Script excerpt #4
YOKNAPATAWPHA COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT
Investigating Officer(s): Det. T. Armstrong, Det. S. Murphy
Incident No.: 001985-19D-2020
Case Description: Dalton Kimbrough homicide investigation
This is the final scene from the most recent draft of Dalton Kimbrough's movie, Death to the Revelers, taken as evidence (Evidence # 001985-03) from the master bedroom of the film crew's lodge.
Caution: Some rough language and situations.
DEATH TO THE REVELERS script, Lodge Draft 52, pg. 88.
CUT TO:
EXT – LAKE SHORE, LIQUID DUSK
DARL and SHANE crawl out of the underbrush and stumble onto the rooted sands beside the lake.
DARL
This is the edge. We've lost our way back.
SHANE
He's coming!
DARL
This is the perfect ending, Shane. We can stop it right here, and our life stories would have a terrific end.
SHANE
Darl! This is f****** real life! Are you starting to feel it, just a little bit? He's not the director anymore, baby.
DARL
(astounded, dreaming)
You're… absolutely…
SHANE
This is just the beginning, Darl.
DARL
I'll get him at his own game!
Darl pulls a squib from his bag, lifts his shirt, and rigs an exploding blood pack. The scars on his belly are bleeding. After scuffling with the rig, he gets up to dust himself and…
A GUNSHOT rings out from the brush.
Darl hits the beach in a roll, ducking and covering, protecting Shane. Then another SHOT, and another; they seem to come from all directions.
DARL
My life!
SHANE
We're going to die!
Darl leaps up and screams into the brush.
DARL
You wanna get the crazies outta me! Don't f****** waste your bullets, man! I'll open the gut for you!
Darl pulls his gun and shoots himself in the stomach, which causes two explosions under his shirt. After a moment of shock, he falls to his knees. The sand turns crimson.
Shane grabs him by the shoulders.
SHANE
Darl! What—?
Darl stares the visions of his life into her.
DARL
<the perfect last line>*
Darl keels over and dies face down in the sand. Shane looks into the brush, terrified. She gets up slow and jittery, streaming tears and covered in Darl's blood. She turns toward the lake. She walks out until the water consumes her. The water bubbles and wakes then turns still.
The camera stays on the soft waters, which neither rise nor fall.
(no audio, except for the sounds of water and wind)
In the distance, Shane emerges from the lake on the opposite shore and takes a few hesitant steps into a clearing surrounded by trees. She stands alone, dripping wet and still crying. She looks around as if unsure where to go. She turns around and looks back across the lake to Darl's body on the beach and then to the brush where the shots had come from. Her eyes widen with fear. She turns and runs into the woods, vanishing into the trees.
THE END
* Scrawled on the back of the last page of this script were several lines that Kimbrough apparently had considered for the final line. Included among those possible lines was one that read, "I pulled the trigger. I pulled it."
