The Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb)


The web's largest
movie script resource!

Search IMSDb

Alphabetical
# A B C D E F G H
I J K L M N O P Q
R S T U V W X Y Z

Genre
Action Adventure Animation
Comedy Crime Drama
Family Fantasy Film-Noir
Horror Musical Mystery
Romance Sci-Fi Short
Thriller War Western

Sponsor

TV Transcripts
Futurama
Seinfeld
South Park
Stargate SG-1
Lost
The 4400

International
French scripts

Latest Comments



ALL SCRIPTS




                           BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
                         
                      
                         
                                   Written by
                         
                           Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin



                                                           FINAL DRAFT

                         
          Based on the stage play "Juicy and Delicious" by Lucy Alibar
          EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAWN
                         
          An abandoned looking trailer sits on top of two 15-foot-tall
          oil drums. Distant thunder trembles through the peeling
          metal panels. The structure is in such disrepair, that
          surely no one lives here.
                         
          But then, a light goes on.
                         
                         
          INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING
                         
          A tiny hand sculpts the mud on top of a crawfish hole placed
          on the floor. We pan up to reveal a little girl examining a
          baby chicken that appears to be dead. This is HUSHPUPPY, an
          unkempt and seemingly uncared for six-year-old with a gaze of
          unmistakable wisdom.
                         
          Hushpuppy places the chick on the crawfish hole, like a queen
          on her throne and the chick twitches to life, cheeps twice.
          Hushpuppy's esoteric science experiment is interrupted by
          DISTANT THUNDER. Her eyes stand to attention.
                         
                          CUT TO:
                         
                         
          EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY
                         
          An eerie, harsh wind whips hay and dust through over a giant
          slumbering pot-belly pig.
                         
          Hushpuppy, donned in boys' underpants and a child-sized wife-
          beater, tip-toes behind the epic creature. She studies it,
          wonderful, is this the source of the thunder?
                         
          With the utmost delicacy, she lays a hand on the pig's belly.
          We hear his HUGE BEATING HEART.
                         
                          CUT TO:
                         
                         
          EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - VARIOUS
                         
          A series of glimpses of Hushpuppy's scientific method. She
          chases geese, chickens, ducks, dogs around the property- a
          cross between an abandoned farm and salvage yard.
                         
          Hushpuppy grabs a baby chick and puts it to her ear. A TINY
          HEARTBEAT. She listens with focused wonder and intensity.
                         2
                         
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           All the time, everywhere,
           everything's organs be beatin' and
           squirtin' and talkin' to each other
           in ways I can't understand. Mosta
           the time they probably just sayin'
           "I'm hungry," or "I gotta poop,"
           but sometimes they talkin' in
           codes.
                         
           Hushpuppy's eyes dart up as a MAN'S VOICE yells-
                         
           MAN'S VOICE (O.S.)
           Get up, get out of here!
                         
           We hear a YOWL as a cat is flung across the room.
                         
           A window made from a gas station sign opens in a Robinson
           Crusoe style tree house patched together from storm debris
           and discarded appliances.
                         
           A wild man with severe features, a frazz of unkempt hair, and
           brawler's scars opens a window made from a metal sign. This
           is WINDELL EMMETT DOUCET, known to all as WINK (39).
                         
                          WINK
           Get your pants on, man!
                         
           Wink kills a beer and sends it out the hole in the wall into
           a basketball hoop attached to a fishing net that stretched 15
           feet down to the ground. The net is overflowing with beer
           cans.
                         
                         
           EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy obediently climbs a series of increasingly bigger
           and bigger oil drums that function like a ladder, up to the
           door of her house.
                         
                         
           EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY
                         
           We now see Wink in his morning ritual. He opens a cooler
           with a butchered chicken inside it and tosses the bird on the
           grill.
                         
           He goes to the front porch and pours down a bag of dog food.
                         
           He pulls a clothesline that leads to Hushpuppy's trailer. A
           BELL RINGS.
                         3
                         
                         
                          WINK
           Feed up time! Feed up!
                         
           Hushpuppy, now wearing pants and a slightly more proper T-
           shirt, comes running down the oil barrels to her house. She
           echoes her Daddy.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Feed up time! Feed up!
                         
                         
           INT. ABANDONED BUS - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy devours the whole roast chicken with her hands,
           getting right in there like it was a candy apple. It looks
           really yummy.
                         
           Pigs, dogs, chickens, and cats are chowing down all around
           her.
                         
           A hatch opens above her and we realize we're in the bottom of
           the Shacko. Wink sticks his head through the hatch and throws
           corn to the chickens.
                         
                          WINK
           Share with the dogs.
                         
           Hushpuppy rips off a piece of chicken and flings it to a
           filthy chihuahua with no hair on the back half of its body.
           This is WINDELL, in spite of her circumstances, quite a
           handsome young pup.
                         
                         
           EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - THE TURCK - EVENING
                         
           WIDE, we see Hushpuppy and Wink drift through the marsh.
           They ride in a severed truck bed floating on top of oil
           drums. A motor is strapped to the back. A sign on the boat
           reads "The Turck", Hushpuppy's spelling of "Truck".
                         
           They look out to where the water goes all the way to a
           monolithic, 20 foot wall stretching infinitely into the
           distance. This levee, the first piece of modern construction
           we've seen, encloses the civilized world, protecting it from
           rising water. The Bathtub is on the wrong side of wall.
                         
           Wink stares out at the distant factories behind the wall with
           a peaceful and confident disdain.
                         
           Hushuppy matches his relaxed defiant expression.
                         4
                         
                         
                          WINK
           Ain't that ugly over there?
                         
           He takes a long pull on his beer.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           We live in the prettiest place on
           earth.
                         
           Hushpuppy looks over the wall to the Dry Side. It's an
           endless sprawl of oil processing power plants without a tree
           or bird in sight. This is the engine that runs the Northern
           world.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           Daddy says, up above the levee, on
           the dry side, they're afraid of the
           water like a bunch of babies. They
           built the wall that cuts us off.
                         
                         
           EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY
                         
           We fly over marsh and water, coming upon a tiny crop of
           shanties on an island perched at the very bottom of the land.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           They think we all gonna drown down
           here. But we ain't goin' nowhere.
                         
                          CUT TO:
                         
                         
           EXT. CAUSEWAY - PRE-FLOOD - DAY
                         
           CLOSE ON Hushpuppy letting out a WARRIOR SCREAM in a mass of
           HOLLERING people.
                         
           They stand on a long and crumbling road surrounded on both
           sides by water. The rag tag band of revelers charge forward
           WHOOPING and SHOUTING.
                         
           Hushpuppy kisses her hand and smacks the town sign. "Isle de
           Charles Doucet" is crossed out and someone has graffitied
           "The Bathtub." Each party-goer repeats Hushpuppy's kiss and
           smack in wild, ritualistic fashion.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           The Bathtub's got more holidays
           than the whole rest of the world.
                         5
                         
                         
           EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY
                         
           The townspeople charge in a rousing parade. Everyone drags
           trails of beer cans, boat parts, anything they can tie to
           themselves that makes a lot of noise.
                         
           They are the hard faces of fishermen and their feisty wives,
           downtrodden but with a sense of fortitude among them, a
           community of heart, spirit, passion, and reckless abandon.
                         
           We see none of the separations that we're used to in modern
           society. There is no evidence of politics, religion, class,
           race or any other divisive ideology. The Bathtub is a place
           of true and honest unity.
                         
           Megaphones sticking out a gutted mini-van broadcast the Cajun
           band playing inside. Fiddle, saw, guitar, and double-bass
           players struggle to hold onto their instruments and the truck
           bounces them down a dirt road.
                         
           They drive under a banner reading "Welcome to the Bathtub
           Storm Season!"
                         
           Wink and Hushpuppy rattle along on a float made from the
           front end of a pickup truck. Over the front cabin rears a
           giants sculpture of a horse-head made out of wooden spikes,
           metal plates, and heavy chains. Carnival-dressed maniacs
           clamber on top.
                         
           Wink hollers and waves to people. He fires jets of beer into
           the mouths of the crowd.
                         
           Hushpuppy dances on the back of the float. Though she's the
           tiniest member of this very adult parade, she's right in the
           thick of everything. No one is checking I.Ds Here.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           Daddy always saying, that up in the
           dry world, they got none of what we
           got.
                         
                         
           EXT. LAFOURCHE SQUARE - DAY
                         
           The town dances around the band in a clearing in the woods.
           Everyone is bouncing to the music, smiling and joking with
           one another.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           They only got holidays once a year.
                         6
                         
                         
           Six babies, each with a racing number pinned to their diaper,
           are placed by their enthusiastic mammas at a starting-line on
           a track marked by two adjacent crowds of onlookers. Bets are
           flying between the spectators as if they're about to watch a
           cock-fight.
                         
           ANNOUNCER (V.O.)
           All babies to the race! Come up to
           the starting line! The baby race
           is about to begin.
                         
           Hushpuppy dances in the cheering crowd, swigging a bottle of
           something she probably shouldn't have.
                         
           A STARTING GUN fires, and the babies make a crawl for it.
           Most of them are paralysed in tears or bewilderment, but one
           brave soul toddles towards victory.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           They got fish stuck in plastic
           wrappers, they got their babies
           stuck in carriages, and chickens on
           sticks and all that kind of stuff.
                         
           Hushpuppy looks up at Wink who is dancing with his best
           friend WALRUS (60), a slack jawed, white haired, pinked
           nosed, handsome devil.
                         
           A baby crosses the finish line, ahead of the rest,
           victorious. The crowd goes wild.
                         
                         
           EXT. MARINA PAUPIER NET - NIGHT
                         
           Wink opens his trawl net and dumps a massive catch into a
           picking pan. There's food to feed a hundred in the haul. No
           one is a bit fazed though, this is just your average night
           fishing in the Bathtub.
                         
           Shrimp, crabs, and small leaping fish struggle over one
           another for dear life.
                         
           Hushpuppy helps him sort the catch. Winks's hands move with
           virtuosic ease, separating the crabs from the shrimp. She
           studies Wink's every move and tries to measure up to her
           Dad's proficiency. He doesn't demonstrate or explain
           anything, but we sense there is a system of education in
           place here.
                         7
                         
                         
           Hushpuppy focuses in on a tiny fish, wriggling and sucking
           it's last breaths of air.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           One day, the storm's gonna blow,
           the ground's gonna sink, and the
           water's gonna rise up so high,
           there ain't gonna be no Bathtub,
           just a whole bunch of water.
                         
           She pick up a crab, pets its belly. The DIN of the party
           fades down around her as she listens to its HEARTBEAT.
                         
                         
           EXT. LADY JO'S CYPRESS FOREST - NIGHT
                         
           Explosions everywhere as Bathtubers rampage blasting
           fireworks down the street instead of into the air. Men
           dressed as women, women dressed as men, in some kind of
           reckless esoteric ritual.
                         
           The SCORE kicks in hard with a tinge of ominous forboding.
           We sense that in spite of the ecstatic energy, the unbridled
           joy, that a cloud hangs over this community. The people are
           parting like it's there last day on earth, and we feel
           viscerally, that it could be.
                         
           Hushpuppy runs in the thick of it behind Wink waving a
           fountain sparkler. Wink trips and falls.
                         
           Wink lies on his back on the ground. He sees his daughter
           watching him, holding the huge sparkler, and they both laugh
           with sheer joy.
                         
           Hushpuppy stops over him and points a bottle rocket in his
           face, the fuse burning. He nods his approval. They watch
           the fuse burn down to the last moment. She turns it upward,
           and they watch her rocket join a sky filled with pluming
           mortars.
                         
           Hushpuppy looks at the light flickering across Wink's faces.
           He's momentarily peaceful, admiring the spectacular display.
                         
           Hushpuppy smiles at him with pride. He doesn't see her.
                         
           They run off into the crowd, which is pulsating at the
           pinnacle of mayhem. The OMINOUS MUSIC shifts gears into a
           BLASTING PATRIOTIC HYMN of the Bathtub. Throw your fist in
           the air! These are the survivors, those who fight for their
           joy and their history to the last man.
                         8
                         
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           But me and my Daddy, we stay right
           here. We who the earth is for.
                         
           Hushpuppy runs right at us with detonating fireworks in both
           hands, engulfed by light. She swings them toward camera and
           the screen is engulfed in an inferno of sparks. A white out.
           Black letters slam down.
                         
           BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
                         
                         
           INT. SCHOOLBOAT - MORNING
                         
           MUSIC CUTS abruptly as a basket of crawfish is slammed in
           front of camera. The crawfish squirming and struggling for
           life engulfs the screen.
                         
                          WOMAN'S VOICE
           Meat.
                         
           A fearsome, uncompromising leader, sexy like a lady
           bullfighter, peeks at Hushpuppy over a mass of squirming
           crawfish. This is MISS BATHSHEBA (36).
                         
           She points to three students, pushing their heads with her
           finger, each time announcing:
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           MEAT. MEAT. MEAT.
                         
           The twelve students follow her through a maze of creatures
           caged in mason jars, basins, and boxes with breathing holes-
           her educational tools.
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           Every animal is made out of meat.
           I am meat, ya'll asses meat.
           Everything is part of the buffet of
           the universe.
                         
           Miss Bathsheba rolls up the leg of her skirt.
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           This here, is an Aurochs.
                         
           Riding her thigh, is tattooed a scene much like a cave
           painting in Lascaux. In thick black ink, it depicts a battle
           between early men wielding spears, and giant bull-like
           animals bearing down over them.
                         9
                         
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           A fierce, mean creature that roamed
           the earth back when we all lived in
           caves. They would gobble the cave-
           babies down right in front of their
           cave-parents. And the cavemen
           couldn't do nothing about it,
           because they were too poor, too
           stupid, too small. Who here thinks
           the Cavemen were sitting around
           crying like a buncha pussies?
                         
           Children stare blankly, no one raises their hand.
                         
           Hushpuppy watches a heroic crawfish crest the basket, fall to
           the floor, and make a run for it.
                         
           Miss Bathsheba snatches up the rogue crawdad and flings it
           back into the vat.
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           Y'all better think about that.
           Cause any day now, the fabric of
           the universe is coming unraveled.
           The ice caps gonna melt, the
           water's gonna rise, and everything
           south of the levee's going under.
                         
           She points to a map showing a ragged coastline. On the wrong
           side of a giant line marked "levee" is an island labeled "The
           Bathtub."
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           Ain't gonna be no Bathtub, just a
           whole bunch of water. Y'all better
           learn to survive.
                         
           A mysterious COLD WIND fills the air. Hushpuppy stares into
           a wall poster of an ice cliff reading: THE SOUTH POLE.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           Way back in the day, the Aurochs
           was king of the world.
                         
                         
           EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY
                         
           CRASH CUT to the PANORAMA of an ice cliff, but now it's real.
                         10
                         
                         
           We CUT CLOSER to overwhelming white light accompanied by
           intermittent FROZEN CRACKS that build in frequency and
           volume.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           If it wasn't for giant snowballs,
           and the iced age. I wouldn't even
           be Hushpuppy, I would just be
           breakfast.
                         
           The light dims in intensity to reveal, frozen deep inside the
           ice wall, barely visible- a fanged, hairy, bloated, stone
           aged creature, the same as on Miss Bathsheba's leg. This is
           an Aurochs.
                         
                         
           INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - EVENING
                         
           Hushpuppy climbs a metal ladder made from a railing, up to
           Wink's shanty in the trees. Windell, her dirty Chihuahua,
           follows behind.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Daddy? Feed-up time. Feed-up?
                         
           Hushpuppy bangs on the door of the shacko.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D)
           Daddy?
                         
           Nothing.
                         
           She goes inside.
                         
           The house is empty.
                         
           She checks the Shacko for food. Nothing.
                         
                         
           EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - EVENING
                         
           Several hours later, Hushpuppy stands on a metal bin looking
           into the distance.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           DADDY!?
                         
           Like some sort of animal call, she SHRIEKS.
                         11
                         
                         
           INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT
                         
           Hushpuppy draws a picture of Wink on a foldout mattress...
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           Kids that got no Mamma, no Daddy
           and nobody. They got to live in
           the woods, and eat grass, and steal
           underpants.
                         
           Hushpuppy lays down next to her drawing of Wink.
                         
                         
           EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING
                         
           Windell, the Chihuahua and the potbelly pig awake to greet
           the day.
                         
           Hushpuppy peers into the ground floor of the shacko.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Daddy? Daddy?
                         
           No response.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D)
           If Daddy don't get home soon, it's
           gonna be time for me to start
           eating my pets.
                         
                         
           EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY
                         
           Kids walk home with their parents after a day at the
           Schoolboat, which we now see is big a yellow houseboat
           floating on the bayou.
                         
           Hushpuppy waits alone, no one has come to get her.
                         
           Miss Bathsheba locks up the door and heads for her small
           motor boat tied off on the side of the school.
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           You need a ride, boo?
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           My Daddy's coming to pick me up.
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           How about food or something, you
           hungry?
                         12
                         
                         
           Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'.
                         
           Miss Bathsheba's doesn't totally believe her, but she's not
           the type to coddle either.
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           Alright, well suit yourself.
                         
           Miss Bathsheba motors away.
                         
           Hushpuppy waits until she's out of sight and starts walking.
                         
                         
           INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - MORNING
                         
           Playing don't-touch-the-floor, Hushpuppy navigates her house.
                         
           The room has with holes in the walls blocked with old clothes
           and paper towels. Homemade toys fill every surface. This is
           the domain of a child at loose ends.
                         
           Hushpuppy leaps over her bed- a nook piled with clothes- and
           plugs in the Christmas lights.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O)
           Everything we still got from Mamma,
           we keep in my house.
                         
           We push in on a shrine to her mother:
                         
           A red basketball jersey. An apron. A sawed-off shotgun. A
           child's drawing of a beautiful lady.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.) (CONT'D)
           Daddy says, the first time she
           looked at me, it made her heart
           beat so big, that she thought it
           would blow up. That's why she swam
           away.
                         
           Hushpuppy takes the jersey down. She puts it over a chair in
           the dining area.
                         
           Hushpuppy gets a can of cat food. A pot. Water in a bowl.
           Her actions have a sad sense of routine to them- she's been
           left alone before, and has her own self-invented system for
           feeding herself.
                         
           She opens a can of cat food, takes it out with her hand and
           throws it in a pot. She licks the remnants off her finger.
                         13
                         
                         
                          MARIETTA'S VOICE
           Hi my sweet baby.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Hi momma.
                         
           MARIETTA, Hushpuppy's imaginary, invisible mamma, is speaking
           from the basketball jersey chair. Marietta functions like an
           imaginary friend- Hushpuppy is the only one who can see her.
           Hushpuppy takes the pot, puts it on the stove.
                         
                          MARIETTA'S VOICE
           Hushpuppy what you doing there?
           You being good like I taught you?
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Yes, mamma.
                         
           Hushpuppy turns on the gas.
                         
           Hushpuppy goes through her safety precautions: oven mitts, a
           helmet, she flips the table and hides behind it.
                         
           She aims the stove lighter: a flame thrower made from a
           cigarette lighter and a can of spray deodorant. A spray of
           flames ignites the stove in a FIREBALL.
                         
                          CUT TO:
                         
           MOMENTS LATER. Hushpuppy behind the bubbling stove. She ties
           on an apron and sways to the music. She is dressing like her
           mom.
                         
           Marietta's Voice sings to her.
                         
                          MARIETTA'S VOICE
           You're good, you make me happy /
           you're good, you make me happy.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           That's pretty Mamma.
                         
                          MARIETTA'S VOICE
           You're pretty Hushpuppy.
                         
           Hushpuppy stares into the floating islands of cat food frying
           in fat, which in her POV is a surreal churning vision, like
           the bubbling lava at the center of the earth.
                         
           She's SHOCKED out of her vision by a YOWLING CAT being flung
           across the yard.
                         14
                         
                         
           WINK (O.S)
           Get out of my way you fat animal!
                         
           Hushpuppy jumps down from the stove, grabs a bowl of water,
           and runs to greet Wink,
                         
                         
           EXT. WINK'S COMPOUND - MORNING
                         
           She clambers down the oil drum ladder spilling her water
           everywhere in her excitement.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Daddy! Daddy, Daddy!
                         
           Wink doesn't turn to acknowledge her as he trudges across the
           field toward his Shacko. He's wearing a hospital patient's
           smock and no shoes, it seems he checked himself out.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D)
           I learned lots of stuff while you
           gone. If I drink all this here I
           can burp like a man.
                         
           Hushpuppy gulps down water, all of it. Wink keeps walking.
           Hushpuppy BURPS like a man, but he doesn't turn around.
                         
           Hushpuppy stops to examine the situation. Something's not
           right here.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D)
           How come you wearing a dress?
                         
           Hushpuppy tugs his patient's smock and he shrugs her off
           violently.
                         
                          WINK
           Leave me alone, Man.
                         
           She sees his hospital I.D bracelet still on.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           You wearing a bracelet too?
                         
                          WINK
           Go in your house, you wouldn't
           understand.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I wanna come in your house.
                         15
                         
                         
           Hushpuppy whacks Wink's butt.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D)
           I WANNA COME IN YOUR HOUSE!
                         
           Wink fakes like he's gonna smack her.
                         
                          WINK
           GO AHEAD!
                         
           Hushpuppy tears off.
                         
           Wink storms into the Shacko in the Backo.
                         
                         
           INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy stomps inside. Her cat food is burning, with steam
           jetting up to the ceiling. She thinks about it for a moment,
           and turns the burner up. Smoke billows.
                         
           Hushpuppy grabs her basketball jersey off the chair and jumps
           over the breakfront counter. Behind her A MASSIVE GREASE
           EXPLOSION.
                         
           Hushpuppy ducks down, panicking. She check over the median.
           The stove is on engulfed in flames.
                         
           Hushpuppy scrambles under a cardboard box.
                         
                         
           INT./EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S BOX - DAY
                         
           The walls of the box are decorated with years of her
           drawings. In here she feels a strange safety. The FLAMES
           and BREAKING WINDOWS feel distant and muffled.
                         
           She draws a hieroglyphic of herself sad and crying on an
           island with a sun and a palm tree.
                         
           She peeks out as Wink runs into the house, which is filled
           with black smoke, flickering flames.
                         
           WINK (O.S.)
           (panicking from inside)
           Hushpuppy!? Boss lady!? Hushpuppy
           where you at!?
                         
           Hushpuppy drops the box closed. Smoke billows into the box,
           filling it up.
                         16
                         
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O)
           If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be
           forgotten, I'm recording my story
           for the scientists of the future.
                         
           Hushpuppy draws a bigger figure giving her a hug as Wink's
           panicked fury intensifies outside.
                         
           WINK (O.S)
           HUSHPUPPY!? Where are you Boss!?
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O)
           In a million years, when kids go to
           school, they gonna know that once
           there was Hushpuppy and she lived
           with her Daddy in the Bathtub.
                         
           Wink pulls Hushpuppy's drawings off the walls, he flings them
           out the door to safety.
                         
           Hushpuppy coughs.
                         
           Wink has heard. He looks toward the box.
                         
                          WINK
           BOSS LADY?
                         
           Hushpuppy and makes a runs for it, flying out the door.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Don't you run away from me. I
           swear to GOD Hushpuppy!
                         
                         
           EXT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy runs out of Wink's compound into the woods, Wink on
           her trail. In the background, the house is a towering
           inferno.
                         
                         
           EXT. TRAIL BEHIND WINK'S COMPOUND - DAY
                         
           They run deeper into the swamp.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I'm tearing off!
                         
                          WINK
           You ain't tearing off nothin', I'll
           bust your ass!
                         17
                         
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I'm tearing off just like my Momma.
                         
                          WINK
           Come on!
                         
           Wink tried to yank her toward home and Hushpuppy refuses.
           She digs her heels in.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           See what happens. See what happens
           to you!
                         
           Hushpuppy hooks her leg around a tree and holds on.
                         
           Wink slaps Hushpuppy and she falls face down.
                         
           He looks away, disgusted with himself.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           See what you making me do? You're
           killing me!
                         
           He reaches down and tries to pick her up.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Get up and now come on.
                         
           Hushpuppy jumps up on her own.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I hope you do die! And after you
           die, I come to your grave and eat
           birthday cake all by myself!
                         
           Hushpuppy punches Wink in the heart and suddenly EVERYTHING
           GOES QUIET, as if all the insects in the forest have hushed.
                         
           All at once, we hear--
                         
           A HUMAN HEART, beating until there is a SONIC BOOM, an
           earsplitting CRACK of glacial ice.
                         
           Hushpuppy turns toward the sound. When she turns back Wink's
           face has transformed, wrenches with fear and pain.
                         
           Wink keels over clutching his arm.
                         
           Hushpuppy stares, her breath accelerating.
                         
           Wink's eyes roll back in his head, he begins to seizure.
                         18
                         
                         
           ANOTHER GLACIAL CRACK rings out. The SPLITTING builds to a
           DEAFENING ROAR. She covers her ears.
                         
                         
           EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF / WOODS - DAY
                         
           Fissures appear like lightning through the massive ice cliff
           from the opening of the movie.
                         
           Hushpuppy runs from the sound, hands over her ears. We
           INTERCUT with shots of falling glaciers. The universe is
           coming unravelled.
                         
           An ice shelf COLLAPSES into the ocean in a MASSIVE AVALANCHE,
           a wave rolls toward camera.
                         
                         
           EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY
                         
           The wave, now just a tiny ripple, hits Hushpuppy's feet.
           Suddenly, the water level rises around her. It overtakes her
           knees and keeps going. Hushpuppy backs up to shore,
           terrified.
                         
           Hushpuppy calls out to a distant beacon flashing on the
           horizon.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Momma!? Momma!? MOMMA!? I think
           I broke something.
                         
                         
           EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy runs out of the woods toward school in a total
           panic.
                         
           In front of the school parents pile their children into a
           pickup trucks and vans.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Miss Bathsheba! Miss Bathsheba!
           My Daddy fell down!
                         
           Miss Bathsheba takes Hushpuppy's hands as she tries to catch
           her breath to speak. Clutched in her hand is the hospital
           bracelet that Wink had been wearing.
                         
           Bathsheba turns over the diagnostic bracelet and reads it,
           her eyes widen in recognition and alarm.
                         19
                         
                         
           INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba frantically pull herbs and
           roots from her containers of medicinal oddities and pack it
           into a large medicine jar.
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           It's gonna be OK baby.
                         
           Bathsheba hands Hushpuppy the medicine jar.
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           Ok, Hushpuppy, here's what I need
           you to do. You take this medicine
           and run as fast as you can. Go!
                         
                         
           EXT. SWAMP CLEARING - DAY
                         
           We see glimpses of nature protecting itself from the
           impending disaster. Flowers curl up, insects horde food
           underground, RUSTLING sounds fill the air. Black birds, and
           bats, and all manner of flying creatures fill the sky.
           They're all getting the hell out of dodge.
                         
           Hushpuppy, quaking with fear, runs through a menacing swamp
           clutching her medicine jar. The rising winds swirl the marsh
           grass all around her.
                         
           Hushpuppy runs to the spot where Wink collapsed.
                         
           He's gone.
                         
           Hushpuppy looks around the swamp, unable to understand.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           Daddy could have turned into a
           tree, or a bug. There wasn't any
           way to know.
                         
           Hushpuppy hides her medicine jar in her storage unit- a
           leather flap laid over the hollow of an oak tree. The hollow
           is filled with trinkets and objects she's collected over the
           years.
                         
           Hushpuppy flinches as a shrieking animal calls out.
                         
           She looks up to see a leaf covered in writhing caterpillars.
           One of them has been skewered by a beetle and is fighting for
           it's life.
                         20
                         
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           The whole universe depends on
           everything fitting together just
           right. If one piece busts, even
           the smallest piece, the entire
           universe will get busted.
                         
                         
           EXT. ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF - DAY
                         
           Blocks of glaciers roll out of the avalanche and away from
           Antarctica like floating ice cubes. Embedded in each cube,
           is an Aurochs.
                         
           A single ice cube takes over the frame and the mammoth dead
           Aurochs' eye stares right at us. Its jaw wide, its fangs
           bared, the ferocious beast appears to have fossilized mid-
           pounce. THUNDER BOOMS.
                         
           We drift upwards into the cloud cover. As we rise above the
           white canopy, the spiral of a hurricane forms.
                         
                         
           EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY
                         
           STRINGS SWELL under HOWLING WINDS. We follow behind a little
           boy running down the road with an alarm bell as the people of
           the Bathtub mobilize in a frenzied evacuation.
                         
                          BOY
           The storm's coming! The storm's
           coming!
                         
                         
           EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy sulks out of the woods, feeling sorry for herself.
           She looks up and freezes like she's seen a ghost.
                         
           Wink hobbles down the road, looking shell-shocked. The
           traffic on the road moves in one direction: out. Wink walks
           back into town in the opposite direction.
                         
           In Hushpuppy's POV Wink arrives at Lady Jo's bar where a band
           of drunken sweethearts are in their regular positions. They
           are watching the evacuation go by like it's a Veteran's Day
           parade. They giggle and hurl good-natured curses out to a
           family making their way to safety.
                         21
                         
                         
                          LITTLE JO
           Look at these assholes running
           around all over the damn place.
           C'est la vie assholes!
                         
                          WINK
           I know y'all with me. Y'all doin'
           the storm.
                         
                          LITTLE JO
           Lady Jo's ain't never closed honey.
                         
                          WINK
           That's what I'm talking about.
           Walrus my big man, you staying?
                         
                          WALRUS
           Wrong number buddy. I'm outta here
           as soon as I finish my beer.
                         
           Wink dismisses him with a wave of his hand.
                         
                          WINK
           You ain't goin nowhere.
                         
                          WALRUS
           This ain't no sneeze comin' out the
           gulf. I'm gone brother.
                         
                          WINK
           I'll see you tomorrow Walrus.
           Lookit there, Winston's with me.
                         
           WINSTON is passed out on the stairs.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           What you doing about the storm
           Winston?
                         
           Without opening his eyes, Winston raises an umbrella over his
           head. Wink laughs.
                         
                          WALRUS
           Hey! It's Hushpuppy.
                         
                          EVERYBODY
           Hushpuppy! Hushpuppy's here.
                         
           They burst into a round of drunken applause.
                         22
                         
                         
                          WINK
           Hushpuppy? Where you been?
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           What happened to y-
                         
                          WINK
           Shut-up!
                         
           He lifts her up by the britches and carries her away.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           You don't talk!
                         
                         
           INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - GROUND FLOOR - DAY
                         
           Through the bus window, Hushpuppy watches Wink prepare for
           the storm as branches and debris fly by him. He RANTS to
           himself and drinks. He ties the Turck onto the house.
                         
           Hushpuppy looks to where her animals lurch and freeze, run
           around in circles, pant heavily. They feel it coming.
                         
           Rain drops start to spatter the window and Wink trips and
           falls trying to catch a fleeing chicken.
                         
                         
           INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - 2ND FLOOR - NIGHT
                         
           Now, the full force of the storm HOWLS and CLATTERS the
           shutters. Rain screams against the corrugated metal roof.
                         
           Wink tapes padding over all sharp corners and plastic wraps
           the furniture. He's Hushpuppy-proofing everything.
                         
           He runs a piece of duct tape across the floor.
                         
                          WINK
           This side is still Wink's house.
           No toys, and no girl stuff over
           here.
                         
           Wink pushes charred toys from Hushpuppy's house across the
           line.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           So if I want to come over that side
           and smack you in the face, that's
           against the rules. So there's a
           plus for you.
                         23
                         
                         
           Hushpuppy is not able to see the bright side here.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Now come on down here and get in
           the boat, man.
                         
           He points to a trunk on the floor. Hushpuppy hops down and
           gets in. Wink sits on his air mattress.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           If the water get real high, we
           gonna float to the top and we gonna
           bust through the roof and we gonna
           ride away, okay?
                         
           Wink puts a pair of mismatching water wings on her.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           You never NEVER take these off.
           I'm your Daddy, and you do what I
           tell you to do, because it's my job
           to keep you from dying, ok? So sit
           back and just listen to me...
           Close your eyes and go to sleep.
           CLOSE YOUR EYES!
                         
           Hushpuppy watches Wink pretending to sleep. The THUNDER
           scares the bejesus out of him again.
                         
           She looks to the ceiling where water is starting to pour in
           steadily.
                         
           Looks back at Wink who is sneaking a sip from his liquor
           bottle. He resumes his phony sleep.
                         
           A strong gust of wind JOLTS the entire room and he springs
           out of bed.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Why you starin' at me like that? I
           can't sleep with you starin' at me
           like that.
                         
           Wink paces the floor.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Listen. You need to understand,
           you're a kid and I'm a man.
                         
           She doesn't understand.
                         24
                         
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           What, you scared?
                         
           Hushpuppy nods. THUNDER BOOMS and Wink is the one who
           flinches.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Don't be scared, no storm can't
           beat no Doucet. I'm gonna show
           you. You watch.
                         
           But he can see she's still scared.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           I'm'll show you! We Doucets we're
           not scared of no damn storm.
                         
           Wink grabs a bottle of moonshine and climbs down the hatch in
           the floor into the storm.
                         
           Hushpuppy runs to the window and peeks out.
                         
           OUTSIDE. The frenzy of the hurricane propels Wink at full
           sprint through the 100 MPH winds. He tears his clothes off
           and guzzles moonshine as branches fall all around him.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Look at me! Look at me Hushpuppy!
           Watch me kick butt.
                         
           Wink fires his shotgun at the heavens.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Hell yea! I'm right here! I'm
           right here I ain't going nowhere.
           AHHHHHH!!!
                         
           A THUNDER CLAP shakes the house so hard a ceiling beam
           CRASHES down.
                         
           Hushpuppy runs to her bed as if it might keep her safe.
                         
           Windell, swinging from a basket tied to the ceiling, BARKS,
           panicking herself.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Mamma!? MAMMA!?
                         
                          CUT TO:
                         25
                         
                         
           EXT. PATAGONIAN COAST - NIGHT
                         
           Still in the rainstorm, a glacial cube SHATTERS, flopping a
           mammoth body onto the shoreline.
                         
           It's chest heaves and a LOW SNORT is heard. The animal
           begins to roll over.
                         
           Her dinosaur size hoof plants in the mud as she lifts herself
           up. We stare over the muscular haunch of her body as she
           stares into the distance.
                         
           The massive creature turns, testing her limbs after thousands
           of years of sleep.
                         
           She looks up to the storm and lets loose a GURGLING ROAR.
                         
           We sit close on one of her black eyes. There is something
           dangerously sad in her cold gaze. Her head moves from the
           frame as she starts forward on her journey.
                         
                         
           EXT. AERIAL BATHTUB - DAY
                         
           Silence. The storm has passed.
                         
           The camera flies high over the Bathtub. The tops of houses
           poke out from the massive water like lily-pads in a pond.
                         
                         
           EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - FLOODED - MORNING
                         
           A slab of metal stares at us, surrounded by water.
                         
           Something under the metal BANGS TWICE and an axe dislodges a
           roof panel. The axe twists and leverages off the slab.
                         
           Wink hefts Hushpuppy on top of the roof. Then Windell.
           Dishevelled and hung-over, he pulls himself up too.
                         
           The three survivors stare in stunned silence at their new
           world.
                         
                         
           EXT. FLOODED LAFOURCHE ROAD - TURCK - MORNING
                         
           Wink slowly navigates the Turck in through the flooded
           landscape where their town had once been. Neither he nor
           Hushpuppy can say a word. Everything is submerged. Every
           organism is dead or has fled. The quiet is overwhelming.
                         26
                         
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           For every animal that didn't have a
           Dad to put it in a boat, the end of
           the world already happened.
           They're all down below, trying to
           breathe through water.
                         
           They pass abandoned house, after abandoned house, the ones on
           stilts have water up to the porches. Trees are bashed
           through roofs, walls are blown through, bathrooms exposed.
                         
                         
           EXT. WINSTON'S HOUSE - FLOODED - MORNING
                         
           Wink uses a pole to open a door.
                         
                          WINK
           Yo Winston?
                         
           No one answers. They push off.
                         
                         
           EXT. EDISON'S HOUSE - FLOODED - THE TURCK - DAY
                         
           Wink enters an intact house with water up to the porch.
                         
           WINK (O.S.)
           Edison? Ow-Wee!
                         
           Wink leans against the door frame. From his POV we see
           Hushpuppy on the Turck. She picks a leaf and eats it. Wink
           shakes his head in dismay, realizing all too clearly his girl
           is not ready for survival.
                         
                         
           EXT. SWAMP - THE TURCK - DAY
                         
           The Turck passes through a net of Spanish moss into the belly
           of a swamp.
                         
                          WINK
           Some day when I'm gone, you gonna
           be the last man in the bathtub.
           You have to learn how to feed your
           house.
                         
           Wink goes to the edge of the turck and sticks his hand in the
           water.
                         27
                         
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Now, stick your left hand in this
           water, stick it in there.
                         
           Hushpuppy puts her right hand in the water.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Ok, what you do is you hold your
           hand steady and you just wait for
           your fish to come. You gotta ball
           your fist up, this is your punching
           hand. Ball your fist up in case
           you have to whack it when they come
           up.
                         
           Wink pulls a Catfish out with his bare hand.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           WHOOOOO YEA! Whooo lord, look what
           we got. I gotcha. Say "I gotcha!"
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I gotcha!
                         
           Wink slams the fish down on the floor of the Turck and pins
           it.
                         
                          WINK
           Yea! Hold him down! Now, you hold
           it down like this, and whack him
           good with your fist.
                         
           Wink pins the fish and punches it in the face.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Go ahead whack him! You whack him
           good. Hold him like that and whack
           him!
                         
           Hushpuppy pins the fish. She tries to whack it and it cuts
           her.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           OW!
                         
           She hides her cut hand from Wink.
                         
                          WINK
           You OK? That's all a part of it.
                         28
                         
                         
           Hushpuppy winces in pain.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           You wanna try it again?
                         
           Hushpuppy shakes her head no, trying not to cry.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Come on. One more time.
                         
                         
           INT. EDISON'S HOUSE - FLOODED - NIGHT
                         
           Hushpuppy has enclosed herself under a table with a
           tablecloth on it. She's drawing on the floor with charcoal.
                         
           Something alive hits the roof and scurries across. We hear
           the entire house MOAN, or was it a distant ROAR?
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Daddy?
                         
           Wink's hacking cough, which has gotten worse since last we
           heard it, fills the room. Hushpuppy tries to shake him
           awake.
                         
           Hushpuppy looks through the gap in his shirt.
                         
           On Wink's chest, surrounding his heart, a corroded spider web
           of purple bruises shows through the skin, like varicose veins
           covering his entire heart.
                         
           Hushpuppy's eyes go wide with horror.
                         
                         
           EXT. EDISON'S HOUSE - NIGHT
                         
           The beacon pulses on the distant horizon.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Mamma? Is that you?
                         
           The beacon does not respond.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D)
           I've broken everything.
                         29
                         
                         
           EXT. DESERT - DAY
                         
           A cloud of dust circulates particles. The Haze is blinding.
           A distant RUMBLING grows.
                         
           Dark shapes tear through the haze in a deafening stampede.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           Strong animals, they know when your
           hearts are weak. That makes them
           hungry and they start coming.
                         
           We see one at first, then more join rank around it. The
           Aurochs are charging in a pack. They are a biblical terror;
           the horsemen of the apocalypse.
                         
                         
           EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY
                         
           The turck moves through the cypress forest, signs are strewn
           everywhere pointing to Lady Jo's bar. It appears abandoned.
                         
           Suddenly, the door SQUEAKS open. Walrus winces at the
           sunlight and pops a beer.
                         
           He steps out the door and SPLASHES into the water.
                         
                          WALRUS
           Holy bowlegged Sarah!
                         
                          WINK
           Hey partner! Hey Walrus!
                         
           Wink pulls in the Turck and paddles to rescue the thrashing
           drunkard.
                         
           They leverage Walrus aboard and lay him out on deck.
                         
                          WALRUS
           (gauging his surroundings)
           I musta passed out.
                         
           Wink starts chuckling silently. His chuckle builds to a
           laugh.
                         
                         
           INT. LADY JO'S BAR - FLOODED - DAY
                         
           They enter the bar, empty bottles, half eaten crabs, and
           general party debris are littered everywhere.
                         30
                         
                         
           Little Jo is sprawled on the floor under a table. Is she
           dead or just wasted?
                         
                          WINK
           Little Jo!
                         
           She awakes with a start and bangs her head on the table.
                         
                          LITTLE JO
           Wink!?
                         
           Wink and Walrus run to help her up.
                         
           LITTLE JO (CONT'D)
                          (TO WALRUS)
           You don't touch me you filthy
           bastard!
                          (TO WINK)
           Wink, you get me.
                         
           They both lift her.
                         
           LITTLE JO (CONT'D)
           Goin' on all night `bout how
           tonight's the last night on earth
           we gotta make it count. Talkin'
           dirty right in front of Peter T.
                         
                          WALRUS
           Sorry Peter T.
                         
           Peter T enters from the Bathroom.
                         
                          WINK
           Peter T, my man! I knew you wasn't
           gonna leave me man!
                         
           Peter T speaks in his polite, level-headed, soft sweet voice.
                         
                          PETER T
           Oh no, oh no.
                         
                          WALRUS
           (re: Peter T)
           That is one classic dude right
           there.
                         
                          WINK
           Peter T, you are a titan! Glad you
           stayed man! RHHAAAA!
                         31
                         
                         
           Wink jiggles Peter T's ample belly. Peter T giggles with
           glee.
                         
           Wink puts one arm around Walrus and the other around Peter T.
           He smiles to Hushpuppy.
                         
           She laughs too, the first smile in quite some days.
                         
                         
           INT. LADY JO'S BAR - LATER THAT NIGHT
                         
           The Bathtub crew are lolling in the later party stages.
           There is a rooster on the table looking like the most sober
           creature in the room by far.
                         
                          WALRUS
           If I had wings, I know I could have
           flown in that bad boy. But I would
           have probably bounced off a tree,
           or...
                         
           Hushpuppy lays on the table in pile of empty crab shells.
                         
                          WINK
           Hushpuppy! Did I ever tell you the
           story of your conception?
                         
           The bar crowd chuckles.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           When me and Hushpuppy's Mamma first
           met we was so shy, we used to sit
           around, and drink beer, and smile
           at each other. One day we was so
           shy we just napped...
                         
           Wink's voice FADES DOWN as Hushpuppy's fantasy takes over.
           She closes her eyes.
                         
                         
           EXT. FANTASY HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DAY
                         
           Wink, younger and prettier, naps in an uncharacteristically
           colorful lawn chair.
                         
           A LOW, GURGLING GROWL wakes him up.
                         
           There in the yard, crawling slow and lazy, is a massive 15-
           foot alligator, breathing the heavy, slutty way alligators
           breathe.
                         32
                         
                         
           A topless woman steps in front. Sweat beading on her perfect
           shoulder blades, down her perfect, back ending in a pair of
           boys' underpants- just like Hushpuppy's.
                         
           Throughout Hushpuppy's vision, we never see Marietta's face,
           it's always covered, shot from the back, or out of frame.
                         
           Marietta cocks the shotgun with one hand, Terminator 2 style.
                         
           Lowers it on the gator...
                         
           BLAM. Wink sits up in SLOW MOTION- her panties, and her long
           naked legs are covered with gator blood.
                         
           She turns to Wink, her head ABOVE FRAME.
                         
           CLOSE UP on her eye. She winks.
                         
                         
           INT. FANTASY HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT
                         
           We follow behind Marietta's supple curves as she walks into
           the kitchen. Her white slip is almost see through...almost.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           Back when Daddy used to talk about
           Mamma, he'd say she was so pretty
           she never even had to turn on the
           stove.
                         
           She runs her fingers along the counter and the burners IGNITE
           one by one as she passes.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           She just walk into a room and water
           start to boil.
                         
           Water starts to bubbles like a spontaneous volcanic eruption.
                         
           Marietta reaches into the frigidaire, and pulls out two ice-
           cold beers.
                         
           Ice melts down the bottles.
                         
           She opens them on the counter, flawlessly.
                         
           She walks over to Wink. Stands there. A hot mess.
                         
           Wink's voice FADES UP.
                         33
                         
                         
           WINK (V.O.)
           Your Momma battered that gator up,
           and set it to fry.
                         
                          CUT TO:
                         
                         
           INT. LADY JO'S BAR - NIGHT
                         
           Wink tips his drink.
                         
                          WINK
           ...and Hushpuppy popped into the
           universe maybe four minutes later.
                         
           He empties the glass, sufficiently drunk now.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           I got it under control.
                         
           Wink looks away, lost in his own fantasy.
                         
                         
           INT. FANTASY HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - NIGHT
                         
           Over Marietta's shoulder, beads of sweat form along the strap
           of her slip. Good Lord.
                         
           Wink looks, and meets her eyes. The gaze of a proud and
           smitten man.
                         
           Grits fall through the chimney vent, into the boiling water.
           Dancing like all the invisible particles of the universe.
                         
                         
           INT. LADY JO'S BAR - NIGHT
                         
           Hushpuppy stares hard, her face locked in pride and
           determination. Filling with all the strength and heroism of
           her long-lost mother. She's ready to snap into action.
                         
                         
           EXT. FLOODED BATHTUB - THE TURCK - DAY
                         
           ENERGETIC MUSIC drops and we move in a semi-montage through
           Hushpuppy's search for survivors.
                         
           Hushpuppy rows the Turck through the flooded Bathtub by
           herself. In the distance she sees a lone horse. It stands
           on an tiny island of land, the last high ground in an endless
           stretch of water.
                         34
                         
                         
           The horse holds Hushpuppy's gaze. She hears it's strong,
           resilient HEARTBEAT. They are one and the same.
                         
                         
           EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - THE TURCK - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy approaches Schoolboat, which has weathered the
           storm relatively intact.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Miss Bathsheba!?
                         
                         
           INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy opens the door.
                         
           We hear RUSTLING and WHISPERING inside school.
                         
           It's three little girls left behind in the storm. JOY
           STRONG, a tall, wild-haired leader; LIZARD, a tiny thing in a
           giant man's tee shirt, and T-LOU, the muscle of this girl
           gang, looking very meek in her desperate condition.
                         
           The girls are huddled against each other, terrified, hungry,
           and alone.
                         
                         
           EXT. LADY JO'S BAR - DAY
                         
           Miss Bathsheba, shell-shocked but steadfast, steers the boat
           toward the bar, the four girls now safely in her care. From
           the inside we hear CAROUSING, TOASTING, and RAUCOUS CAJUN
           MUSIC.
                         
                         
           INT. LADY JO'S BAR - FLOODED - NIGHT
                         
           Wink pours a mountain of crab and shrimp at a great communal
           table, assembled from many different tables.
                         
                          WINK
           Come on lets go! Time to eat!
           Come on children, feed up time!
                         
           He sends a feast sliding across the floor under the table,
           where Joy, T-Lou, and Lizard dig in.
                         
           Wink has decorated the bar with all the waterlogged relics of
           the Bathtub.
                         35
                         
                         
           The room is a shrine of people's chairs, umbrellas, clothing.
           We're late in the game, and the party has descended into
           utter debauchery.
                         
           Jean raises a glass.
                         
                          JEAN BATTISTE
           To the last of the food!
                         
                          WALRUS
           To the last of the water!
                         
                          LITTLE JO
           You ain't drinkin' no water.
                         
           Miss Bathsheba pour shots and toasts.
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           Yea, tastes like more, alright!
                         
           Hushpuppy struggles to peel her shrimps, sitting on top of
           the table.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           For the ones we'd never find, we
           make a funeral the Bathtub way,
           with no crying allowed.
                         
           Drunken Wink is giving drunken Walrus a bath as he eats.
                         
                          WALRUS
           When the water goes down, I'm gonna
           French kiss the dirt!
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           Water's not goin' down man.
                         
                          WINK
           Nah, that's my beautiful place
           under there.
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           Man you know they got plenty of
           salt coming into that water,
           everything beautiful is gone.
           Trees are gonna dies first, then
           the animals, then the fish.
                         
                          WINK
           I got it under control.
                         36
                         
                         
           Hushpuppy picks up a crab. She tries to pound it open, tries
           yanking on a leg. She can't shell it.
                         
                          JEAN BATTISTE
           Come on Hushpuppy, come over here
           lemme show you how.
                         
           Hushpuppy sits down next to Jean, a good pupil.
                         
           JEAN BATTISTE (CONT'D)
           Here baby. You hold like this,
           then you turn it over like that.
                         
           Hushpuppy follows instruction in deep concentration, but a
           bit tentative.
                         
           We see Wink look away from Walrus and Jo's bawdy humor
           extravaganza and focus in on Hushpuppy. His disdain is
           palpable for this froufrou shelling technique.
                         
           JEAN BATTISTE (CONT'D)
           Don't be scared of it now. Now,
           you take this knife, and you pop
           this off.
                         
           Jean holds Hushpuppy's hand and guides a knife to open the
           belly of the crab.
                         
           JEAN BATTISTE (CONT'D)
           Atta girl.
                         
                          WINK
           NO! Hushpuppy--
                         
           Wink POUNDS the table. And the party falls suddenly silent.
                         
           Wink pushes the utensil away. He grabs a crab, opens it in
           three virtuosic hand motions.
                         
           Grease and spice explode everywhere and Wink sucks the face
           of the crab clean. It is beautiful to watch.
                         
           He slams a fresh crab in front of Hushpuppy.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Beast it!
                         
           Hushpuppy looks to Miss Bathsheba for guidance.
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           You heard your Daddy. Beast it.
                         37
                         
                         
           Hushpuppy pulls on the crab shell with all her might. She
           doesn't have the power.
                         
                          EVERYONE
                          (CLAPPING ALONG)
           BEAST IT! BEAST IT! BEAST IT!
                         
           The kids jump out from under the table and chant.
                         
           Hushpuppy is turning blue, her eyes bulge with effort...
                         
           CRACK!
                         
           Hushpuppy opens the crab claw and sucks down the meat.
                         
           Everyone goes wild with applause! The kids too!
                         
           Hushpuppy stands up, ascending to the top of the table. She
           lets loose a WARRIOR CRY and flexes her muscles, deadly
           triumphant.
                         
           Little Jo gets so excited she starts dancing on the table.
           She CACKLES and jitterbugs wildly.
                         
           Walrus gets up to join her. Jean gets up and dances too.
           All the kids get up.
                         
           Wink glows with pride. Miss Bathsheba smiles.
                         
                          WINK
           Yea! You see what kinda family we
           got?! We got feeling!
                         
                         
           EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - FLOODED - VARIOUS
                         
           A DRIVING SCORE kicks in as we MONTAGE through the
           transformation of the Schoolboat into a ramshackle Ark.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           It wasn't no time to sit around
           crying like a bunch of pussies.
                         
           The survivors whittle sticks into spears, bend metal debris
           into spikes.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           We was gonna build a camp right on
           top of the Bathtub.
                         38
                         
                         
           Jean Battiste, cackling wildly, hauls a thrashing goat onto a
           floating animal pen. Chicken coops, snake cages, a pig pen
           are stacking precariously.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           We got enough animals to eat until
           the water goes down.
                         
           Rafts are lashed to the sides of the school. Every floating
           structure left in town is hauled in and added to the Ark.
                         
           Peter T ties on a floating vegetable garden.
                         
           In WIDE we see what looks like a small village of floating
           structures forming.
                         
                         
           INT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY
                         
           Miss Bathsheba puts Lizard's head in her lap, Lizard is
           playing as if she's unconscious after hyperventilating.
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           (teaching a lesson)
           Come here, like this.
                         
           She takes Hushpuppy's hand and places it on Lizard's chest.
           She moves her hand in a circular motion.
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           Like this. Tee-Lou get some water.
                         
           Tee-Lou runs to get a handful of water.
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           Quick little circles. Good for the
           heart. Joy Strong?
                         
           Joy turns her back. Miss Bathsheba shakes her head.
                         
           Tee-Lou returns and pours water on Lizard's head, cooling
           her.
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           This is most important thing I can
           ever teach y'all. You got to take
           care of people that's smaller and
           sweeter than you are.
                         
           Hushpuppy registers this advice, takes it to heart. She rubs
           Lizard's chest with delicacy and affection.
                         39
                         
                         
           Lizard's breathing returns to normal, and she sits up
           peacefully. Hushpuppy is awestruck. Bathsheba gets to her
           feet.
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           That's better.
                         
                         
           INT. SCHOOLHOUSE - NIGHT
                         
           Hushpuppy watches Wink sleeping. His breathing has gotten
           worse.
                         
           She tiptoes up with her red basketball jersey and lays it
           down on Wink, tucking him in just right.
                         
           A DISTANT RUMBLING is heard. Cutting off suddenly as we...
                         
                          CUT TO:
                         
                         
           EXT. BRAZILIAN FAVELLAS - DAY
                         
           A quiet town, not unlike the Bathtub, but with tangled power-
           lines, electrical towers, and layered hills.
                         
           A stone flies from behind a house and bounces down the
           street, denting the silence.
                         
           Slowly, the peaceful morning transitions into MORE RUMBLING,
           a distant CRACK.
                         
           Suddenly the house in the foreground explodes to smithereens
           and the head of an Aurochs drives through it.
                         
           Without breaking step, Aurochs maraud the village, trampling
           it into oblivion. We settle close on an Aurochs eye,
           emotionless and relentless in its calm.
                         
                         
           EXT. BATHTUB MARSH WATER - TURCK - MORNING
                         
           Wink, Hushpuppy, and the Bathtub crew pole the Turck through
           a lake blanketed with carcasses, pushing through the dead
           fish, dead porpoises, dead alligator garfish like they were
           lily pads. There is no wind, only dense wet heat searing on
           the faces of the characters. The once green foliage has gone
           brown and thirsty.
                         40
                         
                         
           HUSHPUPPY V.O.
           Two weeks later, everything started
           to die.
                         
                          WINK
           (to the water)
           Come on fishes, where y'at?
                         
           Wink empties his net- nothing but a pile of carcasses. He
           tips it back into the water. Wink pulls himself to the edge
           and sticks his head under to look for fish.
                         
           Hushpuppy looks at him with an air of doubt for the first
           time. Wink looks ridiculous, a dead fish drifts off his
           head.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
                          (WHISPERING)
           You wanna leave the Bathtub,
           Walrus?
                         
                          WALRUS
                          (WITHOUT THOUGHT)
           Nah.
                         
           Wink pulls his head back up.
                         
                          WINK
           I heard that.
                         
           Hushpuppy fidgets guiltily.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Nobody's leaving the Bathtub! You
           don't know nothing!
                         
           Wink lowers his net back in the water.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
                          (TO WALRUS)
           This water gonna kill us here. We
           gotta do something `bout this. I
           ain't starvin' to death while them
           people go grocery shopping up
           there.
                         
                         
           INT. SCHOOLBOAT - FLOODED - MORNING
                         
           The kids sleep on Miss Bathsheba in a big pile on the floor.
                         41
                         
                         
           Hushpuppy wakes hearing SHIFTING and a SNAP behind her.
                         
           Peter T is uncapping a shotgun shell and pouring black powder
           into a small jar.
                         
           She looks out the window where Jean Battiste is unhooking a
           propane container from Miss Bathsheba's burner. He opens her
           chest freezer and hefts out a 12-foot garfish, dropping the
           container in the water.
                         
                          JEAN BATTISTE
           Shit!
                         
           Wink sneaks up and whispers to Hushpuppy.
                         
                          WINK
           Boss, Daddy's gotta take care of
           something.
                         
           Hushpuppy is instantly concerned, she's heard this line
           before, and it always leads to trouble.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           I'm gonna fix everything back how
           it was.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Everything gonna go right back?
                         
                          WINK
           Hell yeah, we gonna win.
                         
           Wink pounds his chest in solidarity. Hushpuppy matches his
           pound, but without confidence.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Boss, anything go wrong, Walrus is
           Daddy.
                         
           Wink and Hushpuppy look Walrus-- the face of doddering
           drunken bewilderment. A goat licks him.
                         
           Hushpuppy is not comforted.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           You're gonna be the king of the
           Bathtub, I promise that.
                         
           Wink can see he's getting nowhere.
                         42
                         
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Just sit here I'll be right back.
                         
           The DOOR CLOSING wakes Miss Bathsheba up. She scans the
           room, noticing the three missing people.
                         
                          WALRUS
           (an unconvincing lie)
           I think they be gone. I-I really
           can't say where.
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           Walrus, don't make me slap your
           ass! They go to the levee!?
                         
           Walrus is intimidated into silence.
                         
           MISS BATHSHEBA (CONT'D)
           You so much as piss on that wall,
           you know what them people gonna do?
           They gonna smoke us out and stick
           us in a damn shelter.
                         
           Hushpuppy watches Miss Bathsheba go for her boat keys.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           Daddy says, brave men don't run
           from their home.
                         
           Hushpuppy scurries out the side window, escaping outside
           before Miss Bathsheba sees her.
                         
                         
           EXT. UNDER THE TURCK TARP - DAY
                         
           Wink, Jean Battiste, and Peter T keep their heads above water
           as they float under the tarp behind the truck bed. Peter T
           is wearing a life jacket and still has his top hat on.
                         
                          WINK
                          (WHISPERING)
           Peter T, don't hold onto me, hold
           onto the boat. You gonna be fine.
                         
           Jean Battiste duct tapes fireworks around the bomb: a propane
           tank with an igniter made from a battery and a pouch of black
           powder.
                         
           He inserts the bomb into the stomach cavity of a giant
           garfish carcass.
                         43
                         
                         
           Wink shoves two propane tanks inside the belly of the
           garfish.
                         
           He hands a rope attached to the igniter to Peter T.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Peter T, you hold the trip-line.
                         
                          PETER T
           (Soft and sweet)
           Ok then.
                         
                          WINK
           Just don't pull `til I say.
                         
                          PETER T
           Ok then.
                         
                          WINK
           You can do it. I have complete
           faith in you.
                         
                          PETER T
           Ok.
                         
           Jean Battiste is hesitant.
                         
           Wink gives Jean Battiste a confident nod.
                         
                          JEAN BATTISTE
           Lock and load.
                         
           Jean Battiste carefully unravels the string that leads to the
           fuse. He shoves the igniter down the mouth of the garfish.
                         
                         
           EXT. LEVEE WALL, IN THE WATER - DAY
                         
           The Turck pulls into an enclosed segment of the levee, Wink
           bobs out from under the Turck and latches a pre-made tether
           running out of the garfish to a handle on the wall. He bobs
           back under the boat.
                         
                         
           EXT. SCHOOLBOAT - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy dives under the fishing net on a motor boat just
           before Miss Bathsheba charges outside and keys the ignition.
                         
           Hushpuppy peeks out and the boat roars to life and rips
           across the water.
                         44
                         
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           The entire universe depends on
           everything fitting together just
           right. If you can fix the broken
           piece, it can all go right back.
                         
                         
           INT. UNDER THE TURCK TARP/SANTA MARIA - DAY
                         
                          WINK
           Peter T hand me the-
                         
           He looks, Peter T has both hands on the Turck.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Peter you didn't drop the trip-
           line?
                         
                          PETER T
           No I did not.
                         
           Peter T thinks a moment.
                         
           PETER T (CONT'D)
           Oh, yes I did.
                         
                          JEAN BATTISTE
           Oh, Peter T.
                         
                          PETER T
           I'm sorry.
                         
           Wink dunks under water.
                         
                         
           EXT. LEVEE - DAY
                         
           Wink surfaces in front of the igniter rope.
                         
           As he grabs the rope, Bathsheba's snake catcher snares his
           hand and pulls his arm against the side of her Jon boat.
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           Here's how we do with wild animals.
                         
                          WINK
           AHH! Get off me woman! I'm trying
           to save the Bathtub
                         
           Hushpuppy watches the struggle in hiding.
                         45
                         
                         
           Bathsheba wrenches the rope out of Wink's hand and chucks it.
                         
           The igniter rope lands in front of Hushpuppy under the net
           pile. She grabs it. She reels it in.
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           Get in the Boat! I'm hauling
           you're ass back home, little boy.
                         
           Jean Battiste swims out of hiding.
                         
                          JEAN BATTISTE
           Wink!?
                         
                          WINK
           Jean Battiste, get the trip line!
                         
           Suddenly, Hushpuppy pops out from under the nets, holding the
           rope taught. She stumbles and almost sets if off by
           accident.
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           Hushpuppy!?
                         
                          JEAN BATTISTE
           She got it! Pull! Pull!
                         
                          WINK
           NOW BOSS!
                         
                          MISS BATHSHEBA
           No! Hushpuppy!
                         
           Hushpuppy, contemplates in an eerie peace.
                         
           The screaming chorus FADES and she is alone in her quiet,
           eyes darting between Bathsheba and Wink. Courage and
           certainly clench inside her her. You listen to your Daddy.
           She pulls the rope.
                         
                         
           EXT. LEVEE WALL IN THE WATER - DAY
                         
           The trip-line releases the detonator.
                         
                         
           EXT. LEVEE - NORTH SIDE - DAY
                         
           The levee DETONATES. Shattered wood and cement fire towards
           camera.
                         46
                         
                         
           Debris propels Hushpuppy backwards.
                         
           Her quiet resumes as she lands on the deck of the boat in
           slow motion. She watches in a daze as smoke, water, and
           flaming dust cycles above her. All the beauty of the
           universe.
                         
                         
           EXT. FLOODPLAIN - THE BATHTUB - DAY
                         
           Water recedes in the Bathtub, revealing the tragic, mud-
           soaked remnants of their paradise.
                         
           Hushpuppy slogs through the muck, each step going two feet
           down into the stinking filth.
                         
           The crew trudges behind her in silence.
                         
                         
           EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY
                         
           The blow-up crew crests a hill and sees the remains of the
           ark sprawled across an open field.
                         
           Wink's and Hushpuppy's eyes well up as they beholds the state
           of their island. The water has drained. Everything is dead.
                         
           More striking than the ripped-up houses, the land surrounding
           the island has disappeared. Trees are gone. Shards of marsh
           that had been attached float in the distance. What was a
           dense, green landscape is barren. The Bathtub is a scorched
           hell.
                         
                         
           EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST-FLOOD - EVENING
                         
           Hushpuppy picks through the rubble of the Shacko in the
           Backo. She finds their grill, and a window made from a dryer
           door and brings them to Wink.
                         
           The Shacko has crash landed under the stilts of a house
           that's been entirely washed away. Wink has done some work
           reassembling the walls and broken parts into a semi-
           functional enclosure.
                         
                         
           EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST-FLOOD - LATER THAT NIGHT
                         
           Hushpuppy find nails and brings them to Wink, who leans wall
           panels against the stilts from the previous house.
                         47
                         
                         
           He hammers nails wearily. His strength is sapped. He HACKS
           out bile.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           It didn't matter that the water was
           gone. Sometimes, you can break
           something so bad, that it can't get
           put back together.
                         
                         
           INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - EVENING
                         
           Hushpuppy climbs the stairs of the original house to get to
           the top of the Shacko.
                         
           She looks down through the hole in the floor.
                         
           In her POV Wink climbs into bed, he painfully takes his shirt
           off. The bruise on his chest has extended all the way across
           his stomach.
                         
           Hushpuppy looks out on the water for some sign that
           Marietta's still with her. The light shining on the water is
           off. She sees nothing but dead trees and a defunct oil rig.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Mamma!?
                         
           Nothing.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D)
           Mamma where you at!?
                         
           As if in response, we hear a HELICOPTER LOUDSPEAKER.
                         
                          PILOT
           This is a mandatory evacuation
           area, you can no longer live here.
           Everyone in this area, has to
           leave. I repeat....
                         
                         
           EXT. DEAD FOREST - MORNING
                         
           Hushpuppy wades through the muck in what used to be a lush
           forest, now reduced to toothpick trees and mud.
                         
           She finds her storage unit in the tree hollow, and lifts out
           the medicine jar.
                         48
                         
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           When you're small, you gotta fix
           what you can.
                         
                         
           INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - NIGHT
                         
           She pours the crushed up roots into Wink's mouth, careful not
           to disturb him. Wink dooesn't move.
                         
           Hushpuppy gently folds in the orange fungus. Quiet, quiet--
                         
                          WINK
           GUUAAAHH!
                         
           Wink spews up an explosive cloud of medicine.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           God damn!
                         
           Wink grabs her medicine jar and threatens her with it.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           What you doing!?
                         
           He smashes it against the wall.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           What the hell's wrong with you!
                         
           Hushpuppy is so upset she doesn't know what to do. She
           screams in anger.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Raaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!
                         
           Raging, Hushpuppy breaks everything she can get her hands on,
           ruining everything Wink's reassembled, tipping shelves, pans,
           walls. She grabs a fishing pole and starts bashing Wink's
           grill over and over.
                         
                          WINK
           You wanna throw things? Come on!
           I can do that too. You want to
           play that game? Let's throw stuff!
                         
           Wink joins in, breaking stuff too, channeling all his anger
           into the destruction.
                         
           Wink throws himself into the wall. It breaks off and dumps a
           series of shelves all over the floor.
                         49
                         
                         
           Hushpuppy can't believe it.
                         
           Suddenly it's cathartic, they start throwing objects at each
           other and laughing.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Come on! Come on!
                         
           Wink pegs her in the face with a stuffed animal and she
           grins.
                         
           Hushpuppy throws a pillow!
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           AAAAH!!! COME ON! COME ON!
                         
           Hushpuppy throws a shoe.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! YEAH!! COME ON!
                         
           Hushpuppy and Wink destroy everything in the house.
                         
           Something goes off in Wink chest. He grabs his heart and
           collapses on the floor.
                         
           Hushpuppy realizes something's not right. She throws a life-
           jacket at her father.
                         
           Wink continues to force a smile at her. Hushpuppy won't
           return the smile.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Man. You think I don't know.
                         
           Hushpuppy's bottom lip starts quivering.
                         
           Wink's smiles disappears.
                         
                          WINK
           Hey. No crying. Don't you cry
           man. Don't you cry!
                         
           He threatens her with a shoe. Hushpuppy hides behind an
           overturned chest.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           HEY! Don't cry damn it!
                         
           Wink hangs his head and catches his breath against the wall.
                         50
                         
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Shit.
                         
           He pull himself to his feet and grabs a bottle of moonshine.
                         
           He sets up two cups on the table.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Come on get a drink.
                         
           Wink pours Hushpuppy a shot.
                         
           Hushpuppy sips. Winces. Looks suspiciously at her father.
           Sips again.
                         
           Wink takes one straight from the bottle.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           This counts as I'm sorry for a
           whole buncha things. Lord.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           You gonna be gone?
                         
                          WINK
           What? No!
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           You gonna leave me alone?
                         
                          WINK
           I ain't gon' leave nothing.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Cause if you be gone, I be gone
           too.
                         
                          WINK
           Hushpuppy, that is not how it
           works.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I will. Sometimes in the bed I
           start shaking and can't stop. I
           got what you got.
                         
                          WINK
           No man. That's just a side effect
           of being a stupid little girl.
                         51
                         
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I ain't gonna be dead?
                         
                          WINK
           No. You? No! You gonna live a
           hundred years more. You know what,
           show me the guns.
                         
           Hushpuppy shoves Wink.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Show me them guns man.
                         
           Wink clears everything off the table with one sweep.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Show me the guns! Guns! guns! guns!
           guns! guns!
                         
           Hushpuppy flexes her biceps. She begins to chant, fierce and
                          TRIUMPHANT--
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Guns! Guns! Guns! Guns!.....
                         
                          WINK
                          (OVERLAPPING)
           Guns man, give to me! Guns! Guns!
                         
           Wink holds up his hand to arm-wrestle. They SCREAM in tandem
           as Hushpuppy pins him hard.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Ooooo, Hushpuppy you the man. Who
           the man?
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I'm the man.
                         
                          WINK
           Who the man!?
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I'm the man!
                         
                          WINK
           TELL ME LOUDER WHO THE MAN!!!!
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I'm THE MAN!!!!!!!
                         52
                         
                         
                          WINK
           YOU THE MAN, RIGHT?!
                         
           Wink is overcome with love. It's too much for him to bear.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Fuck this table!
                         
           In a violent euphoria, Wink grabs the table and hurls it
           across the room.
                         
           This scares Hushpuppy. She stares silently at her wild
           animal father, longing for something more than rage.
                         
           Wink takes a step toward like he's going to comfort her, then
           stops, turning back.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           I gotta lay down hear? I gotta be
           strong. Don't be scared.
                         
           Wink lays down in the corner.
                         
           Hushpuppy doesn't go to bed, she just stands there.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           What?
                         
           Hushpuppy waits, not backing down.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
                          (GIVING IN)
           Come here.
                         
           Hushpuppy goes to Wink.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Lay down.
                         
           Wink pats his heart for her to put her head down on it.
                         
           A long beat.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           Hey.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Yea?
                         
                          WINK
           You ain't the one who's sick.
                         53
                         
                         
           She listens to his BIG HUGE HEART.
                         
                         
           EXT. WET SAND MUCK EXPANSE - DAY
                         
           The Aurochs move into a desolate, barren, wasteland, looking
           exhausted and starved.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           Strong animals got no mercy.
                         
           Cold wind blows them backwards. An old Aurochs falls behind
           the pack. Its legs give out and it lays down. It's not going
           to make it.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           They the type of animals that eats
           their own Mommas and Daddies.
                         
                          CUT TO:
                         
           The Aurochs cannibalize their fallen comrade, ripping skin
           and organs in a storm of flesh and gore.
                         
           The CRIES of the screaming mother melt together with another,
           sound, more MECHANICAL...
                         
                         
           INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - POST FLOOD - MORNING
                         
           The SOUND becomes recognizable as a HELICOPTER PROPELLER.
                         
           Hushpuppy opens her eyes, still tucked in Wink's arm.
           Through the wall she sees FOUR WELL-DRESSED men. They are
           out of place like aliens exiting their space ship.
                         
           She rouses Wink, he hears the FOREIGN SOUNDING VOICES and
           yanks Hushpuppy up. He instinctively pulls him and Hushpuppy
           behind the over-turned table and grabs a broken chair leg to
           defend them with.
                         
           EVACUATOR (O.S.)
           (from outside the door)
           This is a mandatory evacuation
           area. Everyone in this region has
           to leave.
                         
           Wink hurls the chair leg at the intruders as they try to
           enter.
                         54
                         
                         
                          WINK
           We ain't going nowhere!
                         
           Hushpuppy grabs a chair leg as well. It's a standoff.
                         
                         
           INT. LADY JO'S HOUSE - POST FLOOD - MORNING
                         
           Three evacuation workers ram the door of Little Jo's house.
                         
           Little Jo greets the intruders brandishing a cutting knife
           and civil war era pistol.
                         
                          LITTLE JO
           You gonna have to shoot me cause
           I'm not going.
                         
                          EVACUATOR 2
           Ma'am we're not gonna shoot you.
                         
                          LITTLE JO
           I ain't never left here and I won't
           never will.
                         
           She spits. They get closer.
                         
           LITTLE JO (CONT'D)
           Son, don't make me cancel your
           birth certificate.
                         
           The Muscle grabs her by the weapons and in the struggle, slam
           her to the ground. It's horrible.
                         
                          EVACUATOR 2
           Relax, relax ma'am.
                         
                          LITTLE JO
           YOU SON OF A BITCH!
                         
           They drag Little Jo out of the house.
                         
                         
           INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - MORNING
                         
           MATCH CUT to Wink and Hushpuppy pinned and being dragged out.
                         
                          WINK
           Get your hands off of her! I'm
           gonna kill you! Let her go!
                         55
                         
                         
           EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - DAY
                         
           CRASH CUT TO an off-white monolithic community center
           surrounded by a cement parking lot. Stressed, amateur
           looking doctors from the real world move in and out of the
           glass doors.
                         
           A makeshift sign reads "Open Arms Processing Center."
                         
                         
           INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY
                         
           The interior of the refugee camp is violently, fluorescent-
           lit and painted white in an attempt to maintain a facade of
           sterility.
                         
           Hushpuppy stares at the strange and modern ceiling like
           they've descended from another planet.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           It didn't look like a prison, it
           looked like a fish tank with no
           water.
                         
           The Bathtub residents walk through the gymnasium which has
           been converted into a holding tank/hospital for refugees.
           Student doctors are examining, treating, feeding people. The
           abandoned souls, the sick, and the old are lined up waiting
           for assistance.
                         
                         
           INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KITCHEN - DAY
                         
           A processed egg patty jiggles weirdly as it hits Hushpuppy's
           tray.
                         
                          WINK
           Don't eat that.
                         
           DR. MALONEY, a clean-cut, over-extended handsome young doctor
           hustles toward the lunch line.
                         
           DR. MALONEY
           Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with
           you, we found something in your
           test. It's-
                         
                          WINK
           Whoa whoa whoa, not in front of my
           kid. Stay, Hushpuppy.
                         56
                         
                         
           Wink pulls Maloney out of earshot.
                         
           DR. MALONEY
           Mr. Doucet, there's no easy way to
           say this...
                         
           Hushpuppy struggles to hear more, only a couple words come
           through the din of refugees.
                         
           DR. MALONEY (CONT'D)
           ...require surgery
           immediately...you need to think
           about what you want for your
           daughter...you could die.
                         
           In Hushpuppy's POV: Maloney puts a sympathetic hand on Wink's
           shoulder and Wink pushes it off violently. Maloney puts up
           his hands in peace and Wink shoves him through one of the
           curtains and is assaulted by a flood of orderlies.
                         
                          WINK
           I don't need nothing from you! You
           keep your hands off her! I don't
           need nothing from y'all! Let me
           go!
                         
           Hushpuppy is snatched as she fights to come to his rescue.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Daddy!
                         
           They tackle Wink to the ground. He goes limp as he falls.
                         
                         
           INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - DAY
                         
           We TRACK with Wink as he comes to consciousness rolling
           through the cots. He is sedated and being pushed in a
           wheelchair.
                         
           He looks through an open door.
                         
           In Wink's POV- Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and the rest of
           Bathsheba's original school class play in a room with a
           BABYSITTER.
                         
           She tickles Hushpuppy, who has been given new clothes and
           looks like a normal little girl for the first time. Her
           boots and boys underpants have been traded for a delicate
           blue dress. The image is jarring.
                         57
                         
                         
                          BABYSITTER
           Hushpuppy needs a hug.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I don't want your hug!
                         
           The Babysitter squeezes Hushpuppy. Hushpuppy tries to squirm
           away.
                         
                          BABYSITTER
           Hushpuppy, that's not how nice
           girls act. Say "I'm sorry ma'am."
           Hey! Say it. Say it or you're
           going to corner time.
                         
           Hushpuppy's eyes meet Wink's and she freezes at his
           horrifying appearance.
                         
           Wink grabs a sofa trying to stop the wheelchair as it rolls
           by. His fingers slips off, too weak to hold on. He tries to
           scream and nothing but a SEDATED MOAN comes out of his mouth.
           He tries to pull the tubes out of his arm.
                         
                          ORDERLY
           (gently moving Wink's hand
                          AWAY)
           There there, sir.
                         
           Hushpuppy stares in shock as Wink is wheeled away.
                         
                         
           INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT
                         
           Hushpuppy watches in hiding as a hand covered in a rubber
           glove changes the bandage on a surgical scar; it looks
           infected and mishandled.
                         
           The same hand puts pills in Wink's mouth.
                         
                         
           INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy stands over an old man on an artificial respirator.
           She's creeps closer, examining him. She puts her head on his
           chest. His heart is beating.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           When an animal gets sick here, they
           plug it into the wall.
                         
           She whispers in his ear.
                         58
                         
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           They're coming for you.
                         
                         
           INT. REFUGEE CAMP - TERMINAL WARD - A DIFFERENT BED - DAY
                         
           She repeats the process with another vegetable.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           Daddy says, if he ever got so old
           he couldn't drink beer, or catch
           catfish, that I had to put him in a
           boat, and set him on fire, so no
           one could come plug him into the
           wall.
                         
                         
           INT. REFUGEE CAMP - WINK'S ROOM - NIGHT
                         
           Hushpuppy peeks through the curtains at another terminal bed.
                         
           She sees two orderlies force pills into Wink's mouth. He's
           regaining his strength and is able to hold them off
           momentarily before submitting, and going limp.
                         
           Hushpuppy bolts, unable to take it.
                         
           We stay in the room as the orderlies walk away.
                         
           Wink peeks to make sure they're gone, then spits his pills on
           the floor.
                         
           Wink stares at the ceiling for a long beat. Then, with a
           burst of energy he grabs his morphine drip and topples
           himself onto the floor. He pulls his wires out.
                         
                         
           INT. REFUGEE CAMP - KID'S ROOM - MORNING
                         
           Hushpuppy lies asleep in a pile with Tee-Lou, Lizard, and
           Joy. Wink enters and jostles her awake.
                         
                          WINK
           Boss. Let's go.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Where we goin'?
                         59
                         
                         
           INT. REFUGEE CAMP - HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS
                         
           Wink and the girls hustle to the entrance of the Refugee
           center.
                         
           Walrus comes running down the hall, pushing Peter T on a
           gurney.
                         
           Wink looks bewildered, the rest of the team seems to have
           their own plan afoot.
                         
                         
           INT. REFUGEE CAMP - COTS - MORNING
                         
           Jean Battiste and Little Jo charge through the cots riling
           refugees into revolt as the orderlies chase them trying to
           maintain decorum.
                         
                          JEAN BATTISTE
           Go home! Everybody get up! Don't
           you want to go home? Lets go!
           These people don't care about you!
                         
           Little Jo fights off an orderly with a syringe.
                         
                          LITTLE JO
           You live in this hell hole!
                         
                         
           INT/EXT. REFUGEE CAMP - EVACUATION BUS - DAY
                         
           Wink runs the kids toward the bus, they pass two busses
           labeled for Salt Lake City, Des Moines.
                         
           Wink helps Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard get on. Then Hushpuppy.
                         
           Suddenly Wink's hand slips out of Hushpuppy's. He steps away
           from the evacuating bus. Hushpuppy turns and the bus door
           slams between them.
                         
                          WINK
           (from outside the door)
           Make sure you put her somewhere
           good ok? 
                         
           Wink sags. He's giving her away. He turns to leave..
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           (banging on the door)
           NO! I ain't running! No!
                         60
                         
                         
           Wink walks away from the bus, his chest heaving, his face
           clutched in the horror of what he's done.
                         
           Behind him, the bus pulls forward, then veers violently.
                         
           Hushpuppy charges the driver clawing at her face, punching
           and kicking.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D)
           Let me go!
                         
           The driver pulls the break and Hushpuppy bangs the doors
           open.
                         
           She charges Wink from behind, gives him a diving shove.
                         
           He topples over.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D)
           You trying to get rid of me! You
           trying to get rid of me!
                         
                          WINK
           No!
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Why you trying to get rid of me?
                         
                          WINK
           I ain't trying to get rid of you.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           You is.
                         
                          WINK
           No. Hushpuppy... I can't take care
           of you no more.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Yes you can.
                         
           Hushpuppy stares him down, accusing.
                         
                          WINK
           Daddy's dying!
                         
           Hushpuppy's chest heaves up and down.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           My blood is eating itself. You
           know what that means?
                         61
                         
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Don't be sayin' about dying.
                         
                          WINK
           Everybody's Daddy dies.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Not my Daddy.
                         
                          WINK
           Yes, your Daddy!
                         
           Her defiance is broken and the information starts to sink in.
           It hurts Wink as much as it hurts her.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
           I didn't want you to watch that,
           ok? You understand?
                         
           Wink doubles over hacking. He COUGHS horribly.
                         
           Hushpuppy looks down and sees blood spotting the grass,
           dripping from his mouth.
                         
           The Bathtub gangs charges out the door!
                         
           Across the parking lot they go in a spree of euphoria, coming
           to a halt around Wink.
                         
           Hushpuppy is trying to drag his limp body across the parking
           lot.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Come on! Come on!
                         
           Little Jo hold Hushpuppy away from him.
                         
                          WINK
           Walrus, get me home.
                         
                         
           EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY
                         
           The Bathtub crew carries Wink through the entrance to town.
           His arms slug over Walrus and Jean Battiste, he's barely able
           to help walk.
                         
           We sense from the weary faces and silent eyes that it's been
           a long journey home.
                         62
                         
                         
           INT./EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY
                         
           They drag Wink through the Shacko entrance.
                         
           Everyone goes in except Hushpuppy who stops outside the door
           as they lay him down in convulsions. She stays and tries to
           watch.
                         
           Wink tries to say something to Walrus and can't. Blood
           bubbles out of his mouth. Wink catches Hushpuppy's eye then
           looks away as fast as he can.
                         
           Reeling, but steady, Hushpuppy backs out the door.
                         
                         
           EXT. LAFOURCHE ROAD - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy walks down the road in an almost eerie state of
           calm. She takes in the remnants of rusting houses and
           flipped boats, her lifeless ghost town.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           Everybody looses the thing that
           made them, it's even how it's
           supposed to be in nature.
                         
                         
           EXT. LAVA RIDGE - DAY
                         
           Now with her three friends, she tip-toes past several
           humongous footprints up to a gruesome fox carcass. Something
           gigantic has ripped open its stomach and gutted it.
                         
           She leans over, unafraid, trying to understand it's meaning.
           Flies swarm and nibble, their movement almost elegant. Seen
           in close up, the gory mess has a strange beauty to it.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           The brave men stay and watch it
           happen. They don't run.
                         
           A SONIC BOOM springs her upright, she looks around for the
           source of the sound. Is it an Aurochs?
                         
           She looks towards the muddy bayou. The SONIC BOOM sounds
           again and the entire body of water quivers with the impact.
                         
                         
           EXT. DARDAR RIDGE - EVENING
                         
           The beacon blinks out on the water.
                         63
                         
                         
           Hushpuppy stares towards it. The children are gathered
           behind her.
                         
           Something has changed in her eyes. The eerie calm has given
           way to a hardened determination. Though unclear to us, her
           internal path of action is certain.
                         
           She takes a deep breath, and lets out a WARRIOR CRY. She
           runs straight into the water with her girl gang charging
           behind her.
                         
                         
           EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - EVENING
                         
           Joy, Tee-Lou, Lizard, and Hushpuppy swim through open water,
           pulling each other forward. They head in the direction of
           the beacon.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Come on! Keep going!
                         
           They try to kick toward the light but are getting nowhere,
           the current pulls them backwards.
                         
           We hear a BOAT HORN and they look to where an ANCIENT TUG
           BOAT with a cabin that towers into the sky like a giraffe
           head, appears through the mist.
                         
                         
           EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING
                         
           The girls climb aboard, lifting each other onto the deck.
                         
           They look up to the sound of FOOTSTEPS on the upper deck.
                         
           Hushpuppy looks up to see SERGEANT MAJOR (60) -
                         
           A big, timeless looking man with a salt and pepper moustache,
           saunters up to the rail. He stares down, examining these
           runts with an air of suspicion.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I'm going by my Mamma.
                         
           He smiles broadly, as if this was the secret password. Him
           and Hushpuppy stare at each other and immediately there is
           understanding. Two lost souls in the wilderness.
                         
                          SERGEANT MAJOR
           That's a good place to go.
                         64
                         
                         
           EXT. GULF OF MEXICO - SERGEANT MAJOR'S BOAT - EVENING
                         
           Hushpuppy sits adjacent to the Sergeant in the tug's elevated
           wheelhouse. They are two stories up, and the white walls
           create a glow that makes us feel like we're almost in another
           dimension.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           Which way are we going?
                         
                          SERGEANT MAJOR
           Don't matter baby, this boat'll
           take you exactly where you need to
           be. It's just that type of boat.
                         
           Hushpuppy and Sergeant Major share an ease unlike anyone else
           we've seen Hushpuppy interacted with. The speak like an old
           teacher with his favorite disciple. They let their silences
           last.
                         
           SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D)
           You want a chicken biscuit?
                         
           Hushpuppy shakes her head `no'.
                         
           SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D)
           They're good for you.
                         
           A deep, far away melancholy settles over him. He munches on
           a chicken biscuit, then tosses the wrapper on the floor. The
           wheelhouse is wall to wall with chicken biscuit wrappers.
                         
           SERGEANT MAJOR (CONT'D)
           I been eating these all my life. I
           keep the wrappers in the boat,
           `cause they remind me who I was
           when I ate each one. The smell
           make me feel cohesive.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I wanna be cohesive. 
                         
                          SERGEANT MAJOR
           Oh you will be, I got no doubt in
           my mind.
                         
           They let this thought settle, then Hushpuppy turns her swivel
           chair back toward the water
                         65
                         
                         
           The beacon appears through the mist. Hushpuppy's eyes go
           wide.
                         
           As they approach, another boat comes into view. A half-
           sunken barge that looks as though its been rusting in the
           same position for a century. As we move in we see a lit up
           sign: "Elysian Fields Floating Catfish Shack GIRLS GIRLS
           GIRLS."
                         
                         
           EXT./INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - ENTRANCE - EVENING
                         
           Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard disembark onto the barge
           with Sergeant Major following behind. They circle around a
           hatch in the floor with light pulsing out of it. Far-away
           JAZZ echoes up from the bowels of the ship. They look to
           each other in wonder.
                         
                         
           INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT
                         
           Hushpuppy descends a ladder into a glimmering wonderland.
           Christmas lights swallow the ceiling, and a light smoke
           facade encompasses everything. We feel like we're looking at
           a portal into the past, a Belloq-esque turned New Orleans
           Jazz parlor. The regulars are all oil-workers wooing their
           ladies of the night.
                         
           There is a stage with a DJ and two singers, karaokeing along
           with "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Fats Waller.
                         
           The hyperactive MISS FRANKIE, the matriarch of this
           establishment, comes a'hoppin'.
                         
                          MISS FRANKIE
           Holy crap you have toddlers!
                         
                          SERGEANT MAJOR
           Good afternoon, Miss Frankie.
                         
                          MISS FRANKIE
           Well butter my butt and call me a
           biscuit! How you, Sergeant Major?
           You need some grits?
                         
                          SERGEANT MAJOR
           Yes ma'am.
                         66
                         
                         
                          MISS FRANKIE
           Holy Sugar, they are so precious!
           Y'all just as cute as a tub of
           puppies!
                         
           Women descend on the kids who recoil, not knowing what to do
           with all this affection. Joy Strong puts up her fists.
                         
           Hushpuppy pushes through the crowd nonplussed by the flurry
           of doting ladies. They are not who she is looking for. They
           are not who she is looking for.
                         
           She scans pictures of strippers through the ages pasted up
           all over the ceiling, each of them with a bra hung on it,
           none of them right.
                         
           Bar patrons nod and tip their glasses to her as she passes,
           ladies smile and return to their drinks, drunk flirtatious
           dancers giggle at her, but she remains unfazed.
                         
           She reaches two swinging doors that lead to the kitchen.
                         
           Hushpuppy stops. Sniffs. Heaven.
                         
           SLOW MOTION: in Hushpuppy's POV, smoke curls through the
           swinging doors, the light illuminating the dust particles.
           It's a magic kitchen. Her POV tilts down to the floor where
           a pair of well-pedicured feet in flip-flops walks towards the
           swinging doors. They open.
                         
           Hushpuppy holds her breath.
                         
           A gorgeous COOK (35) wearing a baseball cap and an apron
           comes out the double doors. She wipes some sweat off her
           brow. She watches the band and kills a bottle of ice-cold
           beer.
                         
           The Cook looks down. Sees Hushpuppy.
                         
                          COOK
           You need something baby?
                         
           Hushpuppy nods, holding her breath. She still can't speak.
                         
                          COOK (CONT'D)
           Well whatchu want? You alone?
                         
           Hushpuppy shrugs.
                         
           She's too stunned, too shy to speak.
                         67
                         
                         
           The Cook takes stock of the helpless creature in front of
           her. Like a butcher shop owner with a pesky hungry puppy,
           she submits to Hushpuppy's longing gaze.
                         
                          COOK (CONT'D)
           Get in here, I'm'll show you a
           magic trick.
                         
           Hushpuppy follows her into the magic kitchen, knocking her
           head against the swinging doors on her way in.
                         
                         
           INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN
                         
           With the smooth fanfare of a circus performer, The Cook lifts
           an egg, opens a beer bottle with her teeth, SPITS the cap at
           the egg and it cracks over the grits.
                         
           Hushpuppy's face is joy beyond all measure. She watches the
           Cook's flying hands, she prepares everything in a single
           motion, it's like a dance. She slaps a fresh alligator tail
           on the table and begins sawing through the scales.
                         
                          COOK
           Lemme tell you somethin', when
           you're a child people tell you that
           everything's gonna be all hunky-
           dory and all that bullshit, but I'm
           here to tell you that it's not. So
           get that out your head right now.
                         
           She removes the knife from the gator and aims it at Hushpuppy
           like its a pointer.
                         
                          COOK (CONT'D)
           Life's some big old feast, yeah,
           but you? You ain't nothin' but a
           stupid little waitress.
                         
           She scales a gator, strips the bones, dredges, fries.
                         
                          COOK (CONT'D)
           Everything you got on your platter
           gonna fall on the floor and ain't
           nobody gonna be there to pick it up
           for you. Someday it's all gonna be
           on you.
                         68
                         
                         
           She stirs the grits. Grits on plate. Gator on plate. Plate
           in front of Hushpuppy. Lemon is squeezed all over
           everything.
                         
                          COOK (CONT'D)
           So smile, girl.
                         
           Hushpuppy tries to crack a grin. She barely remembers how to
           smile and it comes out all wrong. The Cook shakes her head,
           opens another beer on her teeth, and heads for the pantry.
                         
                          COOK (CONT'D)
           Nobody likes a pity-party-having-
           ass-woman.
                         
           Hushpuppy stays behind staring into the floating particles of
           dust in the incandescent light-- stars of the universe. The
           golden bubbling fry pot-- lava of the molten core.
                         
                         
           INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - KITCHEN - LATER THAT NIGHT
                         
           Four perfect gator nuggets are placed next to a sumptuous
           dollop of grits.
                         
                          COOK
           The gator's magic.
                         
           Hushpuppy looks up from her food-hypnosis.
                         
                          COOK (CONT'D)
           (encouraging a smile)
           Awwwwwwwww.
                         
           A real smile emerges across Hushpuppy's face.
                         
                          COOK (CONT'D)
           Mmm-hmm.
                         
                         
           INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCE FLOOR - NIGHT
                         
           Magic soars as the couples rock back and forth on the dance
           floor. Strippers cradle their dates. It's all very sweet
           and tender. This seems to be the M.O of this strip club,
           slow-dance not pole-dance.
                         
           The kids are each dancing with a stripper, glowing with love.
           They are orphans in a heaven of mothers.
                         69
                         
                         
           We float back to Hushpuppy, the camera dances with her and
           the Cook.
                         
           The Cook squeezes Hushpuppy and spins her. Each time we
           catch their face their eyes are wetter and wetter.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           You can take care of me. Me and
           Daddy.
                         
           After a long beat.
                         
           The Cook shakes her head `no.'
                         
                          COOK
           I don't know nothing bout your
           Daddy, I can't take care of nobody
           but myself.
                         
           This sinks into Hushpuppy.
                         
                          COOK (CONT'D)
           You can stay if you want.
                         
           Hushpuppy considers this for a moment, squeezes the Cook.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           This is my favorite thing.
                         
                          COOK
           I know.
                         
           A far-away look has come over her. Her mind is somewhere
           else.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           I can count all the time I've been
           lifted.
                         
                         
           INT. HUSHPUPPY'S HOUSE - DIMLY LIT ROOM - DAY
                         
           We look up at a face that's slowly coming into focus- it's
           Wink, younger and healthier.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           I can count all the times I've been
           lifted on two fingers.
                         70
                         
                         
           He is the first sight of the slimy newborn baby girl tucked
           in his arm. Baby Hushpuppy stares up at him as he carries
           her.
                         
           WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S)
           Wink! Bring my baby here! They
           need to wash her off.
                         
                          WINK
           Naw, that waits.
                         
           Baby Hushpuppy's huge-eyed, warped facial expression ogles
           Wink. She coos.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
                          (TO HUSHPUPPY)
           Alright fatso, breathe some air.
                         
           They pass through a doorway and sun washes over Baby
           Hushpuppy. She smiles and smiles at the world.
                         
                         
           INT. ELYSIAN FIELDS - DANCEFLOOR - NIGHT
                         
           Back in reality Hushpuppy gathers herself. She's suddenly
           not hugging back, just being held.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           I need to go home.
                         
                          COOK
                          (WHISPERED)
           No.
                         
           Hushpuppy cups her hand to the Cook's ear and whispers
           something inaudible.
                         
           The Cook squeezes her tight, seeming on the verge of adopting
           her. But she can't. She spins Hushpuppy around and around,
           then puts her down withouth meeting her gaze.
                         
           Hushpuppy watches her disappear into the crowd of swaying
           couples.
                         
           All goes quiet, and we sit behind Hushpuppy's head, a sea of
           light like a crown around her.
                         
           MUSIC SWELLS. Decisively, with the force of a charging
           general, Hushpuppy turns and runs toward camera.
                         71
                         
                         
           EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - DAY
                         
           MATCH CUT to Hushpuppy leading Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard
           across a ridge dotted with Dead Oak trees, she's come back to
           the Bathtub.
                         
                         
           EXT. DEAD OAK RIDGE - WATER - DAY
                         
           The camera moves over the water, past the dead oaks.
                         
           We turn the corner past a stretch of marsh, and come upon the
           Aurochs, four of them, now suddenly and viscerally in the
           landscape of the Bathtub, swimming steadily toward solid
           land.
                         
                         
           INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY
                         
           The Bathtub crew sits by Wink's bed. His eyes are open, but
           everyone is silently waiting for the inevitable.
                         
                         
           EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY
                         
           The children crest the ridge.
                         
           The RUMBLE of Aurochs hoofs is suddenly and violently
           audible.
                         
           Hushpuppy turns. She catches a glimpses of something massive
           moving behind the distant oaks.
                         
           The kids turn and hustle down the ridge.
                         
           Hushpuppy, Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard hustle down hill with
           increased urgency. The DISTANT TRAMPLING is growing louder.
                         
           Behind Hushpuppy the dark shapes of the Aurochs crest the
           ridge in a deafening STAMPEDE. Joy, Tee-Lou, and Lizard
           scream and sprint out in front of Hushpuppy.
                         
           Hushpuppy walks steadily forward, refusing to run. Her face
           locked with determination, she is unafraid. Her eyes shoot
           toward the shacko.
                         
                         
           EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY
                         
           Wink, with all his strength looks toward Hushpuppy, their
           eyes meet.
                         72
                         
                         
           In Wink's POV, Hushpuppy stops dead on the bridge, waiting
           for her fate, staring toward her father.
                         
                         
           EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY
                         
           The Aurochs bear down on Hushpuppy from behind, their
           footsteps rattling the frame. They grow inconceivably large,
           the camera has to tilt to hold the frame.
                         
           Hushpuppy balls her fists and stands her ground. Suddenly,
           she turns.
                         
           The Aurochs ROARS. Then, inches away from Hushpuppy, she
           stops. She SNORTS, blowing Hushpuppy's hair back. Hushpuppy
           doesn't flinch.
                         
           The Aurochs stares face to face with Hushpuppy. Sniffs.
                         
                         
           EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY
                         
           Wink is frozen in wonder, unable to believe his eyes.
                         
                         
           EXT. ARK WRECKAGE - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy raises her chin in confident defiance.
                         
           Now in full profile, we see the Aurochs towering 15-feet
           tall, she takes a step forwards, sniffs again. A low SNORT,
           or is it a purr?
                         
           The Aurochs lowers her head with respect.
                         
           Her eyes well with emotion, recognizing one of her own. A
           ferocious warrior.
                         
           The Aurochs steps back, takes a knee, and with a BELLY FLOP
           that rattles the very earth, she lays down. Her three
           companions follow suit, their fat tummies settling into an
           almost joyful, lazy, repass.
                         
           A strange calm has settled over Hushpuppy. Almost a smile,
           but more of a peace and an affection for her equal. They're
           both children in their way.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           You're my friend, kind of.
                         73
                         
                         
           Mother Aurochs grunts, a sentence only Hushpuppy can
           understand.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY (CONT'D)
           I gotta take care of mine.
                         
           With weary and clumsy steps, the Aurochs stand and retreat.
                         
                         
           EXT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY
                         
           Hushpuppy approaches the shacko. It's like walking the
           plank, but she's unafraid, at one with her destiny.
                         
           The Bathtub crew look on her in awe. They part ways to let
           her pass.
                         
           She reaches the door, steeling her reserve.
                         
           Hushpuppy opens the door.
                         
                         
           INT. SHACKO IN THE BACKO - DAY
                         
           Wink is curled up on Hushpuppy's bed-- very, very thin. His
           eyes are closed. His chest heaves up and down in short
           violent breaths. Hushpuppy stands and stares.
                         
           Wink looks at Hushpuppy in reverence. He knows it's the last
           time.
                         
           Wink motions for her to come closer.
                         
           Hushpuppy inches toward him. It takes all of her might. She
           sits on his bed.
                         
           Hushpuppy takes her to-go container from Elysian Fields out
           of a paper bag and pops it. She unwraps a gator nugget, dips
           it in hot sauce, and holds it out for Wink to take a bite.
                         
           Hushpuppy watches as Wink chews weakly. She eats one
           herself.
                         
           Wink and Hushpuppy draw it out. They don't want it to end.
           It takes a full minute for him to swallow the first bite, and
           she paces herself to finish when he does.
                         
                          WINK
                          (BARELY AUDIBLE)
           Real good.
                         74
                         
                         
           Wink's chest heaves up and down, harder and harder. A tear
           rolls down his face.
                         
                          WINK (CONT'D)
                          (CHOKING UP)
           No crying, you hear?
                         
           She holds them back, being tough for her Daddy.
                         
                          HUSHPUPPY
           No crying.
                         
           Hushpuppy's face hardens, and even as the tears fall, we see
           a strength and composure that only Wink could have put there.
                         
           She falls into his arms and he embraces her.
                         
           Hushpuppy squeezes Wink. She does not let go. She stays
           strong.
                         
           Wink's hand trembles on her back.
                         
           She holds him as his deep, warm, heartbeat slows, slows, and
           stops. His weight slumps over her. She keeps on holding
           him, but she knows.
                         
                         
           EXT. GRAVEYARD BY THE WATER - DAY
                         
           Steadfast, Hushpuppy holds a torch on the edge of the
           Bathtub. The Turck, piled with branches, floats in front of
           her.
                         
           She lowers the flame and lights a cloth covering Wink's body
           aflame. She pushes the funeral pyre out into the current.
           We watch the boat flames drift into the foreground, covering
           Hushpuppy face with flames. She looks into them in all her
           grief and wisdom.
                         
           The group begins a funeral prayer, playing quiet in the
           background as Hushpuppy contemplates the pyre.
                         
                          PETER T
           As I stand by the bayou,
                         
           Everyone else joins him.
                         
                          EVERYONE
           A ship at my side starts her motors
           and sails for the gulf. I watch
           her until she disappears. "There!
                          (MORE)
                         75
                         
                          EVERYONE (CONT'D)
           She's gone!" Gone where? Gone
           from my eyes, that's all. She's
           just as big as when she left me.
           And somewhere else, other voices
           are calling out, "Here she comes!"
           And that is dying.
                         
           They raise their drinks to the sky and shout in unison.
                         
                          EVERYONE (CONT'D)
           HERE! SHE! COMES!
                         
           Hushpuppy gazes into the sparks leaping off the top of the
           fire are foregrounded in front of Hushpuppy, particles of
           Wink jumping into the sky. HORNS ENTER, droning low, and
           building into an funeral dirge.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           When I relax behind my eyes I see
           everything that made me flying
           around in invisible pieces. When I
           look too hard it goes away, but
           when it all goes quiet, I see they
           are right here.
                         
           The Turck almost disappears over the horizon. The HORNS take
           a hopeful turn, the melancholy of the dirge mixing with the
           anthem of the Bathtub.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           I see that I'm a little piece of a
           big, big universe, and that makes
           things right.
                         
           Hushpuppy stands tiny on the ledge of the Earth, framed in
           front of an expanse of endless water.
                         
                         
           EXT. CAUSEWAY - POST-FLOOD - DAY
                         
           The Bathtub gang marches across the marsh road. Hands touch
           the town sign, saying goodbye.
                         
           HUSHPUPPY (V.O.)
           When I die, the scientists of the
           future, they gonna find it all.
           They gonna know, once there was a
           Hushpuppy, and she lived with her
           Daddy in the Bathtub.
                         76
                         
                         
           We CUT WIDE to reveal that the water is rising and washing
           over the road. Our heroes are marching on the final sliver
           of land. The camera flies backwards, and our view of the
           road disappears into mist and churning waves. They appear to
           be walking on water.
                         
           Hushpuppy leads them forward, into the future.
                         
           CUT TO BLACK.



Beasts of the Southern Wild



Writers :   Lucy Alibar  Benh Zeitlin
Genres :   Drama  Fantasy


User Comments







Index    |    Submit    |    Link to IMSDb    |    Disclaimer    |    Privacy policy    |    Contact