He leans his rifle against what is left of the tepee and walks into it. After a moment he re-emerges with the baby’s body.
As he walks around the camp with the baby in his arms, he comes across the body of BIG FOOT, the Indian Chief who had led what was of his tribe to Wounded Knee, frozen and twisted on the ground.
There is a roar from the forest and as the father looks toward it the child has vanished form his arms. He goes back to the teepee for his rifle intent on hunting the animal that made the growl. He goes off toward the forest.
CUT TO:
EXT. WOODS, MORNING.
The wind begins to lift through the branches of the bare tress in the woods and horse’s hooves are heard. The Indian looks around for the Wind Horse and sees a white charger coming through the forest and starts toward it. As he enters the forest he loses sight of it, and begins to search frantically.
Suddenly he espies part of a horse’s body lying behind a thick tree. As he clears the tree he sees a figure leaning over the horse. It appears to be eating the horse. It hears him approach and turns around to face him. The figure is the bear-man, his face bloody with the meat of the horse.
EXT. BADLANDS, A CAMPFIRE, NIGHT.
The Grandfather awakens from his dream. He can feel warmth and as he opens his eyes he is staring into a campfire. He is, for a second, completely disorientated after the dream and staring at a fire he did not build, and then his eyes open wide in horror as he sees the Bear-man sitting in front of him on the other side of the fire. They eye each other for a minute.
MAN
You know who I am?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Pause)
Yes. Where is my grandson?
MAN
Gone.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Lets out a deep and anguished sigh)
Haven’t you killed enough of my people?
MAN
You killed my boy.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Anger rising)
He brought about his own death. He desecrated the grave and stole what he should have left alone.
MAN
(Matching his anger, then controlling it)
I made him replace it. He only went back because he was angry over something else.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Taken aback by the Man’s vehemence)
Your kind is always angry.
MAN
You never gave him a chance; you pushed him over the cliff.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
We are not animals. We have no thirst for killing.
MAN
You took revenge because of the headdress.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
It wasn’t our vengeance.
MAN
Then who’s? Your gods; they’re a bit late aren’t they? Then again, they always were, if I recall.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Only for the faithless.
MAN
Alright I’ll humour you. Which particular God is responsible?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
No God. Just a wind.
MAN
A fucking tornado?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
The wind horse.
MAN
(Stifles a laugh)
The wind horse? Stick with the tornado – it’s more believable.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You’ve never heard of the wind horse?
The Man roars with laughter mocking the seriousness of the Grandfather.
INIAN GRANDFATHER
You are old bear-man, older than I; can you doubt me?
MAN
Like your son you mean?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
My son had faith.
MAN
That doesn’t sound like the man I killed.
INDIAN GFRANDFATHER
It is this world, a world that cannot provide the Indian with work, cannot allow him to live in respect and that renders him useless; it is this that killed his faith.
MAN
And now he’s just another dead Indian.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
No, another brave Indian like so many in the past, sacrificing themselves for others.
MAN
He knew what we were?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I think so, that’s why he entrusted the safety of his sons to me.
MAN
And you have failed him. (Pause) Don’t feel too bad about it, your glorious ancestors fared no better.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I believed that as long as there was one Indian who kept his faith, one day our nation would rise again and reclaim our country as free men. Perhaps my son was right and now you have returned to wipe out those who are left.
MAN
You’re wrong old man. I don’t need to wipe out your people. They’ve been finished for a long time now. It’s our survival that concerns me.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Then you haven’t come for conquest?
MAN
Conquest? This is a dead land, unless there’s something buried that no-one’s dug up yet. I want to survive, that’s all. You know the curse, I cannot interbreed. I can live with the white man for only so long and then it begins.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
They find you out.
MAN
I wish it were as banal as you make it sound. (Pause) You can always see the beginnings. There’s a look your friends give you, one that was never there before. I believe even they are unaware of it at first but gradually they become uneasy with you. And then the excuses start - they can’t come round to dinner or you don’t get the invitation to that party everybody else is going to.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Then you return to the cave.
MAN
(Laughs)
Cave! How archaic you are. No we simply move state. Uproot and start again.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
It’s the same thing. But if you cannot interbreed, what are the children?
MAN
Child – now.
(Long pause)
My wife, old man, is my daughter.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(In revulsion)
Your daughter! And so the cubs are…?
MAN
My son and daughter too.
(Pause)
Why are you surprised? Men and animals it’s all the same; we still have the same primeval urge. I mated with a bear but the cub was human or should I say a bear child like me, a daughter. I never aged, so when she was old enough she became my mate. I never have to be alone.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
But you cannot always produce girls?
MAN
You can if you keep trying. And it is fun trying – even for our kind.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
So there are others?
MAN
No.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
But you must have produced dozens. Have they died young?
MAN
We limit the numbers.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You kill them?
MAN
I’m only doing what millions of people do to survive every day all over the globe.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
How many have you murdered – how many more will need to die in the name of selfishness. Do your children know what you have done?
MAN
They understand; they are like me after all, all except the fact that they will age and I will not.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And the males?
MAN
They are catered for, in house, so to speak; we’re a very close family.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And you watch them grow old, and die.
MAN
It's difficult to watch a son become a friend and then finally an aging parent; a daughter become a wife and finally a wrinkled old mother. I still have feelings despite my hybrid nature.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You cursed yourself bear man. You were greedy.
Pause
MAN
When I was a young man I came to this land, fascinated by it. But I was corrupted and wanted more, but I wasn’t alone. There were others who did far worse deeds than mine and yet I am the one cursed. Was I any worse than the politicians and army generals who lied to your people? They produced thousands of corpses and I killed one bear. I became bitter with the world – not just the Indian but my own kind too.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
But you joined the white man against the Indian. Why?
MAN
Because he would win.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
But why did you urge the white man to continue to slaughter us when you knew we were beaten?
MAN
They didn’t need my encouragement.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Nevertheless you…
MAN
Acceptance.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And that is justification for the murder of innocent women and children?
MAN
You have a wife old man?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
She died twenty years ago.
MAN
You never took another?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I did not want to.
MAN
What do you miss about her the most?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
The warmth and presence of her body lying next to me at night.
MAN
The comfort in just knowing that there is somebody there?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Yes.
MAN
Imagine not twenty, but fifty… fifty years without that simplest of pleasures. You may understand loneliness but you cannot comprehend the pain of being completely alienated; unable to be trusted or loved; to make friends only to see them desert you because there is something in you that begins to repulse them; something they can never quite put their finger on. Then the anger rises.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And you become the bear again.
MAN
I learnt to control it so that the white man never saw my other self.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
But some have?
MAN
Not many, some.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And you have killed them?
MAN
I do not want to kill. I want to be free.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Is that why you have come here before?
MAN
You know?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I have seen you before at Wounded Knee, one night many years ago.
MAN
I came back for forgiveness. Not to kill, or desecrate but to seek the means by which I can die, like everybody else - and you old man.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And were your prayers answered?
MAN
It appears not and so I have to go on searching for…
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
…mercy…atonement for your crimes?
MAN
Why not, why should I be denied what every religion promises humanity?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You are not human. You gave up those rights for greed.
MAN
Maybe so but I’m hardly rich am I?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Richer than I.
MAN
But not spiritually, eh? Is that why there’s nobody listening? Not so different from your son then, am I?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
My son never killed anybody.
MAN
One day the curse will be lifted and I will never have to kill again, but until that day no-one can know about us, that is why we cannot let you go. Now where is the boy?
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You took him.
MAN
No…the youngest boy.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Joyfully)
Then the boy lives…I thought you had killed him with his father.
MAN
He escaped but we’ll find him.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I was wrong. I lost my faith because I was scared and I knew I was going to die here in the darkness. But the Gods have rewarded me and I will see them today.
MAN
(Looking up over the Grandfather’s head)
No luck?
WOMAN
(Her voice comes from the darkness beyond the rear of the Grandfather)
No.
MAN
(Beginning to rise)
Your convictions are admirable, old man, but believe me we will find him.
INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Bear man, I believe the curse will one day leave you because you have an innate thirst to destroy and, in turn, your savagery will destroy you and you will get your wish. But my Grandson and his sons will live on.
The Grandfather smiles and closes his eyes aware of the closing presence of the mother behind him.
The Man, now standing, nods an assent to the woman and turns around.
CUT TO:
A medium long shot of the Grandfather center screen. There is a flash of something gleaming behind him in the dark. It is a bear claw.
CUT TO:
A close-up of the Grandfather’s face. He is smiling and then suddenly lets out a deep groan as the Woman’s claws stab into his back.
FADE TO BLACK.
