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FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
FADE IN
The screen is a microcosm of leaf, crystal drops of
precipitation, a stone,
emerald green moss. It's a landscape in miniature. We
HEAR the forest. Some
distant birds. Their sound seems to reverberate as if in
a cavern. A piece of
sunlight refracts within the drops of water, paints a
patch of moss yellow. The
whisper of wind is joined by another sound that mixes
with it. A distant
rustling. It gets closer and louder. It's shallow
breathing. It gets ominous.
We're interlopers on the floor of the forest and
something is coming.
SUDDENLY: A MOCCASINED FOOT
rockets through the frame scaring us and ...
EXTREMELY CLOSE: PART OF AN INDIAN FACE
running hard. His head shaved bald except for a
scalp-lock. Tattoos. He's
twenty-five. He seems tall and muscled. Heavy, even
breathing. We'll learn later
this man is UNCAS, the last of the Mohicans.
PROFILE: UNCAS' ARMS
flash as he runs. One carries a flintlock musket. Sweat
on the man's skin. A
calico shirt is gathered at the waist with a wampum belt
of small white beads
over a breechcloth. He wears leggings to protect his
legs. A long-handled
tomahawk is stuffed in his belt.
CUT TO ...
ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST - MASSIVE WAR CLUB - DAY
in the hand of another running man. He's heavier, older
...
CHEST
A green bear claw is tattooed there. Silver armband. A
snake is tattooed over
his left eyebrow. Silver rings in his ear. He's forty to
forty-five. His head is
shaved into a scalp-lock. It says: "Come and lift this
from me. Take it, if you
can ..." That prospect strikes us as extremely unlikely.
This man is
CHINGACHGOOK.
The French call him "Le Gros Serpent," the Great Snake,
because
"he knows the winding ways of men's nature and he can
strike a sudden, deathly
blow."
WIDE ANGLE: CHINGACHGOOK
runs, disturbing no leaves, no branches; making no sound.
He's running parallel
to Uncas through the cathedral of mature forest. It's
heavily canopied. There's
very little brush. The girth of the trees is huge. Shafts
of light illuminate
motes of dust and turn leaves emerald where the sun
breaks through. Sometimes
there's ferns; rhododendron, sometimes pale grass and
outcroppings of rock.
These men run the forest streams, over boulders, fallen
trees and down into
ravines as if they own them. They do.
CUT TO ...
ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST - LONG BLACK HAIR - DAY
rocketing through trees. His torn buckskin shirt is tied
at the waist with a
wampum belt holding a tomahawk and a large knife. A long
rifle in which is
carved the name "Killdeer" is in his right fist. Indian
tattooing on his chest.
His name is NATHANIEL POE. He's a few years older than
Uncas. The French and the French-speaking tribes know him
as La Longue Carabine (Long Rifle). Other
frontiersmen in New York colony and the Iroquois and
Delaware-speaking tribes
know him as Hawkeye. Sweat stains his shirt. He flashes
through the tree
branches disturbing nothing. Making no sound.
HAWKEYE'S POV: A PIECE OF TAN
two hundred and fifty yards away, a few square inches
buried in the foliage ...
SUDDENLY HE STOPS
Killdeer's at his shoulder ...
HAWKEYE'S THUMB
cocks the lock holding the piece of flint: click.
UNCAS
stops dead, holding out his hand ... no sound.
CHINGACHGOOK
slips through young trees and stops, shouldering his
smoothbore musket. Is this
an ambush?
HAWKEYE'S POV: RACK FOCUS THROUGH THE GUN SIGHT
Five feet and fourteen pounds of rifle is elevated a half
inch and shifted left,
off target. It's a precise, smooth movement. No human
quiver.
KILLDEER'S TRIGGER
tighter ...
THE COCK
holding the flint hits the iron file of the frizzen,
shooting sparks into the
pan of priming powder which flashes and ...
TAN
is a huge elk that leaps at the sound.
KILLDEER'S MUZZLE
CRACKS like lightning.
AN ELK
leaps where the .59 caliber round was programmed to
intercept him. On the moment
of impact ...
WIDE
three men approach the fallen elk and each other. We
realize they're hunting
together. Hawkeye steps aside for Chingachgook. His
massive war club is flat and
angles to one side with a stabbing blade. Hawkeye is
stepson and stepbrother.
The two younger men treat Chingachgook with an easy
deference and affection.
Hawkeye's a dialectic of two cultures. In his coloration
and worldliness he's
more the Anglo-Saxon frontiersman. In his independent
views and candid manner
and in his combat skills and woodsmanship, he's more
native American (Mohican).
As Chingachgook takes out his long knife and they
approach the fallen elk ...]
CHINGACHGOOK
(low Mohican; sub-titled)
We're sorry to kill you, Brother.
Forgive us. I do honor to your courage and
speed, your strength ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR - INTERIOR CAMERON CABIN - JOHN CAMERON - NIGHT
roasts potatoes on a stick in the stone fireplace next to
CAPTAIN JACK WINTHROP,
an American in very worn quasi-military gear. On a rough
table in the tiny cabin
ALEXANDRIA, his wife, is kneading bread. Three children
climb on their father.
He grabs their wild seven year old son, JAMES, who
shrieks laughter and dodges
away. The cabin has two primitive rooms, waxed paper
windows, log walls. O.S. a
dog barks. Others pick it up. Cameron & Jack are suddenly
alert, reaching for
weapons ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR CAMERON CABIN, DOORWAY - CAMERON - NIGHT
appears warily, musket in hand.
FENCE: CHINGACHGOOK
CHINGACHGOOK
Halloo! John Cameron!
Doorway: Cameron towards the interior ...
CAMERON
Alexandria! Set three more places.
(to the fence)
How is Chingachgook, then?
Behind him, emerging from the dark trees are Hawkeye,
Uncas, cradling flint
locks, blankets and packs over their shoulders, leading a
mule laden with skins
and the elk carcass. Crossing the splitrail fence ...
CHINGACHGOOK
The Master of Life is good. Another year pass ...
How is it with you, John?
CAMERON
Gettin' along. Yes, it is.
(warm)
Nathaniel.
HAWKEYE
Hello John. Cleared another quarter, I see.
CAMERON
(shakes hands with Uncas)
Yes, I did.
JAMES CAMERON
tears past his father & runs full bore. Just before he's
going to collide into
Uncas, he leaps into the air and Uncas snatches him with
one hand and swings him
up onto his shoulders. The kid screams with delight and
rides back towards the
cabin that way. Alexandria comes to the door.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR CABIN - CHINGACHGOOK - EVENING (LATER)
lights & smokes a clay pipe. The scene says: this is a
rustic, frontier home and
these people have known each other & live in dangerous
circumstances.
ALEXANDRIA
If Uncas is with you, that means he has not
found a woman and started a family yet.
CHINGACHGOOK
Your eyes are too sharp, Alexandria Cameron.
They see into my heart.
UNCAS
Your farm good to you this year, John?
CAMERON
It was a good year for corn.
UNCAS
Mohawk field we saw was 5 mile long on
the river. Chief Joseph Brandt's field.
CAMERON
You take much fur?
HAWKEYE
That we did. John. But the horicane
(sic)
is near trapped out.
JACK
Tradin' your skins in Castleton?
UNCAS
No, Schylerville. With the Dutch for silver.
French & English want to buy with wampum
& brandy.
Pause, then ...
HAWKEYE
So what is it, Jack? What brings you up here?
JACK
A French & Indian army out of Fort Carillon's
heading south to war against the English. I'm
here to raise this county's militia to aid the
British defense.
HAWKEYE
Folks here goin' to join in that fight?
JACK
We'll see in the morning ...
CHINGACHGOOK
Fathers of England & France, both, take more
land, furs, than they need. They're cold & full
of greed ...
JACK
Few'd deny that? Where you headin'?
HAWKEYE
Trap over the fall and winter among the
Delawares in Can-tuck-ee.
UNCAS
So I can find a woman and make Mohican
children so our father will leave my brother
& me in peace.
Alexandria laughs. So do Hawkeye & Chingachgook.
JAMES
A son like me?
Uncas grabs James & suspends him upside down.
UNCAS
No. You are too strong. Turn me old
too fast!
Hawkeye grabs the kid from Uncas. The kid's laughing &
can't stay still.
Chingachgook watches, content, smoking his clay pipe.
ALEXANDRIA
That's what he's doin' to his mama ...
She ruffles his hair and lifts the heavy iron pot off the
tibbet. Uncas goes to
help her, she shrugs his hand away and carries it to the
table herself. The men
gather around. There's pan-baked bread, a dish of salt,
and the pot has venison
and yellow cornmeal in a kind of stew. Everyone waits.
CAMERON
Dear Father, thank you for rewardin' the fruits
of our labor with plenty. Amen.
As they start to eat ...
CUT TO ...
CAMERON'S CABIN - (DAY)
EXTERIOR CAMERON CABIN - MOHAWK BOY & JAMES CAMERON -
MORNING
slam into other kids as they battle through a Lacrosse
game. In the background are
sixty men, women and children. It's a community gathering
held out of doors.
We've entered mid-scene. Captain Jack is standing on a
box. Some women and kids
mill around some tables and boards laid over barrels.
Cooking fires. Smoke.
Most but not all around Captain Jack are men, nine
settlers, 3 hunter/trappers,
eight Mohawk farmers in mixed European and native
clothing. Off to the side are
an English Lieutenant on horseback and a ten-man escort
from whatever regiment's in
Albany. A man named HENRI speaks in French. His son,
MARTIN, translates.
HENRI
(O.S. in French)
MARTIN
(translates)
My father says he was driven out of France by
the black robe priests and he would fight them
now but he lost his arm and so I will go in his
place.
Meanwhile ...
ONGEWASGONE
is an unusually large Mohawk in a blue match coat with a
little girl holding his hand. He
says something to Chingachgook who nods. Hawkeye and
Uncas are a little apart in an
outer grouping of the men. Ongewasgone is a war chief and
wears a white plume and is
tattooed. As Martin finishes, he steps forward.
ONGEWASGONE
John Cameron, thank you for your hospitality ...
Twin River Mohawk got no quarrel with Les
Francais. Trade furs with Les Francais. Now Les
Francais bring Huron onto Mohawk hunting grounds
...
These people are English, Scots-Irish and Dutch farmers;
some French Huguenot
"mechanics" (craftsmen). They're in shirt-sleeves and
Indian moccasins & leggings. The
Mohawks' vast lands and corn agriculture border the
settlement. They 've been
acculturated for over a hundred years. Some wear European
calico hunting shirts.
Their heads are shaved to scalping locks and many are
tattooed. They've politically and
commercially played France & England against each other
very adroitly for over a
hundred years because of their military power and
geographic position. Their relations
with working farmers and settlers and their families has
been mostly one of
co-existence because there's always been more than enough
for all. This is a WPA
mural of ethnic diversity and plurality of frontier
America. The Europeans are former
indentured laborers, farmers exiled by economics or
religious persecution, frontier
hunters and trappers ... working people.
ONGEWASGONE
(continues)
Now Mohawk will fight Huron and Les Francais.
My brothers have asked me to lead them in this
war so I speak for the Twin River Council.
The importance of this commitment is apparent to the
lieutenant.
LIEUTENANT
His Majesty King George II is very grateful for
your support.
IAN
How far up the valley?
LIEUTENANT
To Fort William Henry.
COLONIAL #1
... two days from here.
Some don't like this.
LIEUTENANT
It should be enough to remind you France is
the enemy.
HAWKEYE
Your enemy ...
Heads turn to Hawkeye at the periphery of the crowd.
LIEUTENANT
What did you say?
HAWKEYE
(loud)
I said ... France is your enemy. Not ours.
LIEUTENANT
Really? Do you want them to overrun all
New York colony?
HAWKEYE
First place, you started it with the French over
fur-trapping claims to the head waters of the Ohio.
(smiles)
Now you're sayin' these people have a fight on
their hands ...
LIEUTENANT
(ignoring Hawkeye)
Will you men help us stop the French?
HAWKEYE
... and while they are cooped up in your fort,
what if the French send war parties to raid
their homes?
IAN
What then, Lieutenant?
LIEUTENANT
For your own homes, for king, for country, that's
why you men ought to join this fight!
HAWKEYE
You do what you want with your own scalp.
Do not be tellin' us what to do
with ours.
LIEUTENANT
(furious; to Hawkeye)
You, sir! You call yourself a loyal subject?
HAWKEYE
... No ... Do not call myself much of a subject
at all.
Light laughter.
COLONIAL #2
Nathaniel's right. But if I got to fight, figure
I'll
try and do it fifty miles north of here instead of
my bean field.
AD LIBS
Yes. Yeah. No ...
CAMERON
I am stayin' on my farm. And any man who goes,
his family is welcome to fort-up with us 'til he
comes back.
JACK
Boys. My sense of it is enough of us will join-up
to
fill the county's levy. But only if General Webb
accepts a few terms I got in mind ...
HAWKEYE & UNCAS
cross through the people. A few men drift off to their
women at the tables.
It is apparent two-thirds of the men will join. A couple
of jokes, light banter,
no hostility.
AD LIBS
(O.S.)
Webb? what's that, Jack ...?
As they cross through they start removing their shirts
and weapons.
IAN
You boys marchin' with us? What do you say?
UNCAS
We had our say, Ian.
They approach the Lacrosse field. Chingachgook stands
with Cameron in the
background, watching.
LACROSSE FIELD
Uncas joins James. Hawkeye goes on the other side. A
couple of young Mohawks and
a young blonde farmer shout hallo's and as the bodies
crash into each other ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR BRITISH ENCAMPMENT, PARADE GROUND - SIX HUNDRED
62nd REGIMENT OF FOOT - DAY
in two rows. At each command the crack troops respond en
masse. Their hands slap
the stocks of their brown bess muskets in unison. These
men are drilling in preparation
for war.
We witness a state-of-the-art, 18th century, precision
killing machine.
REGIMENTAL SGT. MAJOR
(shouts)
Shoulder arms!
(slam)
Order arms! Handle cartridge!
(men bite the paper)
Prime!
(powder dropped in pan)
Load! Draw ramrods! Ram cartridge! Return ramrod!
Make ready!
(muskets at chest height)
Pre-sent!
(muskets shouldered)
Make ready!
(muskets returned to chests)
Pre-sent!
(muskets returned to shoulder)
Fire!
Like a single shot, two hundred fifty black powder
muskets fire .65 caliber lead shot at
chest height in a scythe of death.
SERGEANT MAJOR
Prime! Load!
The Dutch roof lines of Albany are in the distance.
Nearer, a coach races past.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR ROAD - HORSES GALLOP - DAY
Six horses, wide with dumb, mute strain. Foam, manes fly,
their hooves pound the
yellow road into dust. Military outriders are on the
three left side horses.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR COACH - MAJOR DUNCAN HEYWARD - DAY
sits erectly in the brilliant scarlet coat of the First
Royal Regiment of Foot with gold
braid, blue-black facing and blue-black breeches, cavalry
boots, spurs, a tricorn, white
wig (?) and a gorget (large medallion) around his neck.
He's 28-30 and tough. He is
self-sure, principled reactionary. He believes human
society is static & layered into
hierarchies of class and they are absolutely impermeable.
He opens a simple gold-
clasped case & contemplates its contents ...
HEYWARD'S POV: CASE
an enameled portrait of a dark-haired young woman.
HEYWARD
as a soldier is militarily first-rate in his milieu: the
open battlefields of Europe.
Right now, however, he is about to enter the forests of
North America. He closes
his clasp and glances out the window as we enter Albany
and as a facade of
buildings & people pass.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR BRITISH HQ, ASSEMBLY ROOM - DOOR - DAY
Four Grenadiers come to attention as Heyward enters
mid-scene.
JACK
(O.S.)
... if they are not allowed leave to defend their
families if the French or Hurons attack the
settlements, no colonial militia is goin' to Fort
William Henry.
HEYWARD
(low)
You, there. Help my man outside with the baggage.
GENERAL JEROME WEBB sees Heyward and nods. Three of
Webb's Adjutants are
on either side. Three remaining Grenadiers in
bearskin-covered mitred caps are at the
door. Facing Webb are a half dozen colonial
representatives, including Captain Jack
Winthrop. Heyward watches Jack ...
LIEUTENANT
They will report or be pressed into service!
LARGE COLONIAL REP
Any of the boys worth havin' can disappear into
forest ... time it takes you to blink. Where's that
leave ya, then?
Heyward, preparing to hand over dispatches, is
interrupted by the insubordinate tone.
Equally wound tightly is the Lieutenant.
LIEUTENANT
They will be found! Arrested ...
WEBB
(cuts in)
I cannot imagine his Majesty, in his benevolence,
would ever object to his American subjects
defending their hearth & home, their women &
children,
if threatened by the "scourge" of attack from
savages,
aroused to such excess by our enemy, the
ever-perfidious French.
JACK
Does that mean they will be granted leave to
defend their homes if the settlements are
attacked?
WEBB
Of course.
Heyward's more amazed by what he's just heard from Webb.
These Americans,
including Jack, are streaming past him on their way out.
JACK
You got yourself a colonial militia, General.
HEYWARD
Major Duncan Heyward reporting, Sir!
Webb's pouring gin.
WEBB
Duncan. How was your journey?
The door closes. Dispatches are passed. They are now
alone except for the General's
two Adjutants and a shadowy form waiting patiently in a
corner. He's MAGUA. In the
dim light, he's motionless. Webb slides a glass across to
Heyward.
HEYWARD
I didn't experience anything so surprising from
Bristol to Albany as what I witnessed here today.
WEBB
And what is that?
HEYWARD
The Crown "negotiating" the terms of service?
WEBB
I know.
(assuming a co-commiserator)
One has to give Americans "reasons" and make
agreements to get them to do anything at all.
Tiring, isn't it?
(throws up his hands)
But that's the way of it here.
HEYWARD
(tight)
I thought British policy is 'Make the
World ... England', sir.
A chill. Majors don't upbraid Generals.
WEBB
You will take command of the 62nd Regiment
of Foot. At Fort William Henry under Colonel
Munro. I will march the 33rd to Fort Edward.
HEYWARD
Sir! ... Might I enquire if General Webb has heard
from Colonel Munro's daughters? I was to
rendezvous with them in Albany and escort them
to the fort.
WEBB
Yes. You may.
(to Magua, after a glance at Heyward)
You there. What does Munro call you?
(to Heyward)
The "Scotsman" has sent one of his Indian allies
to guide you.
MAGUA
rises and slowly walks into the light. He is reserved and
over six feet tall. His head is
shaved into a mohawk. Rings, beads & feathers pierce his
ears. A blanket is worn as a
shawl over his left shoulder exposing his right arm and
heavy tattooing. A long
tomahawk is in the belt of his breechcloth.
WEBB
The Scotsman's daughters are at the Poltroon's
house. A company of the 33rd will accompany
you and Magua will show you the way.
HEYWARD
By your leave, sir.
Webb holds Heyward a moment
WEBB
(to Adjutants)
Explain to the Major we care little about toying
with colonial militia because we have little to
fear from the French. They have not the nature
for war. Their Latinate voluptuousness combines
with
their Gallic laziness and the result is: they would
rather make love with their faces than fight.
Webb's Adjutants laugh uproariously at his wit. Heyward's
stiff, perfunctory smile. He's
been made the butt of the joke. He does not share Webb's
derisive view of the French.
Webb doesn't like Heyward's manner. We don't like Webb.
Then:
WEBB
(continuing)
Dismissed.
Heyward stiffly salutes. Webb casually, perfunctorily
salutes the younger man in
return.
HEYWARD
(to Magua)
Dawn. At the encampment. Six a.m. sharp. See
to it you're there.
Beneath Magua's barely deferential manner we sense
intelligence & menace. None of these Brits see it. We do.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR POLTROON'S HOUSE - DUNCAN HEYWARD - DAY
brushed clean, his wig freshly powdered, his tricorn in
his hand with a crimson sash and
sword and his cavalry boots, walks through the gate after
knocking. He enters a small
courtyard. Suddenly he hears ...
CORA
(O.S.)
Heyward! Duncan Heyward.
Heyward looks to the side. An inner light turns on. In
this mode, this is a man we could
like.
REVERSE: CORA MUNRO
enters from the garden. She's vivacious, dark-haired,
unconventional in that she's
educated, but with conventional values and attitudes. She
hugs Duncan to her and
then pushes him away to look at him.
HEYWARD
My God it's good to see you.
He takes her hand in both of his and kisses it. He is
open and lit up.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR POLTROON'S HOUSE, BACK YARD - CORA & HEYWARD -
DAY
A vegetable plot behind the Poltroon's house is a
provincial substitute for a formal
garden setting. Heyward and Cora sit on rough wooden
chairs. Wind blows. In the
background a servant hangs laundry. The white sheets
billow. A table holds a tea
setting. They're sitting close to each other, talking
seriously and quietly. Duncan's
jacket is removed. Time's passed. Long pause. Then:
CORA
I'm embarrassed to be so indecisive ... after so
long apart and after you've traveled so far ...
HEYWARD
And by sea!
CORA
You still have an aversion to the water?
HEYWARD
Aversion? No. ... "Hatred" ... "Loathing" ...
Cora laughs.
HEYWARD
But it was worth it all to end in a garden by
your side.
She looks askance at him. Then the banter drops.
CORA
(difficult)
Dear Duncan, my affection is as towards a closest
friend. Alice and I depend on you and respect
you immensely ... I wish they did, but my feelings
don't go beyond that. Do you see?
HEYWARD
Isn't respect and friendship, a reasonable basis
for a man and woman to be joined? And all
else may grow in time ...?
CORA
Some say that's the way of it.
HEYWARD
"Some"?
CORA
Cousin Eugenie, my father, but ...
HEYWARD
(interrupts)
Cora, in my heart, I know once we're joined,
we'll be the happiest couple in England. Let
those whom you trust, your father, help
settle what's best for you. In view of your
indecision, why not rely on their advice and
judgment as well as mine?
Cora stares directly at Heyward. Then she looks away. She
has no answer. Something
subterranean disturbs her about delegating judgment over
the fate of her life.
HEYWARD
Will you consider that?
CORA
(pause; smiles)
Yes. Yes, I will.
She's still unsettled.
ALICE
(O.S.)
Duncan!
REVERSE: ALICE MUNRO
eighteen years old, white-blonde hair, wide blue eyes.
She's effervescent and runs
to hug him. Heyward is taken aback by her enthusiasm and
laughs.
HEYWARD
My God, you've grown up.
ALICE
We leave in the morning?!
HEYWARD
(rises)
Yes, miss.
ALICE
I won't sleep tonight. What an adventure!
I absolutely cannot wait to return to Portman
Square, having laid eyes upon the full-blooded,
red men in the wild!
CORA
My God, Alice.
HEYWARD
(smiles)
It can be dangerous ...
ALICE
Nonsense. Papa wouldn't have sent for us
if it were dangerous.
Alice takes Hewyward's hand. Cora pours Heyward more tea.
The white sheets billow.
AMBROSE
(O.S. - barks)
Atten-shun!
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR BRITISH ARMY HQ - TWENTY BRITISH REGULARS - DAY
jolt upright as if electrified.
AMBROSE
(entering)
Shoulder arms!
AMBROSE
a sergeant major of forty-one is wide and deep and built
like a fullback. You do not mess with Sgt. Major Ambrose.
AMBROSE
(barks)
Form two companies of nine ... MARCH!!
THE MEN
march in perfect drill into two groups, each three across
and three deep.
MILITARY HQ, ENTRANCE - MAJOR DUNCAN HEYWARD
steps out. Rigid salutes.
HEYWARD
climbs onto his white military charger. It's spirited.
Cora & Alice are in riding dresses
and veils. The veil doesn't completely cover Alice's
golden hair and blue eyes and the
flush of her complexion. They're riding two sidesaddled
Narragansetts. The tight
traveling dress reveals that Cora, two or three years
older than Alice, is fuller and more
mature. All three ride to the front of the column. The
baggage horses and mule are in
the gap between the two companies.
MAGUA
cradling his musket.
REAR SHOT: THE COLUMN
down the path that leads into the wall of forest looks
impressive.
WIDER: THE COLUMN
marching. Now they look brave but smaller. The forest -
with all its mysteries and
dangers - now impresses us as a towering dark, sinister,
and it's immensity swallows up
the living mass which slowly enters its bosom.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR FOREST
TRACKING the Redcoats, their faces now filmed with dust,
cut with lines of
perspiration. They march in perfect formation.
We TRACK PAST the pack horses, the first company, Sgt.
Major Ambrose and on to
Cora & Alice. Alice seems fatigued. Cora's turned,
looking up into the forest canopy,
astonished at the deep beauty of the place.
CORA'S POV: FOREST CANOPY
of trees is dark, except for spots where leaves are
sparse, and there the light is golden.
It's the forest of childhood.
In a ravine a buck disappears into a deeper stand of
trees.
CORA
(O.S.)
Alice, did you see that ...?
CORA'S
reverie's broken by Heyward entering the frame.
CORA
Alice?
Alice rouses from fatigue.
HEYWARD
Are you alright?
ALICE
Can we rest soon?
HEYWARD
Absolutely.
Heyward rides to the front of the column to Magua, who's
twenty to thirty yards ahead
of everybody else.
HEYWARD
You there, Scout!
Magua slowly turns towards Heyward.
HEYWARD
(overly articulated)
We must ... stop ... soon. Women are ... tired.
You ... understand?
MAGUA
(perfect English)
I understand. This is not good place to stop.
Two leagues from here. No water 'til then.
That where we stop. Better place.
HEYWARD
No. Stop in the glade just ahead! When the
ladies are rested, we will proceed. Do you
understand?
MAGUA
(in Huron: English subtitle)
"Magua understand paleface is a dog to his women.
When his women want to eat, he lay aside his
tomahawk to feed their laziness."
HEYWARD
Excuse me. What did you say?
MAGUA
Magua say: "Yes. Good idea."
As they begin to stop ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR MOUNTAINS & FOREST - WIDE - DAY
Silently entering on either side of us come Chingachgook,
followed by Hawkeye and
Uncas. Even relaxed, they carry themselves with a degree
of alertness. They're
eighteenth century Viet Cong moving through the rain
forest. The Maxfield
Parrish/Hudson Valley of tall trees, ravines and streams
is idyllic in front of them. All
three cradle their long guns and move silently on
moccasined feet.
FRONTAL: CHINGACHGOOK
- in a stream - relaxed but attentive, abruptly stops.
The others freeze in their tracks.
Chingachgook sees and then stoops to examine ...
ROCK
under the water in the stream. It's been turned from its
bed. Chingachgook finds
another. Uncas, moving up on his flank, climbs the bank
and moves off into the trees,
searches and then he gestures ... he's found another sign
of something.
CHINGACHGOOK
has headed off further down the stream and discovers
nothing. Rapidly he rejoins Uncas
and Hawkeye who've become extremely alert. They move up
the bank into the forest
ninety degrees from their previous path.
TRACKING: HAWKEYE, UNCAS & CHINGACHGOOK
moving. Fast. Nearly soundless. They hardly disturb a
blade of grass. The impression:
expertise, deadliness and an impression something's
wrong.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FOREST, TRAIL - MAGUA - DAY
on point. The trail cuts the side of a hill. The ground
on one side rises into a forest
acclivity and on the other falls off into a forested
ravine. Magua walking towards
camera.
CLOSER - MAGUA'S
slid his tomahawk out from the front of his belt that
girdles his waist. He lets the shaft
drop into his hand. He shrugs off his blanket. There is a
solidity to his dark, tall figure
we didn't see before. Magua turns about face and advances
on the column.
TRACK WITH Magua.
Heyward and the Munro girls pass the camera as does Sgt.
Major Ambrose, marching
in advance of the men. Magua is approaching the soldier
on the left in the first row.
We see Magua has caught the Redcoat's eye.
REDCOAT
is curious, starts to smile. What does the Huron want to
say to him? When Magua is
two steps away he caves in the side of the infantryman's
head at the temple with the
spike end of his tomahawk and, backhanded, hacks the
blade through the side of the
neck of the center man in the first row.
SIMULTANEOUSLY
thirteen muskets EXPLODE from the wooded rise.
FIVE REDCOATS
are blown off the path, two others are wounded ...
AMBROSE
AMBROSE
Form company! Left face! March!
ALICE
shrieks. Cora grabs Alice's reins and her own.
HEYWARD
pulling his fusil (short musket), seeing, firing,
reaching for the women ...
CORA'S HORSE
bucking.
ALICE'S HORSE
bolting, dodging sideways, spilling Alice to the earth.
AMBROSE
AMBROSE
Company make ready!
The regulars slam into a firing line, stepping over the
bodies of their comrades. All
thirteen face the incline.
FORESTED RISE - HURONS
flash downhill through the trees. Partnered in two-man
teams, one loads and prepares
and fires while the other advances to the next cover. He,
then, prepares and fires
covering his partner's advance. Leaping fallen trees and
boulders, they're athletic, fast
and rapidly closing.
Even though the disciplined English regulars are a
killing machine, we now see their
tactics in the dense forest are grossly inferior to the
Hurons' ...
AMBROSE
Present!!
CORA
covers Alice with her body, holding the reins of their
bolting horses.
HEYWARD
from horseback aims his horse pistol, FIRES ...
AN ATTACKING HURON
leaping at him past Alice & Cora drops.
MULE
with baggage crashes off, down the ravine. Another two
Redcoats drop. Nine left.
Then eight.
AMBROSE
AMBROSE
Fire!!
A musket volley as eight muskets go off as one shot,
sending a lead scythe through
leaves. But ...
REVERSE:
Hurons were behind cover. Only one was exposed and hit.
AMBROSE
(continuing)
Load! Prime!
The English rush to complete the reload. Will they do it
in time?
AMBROSE
(continuing)
Present! Present!
Suddenly, Hurons - en masse - CRASH down onto the
Redcoats line with tomahawks,
war clubs and point-blank musket fire.
ALICE
on the ground, screaming insanely, covered by Cora who's
protecting her little sister,
and ...
HEYWARD'S
horse shot from beneath him, the animal folding, falling
straight to the earth, and ...
MAGUA
shoots Ambrose in the chest, and ...
HEYWARD
by the Munro daughters spins, swinging his fusil like a
ball-bat, upending one Huron
and lunges with his bayonet in his left towards another.
But this Huron easily slips the
thrust and slams Heyward with his rifle butt.
BRITISH
dead and dying.
AMBROSE
blood gushing from his chest wound, fires his pistol,
dropping a Huron; slashes a
second with his sword. Then he's chopped down. Hurons
begin scalping the British
while four race towards Heyward and the two women.
HEYWARD & CORA & ALICE
ready to die. Heyward has only his fusil as a bludgeon.
He readies ...
THREE LOUD SHOTS
BLOW three of the Hurons sideways, head over heels down
the rise.
REVERSE: THREE MEN
barely seen, running diagonally across the fall line of
the ravine. In parts, we recognize
Nathaniel, recharging Killdeer on full run, and Uncas.
HURON'S
not sure where the shots came from. Suddenly Chingachgook
slams him, head first into
the ravine with the war club. He didn't even slow down.
HURON
warrior spins. Uncas tomahawks his shoulder. The Huron
swings downwards. Uncas
ducks beneath the swing and slashes his throat, sending
him downhill into CAMERA
as ...
HAWKEYE'S
momentum and thrown tomahawk spread-eagles one Huron,
near a couple of wounded
Redcoats who fight on ...
MAGUA
calmly sees the odds have changed. His attention becomes
focused. He commits a very
revealing act seen through the blurred foreground action
of struggling bodies. We will
remember it. He raises his musket and aims at ...
CORA MUNRO
who's unaware she's a target. Why is he singling out a
Munro girl to kill?
HAWKEYE
sees. Killdeer's at his shoulder ...
TIME SLOWS: MAGUA
senses Hawkeye. Moving through liquid, his eyes drift
left. The moment is frozen.
Their eyes lock, each to the other's. Then ...
TIME UNFREEZES
Magua swings at Hawkeye and FIRES ...
HAWKEYE
shifts. The .65 caliber musket ball rockets past his ear
and he's already squeezing
Killdeer's trigger as ...
HAWKEYE'S POV OVER BARREL: SMOKE
from Magua's musket blast clears. Magua's gone. He almost
shape-shifted, it happened
so quickly. It's nearly mystical.
HAWKEYE
lowers Killdeer, impressed.
CORA
glances back at Hawkeye. She doesn't know why he's
looking at her.
CHINGACHGOOK
pursues two fleeing Hurons up the incline. Two strides
gain him the first man, who he
hamstrings and runs over to pursue the second up the hill
... as ...
HEYWARD
in the confused melee, grabs a found musket and aims it
at an Indian. We recognize that
he's aiming at Chingachgook pursuing the second Huron up
the hill ...
CORA
No, Duncan!
Duncan ignores her.
HEYWARD'S MUSKET
is jerked from his hands.
HAWKEYE
... case your aim is any better'n your judgment.
He's drawn his sword, reflexively. Hawkeye flips the
musket around one-handed. It's
pointed at Heyward's chest. And Hawkeye FIRES, killing an
attacking Huron behind
Heyward. As Heyward spins ...
CHINGACHGOOK'S WAR CLUB
flashes up the hill. It cleaves the second man's back and
bowls him over. Chingachgook
retrieves his club as his scalping knife slashes down ...
UNCAS
scalps the man he killed. Chingachgook dispatches the
Huron he hamstrung.
WIDE
Sudden silence. Heyward's motionless. The women are
frozen, as terrified of the
savages and apparent half-breed rescuers as they were of
those who attacked them.
ALICE
Cora, holding her, is stunned but functioning. Moments
ago both women were clean
and demure. Now their riding dresses are torn,
mud-stained, blood-spattered and their
baggage is gone.
HEYWARD'S
crossed to his slaughtered soldiers. Moments ago they
were a testament to British
military power. Now they're dead meat. Ambrose's body is
against a tree. In the B.G. two of the wounded start to
rise ...
ALICE
(O.S.)
Stop it!
Heyward spins.
UNCAS
just cut the throat of the second Narraganset. It drops
into the brush. Alice attacks
him.
ALICE
We need them to get out of here!
Uncas gently restrains her. Cora reaches Alice and grabs
her away from the "savage".
Heyward runs in to protect the women ...
HEYWARD
(to Nathaniel)
... why the bloody hell he do that to the horses?!
Uncas, all business, is now reloading, lifting powder
horns, scanning the trees.
UNCAS
(matter of fact)
... too easy to track ... they can be heard for
miles ... find yourself a musket ...
Cora's surprised by Uncas' easy English. Hawkeye's
scanning the forest.
HAWKEYE
(to Heyward)
Your wounded should try walkin' back to Albany.
They'll never make a passage north.
HEYWARD
(breathless)
We were headed ...
HAWKEYE
(appropriating a knife)
... Fort William Henry.
CHINGACHGOOK
to Hawkeye: let's go ... Then a fast exchange of
Delaware. Cora's surprised to see it's
Chingachgook's decision. Chingachgook looks at the
survivors, gives his assent, starts
off.
HAWKEYE
... take you as far as the fort.
Hawkeye throws Heyward a musket. Cora & Alice look
towards Heyward. He looks at
them: the women are totally terrified and do not move.
HAWKEYE
If we are goin' to take you, we need to move.
Fast ... And the fort is well off our course.
So if you all rather wait for the next Huron
war party to come by, we'll be on our way.
Heyward quickly decides to go. The women follow. Hawkeye
starts off after Uncas and
Chingachgook.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FOREST - HAWKEYE - DAY
moves through the trackless forest. Uncas is far out on
the left flank. Cora, Alice &
Duncan Heyward follow in Hawkeye's and Chingachgook's
steps ...
HAWKEYE'S FEET
walking through a creek, stepping in the stream bed
instead of on stones. The others
follow. Hawkeye looks at Heyward.
HEYWARD
conforms. He's ill at ease not being in command,
following the lead of some half-Indian
frontiersman through a foreign wilderness.]
HEYWARD
How far is it, scout?
HAWKEYE
Day and a half
(pause)
Where did you get ... the guide?
HEYWARD
Colonel Munro sent him. He was one of our
Mohawk allies.
HAWKEYE
He is Huron and nothing else.
(checking the Munro girls are
not too close)
Why would he want to murder the girl?
HEYWARD
What?!
HAWKEYE
Dark haired ...
HEYWARD
Miss Cora Munro. He never set eyes on
her before today.
HAWKEYE
No blood vengeance? No re-proach or insult?
HEYWARD
Of course not!
(pause)
And how is it you were nearby?
HAWKEYE
Came across the war party, tracked 'em.
HEYWARD
Then you're assigned to Fort William Henry?
HAWKEYE
No.
HEYWARD
Fort Edward, then?
HAWKEYE
No. Headin' west. To Can-tuck-ee.
HEYWARD
I thought all our colonial scouts were in
the militia?
Off to the side, Uncas smiles at the idea.
HAWKEYE
I ain't your "scout". And I am in no damn
militia.
HEYWARD
(stops)
Then you are one of those who would allow
England to fight alone while she protects
you from France?
HAWKEYE
England does not protect me and does not
war against France on our account. She uses
us to war against France on her own account ...
of greed for land and furs.
CORA'S
appalled.
HAWKEYE
(turns)
Clear it up any?
HEYWARD
(loud)
I owe you gratitude or I'd call you out!
HAWKEYE
(low)
Do not let gratitude get in the way ...
Cora's hand holds back Heyward's sword arm because
suddenly Chingachgook looms
over him.
CHINGACHGOOK
(to Hawkeye)
Yengeese no good in woods. Make more
noise, I kill him.
Heyward spins. Hawkeye coolly watches Cora. Her attitude
is hostile; aligned with
Heyward. He turns away. Meanwhile ...
UNCAS
stops, alarmed. Something in the air bothers him. Hawkeye
smells it, too.
CHINGACHGOOK
is already moving out front, low and fast ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FOREST, TREE LINE - GREEN BRANCHES - DAY
After we HOLD, we realize Chingachgook's been there all
along. Hawkeye and Uncas
join him where the branches meet the ground. Smoke drifts
through the trees.
Hawkeye sees and dips his head, then looks again ...
EXTERIOR CAMERON CABIN - WIDE - DAY
Burned, smoldering, having fallen in on itself. TRACK
LEFT past what was the
doorway. A dead child's hand protruding from the ruin. A
fragment of a dress. Charred
and smoldering wood. John Cameron's body in the wreckage.
And then, through the
collapsed posts and timbers, Hawkeye, Chingachgook and
Uncas have advanced and
are seeing what we've just seen; and then Cora and Alice.
ALICE
approaches and is frozen in horror. Cora shields her from
the sight. Cora is affected but
confronts it directly.
HEYWARD
(O.S.)
Anything to be done?
UNCAS
returns from under one part of the wreckage, ashen,
stoic, as they all are. We know the
degree of their inner pain.
UNCAS
All dead ...
HAWKEYE
bends over a moccasin print that Chingachgook's
examining. They look at each other
grimly. Heyward joins them.
HEYWARD
Who were these people?
HAWKEYE
(re: print)
Ottawa!
HEYWARD
Excuse me ...
CHINGACHGOOK
(to Hawkeye)
Ottawa.
UNCAS
enters, very careful where he places his feet ... Hawkeye
gestures to Heyward to stay
where he is: on the periphery with the women.
UNCAS
Mirrors ... tools ... clothes ... all inside.
HAWKEYE
(to Chingachgook)
Movin' fast, not able to carry much ...
this was a war party?
Chingachgook nods confirmation and indicates a direction
in Mohican. The significance
is very ominous to them. We don't know why yet.
Chingachgook starts away ...
HEYWARD
Let us look after them ...
He starts approaching the bodies.
CHINGACHGOOK
Leave them.
Heyward stops. Hawkeye and Uncas follow Chingachgook,
leaving the cabin.
CORA
(hasn't moved)
Though they are strangers, they are at
least entitled to a Christian burial!
HAWKEYE
(shaking his head)
Let us go, miss.
CORA
I will not. I have seen the face of war
before, Mr. Poe, but never war made on
women and children. And almost as
cruel is your indifference.
Hawkeye turns back and rapidly approaches her. She takes
a step back, fearful.
HAWKEYE
(contained)
Miss Munro.
(pause)
They are not strangers ....
And they stay as they lay ...!
CORA
realizes Hawkeye knew these people and is deeply
affected. She also realizes for the
first time this is a whole new world with dynamics and
complexities, behavior and
rhythms she doesn't understand. He turns away from her
and walks on. She hesitates a
moment.
WIDE ON THE SMALL CLEARING IN FRONT OF THE FARMHOUSE
as Chingachgook and Hawkeye, extremely alert and cradling
their cocked flintlocks,
walk to camera, eyes sweeping the forest perimeter;
they're followed by Cora, Heyward
helping Alice and Uncas as rearguard.
The ruined cabin and the dead dream of a family smolders
behind them.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR GLADE - PROFILE: HAWKEYE - NIGHT
moves through to where the trees seem sparse and are
unnaturally white birch and
some thin grass grows. The land rises into a mound.
Chingachgook and the others
avoid stepping on the grass and cross to the other side
of it.
CHINGACHGOOK
mutters something to Uncas. He nods and disappears
amongst the white birch,
soundlessly.
HAWKEYE
throws Heyward a blanket. Heyward spreads the blanket
below the top of the mound
and - maintaining silence - he gestures for Cora & Alice
to rest there.
ALICE'S HEAD
hits the blanket. She curls into a fetal position and
she's out. Heyward is nearby on
watch.
Hawkeye has taken a position two-thirds of the way around
the crescent shaped
mound.
Cora has sought him out.
HAWKEYE
doesn't react as Cora enters. He's scanning the trees;
not looking at her.
They whisper ...
CORA
Why didn't you bury those people?
HAWKEYE
Anyone lookin' to pick up our trail, would
see it as a sign of our passing ...
CORA
You knew them.
Hawkeye looks at her and nods.
CORA
(stiffly)
You were acting for our benefit. And I
apologize. I misunderstood you.
HAWKEYE
Well that is to be expected. My father ...
CORA
Your "father"?
HAWKEYE
Chingachgook. He warned me about
people like you.
CORA
He did?
HAWKEYE
Yes. He said ... "do not try to make them
understand you."
CORA
What?!
HAWKEYE
Yes. And "do not try to understand them.
That is because they are a breed apart and
they make no sense ..."
Cora's indignation is cut off because ...
UNCAS
moving fast. He gestures back the way he came and it
means they're in jeopardy. Uncas
disappears around the mound.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR BIRCH FOREST - TREES - NIGHT
Nothing. Imperceptibly we move closer and start to see
shapes blocking out part of the
white birch.
RED-PAINTED FACE
white eyes. A ruff of red hair stands straight up at the
back of the large man's head.
Slit and monstrously elongated earlobes are weighted with
silver. He's followed by
others. Wary, silently, they hunt.
DEEPER: MORE OTTAWA
Towards the rear are two French Rangers ("Coureurs des
Bois") from Le Regiment de
la Sarre. They're bearded, dirty, dressed Indian-style in
moccasins, leggings and
breechcloths with hooded hunting shirts. There's nothing
clumsy about them. They're
the 18th century version of Special Forces who've gone
indigenous. If they and the
Ottawa find our people, it's all over.
ALICE
seeing the red-painted Ottawa approach, starts to panic.
Her hyperventilating and
involuntary small sounds of fear will reveal their
position. A hand covers her mouth and
silences her struggling. WIDEN. It's Uncas. His other arm
is around her, holding her,
looking towards the advancing Ottawa.
HAWKEYE
on his back, his tomahawk within reach on the ground.
OTTAWA & FRENCH
are fifty yards away from the crescent mound behind which
lie our people. Mist
envelops them ...
CHINGACHGOOK
His massive arms spread revealing his war club in his
left fist; his fusil in his right hand.
HAWKEYE
waiting for the attack. Cora's eyes are anxious, but
there's no terror there. Nathaniel's
impressed with her cool. He hands her a pistol. She takes
it. He listens for the soft drop
of moccasined feet ...
OTTAWA
through the grass. Thirty feet away they stop. They're
motionless. Then their leader
gestures and they start backing out. The French Rangers
continue towards the crescent.
The Ottawa chief takes one's arm and stops him. The
French Ranger whispers
something inaudible. The Ottawa chief shakes his head,
"Non. Pas possible ..."
And means it. They retreat.
SEPERATE SHOTS: HAWKEYE, UNCAS, CHINGACHGOOK, CORA
tensely monitor the Ottawa retreat.
UNCAS & ALICE
He slowly removes his hand from her mouth. She's a little
shy, then she looks up,
catches his eyes. Then she averts her face.
CHINGACHGOOK
sees all of it; doesn't like it.
HAWKEYE
The Ottawa are gone.
CORA
(quietly)
Why did they turn back?
In answer Hawkeye looks behind & above her head.
CORA
turns and makes out stilt platforms of skeletons and torn
strips of buckskin silhouetted
against the night sky in the distance. They have camped
on sanctified ground, a burial
place.
CORA & HAWKEYE
She thinks it would be a mistake to ever underestimate
the skill of these men or the
danger & complexity of this place. She hands the pistol
back to him. Their hands almost
touch.
CORA
(still pissed off)
"We're a breed apart and we make no
sense" ...?
HAWKEYE
(smiles)
In your particular case, miss, I would
make some allowance ...
CORA
(sarcastic)
Thank you so much.
Cora is angry. Hawkeye, staring at the trees, glances at
her. She settles, looking at him.
Her mood changes. Then ...
CORA
You called Chingachgook your "father"?
Where is your real family?
Hawkeye's surprised by her question.
HAWKEYE
They buried my ma & pa and my sisters.
And Chingachgook - who found me with
two French trappers - raised me up as his
own.
CORA
I'm sorry.
HAWKEYE
I do not remember them. I was one or two.
CORA
How did you learn English?
HAWKEYE
My father sent Uncas & I to Reverend
Wheelock's school when I was ten. So
we would know both worlds ... though
we were told only bother learning readin' &
arithmetic from yous.
CORA
And what were the consequentialities of
European culture you didn't bother with?
HAWKEYE
The Bible. Monarchy. Many wrong ideas
about the government of men. My father's
people already know each man is his own
nation. And only he can have dominion
over himself. Not kings. No man is better
than any other man.
CORA
In London those radical ideas could land
you in Newgate prison.
(changing the subject)
Why were those people living in this
defenseless place ...?
HAWKEYE
'Cos frontier land's the only land affordable
to poor people. So after seven years
indentured service in Virginia, they headed
out here where they are beholden to none
and not livin' by another's leave ...
Their name was Cameron. John & Alexandria.
Cora sees the slate grey clouds and, in between, the
fields of stars. She looks at Hawkeye; then again up at
the night sky.
HAWKEYE
(continuing; looking up)
My father's people say ... at the birth of the
sun and of his brother, the moon, their
mother died ... so the sun gave to the earth
her body, from which was to spring all life.
And he drew forth from her breast the stars.
The stars he threw into the night sky to
remind him of her soul.
(the sky)
So there is the Camerons' monument ...
my folks', too, I guess.
CORA'S
pensive. Hawkeye's watching her. Her reaction is
enigmatic. After a pause ...
CORA
(low)
You are right, Mr. Poe. We do not
understand what is happening here.
And it is not as I imagined it would be,
thinking of it in Boston and London ...
HAWKEYE
Sorry to disappoint you ...
CORA
(eyes downcast)
On the contrary. It is more deeply stirring ...
to my blood ...
(then up into his eyes)
... than any imagining could possibly have
been ...
She closes her eyes, turns slightly and prepares to
sleep. Hawkeye is the one left staring
into the birch forest, a little surprised. Some of his
assumptions about her were
wrong ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FOREST - WIDE - LATE AFTERNOON
Deep fog has set in. A hand entering the frame scares the
hell out of us. It moves a
branch aside. It's Uncas. Spread to the right is
Chingachgook, far to the left is
Hawkeye. They hike up a steep forested slope in the heart
of the Adirondacks.
CORA
Much further?
HAWKEYE
Top of this ridge. Fort and Lake George are
downhill of it.
ALICE
Re-energized, her spirits pick up.
ALICE
Will we be able to bathe?
Before Cora can answer they hear a deep, rolling roar.
Alice is alarmed.
CORA
Thunder ... Papa will arrange something.
UNCAS
looks over his shoulder, sees something in the far
distance, gestures to Hawkeye and
Chingachgook.
HAWKEYE'S POV: DISTANT HILLS
and the band of red-painted Ottawa and Coureurs des Bois,
who have now split into
two groups, are still on their trail. Meanwhile,
oblivious ...
HEYWARD
The men of the regiment will fetch water from
the lake, build fires and provide every comfort
you desire, Alice ...
ALICE
Duncan, you are absolutely gallant. If Cora
doesn't marry you, I shall.
CORA
Alice!
Heyward laughs. Hawkeye sees them. It bothers us: will
these Europeans, including
Cora, shed their frontier experience?
ALICE
I can't wait to see Papa ...
CORA
And you, Duncan? What are you looking
forward to?
HEYWARD
Posting to a different continent.
He and Alice laugh. Cora does not.
CORA
I think it's very important and exciting.
Heyward looks at her. She's not kidding.
ANOTHER ANGLE: HEYWARD
helps Alice. As he does, he stares at Cora's seperation
and now her proximity to
Hawkeye, who's walking on ahead, is something Heyward
doesn't like. His dark
thoughts are distracted by a FLASH of light and more
ROLLING THUNDER.
WIDE FROM THE FRONT - HAWKEYE
drops and pulls Cora to the ground.
CORA
Lightning?
Hawkeye doesn't answer as he, Chingachgook, Uncas and
Heyward make their way to
the top of the ridge.
CLOSER ANGLES: CORA & ALICE
join them and look down upon their expectation of a
secure piece of England in the
wilderness, a safe harbor, a father's warm welcome.
THEIR POV: FORT WILLIAM HENRY
is none of those things. The thunder is the roar of
French siege cannon clouded in dense
smoke. The flashes of light are mortar bombs exploding
and illumination rockets' red
glare. Fort William Henry is under a massive siege by a
French and Huron army.
UNCAS
looks over his shoulder.
HIS POV: OTTAWA
pursuing them. There's no way back. They're propelled
forward.
DISSOLVE TO ...
EXTERIOR BATTLEFIELD, FRENCH BATTERY #1 - CLOSE SHOTS -
DUSK
French cannons roar black smoke and gouts of red flame.
TRENCH
dug by sappeurs behind the cover of a huge gambio pushed
toward the fort by two
poles and fascis on the sides.
ENGLISH GUN CREW
searching the night.
POV: BATTLEFIELD
is black.
ENGLISH ROCKETS
light the battlefield revealing the French trenches.
ENGLISH GUN CREW
excited. Colonial militia and Mohawk snipers fire their
rifles. The British gun crew
scrambles to adjust their 18 pounders.
FRENCH BATTERY #1
FIRES.
FRENCH BATTERY #2
FIRES.
EXTERIOR FORT, WEST BATTERY
TRACKING. French cannon FIRE rips into the
fortifications, exploding wood and
earth, shredding the English gun crew with cannister. The
English fight stubbornly, but
we feel they're outgunned. Meanwhile ...
WIDE ANGLE FROM THE WATER
A new artillery duel erupts. The action is to the west
side of the fort. On the north, the
fire fight is reflected on the black water of Lake George
in our foreground. Then a dark
shape wiping to the right cuts off those reflections. We
see in silhouette the outline of a
birch canoe moving silently, barely rippling the mirrored
surface of the lake.
EXTERIOR LAKE GEORGE BANK - DEBRIS
Behind it, two Canadiens and a Huron alternately snipe at
the ramparts.
LOW & WIDE: SNIPERS
Behind them is black water. Its surface is broken by the
rising mass of Chingachgook,
followed by Uncas and Hawkeye. Muzzle flashes from the
cannon reveal the canoe and
the forms of the girls further out. Chingachgook's war
club is held low. The Huron
senses and turns and Hawkeye's thrown tomahawk knocks him
back. Hawkeye's knife
flashes in the night. Chingachgook drives the war club
up, smashing a Canadien onto
the debris. The second Canadien jabs bayonet at Uncas,
slashing his side. Uncas jerks
him forward by the musket, folds him over and tomahawks
him.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY, NORTH WALL - SALLY-PORT
TUNNEL
- NIGHT
Amidst the cannonade roar, ad-libbed shouts from Hawkeye
and Heyward convince
battle begrimed soldiers to open the sally-port. Our
people rush in.
TORCH LIGHT
the group moves through the long, dank, tunnel. Enlisted
men escorting them. Another
torch from the other direction: CAPTAIN BEAMS is
revealed.
HEYWARD
I'm Major Duncan Heyward!
BEAMS
Captain Jeffrey Beams. We didn't think
you'd make it through!
HEYWARD
Where's Colonel Munro? His daughters are
here, too.
Beams raises his torch, sees the muddied, soaked women.
He is shocked that they
traveled with Heyward.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY, PARADE GROUND - GROUP -
NIGHT
emerges from a sally-port tunnel. It's smokey. NOISE is
deafening. The group has
traveled through a nightmare, only to arrive in hell.
HEYWARD WITH BEAMS, CORA & HAWKEYE, ALICE, UNCAS &
CHINGACHGOOK
run diagonally past pyramidal stacks of cannon ball,
smoldering beams and shrapnel,
wounded men. Just then a mortar is fired and explodes,
killing the gun crew. On the
ramparts Mohawks and Colonial Militia, sniping at the
French. Women huddle in
corners next to the sick and dying.
UNDER RAMPARTS: MILITIA
AD LIBS
(shouts over roar)
Uncas! Nathaniel ...
HAWKEYE
waves. One wounded man, IAN, intercepts Uncas.
IAN
Thought you and Nathaniel weren't
joinin'-up.
UNCAS
(on the run)
Didn't!
HAWKEYE
Dropped in to see how you boys is doin'.
COLONEL MUNRO
running from his quarters is shocked to see them.
ALICE
(hysterical)
Papa, Papa!!
MUNRO
(enraged)
Why are you here?!
Cora is stunned. Alice is decimated by her father's
anger. Munro sees and whips off his
coat to cover them and takes Alice under his arm.
Bombardment resumes. Alice clings
while they race for the cover of his quarters:]
MUNRO
(to Heyward; re: Alice & Cora)
Why did you allow them to come? ... And
where the bloody hell are my reinforcements!!
They race into the yellow lantern light of Munro's
quarters and slam and bolt the heavy
door. Heyward's confused ...
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR MUNRO'S QUARTERS - NIGHT
MUNRO
(embracing his daughters; softer)
Told you to stay away from this hell hole!
Why did you disobey me?
CORA
When? How?
MUNRO
My letter ...
CORA
There was none!
MUNRO
What?
CORA
There was no letter.
MUNRO
I sent three men to Webb!
HEYWARD
One called Magua arrived.
CORA
He delivered no such message.
Munro's stunned.
MUNRO
Does Webb not even know we are besieged?
HEYWARD
Sir. Webb has no idea. And he certainly does
not know to send reinforcements!
Munro has nowhere for his rage to go. Meanwhile, Alice
clings to her father. At 45-55,
the British Army has been his life. He blindly believes
in its institutions, though officers
like Webb would disdain his Scots origins.
From under his fury:
MUNRO
(flat)
What happened to you?
HEYWARD
(suddenly tired)
Ambush ... on the George Road. This
Magua led us into it.
(pause)
... eighteen killed. It's these men who
saved us. They guided us here ...
MUNRO
Thank you. How can I reward you?
No answer. Then ...
HAWKEYE
Help ourselves to a few horns from your
powder stores.
MUNRO
What else?
UNCAS
Some food.
MUNRO
(to Uncas)
I'm indebted to you. And get your side sewn up,
young man.
MUNRO
sees his exhausted and bloodstained surgeon in the
doorway that leads to the next
rooms.
MUNRO
(bellows)
Mr. Phelps!
PHELPS' face lights up when he sees Cora Munro.
PHELPS
Miss Cora! How are you?
CORA
(smiles)
Fine, Mr. Phelps. Have you cat gut and a
suturing needle?
(for Uncas)
And we could use some rum, clothes, and
a place to wash ...
Cora tries to remove Alice from her father, but she
clings to him. Munro holds her
tighter. Then he whispers something to her. She nods her
head. And Cora takes her.
They exit.
MUNRO
is moved beyond words by his daughters' presence. There's
a break, a pause ...
MUNRO
(to Heyward over table map)
What a place for them ...
HEYWARD
Might I enquire after the situation, sir, given
that I've seen of the French engineering from
the ridge above?
MUNRO
(perfunctory)
Logistics are his guns are bigger than mine
and he has more of them. They keep our heads
down while his sappers make thirty yards of
trench a day. His thirteen inch mortars have a
two hundred yard range, so when they're close
enough, they'll move them in, lob explosive
rounds over our walls and pound us to dust.
HEYWARD
They look to be three hundred yards out.
You have three days.
MUNRO
Bloody murderers.
HAWKEYE
A man, here, can make a run straight through
to Webb.
MUNRO
... not enough time to get to Albany and back
with reinforcements ...
A Sergeant enters, snaps to attention, says something to
Beams, exits.
HEYWARD
Webb's not in Albany. He marched the 33rd to
Fort Edward two days ago.
MUNRO
Webb's at Edward?
HEYWARD
Yes, sir.
MUNRO
Only twelve miles away! He could be here day
after tomorrow.
(to Hawkeye)
Find your man, sir! Captain Beams will give you
the message.
Beams nods. Munro turns back to the map. Hawkeye has
something else to say.
HAWKEYE
John Cameron's cabin. We come upon it last
night. Burned out. Everyone murdered. And
it was Ottawa. They're allied to the French.
Munro looks at him.
MUNRO
Yes, Mr. Poe? So?
HAWKEYE
It was a war party. It means they're on the
attack up and down the frontier.
Munro turns to look at him for a long beat. Munro doesn't
like what his response must
be to this news. He turns to Heyward and the map.
MUNRO
(cold)
Thank you.
Hawkeye's dismissed, frozen out.
HAWKEYE
Many men here, their homes are in the path.
MUNRO
That's all, sir.
Hawkeye is furious. Chingachgook gestures Hawkeye out. He
leaves Munro's quarters
almost knocking over an entering Adjutant who backs way
up to let Chingachgook
pass.
HEYWARD
Things were done. Nobody was spared ...
MUNRO
Terrible feature of war in the Americas.
(beat; a mantra)
Best to keep your sight fixed on our duty.
Our duty is to defeat France. That hangs
on a courier to Webb.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR MONTCALM'S MARQUEE - CHORAL GROUP - NIGHT
of three Seneca women and five boys, led by a Jesuit,
sing the Te Deum in the Iroquois
language. This is a large tent that could sleep twenty.
Montcalm's four personal guards
are at the entrance as well as COMTE DE LEVIS in dirty
lace, a facial wound and a
braceful of pistols on a sash. Inside is simple campaign
furniture and a six by eight foot
battle standard and flag of France.
MONTCALM
stands with a huge and fearsome elaborately tattooed and
robed Seneca chief in a silk
turban ...
SENECA CHIEF
(low)
... and the Black Robes of Michilimackinac left
us no time to put our cabins in order before
telling
us our French father had need of our aid. We rolled
our blankets and were the first to be here. Yet we
are not the first and closest to my father's
campfire.
The Marquis de Montcalm is forty-five, wears a large
wampum belt as a sash over his
waistcoat. He has an acute intellect, an elegant manner.
He is more aristocratic than
Munro, but a consummate professional soldier. Over the
Seneca's shoulder, Montcalm
sees and nods to ...
MAGUA
entering with four Huron braves. This is not the Magua we
saw on the trail. In his scalp
lock, now red-stained and cut to a Huron roach, are three
blacl plumes. A match-coat
blanket drapes his left shoulder.
MONTCALM
(to Seneca Chief)
For my children and the children of the true
faith, my friendship and esteem is boundless ...
I will give you three oxen for a feast and tomorrow
I, myself, will sing the war song with you in the
great council house.
The Seneca Chief is satisfied and his people, plus the
Jesuit, exit. The look on Magua's
face and the wry expression on Montcalm's allows us to
understand their relationship is
based on realpolitik.
MONTCALM
Le Renard Subtil, how are things with your
English friends?
Magua exhales in derision as he brings a chair to face
Montcalm and sits, European
style ...
MONTCALM
(over his shoulder)
Louis Antoine, join us.
LOUIS ANTOINE DE BOUGAINVILLE enters. He wears a
functional melange of
Indian moccasins over white linen breeches and an
officer's waistcoat.
MONTCALM
Hear what le Subtil has to tell us ...
Bougainville published a book on integral calculus at
twenty-five, at twenty-six was a
secretary to the French Ambassador in London, in January
1756 at twenty-seven he
was elected a member of the British Royal Academy of
Science and at age twenty-eight
he's aide de camp to the Marquis de Montcalm with the
rank of captain. Later in life, he
brought "bougainvillea" from Tahiti to Europe to America.
MAGUA
English war chief, Webb goes to Fort Edward
with 33rd Regiment. He does not know my
father's army attacks Fort William Henry.
BOUGAINVILLE
But by now Munro knows his couriers didn't
get through. He'll send another.
MAGUA
The Grey Hair will try.
BOUGAINVILLE
Four or five, including two women entered the
fort ...
MAGUA
The Grey Hair's children were under Magua's
knife but escaped. They'll be under it again.
MONTCALM
Why do hate the Grey Hair, Magua?
MAGUA
When the Grey Hair is dead, Magua will eat
his heart. Before he dies Magua will put his
children under the knife so the Grey Hair will
see his seed is wiped out forever.
Montcalm won't get a direct answer.
MONTCALM
My sappeurs are advancing the trenches through
the night, now. You may have your opportunity
soon.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR SURGERY, ENTRANCE - PHELPS - NIGHT
exhausted, sitting on a low stool, taking a breath.
HAWKEYE (O.S.)
She know what she's doin'?
Phelps looks up, then he looks over his shoulder at Cora.
She's in a borrowed
launderess dress/blouse ... She looks different. He's a
little indignant.
PHELPS
First assisted me in Austria when she was
fourteen. I would say she does ...
Her apron is stained. Hawkeye sees this may be her first
time in the New World, but it's
not her first military campaign. Still angered at Munro's
dismissive response, he's
nevertheless falling for Cora.
HAWKEYE
She does not shy away from much ...
PHELPS
(elsewhere)
What's that?
HAWKEYE
Nothin'.
Alice Munro has caught Hawkeye's attention. Outside the
surgery where a casement
meets a wall, she sits, withdrawn. A catatonic older
woman in a fine dress sits next to
her.
PHELPS (O.S.)
Miss Cora? Gentleman looking for you.
HAWKEYE
enters. Cora's sewing up Uncas.
CORA
(looks up)
Mr Poe?
HAWKEYE
Miss.
(re: cotton)
May I?
Cora, curious, nods. Hawkeye cuts some pieces from her
ruined and discarded dress
that she now uses to bandage Uncas. We don't know why;
neither does Cora.
HAWKEYE
(to Uncas)
You 'bout done holdin' hands with Miss Munro?
Uncas laughs, looking from her to Hawkeye. Then he's up
and he hurts. Cora starts to
tend another wounded man. As they start out, Hawkeye
hesitates. Sensing it, Cora
turns.
CORA
What are you looking at, Mr. Poe?
HAWKEYE
Why, I am looking at you, Miss.
Cora measures the directness of Hawkeye's manner. It's
not insolent, only unsettling.
Feeling foolish; she turns. He leaves.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FRENCH TRENCHES - SAPPEURS & ENGINEERS - NIGHT
having worked through the night, are still digging the
diagonally-advancing trench. We
note it's closer than it was.
EXTERIOR FRENCH TRENCHES - FRENCH PICKETTS
at their posts guard the sappeurs. Meanwhile ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY, WEST SIDE - SALLY-PORT -
NIGHT
opens. Ten Mohawks and Rangers crawl towards the French
lines. Meanwhile ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY, PARAPET - HAWKEYE & UNCAS -
NIGHT
are low and out of French sight in the northeast battery.
Four others are with them,
including Captain Jack. Stacked rifles are against the
casement. We don't know why.
Each rifle is within reach of Hawkeye's hand. Hawkeye is
taking extra care loading
Killdeer. He charges it once, then overloads the powder
by a quarter charge.
UNCAS
You told him about the raid?
HAWKEYE
(nods)
He does not want to hear it.
(pause)
But he is gonna have to.
JACK
(to one man)
Get together by the West Battery James & Ian,
Sharitarish & William.
Hawkeye uses the fine cotton he took from Cora. Uncas
sees it.
UNCAS
Tight weave.
HAWKEYE
Another forty yards?
Uncas nods. Hawkeye wets it to make a tighter gas seal
and rams it home. The tighter
fit requires more effort.
HAWKEYE
looks below to ground level ...
A FRONTIERSMAN - COURIER
Two pistols are holstered in a sash around his chest. He
wears no hat and carries no
pack. He waits by the sally-port door.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FRENCH TRENCH - THREE PICKETS - NIGHT
are suddenly tomahawked and knifed by stripped down 42nd
Highlanders and
Mohawks. Alarm is raised. French and some Huron run to
advance. Shots are fired.
The Rangers & Mohawks fall back.
FRENCH
emboldened, pursue ...
TRENCH IN FRONT OF WEST WALL
suddenly Heyward and three companies of the 62nd regiment
of Foot (60 men) are
over the top in perfect formation ...
HEYWARD
Sergeant! Form three ranks!
SERGEANT MAJOR
Sir!
(bellows to troops)
Upon the center, wheel to the left-about!
March!
(three motions; drums)
Rear ranks, proper distance!
(the rear ranks back up six paces)
Front ranks, take your distance! March!
(everybody moves)
Halt!
(in unison they slam to a stop)
Make ready!
(muskets snap to port arms)
MOHAWKS & HIGHLANDERS
dodge right & left of the 62nd's line of fire.
FRENCH
are coming forward. Their sergeants trying to stop and
form their men in ad-libbed
French.
62ND REGIMENT OF FOOT
SERGEANT MAJOR
(dead cool)
First rank! Second rank! Present arms!
(muskets shouldered)
HEYWARD
Fire!!!
Like one shot, lightening, smoke and .65 caliber death
screams from the first two ranks
like a scythe, cutting down ...
REVERSE: FRENCH
Fourteen wounded or killed ...
62ND REGIMENT OF FOOT - HEYWARD
exposed. He's oblivious to incoming rounds. A piece of
hat is blown off, epaulet is shot
off. The man next to him is killed and bloodies Heyward's
coat.
HEYWARD
Advance, Sergeant Major!
SERGEANT MAJOR
Sir!!!
(to soldiers)
Third rank! Twelve paces! Forward march!
Drums. The rear rank walks through the first two ranks,
who are priming and loading
in perfect order to their Sergeant Major's commands. As
the third rank becomes the
first rank ...
SERGEANT MAJOR
Shoulder arms!
(slam)
Present!
(slam)
HEYWARD
Fire!!!
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - COURIER - NIGHT
sprints for the trees during the diversion of Heyward's
sally.
TWO HURONS
materialize from nowhere and charge at him ... both are
BLOWN off their feet by ...
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY, CASEMENT - UNCAS & HAWKEYE
now handed already-loaded, primed and cocked rifles while
the four men behind them
reload the two just fired. Hawkeye gestures ...
EXTERIOR HILLSIDE - THREE HALF-SAVAGE CANADIENS
are running down the hill to intercept the courier. One
fires ...
COURIER
a near miss.
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - HAWKEYE
FIRES. A half second later, Uncas FIRES.
EXTERIOR HILLSIDE
One Canadien's falling through the trees as the second
one's hit by Uncas' shot.
HAWKEYE
reaches out his hand. Killdeer with the heavier load is
slapped into it. Hawkeye aims.
Looks away a second and comes back to the sight in deep
concentration. The world
goes silent ...
HAWKEYE'S POV: COURIER & CANADIEN
pursuer are barely visible. Only patches appear
momentarily between the trees. They're
three hundred yards away: an impossible shot in 1757.
EXTERIOR FOREST - THE CANADIEN
will intersect the courier. His arm is back with his
tomahawk to throw ...
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - HAWKEYE
judges wind, elevates the long rifle ... and FIRES at us.
JUMP CUT BACK:
TREES
Hawkeye's heavy round rips through. We HEAR the ball cut
air. A few leaves flutter ...
EXTERIOR FOREST - CANADIEN
whacked head over heels by the impact.
COURIER
looks over his shoulder. He didn't know the Canadien was
there. He stumbles in the
half light. Then he runs on ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - WEST SALLY-PORT
The three companies of the 62nd Regiment of Foot file
back into the fort in perfect
order. The sally-port is closed. Three men are wounded.
The diversion worked
perfectly.
HEYWARD
Sergeant Major!
SERGEANT MAJOR
Sir!
HEYWARD
Thank you, Sergeant Major. Thank the men.
SERGEANT MAJOR
Atten-hut!
TROOPERS & MILITIA
have seen no action for three days & nights. Heyward got
their blood running and won
their respect. They step aside and nod to him. Heyward
keeps walking. He is home.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR MUNRO'S BEDCHAMBER - DOOR - NIGHT
a knock and Heyward enters.
CORA & ALICE
Alice is in her father's bed. Cora is collecting and
tearing linen into strips for bandaging.
HEYWARD
Cora ... I wanted to talk to you, but I'll
come back another time ...
Alice looks at the two of them and rises out of the bed.
CORA
Alice ...
ALICE
Talk to Duncan, Cora ... I must manage ...
I cannot be an invalid schoolgirl.
(starts
for door)
I'll see if Mr. Phelps needs anything ...
She leaves.
HEYWARD
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ...
CORA
Her nerves are shattered. She's trying
to be brave.
There's a lot going on under Cora's surface. We don't
know what it is, but it's
disconcerting.
HEYWARD
Cora, I adore you and, when we come together,
we will be the happiest couple in England ...
I am certain of that. More than ever before.
(softens)
I believe you must trust the judgment of others
who hold your welfare so close to their hearts ...
CORA
Duncan ...
(pause)
Duncan, I promised you an answer. You
have complimented me with your persistence
and patience ... But the decision I've come
to is I'd rather make the gravest of mistakes
than surrender my own judgment.
Heyward is stunned.
CORA
And it's been unfair to you, while I search
myself for feelings, which, if they were
there and as strong as they ought to be,
would've made themselves known long ago ...
(pause)
Take my admiration and friendship, Duncan.
And please take this as my final answer.
It must be no.
Heyward' shattered inside.
HEYWARD
I see ...
CORA
I am sorry, Duncan ...
Heyward nods. He's speechless. He's errect as he leaves
the room.
CLOSE: CORA
The tension rushes out of her and she shudders and leans
against the quarter-timbered
walls for support. Then she collects the linen and starts
out.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR FORT, INNER CORRIDOR - CORA
moving through the corridor past wounded. Two French
mortar bombs explode above
one of the casements. We hear shrill screams in the
distance and ...
HAWKEYE (O.S.)
... it was no raidin' party out for pillage. The
cabin was attacked by a war party. They are
sweeping south down the frontier spreading
terror among farms and Mohawk villages 'cos
all the men are here.
IAN (O.S.)
And my cabin's not thirteen miles south of
Cameron's!
Cora, passing the open door to Munro's crowded office,
now hesitates.
CORA'S POV: THE ROOM
Hawkeye, Captain Jack Winthrop, Ian, seven or eight other
militia spokesmen, Munro,
Heyward, two adjutants, one lieutenant of Rangers.
MUNRO
(to Jack)
I must receive proof more conclusive than
Mr. Poe's opinion before I weaken our
defenses by allowing militia to withdraw.
JACK
Chingachgook's of the same opinion. Taken
together, that's gospel. Your fort will stand
or fall depending on Webb and reinforcements,
not these colonials' presence.
MUNRO
I judge military matters, Captain Winthrop, not
you.
HAWKEYE
That judgment is not more important than their
right under agreement with Webb to defend their
farms & families ... Major Heyward was at John
Cameron's. He saw what it was.
MUNRO
(looking to Heyward for
confirmation of his point of view)
What did you see, Major?
Heyward looks around the room. And he catches the doorway
...
CORA
beyond the periphery of men, staring at him.
HEYWARD
Munro is expecting him to be the good soldier in defense
of British military interests.
At the same time ...
CORA
examines him with a cool, level stare.
HEYWARD
looks at Munro. More French rounds detonate O.S. What if
Webb gets here and they
need to launch a counter-attack? They need every man they
have. It's his moment of
decision ...
HEYWARD
(to Munro)
I saw nothing that would lead me to the
conclusion it was other than a raid by savages
bent on thievery.
Jack Winthrop grabs Nathaniel.
HAWKEYE
You're a liar!
CORA'S
saddened. Heyward's stature has fallen irrevocably in her
eyes.
HEYWARD
can't help it. He turns to look at Cora ...
HEYWARD'S POV: DOORWAY
She's gone.
HEYWARD
suffused with an inner sadness, turns to Hawkeye.
HAWKEYE
And the blood is on your hands!
Heyward reaches for his sword.
MUNRO
(to Heyward)
I'll have none of that!
(to colonials)
Montcalm is a soldier and a gentleman.
Not a butcher.
HAWKEYE
Easy for you to suppose. While it is their
women and children, not yours, alone in
their farms!
MUNRO
(exploding)
You forget yourself!
JACK
We are not forgettin' Webb's promise!
MUNRO
British promises are honored. And the militia
will not be released. Because I need more
definite proof than this man's word!
JACK
Nathaniel's word been good on the frontier a
long time before you got here!
MUNRO
This interview's over! The militia stays!
JACK
(to Munro)
Does the rule of English law no longer govern?
Has it been replaced by absolutism?
This is very dangerous talk.
HAWKEYE
And if English law cannot be trusted, maybe
these people would do better makin' a peace
with the French!
HEYWARD
That is sedition! Treason!
HAWKEYE
That is the truth!
HEYWARD
(restaining himself)
I ought to have you whipped from this fort!
HAWKEYE
Major!
(changes down)
Some day I think you and I are gonna have
a serious disagreement.
MUNRO
(steel)
Anyone fomenting or advocating leaving
Fort William Henry will be hung for sedition.
Anyone leaving will be shot for desertion.
(pause)
My decision is final. Get out.
Hawkeye and the others are not intimidated. Their rage
smolders. The look on
Hawkeye's face says this is not over.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FORT, PARADE GROUND - BONFIRE - NIGHT
Sparks shower skyward. Impromptu music. Some Celtic
proto-bluegrass played on
fiddle & drums. It's stirring.
ANOTHER ANGLE: SOME WOMEN
laundresses, dance from soldier to soldier - English foot
and American Rangers. A few
people lit by the firelight are solemn. Most are stirred
to lift their morale for a while.
THEIR FACES
underlit by the red firelight. They are a disposable
people, a diverse plurality stuck in a
postage stamp-size fort in an ocean of forest, locked
into mortal deadly conflict
because of the policies of cold and distant European
monarchs.
A PLACE A LITTLE DISTANT FROM THE FIRE
We can barely make out the eyes and faces of a number of
men behind logs, crates and
new wreckage from the day's bombardment.
HAWKEYE
(low)
... got no kin in the settlements. If I did,
I'd be long gone.
IAN
You didn't think it right to be here in the
first place.
HAWKEYE
By my light that's how I saw it then and I
see it that way now ...
IAN
(low)
But we are under English military authority.
JACK
(low)
I believe if they set aside their law as and when
they wish, their law no longer has rightful
authority over us. All they have over us is
tyranny, then. And I'll stay here no longer.
No force on earth will keep me here ... Anyone
caught leavin' the fort could be shot. So each
man make your own decision ... Those who
are goin', be back here in an hour.
HAWKEYE
Out the northern sally-port. Strike for the east
side of the swamp until you clear the French
picket line. Head north over the ridge, then
come about southeast and fork left in Little
Meadow and you're free of the outpost and
skirmishers ...
A COLONIAL
(grumbles)
Should've skinned outta this long ago.
COLONIAL #2
Got no families, Captain. Figured we'd stay
and give 'em a hand even though ...
HAWKEYE
(to Colonial #2)
I'll cover them from the top of the casement.
JACK
(in amazement)
You're not coming with us?
Hawkeye shakes his head.
HAWKEYE
Got a reason to stay.
JACK
That reason wear a blue dress and work
in the surgery?
Low laughter
HAWKEYE
(dry)
It does and it is a better lookin' reason
than you, Jack Winthrop.
(more laughs)
Push hard, 'cos you got to clear the French
outpost by dawn.
(sticks out his hand and
grasps Winthrop's)
Good luck, Jack.
The men split up ...
CUT TO ...
FIRE - HAWKEYE
wanders among the dancers and musicians clustered in
groups, lit by the firelight.
Someone catches his eye and he moves in that direction
...
HAWKEYE'S POV: CORA
in the shadows, leaning against the wall, searching ...
we sense she's been looking
for him. He comes up to her. She turns in surprise.
CLOSER
Somehow she breathes easier because he's there. She's in
a white shirt with the sleeves
rolled up. Hawkeye leads her away from some of the
people.
CORA & HAWKEYE
Hawkeye takes Cora's hand. Cora is awakening to a new
spirit, a new wind blowing
through a new land, a new self-determination ... She's
drawn to this rough yet graceful
man with his direct manner. Hawkeye settles against a
wall. She leans next to him.
Their shoulders touch.
CORA
To her everything about him seems to be somehow right.
She's discovered that the
passions and outrage that move him, move her ... And her
readiness to give herself to
what stirs the deepest resonances of her soul is the same
as his.
HAWKEYE
looks at her. She's beautiful in the firelight. Cora's
eyes find his and she folds into his
arms. His lips find hers and tears stream down her face.
She's suffused with an elation
she can't explain. In the night before doomsday a romance
is born in rebellion amid the
huddled people in this small stockade ripped from the
black earth of the forests of a
wild continent.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR BARRACKS - LOW & WIDE - DAY
door CRASHES inwards. Twelve British sentries storm in.
Four bear torches.
REVERSE: HAWKEYE, UNCAS, CHINGACHGOOK, TWO COLONIALS &
SOME MOHAWKS
are out of the bunks and moving with them with tomahawks,
knives, a flintlock ...
SERGEANT (O.S.)
You! Halt!
BRITISH SENTRIES
their muskets aimed mostly at Hawkeye.
SERGEANT
As you were!!
Hawkeye freezes. The others slow down, indecisive ...
Hawkeye drops his tomahawk
and says something in Mohican to restrain Chingachgook
and Uncas. The British in the
torchlight with the long muskets and bayonets are an
image out of Goya.
SERGEANT
Take him!
Hawkeye's spun around and while his hands are bound.
CHINGACHGOOK
(Mohican; subtitled)
Why do they make my son prisoner?
HAWKEYE
(Mohican; subtitled)
I helped Winthrop and the others leave ...
This fight is not yours, father. I love
you and my brother. And you should leave
this place now and go to Can-tuck-ee ...
CHINGACHGOOK
(Mohican; subtitled)
What will they do with my white son?
One of the guards - scared to death by Chingachgook -
nervously fingers his musket.
GUARD
Get back from him!
HEYWARD
enters.
HAWKEYE
shrugs in answer to Chingachgook's question.
HAWKEYE'S
moved out. As he passes Heyward, his eyes lock on his.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR MUNRO'S QUARTERS - CORA - DAY
CORA
He saved us! We are alive only because
of him ...
WIDEN:
Heyward, Munro, Cora. We've entered mid-argument. An
adjutant comes and goes.
Heyward and Munro are sensitive to appearances in front
of the adjutant. Cora couldn't
give a damn.
MUNRO
The man encouraged the colonials to desert
in this very room, in my presence. He is
guilty of sedition and must be tried and hanged
like any other criminal, regardless of what he
did for my children.
CORA
He knew the consequences. And he stayed.
Are those the actions of a criminal?
... Duncan, do something.
HEYWARD
He knew the penalty for breaking regulations.
He ought to pay without sending you to beg.
CORA
You know he wouldn't send me ...! You
misrepresented what you saw and caused
this.
(frustrated)
I, too, was at that farm. It was as he said ...
MUNRO
Not with enough certainty to outweigh British
interests in this fort.
HEYWARD
And who empowered these provincials to pass
judgment upon England's policies in her own
colonies? To come and go without so much as
a "by your leave."
CORA
They do not live their lives "by your leave."
... They hack it out of the wilderness with
their own two hands, burying their dead and
their children along the way.
HEYWARD
(distant)
You are defending him because you've become
infatuated with him.
Cora is having her intelligence written off as a hormone
attack. She contains her fury.
CORA
Duncan, you are a man with a few admirable
qualities. But taken as a whole, I was wrong
to have thought so highly of you.
Heyward's shot through the heart.
MUNRO
But the man is guilty of sedition and subject
to military justice and beyond pardon.
CORA
"Justice"? If that's "justice" ..., then the
sooner French guns blow the English army
out of America, the better it will be for
these people.
MUNRO
You do not know what you are saying!
CORA
(explodes)
Yes I do! I know exactly what I am saying.
And if it is sedition, then I am guilty of
sedition, too!
She exits, leaving them there.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR FORT, STOCKADE - NIGHT
Heavy timbered door. A sentry. They stand at attention
when Cora passes as opposed
to barring her entry.
INTERIOR CELL - HAWKEYE
comes to the door, grips the bars with his hands and
looks at Cora.
THROUGH THE BARS TO CORA
They are silent for a moment, then ...
HAWKEYE
Sorry ... can't ask you in.
Cora's pale smile.
CORA
They're going to hang you.
(pause; soft)
Why didn't you leave when you had the
chance?
HAWKEYE
Because what I am interested in is right
here ...
CORA
What would you have me do?
He touches her hand.
HAWKEYE
Webb's reinforcements will arrive or not.
If they do not arrive, the fort will fall. If
that happens, stay close to your father.
The French will protect the officer class
among the English.
CORA
No. I will find you.
HAWKEYE
Do not.
(pause)
Promise me.
Cora drops her forehead to Hawkeye's hands wrapped around
the bars. She acquiesces,
nods. Then HEAVY SHELLING commences. Cora & Hawkeye look
up. Mortar
bombs begin striking the fortress. Still dark. The final
French bombardment has
started.
CORA
The whole world's on fire, isn't it?
A pause.
HAWKEYE
This part of it sure is ...
Reaching through the bars set in the thick door, their
hands clasp each others. On that
image ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - VARIOUS CUTS - DAWN (2ND
UNIT)
French cannoneers in Batteries #1 and #2 fire again and
again. They work like precision
drill teams.
FRENCH TRENCH
ending in Battery #3 is complete and surprisingly close
to William Henry's walls. Crews
reload the squat and massive newly arrived thirteen inch
mortars.
MORTAR ONE
The flash-hole is primed. The burning fuse is jammed into
the bomb. The primer charge
is lit off and the crew ducks as the crude iron belches
red flame and black smoke into
the lightening sky. The second mortar ROARS. Then a
THIRD.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR FORT WILLIAM HENRY - ENGLISH CANNON CREW - NIGHT
tries to return fire but can't under the heavy French
bombardment. The French mortar
bomb arcs in and EXPLODES smoke, flame and shrapnel,
wiping out most of the
crew. The fortress is under the heaviest attack we've
seen. Wounded are in shock or
terrorized. Another mortar bomb arcs in and explodes part
of a building and casement,
starting a fire.
Another lands in the grounds. People scatter. It doesn't
explode. One soldier dashes to
rip out the fuse. As his hand is inches away ...
EXPLOSION.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR STOCKADE - HAWKEYE - DAWN - LATER
protects Cora through the bars as she half sleeps through
the muffled roar. Then the
thundering stops. Hawkeye seperates himself from her and
crosses to the window.
EXTERIOR FORT, MAIN GATE - HAWKEYES POV: CHEVALIER DE
LEVIS
bows deeply to Major Beams. A French honor guard of five
men is behind him. A white
scarf is on his sword tip. The fresh destruction of the
fort is apparent. Debris smolders.
INTERIOR FORT - STOCKADE - HAWKEYE
crosses to an awakened Cora. He touches her face. He's
desperate to drill these next
words into her brain.
CORA
What is it?
HAWKEYE
I don't know. Whatever happens you stay
with your father. You stay among the officers.
Cora looks up at Hawkeye. We feel forboding. O.S. are
heard drums ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FRENCH LINES - MUNRO, HEYWARD, BEAMS - DAY
The drums are from Munro's honor guard. They stop.
REVERSE: FRENCH SOLDIERS
Marquis de Montcalm, immaculate, backed by his guard of
honor in white, grey and
medium blue with six foot by eight foot regimental colors
and the French flag (gold
fleur-de-lis on a field of blue).
FACES
They carried two hundred and forty-five bateaux across a
ten mile portage, all their
supplies and artillery, and then rowed down the length of
Lake George to get here. To them, assaulting this fort is
the easy part. The drummers of the honor guard play a
tattoo behind them.
INDIAN FACES
Huron, Ottawa, Osage, Choctaw, Fox ... hear the drum of
the honor guard and wait.
They're in war paint. Many tattoos. Split ears. The Osage
scalping locks are hennaed
red. Canadiens among them are bearded, dirty, half savage
... At their head ...
MAGUA
in full war paint, with a coterie of Huron warriors,
silent, waiting. Drums.
INTERIOR FORT - ENGLISH TROOPS (TABLEAUX)
grim, silent, watchful.
COLONIAL MILITIA & MOHAWK INDIANS IN WAR PAINT (TABLEAUX)
watching the parlay from a blown apart battery. Silent.
WIDE: FRENCH & ENGLISH
and their honor guards. Montcalm steps forward and sweeps
his plumed hat to the
ground in a courtly bow. Munro bows coldly.
MONTCALM
Colonel Munro, I have known you as a gallant
antagonist. I am happy to make your
acquaintance as a friend.
MUNRO
And I to make yours, Monsieur le Marquis.
MONTCALM
Please accept my compliments for the strong
and skillful defense of your fortress. Under
the command of a lesser man it would have
fallen long ago given the superior numbers and
material ... mere chance has allowed me to
array against you ...
MUNRO
Monsieur le Marquis, I am a soldier, not a
diplomat. You called this parlay for a reason.
MONTCALM
You have already done everything which is
necessary for the honor of your Prince. I
will forever bear testimony that your resistance
has been gallant and was continued as long as
there was hope. But now, I beg you to listen
to the admonitions of humanity. I beg you to
consider my terms for your surrender.
MUNRO
However I may apprise such testimony from
Monsieur Montcalm, Fort William Henry is
strong and stands.
MONTCALM
Honor that is freely accorded to courage, may
be refused obstinacy ... These hills afford to
us every opportunity to reconnoiter your
works and I am possibly as well acquainted
with your weak condition as you are yourselves.
Is Webb really en route and Montcalm hopes to take the
fort by duplicity before British
reinforcements arrive?
MUNRO
Perhaps the General's glasses can reach to the
Hudson and he knows the size and imminence
of the army of Webb ...?
Montcalm takes a moment to reply and appears genuinely
sympathetic to Munro.
MONTCALM
(quietly)
My scouts intercepted this dispatch intended
for you.
Munro is puzzled, suspicious.
MONTCALM
(to Bougainville)
Read the dispatch.
HEYWARD & MUNRO]
BOUGAINVILLE
(O.S. - reading)
"Colonel Munro - Fort William Henry. I have
no men available to send to your rescue. It is
impossible. I advise you to seek terms for
surrender. Signed Webb."
Munro is rocked, as if struck by a blow. Bougainville
hands Heyward the letter.
HEYWARD
(confirming)
This is the signature of Webb.
(to Munro)
And I know the temper of our men. Rather
than spend the war in a French prison hulk
in Hudson Bay, they'd fight to the end.
MUNRO
(to Montcalm)
You have heard your answer, Monsieur le
Marquis.
(salutes)
Munro starts off. Montcalm stops him.
MONTCALM
Sir.
(challengingly)
I am incapable of mistreating brave men.
I beg you not to sign the death warrant
of so many until you have listened to my
terms.
Munro turns.
MUNRO
Such as ...?
MONTCALM
My master requires the fort be destroyed.
But, for you and your comrades, there is
no privilege that will be denied. None of
your men will see the inside of a prison
barge. They're free to go so long as they
return to England and fight no more on this
continent, and the civilian militia return to
their farms.
MUNRO
Their arms?
MONTCALM
They may leave the fortress fully armed, but
with no ammunition ... Other than that, ask
what you wish.
Munro's impressed with Montcalm's generosity.
MUNRO
The honors of war?
MONTCALM
Granted.
MUNRO
My colors?
MONTCALM
Carry them to England to your King with pride.
MUNRO
Allow me to consult with my officers.
As he turns away something's been disconnected inside
Munro that can never get put
back together. As the men move away from the French ...
MUNRO
I have lived to see two things I never expected.
An Englishman afraid to support a friend. And
a Frenchman too honest to profit by that advantage.
HEYWARD
General Webb can burn in hell. We'll go back
and dig our graves behind the ramparts! Our
mission is to fight.
MUNRO
(flares)
Death and honor are sometimes thought to be
the same. Today I have learned that they are not.
Munro looks at the fortress behind him.
HEYWARD
Sir!
MUNRO
(stops him with his eyes)
The decision is final.
A beat. Then Munro turns toward Montcalm. Their eyes meet
across the churned,
scarred earth of the battlefield.
MUNRO
I am deeply touched by such unusual and
unexpected generosity ... The fort is yours
under the condition that we be given until
dawn to bury our dead, prepare our men and
women for their march and turn our wounded
over to your surgeon.
MONTCALM
Granted, Monsieur.
And Montcalm bows deeply and as he does so ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FRENCH LINES - CLOAKED MAN - NIGHT
passes away from the little city of tents in the
direction of the beach and towards
William Henry. He seems to head towards a vantage point
from which to observe the
fort. As he approaches a sentry:
SENTRY
Qui vive?
MONTCALM
France.
SENTRY
Le mot d'ordre?
MONTCALM
La victoire.
SENTRY
C'est bien, vous vous promenez bien matin,
monsieur!
MONTCALM
Il est necessaire d'etre vigilant, mon enfant.
The cloak parts. By the light of the moon the man's face
is dimly perceived by us and
the soldier as General Montcalm. The soldier snaps erect
as Montcalm continues
walking out beyond the line to a small stand of trees.
ANOTHER ANGLE: MONTCALM
The moon is broken into pieces of light on the water and
behind Montcalm; from the
front of the stand of trees emerges a tall figure.
MAGUA
Is the hatchet buried between the English
and my French father?
MONTCALM
Yes.
MAGUA
Not a warrior has a scalp and the white men
become friends.
MONTCALM
My master owns these lands and your father
has been ordered to drive off the English
squatters. They have consented to go. So
now he calls them enemies no longer.
MAGUA
Magua took the hatchet to color it with blood.
It is still bright. Only when it is red, then it
will
be buried.
MONTCALM
But so many suns have set since Le Renard
struck the war post. Is he not tired?
MAGUA
Where is that sun?! It has gone behind the hill.
It is dark and cold. It has set on his people,
they are fooled and kill all the animals and sell
all of their lands to enrich the European masters
who are always greedy for more than they need.
(threatening)
And Le Subtil is the son of his tribe. There have
been many clouds and many mountains. But now
he has come to lead his nation.
MONTCALM
That Le Renard has the power to lead his people
into the light, I know well.
Magua grabs the hand of the French commander.
Imperceptible surprise in Montcalm's
eyes. Magua jams Montcalm's fingers to his chest.
MAGUA
Does my father know that?
MAGUA'S CHEST
A deep indentation and scar.
MONTCALM
That's where a lead bullet has torn you.
MAGUA
And this?
Magua turns his naked back to Montcalm and puts
Montcalm's hand on his back ... deep ridges of a scar a
half inch wide.]
MONTCALM
My son has been sadly injured. Who did
this?
MAGUA
(laughs; sardonic)
Magua slept hard in the English wigwams.
And the sticks left their mark ...
(pause; for real)
Magua's village and lodges were burnt.
Magua's children were killed by the English.
Magua was taken as a slave by the Mohawks
who fought for the Grey Hair. Magua's wife
believed he was dead and became the wife of
another. The Grey Hair was the father of all
this.
(pause)
In time Magua became blood-brother to Mohawk
to become free. In his heart he always was Huron.
And his heart will be whole again on the day
when the Grey Hair and all his seed are dead!
MONTCALM
My son Magua's pain is my pain.
MAGUA
Does the chief of the Canadas believe the
English will keep the terms?
MONTCALM
Munro would. But General Webb will not
send their soldiers across the salt lake.
Having let them go, I fear I will only fight
the same men again when I move south.
(pause; shrugs)
And yet, I cannot break the terms of the
capitulation and sully the lilies of France ...
Long pause, wheels turn. Then:
MAGUA
Many things my French father cannot do,
Magua can.
Montcalm reacts as if he hadn't thought of that.
MONTCALM
As the English march away, our soldiers
and the Canadiens will be drawn to the
looting of the fort ... except for a small
guard ...
Magua abruptly leaves Montcalm.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR WOODS - MAGUA - NIGHT
walking back to the Huron camp. Reveal a Huron sub-chief
has been in the woods,
waiting for Magua. Now he joins him. They walk in
silence. Then ...
MAGUA
(in Iroquois; re: Montcalm)
I wonder at the blindness and pride of the
white man. He believes only he knows
how to speak falsely to make other men do
his bidding.
Magua exhales in derision.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FORT, MAIN GATE - MUNRO - DAY
at the end of the column, rides out on his horse. Both
sides of the gate are jammed with
armed French troops standing at attention. The French
colors and honor guard are just
outside the gate along with Bougainville, Chevalier de
Levis, both on horseback as
is - at the head - Montcalm.
CLOSER: MUNRO
trots past his walking column out the gate. He does not
look at the French.
MONTCALM
salutes Munro and bows gravely from the saddle.
CLOSER: MUNRO
salutes Montcalm.
MUNRO
(eyes forward)
Monsieur, the fort is yours.
MID-COLUMN - ON HEYWARD
marching with his 33rd Regiment of Foot well beyond the
fort. The French troops have
thinned out. Repressing shame, his backbone is rigid, his
face is straight ahead. The
33rd marches in perfect cadence to the drum. In the B.G.
Munro on his horse passes
Heyward as he rides towards the front of his column.
Heyward does not look at him.
FRONT OF COLUMN - CORA WITH ALICE
on the back of a mare. Alice, living through a wide-awake
nightmare, is huddled under
the arm of her sister. They ride behind the standard
bearers. In the B.G. her father is
seen approaching and takes his position at their side.
Cora looks down the column,
sheilding her eyes against the sun. We know who she's
looking for ... Hawkeye.
CORA'S POV: THE COLUMN
The 62nd and 42nd Highlanders including Heyward ...
thirty to forty women and a
number of children - for safety - in the middle, some
frontiersmen, Ongewasgone and
many Mohawk, walking wounded. The column is still snaking
its way out of the fort.
No Hawkeye.
CORA
straining to see.
EXTERIOR FORT - PRISONERS
being assembled, their hands shackled. Hawkeye is among
twelve or thirteen. He stands
erect, walking out of the gate. The French are starting
to pour in to loot the interior.
Hawkeye looks to his left about twenty paces in front of
him and sees ...
UNCAS & CHINGACHGOOK
on the other side of the column. Chingachgook cradles
Killdeer as well as his own
musket. They fall back to walk beside the prisoners on
the other side of Hawkeye.
Their eyes connect... We don't expect Hawkeye to stay
shackled for the duration.
RANK AND FILE FRENCH
A few insults. The British soldiers answer. Nobody breaks
rank. It's just talk.
EXTERIOR ROAD - HAWKEYE
His eyes sweep the column snaking its way into the
v-shaped valley. The path cuts
through the forested hills ahead. He sees ...
HAWKEYE'S DISTANT POV: CORA
riding near the front where there are no more French
soldiers. Only a few scattered and
curious Huron and Ottawa. She does not see him.
PROFILE OF COLUMN - HIGH & WIDE
as it passes left to right below like a long snake
through the narrow valley. We're
shooting from inside the dark woods. Lower, in the light,
we see a scattering on both
slopes of a couple of hundred Ottawa and Huron. They are
in no order, are spread out
and don't constitute a threat. They watch the column.
SLOWLY THE CAMERA ... slides across the shoulders and
back of a large man
wearing black plumes in his scalp-lock and other than a
breechcloth is almost naked. He
is heavily war-painted ...
FRONTAL - MAGUA
and the left two-thirds of his face is painted red. The
right third is painted black. Much
silver is in his ears. His tomahawk is in his left hand.
His cut-down musket in his right
fist. Magua's attention is all focused to one point.
MAGUA'S LONG & TIGHT POV: MUNRO & CORA & ALICE
at the head of the column. This is the focus of Magua's
attention.
WIDE FRONTAL: COLUMN, STANDARD BEARERS & MUNROS
Cora turns again to look for Hawkeye.
CLOSER: CORA
doesn't see him, but something else has caught her eye.
YOUNG HURON
running toward the column. Just one man. No musket. He's
running and whooping like
a dog charging from his master's front yard. Why?
CLOSER
the Huron arrives at the column, his tomahawk swings into
his hand and he brains a
British trooper who falls dead. The single Huron never
breaks stride. He simply runs off
again ...
CORA
horrified, holds Alice tighter.
MUNRO
has seen it too. And now he sees ...
62ND REGIMENT OF FOOT
fixing bayonets. A large sergeant unsheathes a two-handed
claymore, facing the Hurons
and other Indians ...
TROOPERS
of the 33rd present arms. Did they violate the surrender
by carrying ammunition? Locks
are cocked. There's the answer.
MUNRO
Steady! No one fires!
EXTERIOR FORESTED HILLSIDES - OTHER TRIBES
are watching what happens.
HEYWARD
scanning them.
HEYWARD
(to Sergeant Major)
Men are to stay in file, Sergeant Major!
SERGEANT MAJOR
Yes sir!
Drums beat the cadence.
TROOPERS
step over the fallen soldier. Heads turn, they're on edge
...
END OF COLUMN - HAWKEYE, UNCAS & CHINGACHGOOK
watching. They exchange looks. This is not good.
Chingachgook cocks both Killdeer
and his own musket.
HAWKEYE'S POV: FORESTED SLOPES
Hold. We start to make out details in the shadow. Tree
trunks. We become accustomed
to the dimness. Now in the lower light we see deeper in
the forest.
CLOSER
Many Huron and Ottawa are hidden in the shadows. They're
moving along parallel to
the column, stalking it. Waiting ...
ANOTHER BRAVE
racing down the hill from the opposite flank towards the
62nd.
TWO SOLDIERS
look at their sergeant. He nods. They wait until he's
within ten feet of the column. Both
bayonet the Indian. He's dead.
EXTERIOR HILLSIDES - HURON & OTTAWA
saw what happened. But, they hold their ranks.
MOHAWKS
among the British are slipping tomahawks into their
hands, surreptitiously. Some are
cocking flintlocks.
MUNRO
gallops his horse away from Cora and Alice towards the
scene of the last attack. We
hear him from the distance ordering ...
MUNRO
Do not break ranks! I want these ranks
to hold ...!
Cora's frightened.
HAWKEYE'S
frustrated. He saw Munro leave Cora. He knows events have
a momentum and it's
accelerating.
CHINGACHGOOK & UNCAS
move next to the sergeant with the shackle keys who looks
at them curiously as ...
WOMEN
with children nervously search the threatening trees,
hoping against hope these are
isolated incidents.
HEYWARD
draws his sword and is passing orders to his sergeant
major, scanning the hills ...
EXTERIOR FORESTED SLOPE - MAGUA
His eyes see Munro.
WIDER & LOWER: MAGUA
raises his musket in his fist and emits a war whoop. WE
NOW SEE ... hundreds have
been stalking the column, hidden in the trees, maybe
thousands. Then ...
WIDE: ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE
FIRE from the trees crescendos within seconds revealing a
spontaneous and massive
ambush of mostly Hurons. They appear from behind every
tree and it turns to a ROAR
of musket fire, war whoops and screams as ...
SOLDIERS & CIVILIANS
dropping like flies and seemingly thousands of Hurons
attack down both slopes.
HAWKEYE
is being unshackled by Uncas. The sergeant is rising from
the ground where
Chingachgook knocked him. Chingachgook throws Hawkeye
Killdeer and Hawkeye
shrugs into his pouch and powder horn as he races with
Uncas for the head of the
column ...
EXTERIOR FORESTED SLOPE - MAGUA
charging down the hill ... with his coterie of twenty
Huron warriors, heading for the
area in which he saw Munro.
CORA & ALICE
at the head of the disintegrating column. Cora's holding
Alice's head to her bosom,
covering her ears as if to protect her from the sounds.
HEYWARD
shouting orders.
SERGEANT MAJOR
Right - about face! March! First rank present!
HEYWARD
Fire!
REVERSE:
The volley knocks down fifteen of a horde of attacking
Hurons.
SERGEANT MAJOR
Prime! Load! Second rank six paces forward!
Present!
Hurons are twenty yards away and closing.
HEYWARD
Fire!
As the line of muskets belch smoke and fire ...
WIDE: THE HILLS & PATH
We're shooting into the "v" of the valley with Hurons and
other tribes pouring down
from both sides. (IMPORTANT: the combined musket fire of
Hurons, English and
Mohawks generates tremendous clouds of smoke which
obscure action, close off
views, isolate pockets of combat into surreal tableaux
that we'll move in and out of.
BRITISH TROOPERS
using their useless muskets as clubs or with fixed
bayonets - as the smoke and fog
swirls among the men - fighting for their lives ...
MAGUA
glides through the scenes, striking and hunting. Some of
his coterie of braves near him.
He sees ...
BLONDE WOMAN
hugging the ground in fear. Magua throws her over. It's
not Alice Munro. It's a woman
protecting her baby. Magua walks on. One of the braves
behind Magua raise his
tomahawk. On his downswing ...
HAWKEYE
running through surreal patches, thinks he glimpses Cora
two hundred yards away.
HAWKEYE
Cora!
Chingachgook, on Hawkeye's left, slams down two Hurons
with his war club.
CORA & ALICE
running through the chaos and murder and British troopers
and Mohawks locked in
struggle with Hurons. Cora's dress is torn. She holds
Alice to her. There's a pistol in
Cora's hand.
ONE HURON
scalping a prone soldier, rips the trophy from his head,
turns and faces us.
CORA
shoots him in the face.
EXTREMELY CLOSE: ALICE
and her eyes take it all in. And her affect starts to
flatten. A blankness suffuses her
expression and the girl withdraws from this reality into
a deep dark cave inside her
head.
HAWKEYE
locked in combat. He tomahawks one Huron's arm with a
slashing downstroke and
comes right back into the face of the second with his
backswing while his right hand
fires Killdeer at ...
HURON
six feet from Uncas and about to shoot him in the back.
HAWKEYE
free for a moment, spins. He has no idea of direction any
more. Everything is death in
strange tableaux. Meanwhile:
MUNRO
hollering
MUNRO
Cora! Alice!
He cuts down a Huron with his sword who is trying to leap
at him from the right. An
Osage warrior with red scalp-lock leaps on the back of
Munro's horse, reaching over to
stab down into Munro's neck. The old man's left hand
grabs the warrior's knife hand in
an iron grip. His right hand pulls his horse pistol and
under his upraised arm fires
backward, point blank, blowing the Osage off the back of
his horse.
WIDER
Just then Munro's mount is shot. His horse rears up,
throws Munro and falls on him.
HEYWARD
shouting orders over the deafening noise.
HEYWARD
Second rank fire! Six paces back! Prime!
Load! Third rank! Present!
A well-oiled, well-drilled fighting machine, but there
are fewer of them. They're getting
cut off. They close ranks automatically as a man drops.
They're retreating in perfect
order.
HURON WARRIOR
about to strike a downwards blow is pushed aside by
Magua.
CLOSER: MAGUA
His eyes drop to what's in front of him. The field goes
quiet.
OVER MAGUA'S SHOULDER: MUNRO
his lower body is trapped under his dead horse. Magua
leans in towards him.
MAGUA
Grey Hair. I will cut your heart from your
living chest in front of your eyes. As you die,
know that I will put under the knife your
children and wipe your seed from this earth
forever ...
Magua pulls his knife and as he leans down towards Munro
...
MOHAWK & HURON
spin and flail furiously at each other with tomahawks and
knives. The Huron goes down
and then the Mohawk is shot. The Huron who shot him is
cut down by a Ranger with
tomahawk in one hand and bayonet in the other. Two
Mohawks and three Rangers
fighting back to back. They become an island swamped by
Huron and Ottawa: amidst
bodies and ground slippery with blood. As smoke obscures
their image.
CORA & ALICE
in a group of civilian militia. Two of the militiamen are
shot down. The third engages a
Fox warrior. Cora & Alice run.
MUNRO'S FACE
frozen in agony by shock.
MAGUA
reaching down and up into something, emerges and jams an
object we barely see into
the air. But his arm and shoulder and half his chest are
splashed red with blood.
LONG SHOT: MAGUA
seen from far away, holding aloft the heart of Munro.
REVERSE: HAWKEYE
saw him and fights his way to attack when ...
WHITE HORSE
crazed, CRASHES through men, knocking Hawkeye over ...
CHINGACHGOOK
protecting Hawkeye, slams his war club into one Huron,
breaking his attack, his arm
and his skull and swings the other way burying the bladed
end into the chest of an
Ottawa who's behind him. Then ...
HAWKEYE'S
up, looking wildly ...
CAMERA JAMS INTO CLEARING SMOKE:
33rd Regiment of Foot and Heyward. They FIRE into our
face.
CLOSER: HEYWARD
HEYWARD
Six paces back! Prime! Load! Rank two,
present! Rank two, hold!
He grabs a partially loaded musket, the ramrod still in
the barrel. They're taking fire.
Men are dying. They're being pushed back.
AN ABNAKI
wearing a large cross, attacks Heyward from the side.
One-handed, Heyward fires the
musket into the man's chest, sending the ramrod through
him. Then Heyward's shot in
the thigh and a thrown tomahawk hits him in the head and
knocks him sideways.
Dazed. Barely able to stand. He uses the musket as a cane
and ...
HEYWARD
Rank two, six paces back! Rank one,
present!
Rank two did not retreat six paces. They stand in
confusion. Heyward looks to see
what's wrong.
HEYWARD'S POV: THE REMNANTS OF THE 33RD REGIMENT OF FOOT
are standing in water. They're up against Lake George.
Their backs are to the wall. Last
stand. Heyward straightens.
TWO FRENCH OFFICERS
on horseback try to intercede in the slaughter of five
women. One French officer is shot
by a Huron. The other French officer runs through that
Huron and shoots the second.
Then his horse is shot out from under him and he goes
down ...
JESUIT
pleads with an Abnaki to give up a child he's holding by
the legs in one hand. He offers
his cross. The Abnaki throws the baby to the Jesuit, Pere
Roubaud.
UNCAS
sees a flash of something yellow. So does Hawkeye. They
charge into the swirling
chaos of attacking bodies. As we lose sight of them ...
ALICE
on her hands and knees. A massive Ottawa pulls her
upright by her hair about to take
her life and her scalp. He's struck by a rock in the
hands of Cora which barely phases
him. He bats her aside and returns to Alice, when
suddenly ...
OTTAWA WARRIOR
is spun, punched and tomahawked into the ground by
Hawkeye. Uncas has Alice and
Cora ...
TWO RANGERS AND A MOHAWK WARRIOR
from the earlier group are nearby. They combine with
Hawkeye to fight their way out
with bayonets and tomahawks.
HAWKEYE, UNCAS, CHINGACHGOOK, TWO RANGERS, A MOHAWK &
MUNRO'S DAUGHTERS
back through the swirling smoke. There seems to be a
lull. Then they're hit from the
side by musket fire. One of the Rangers is shot, the
other wounded. Hurons attack. The
Mohawk supports the wounded Ranger.
HAWKEYE
shields Cora as they back up.
CHINGACHGOOK
smashing his war club straight down on a Huron, reaches
for the man's musket and
shoots another. Then he sees ...
SMOKE DRIFTING OVER WATER
It's glass-smooth. And the bows are barely visible of
three or four Huron war canoes.
THE SHALLOWS - HAWKEYE, CHINGACHGOOK, UNCAS, CORA, ALICE,
THE RANGER & THE MOHAWK
back into the water. They're pursued by Ottawa and Hurons
as they fight their way to
the canoes.
CORA
held up by Hawkeye, suddenly screams.
ANGLE
something underwater is pulling her down. An Ottawa brave
rockets out of the
shallows. Before he's erect, Hawkeye slams him back into
the water and FIRES.
WOUNDED RANGER
has shoved a large birch canoe at them.
HAWKEYE
Suddenly, the Mohawk fighting with them is shot and spins
to face Hawkeye. His hands
rest on Hawkeye's shoulders. Hawkeye looks into his face.
Tries to hold him up, tries
to rescue him. A frozen moment. Hawkeye's staring into
his eyes and the man is staring
into Hawkeye's as the light goes out ... Hawkeye lets him
slide into the water and float
away. He moves Cora and Alice towards the canoe ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR LAKE GEORGE - WATER & SWIRLING SMOKE - DAY
The bottom of the frame is water like glass. Smoke
obscures the background. Fingers
tendril towards us. Out of the mist we HEAR small
splashing and then the high bow of
a war canoe defines itself. It's paddled towards us.
HAWKEYE, CHINGACHGOOK & UNCAS
Cora's behind Hawkeye. Alice and the wounded Ranger are
near Uncas.
CLOSER: HAWKEYE & CORA
Cora looks left. Her eyes go wide.
CORA
No!
HAWKEYE
spins.
HEYWARD & TWO TROOPERS OF THE 33RD IN A SECOND CANOE
have emerged from the smoke ten feet from them. Heyward's
aiming a horse pistol at
Hawkeye.
HAWKEYE
is non-plussed. He doesn't stop paddling.
HAWKEYE
You got nothin' better to do today on
Lake George than shoot me, Major,
then go ahead ...
Heyward's a hair's breadth from firing. Suddenly they
hear the boom of muskets and
rounds come in.
WIDE
They're being pursued by three boatloads - and then a
fourth and fifth - of Huron.
HEYWARD
is indifferent to Huron musket balls. Hawkeye hasn't
stopped paddling and pays
Heyward no heed.
CORA
Stop it!!
Heyward comes to his senses. His head is gashed. A scarf,
as a tourniquet, is tied
around his leg. He lowers the gun.
HEYWARD
When you fall into British hands again,
Nathaniel Poe, I will have you hanged.
HURON CANOES
paddle hard and deep and the canoes power across the
lake.
HAWKEYE & HEYWARD'S CANOES
with less paddlers, plus wounded, are slower and will be
overtaken.
HAWKEYE
looks to Uncas. They both realize the same thing. Hawkeye
nods and he, Uncas &
Chingachgook begin to paddle furiously. The others match
the doubled pace. They're
sprinting ahead but the effort is exhausting.
HURON CANOES
maintain their steady pace. Three or four Hurons fire.
HAWKEYE'S CANOE
Musket balls ricochet on the water's surface. One rips a
hole through the bow.
Hawkeye sees one of the Redcoats in Heyward's canoe is
giving out ...
REDCOAT #1
Can't ... keep it up ...
HAWKEYE
Pull!
He renews the attack on the water with the paddle.
HEYWARD
(shouts)
How long?
HAWKEYE
(shouts)
Only chance we got is ...
(breathless)
... to get more distance on 'em and go
to ground!
Heyward digs in. Like firecrackers in the distance, Huron
muskets sound. A new hail
of musket balls cut the fabric of the canoes. One Redcoat
is shot in the back. He falls
overboard.
HAWKEYE
(shouts)
Pull!!
HAWKEYE CANOE
sprints forward.
CLOSE: HAWKEYE
looks over his shoulder.
THE HURON CANOES
They're pulling away from them.
HAWKEYE
Pull ...!
More Huron musket balls hit water nearby.
REDCOAT
in Heyward's boat is shot. BUT ... the .65 caliber ball
didn't penetrate his skin. The
Redcoat - amazed - picks it off the floor of the canoe.
REDCOAT #2
Spent.
Distance caught up with eighteenth century ballistics.
They're out of smoothbore
musket range.
HAWKEYE CANOE]
HAWKEYE
(to Heyward)
Head for ... for the white water.
HEYWARD
Do you hear me, sir!
(exhausted)
If you ever fall ... into British hands ...
(breathes)
What white water?
HEYWARD & REDCOAT'S POV: LAKE
divided by a spit of land. The right fork becomes a river
with white water rapids.
HAWKEYE CANOE - HAWKEYE
paddling now, too, as they furiously jam for the white
water that will shoot them way
ahead of the Hurons.
UNCAS
leaps off the stern of Hawkeye's canoe and climbs up the
stern of Heyward's and takes
control. He roughly gestures to the Redcoat and the Major
to stop paddling. He and
Hawkeye will pilot the two canoes.
EXTERIOR WHITE WATER - WIDE - DAY
The canoes enter the white water and they're so light,
they're jet-propelled.
CANOE POV: EIGHT FOOT WAVE
racing in the same direction they are. They hit it
straight on and it shoots over them and
they're drenched by two waves coming from the sides.
HAWKEYE & CHINGACHGOOK
paddle like fiends to get momentum and control.
UNCAS' CANOE
Same thing. When they crested the wave Uncas hollers at
them to "pull" and they do.
As soon as they're through it, Uncas slams the paddle in
the water and makes the canoe
revolve a hundred and eighty degrees in a vortex so that
now it's going through
stern-first or the stern becomes the bow, so that Uncas
could pilot it a different way
through a hazard of ...
EXPOSED ROCKS
jutting out of the water.
WIDE - BOTH CANOES
Hawkeye didn't have to turn because Chingachgook, at the
bow, uses his paddle to
shove the canoe away from jutting rocks. Uncas does the
same. Past the jutting rocks,
Uncas swings it back around while ...
WHITE WATER
smashes into the camera.
ALICE & CORA
as the canoe roller-coasters and water bursts the bow.
Then suddenly it's through and
the water is miraculously smooth.
CANOES
The Ranger, the Redcoats and even Heyward feel the
exhilaration of the ride. That's
because they think they're home free.
HAWKEYE
Here's where it gets tricky ...
Heyward turns to look in front of him. He doesn't know
what the hell Hawkeye's
talking about.
HEYWARD'S POV: THE RIVER AHEAD
looks glass-smoth. Although there is a distant ROAR of
sorts. Then Heyward realizes:
something's wrong with this picture.
CLOSER: HEYWARD
The look on his face starts to change.
HEYWARD'S POV: TIGHTER
The glass surface of the river continues to a line then
falls off the end of the world. The
river just ends ...
BOTH CANOES: HEYWARD, REDCOATS, THE RANGER
realize they're heading for the lip of a waterfall.
There's a couple of outcroppings of
rock in the center at the very edge. We are at Glen
Falls.
HAWKEYE
Don't move ...
AERIAL SHOT
from the other side of the falls. It's a two hundred foot
high, death-defying cataract.
The canoes - slightly above us - will go right over.
TWO CANOES
At the last moment, Hawkeye & Uncas land both on either
side of the larger rock
outcropping. It is literally at the lip of the falls.
HEYWARD
grabs a rock to anchor the bow of the canoe. He loses his
grip. The canoe rockets for
the edge.
UNCAS
lurches sideways, grabs a tree root. He is the only link
of the canoe to earth. The bow,
with Heyward, is literally hanging over the edge. Uncas
strains and pulls the canoe to
the rock. He gestures to Heyward.
HEYWARD
crawls forward and makes the island. Then the two
Redcoats. Finally Uncas. The canoe
rockets over the falls. Meanwhile ...
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ISLAND
Hawkeye has beached his canoe and is camouflaging it with
driftwood and brush. As
they clamber over the high pieces of broken limestone, we
see Hawkeye is slipping into
a crevice. He motions to Cora. Uncas carries the wounded
Ranger. Heyward helps
Alice ...
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR GLEN FALLS CAVES - FISSURE - TWILIGHT
The irregular opening of medium blue sky is obscured by
the black silhouetted forms of
Hawkeye, Cora and then the others entering.
HEYWARD
Where do we go from here?
HAWKEYE
We don't.
HEYWARD
I don't understand!
HAWKEYE
This is it, as far as we can go ... If we're
lucky, they'll be figurin' we can't have
come this way and must've beached our
canoes and headed cross land. If we're
very lucky, they'll figure we went over
the falls.
HEYWARD
Then what?
HAWKEYE
Then we take the south rim down the
mountain and it's 12 miles cross country
to Fort Edward.
HEYWARD
And if we're unlucky?
HAWKEYE
You will have to forego the pleasure of
hangin' me.
REVERSE: WIDE
Hawkeye helps Cora; Heyward, the Ranger. Chingachgook
carries Alice, down the
rockface into a cave. We hear a distant ROAR
reverberating off the walls.
ANOTHER ANGLE: THE WALLS
are scooped out, bone-like hollows eroded by tumbling
water. At an earlier time the
formation was part of the falls.
HAWKEYE & CORA
reach the irregular floor of the chamber. The ROAR is
louder.
WIDEN TO REVEAL
a curtain of falling water. They're behind the cataract,
probably a third of the way down
its height. Light through the water stikes them with a
silver luminescence. They're
exhausted. The others join them. They almost have to
shout to be heard.
CHINGACHGOOK
followed by Uncas, takes stock of their supplies. They
check their powder. They have
almost none. Uncas shares his with Hawkeye. The Redcoat's
cartridge case is soaked,
the paper cartridges a soggy mess. Heyward has none. The
Ranger has two left. In
Mohican, Chingachgook decides some things. Hawkeye and
Uncas nod. Heyward
approaches Hawkeye.
HEYWARD
Any powder?
HAWKEYE:
(crossing to Cora)
Only one or two loads.
CORA
is soaked to the bones. Hawkeye strips off his buckskin
hunting shirt and wrings it out.
Cora turns her back, strips off her white blouse and puts
on the faster-drying chamois.
CORA
Are we safe?
HAWKEYE
Maybe ...
CORA
Our father? Did you see my father?
EXTREME CLOSE UP: HAWKEYE
The look on his face tells it all
CORA
Tell me!
TWO SHOT
Hawkeye takes Cora away from the group and turns her by
her shoulders and whispers
to her. We don't hear what he says. Cora drops to her
knees and places her hands over
her eyes and face like a little girl trying to make
something bad go away.
HAWKEYE
Leads her to a depression, his arm around her shoulders,
her face covered and she cries
softly into his shoulder.
EXTREME CLOSE UP: CORA
says into Hawkeye's ear, after she looks O.S. ...
CORA
Say nothing to Alice ...!
Hawkeye nods.
ALICE
stands in the chamber not far from the wall of water,
fascinated with its shimmer. She's
oblivious to all the events and everything going on
around her ...
HEYWARD
sees Cora & Hawkeye together and turns away.
GROUP
Uncas watches Alice. The wounded Ranger has fallen
asleep. The Redcoat is
exhausted. Hawkeye & Cora against the wall.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR RIVER BANK - RIVER FALLS ARE IN MIST & RED SKY -
TWILIGHT
A landscape with mist rearlit by the red light of the sun
that's already behind the
mountains. The blues are turning purple and the greens
are turning black and the white
highlights of the foaming water are going rose.
Reflecting the darkening sky, where the
surface isn't broken, the water is fast-moving metal ...
SUDDENLY: a shaved head and
muscled back stands into the foreground. It moves down
the shore away from camera.
He's followed by other Huron warriors. They're two
hundred yards away from Glen
Falls island.
HURON
looks at the island of rock & trees and tilts his head
curiously ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FOREST ABOVE CANYON & FALLS - GREY WOLF -
TWILIGHT
watches the Hurons below make their way towards the edge
of the falls.
OVER HIS SHOULDER: THREE MORE WOLVES
join him, moving frenetically, uneasily ... The leader of
the pack looks up & howls as
his eyes go white reflecting the new moon.
INTERIOR GLEN FALLS CAVE - HAWKEYE -NIGHT
hears the distant howl. He's now lit silver blue by the
moonlight through the falling
water. Hawkeye knows it means Hurons are out there. He
exchanges worried glances
with Uncas & Chingachgook.
UNCAS
immediately starts up the right acclivity to one fissure,
and Chingachgook moves
carefully to the first fissure. Hawkeye follows.
HAWKEYE
His countenance gives way momentarily. All his experience
seems of no avail. He
touches the side of Cora's face. Grabs Killdeer and
follows Chingachgook.
ALICE
sensing new danger, slips away on her own.
CORA
crosses to the Ranger who's semi-conscious, feverish and
getting delirious. She can't do
a thing except hold his hand and think of her father.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR SOUTH FISSURE - HAWKEYE & CHINGACHGOOK
below the edge, listen & wait, testing the environment
with all their senses ...
NORTH FISSURE - UNCAS
against one wall, has his ear cocked, monitoring, facing
away from the sky ...
ALICE
looks at the sky through the fissure. She sees the
starfields and feels silver moonlight
pull her forward. She starts out onto the island,
oblivious, unaware she'll expose them.
Suddenly ...
UNCAS
yanks her down next to him. He pulls her head into his
chest, looking out over the
edge, his tomahawk in front of him, his musket near his
right hand. There is no sign she
was seen.
UNCAS & ALICE
He relaxes, looks at her and puts his finger to his lips
telling her to be silent.
Languorously, she lies back, closes her eyes and lays a
hand on his shoulder, palm up,
as if he were a prince in a romantic fantasy. Uncas tries
to restrain her.
ALICE'S
eyes slowly open. Oblivion disappears. It's replaced with
escalating fear. She holds onto
Uncas with desperation. Her fingers claw his shoulders.
She buries her face in his
chest.
ALICE
Uncas ...
Her body shudders. Her terror's total. He tries to
restrain and calm her. She won't let
him. Then her mouth seeks his and in the passion of
despair and fear and wanting life,
she holds him between her thighs. And Uncas is confused,
but Alice whispers his name
and he responds. He loves her in the half-light.
UNCAS
his hand buried in her hair irradiated by the moon, then
she seems to reach some
emotional climax and begins to cry softly, and Uncas
stops making love to her and
holds her. Then she's flooded with shame. He reaches for
her. She jerks away. He
reaches for her again and clutches her to him. And she
breaks down. Then he turns her
face to him, but her expression has completely flattened.
WIDER ANGLE
She's not a lover to Uncas now. She's pitiful & stricken
and he comforts her.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR RIVER - MAGUA - NIGHT
beaches a canoe on the bank. He and eight braves ease
out. His war paint is fresh:
green handprints on his chest and black and green on his
face. Black plumes are affixed
to his scalp-lock and his shawl is over his left
shoulder. The right arm carrying his
musket is exposed. Many scalps are tied to his tomahawk.
He walks towards us
approaching the island, two hundred yards away ...
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR SOUTH FISSURE - HAWKEYE - NIGHT
checks his powder horn. Nearly empty. He looks at
Chingachgook.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR GLEN FALLS ISLAND, CAVE - CORA - NIGHT
with the Ranger, looks up. Hawkeye enters. The look on
his face. Then hers. They've
been discovered. Now they're backed into a hole in the
ground with no powder and no
way out.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR GLEN FALLS, CAVE - HAWKEYE & CHINGACHGOOK -
NIGHT
Chingachgook talks to him in Mohican. Momentarily the
anger and frustration is seen
on Hawkeye's face. All his experience & craft has been to
no avail. He looks at Cora.
Back to Chingachgook. Chingachgook states something terse
in Mohican. Hawkeye
agrees. Heyward's confused. He doesn't know what they're
talking about. Cora has
understood Chingachgook's intent perfectly.
CORA
Yes. Go ahead.
HEYWARD
(explodes)
What the bloody hell plan is this?
HAWKEYE
(to Cora)
In this there is a chance. If I live, I can
try to free you. If we don't go, there is
no powder, there's too many of them.
Though my heart would keep me here,
in that there is no chance. None. I can do
nothing. Do you understand?
CORA
Yes. I want you to go.
HEYWARD
Coward! Coward back at the fort.
Coward here.
Hawkeye uses discipline not to kill the man.
CORA
You try. With all you have. To save
yourself. If the worst happens, and
only one of us survives, something of
the other does, too ...
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR NORTH FISSURE - UNCAS - NIGHT
Listens. Hears. Then he inches above cover to see ...
UNCAS' POV: THE RIVER & SIX WAR CANOES
of Hurons approach to assault the island carrying
torches.
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR GLEN FALLS CAVE - CORA & HAWKEYE - NIGHT
She's holding him. In the rigid language of her body is
the struggle to contain her fear.
HAWKEYE
(very close)
If they don't kill you, they may take you
north up into Canada. A warrior may take
you for a wife.
CORA
turns aside. Hawkeye insists.
HAWKEYE
(continues)
Listen. Submit. You hear me? You're
strong. You stay alive. I will find you ...
no matter how far, how long it takes ...
CORA
(nods, low)
... never doubt what you are doing.
RANGER
conscious now, arranges his crushed body to face the
direction from which will come
the attack as ...
HEYWARD
puts Alice, who's entered, behind him as ... Uncas hits
the floor of the cave. Now the
first glow from Huron torches starts to light the walls.
They're coming ...
CHINGACHGOOK
has their weapons slung over his back. He says something
in Mohican. Uncas spins
looks at Alice: her expression's vacant.
HAWKEYE'S KNIFE
cuts a lock of Cora's hair. He folds it into his shirt.
The orange light from Huron
torches, now closer, plays on the wall behind her. We
hear many Huron approach.
CHINGACHGOOK & UNCAS
now run out of the cave and throw themselves into the
curtain of water. This is their
exit.
HAWKEYE
engraves her image in his memory one last time and then
sprints across the floor
towards the water ...
WHAT HAWKEYE SEES: JAMMING AT THE WATERFALL
and then through it into ...
SUBJECTIVE CAMERA: UP
An awful crushing roar. We explode out the front of a
white cataract a third of the way
from the top and we fall down away from the world.
EXTERIOR GLEN FALLS - HAWKEYE - NIGHT
tumbles down the falls; rolling, tumbling through the
white water; then through air;
then back into cascading white water again, disappearing
...
THE RIVER BELOW - UNCAS & CHINGACHGOOK'S
bodies hit, disappear and don't surface. It looks
unsurviveable.
HAWKEYE'S POV: FALLING
Sheets of water fall with us. The bottom races towards us
at a hundred miles an hour ...
Just before we hit ...
CUT TO ...
INTERIOR GLEN FALLS, CAVE - FLAMING TORCH - NIGHT
WIDEN. The cave is filled with Hurons. The Redcoat is
dead in the corner. A group of
braves moves away from the body of the Ranger.
HEYWARD'S
surrounded. The women are behind him. He slashes at one
Huron with his sword and is
clubbed down by a giant.
MAGUA
enters. His blanket, like a shawl, over his left
shoulder, black plumes in his hair. He's
imperturbable.
MAGUA'S HAND
reaches out and touches Cora's hair. Cora is frozen to
the spot. His hand drops away
from the hated Munros and as Magua turns to go, he says
something low in Huron and
the two women are jerked towards the fissures. Heyward is
dragged by the arms.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR RIVER - WHITE WATER - NIGHT
miles from the falls. We see a figure. It's Chingachgook,
nearly spent, rolling and
tumbling through the fast-moving white water. He
submerges, then surfaces again. He
appears exhausted by the fall and ride.
CHINGACHGOOK'S POV: WATER
rocketing at us, battering and drowning us. We glimpse
something downstream ...
CHINGACHGOOK
tries to focus, slammed against rocks, he's striking out
towards the right, swimming
against the current. He's grabbing for something.
KILLDEER'S MUZZLE
and leather shoulder-strap. Chingachgook's hand grabs it.
The current rushing past tries
to steal him from Uncas and Hawkeye, who're also beaten,
bloodied, exhausted. They
pull the older, larger man from the water and ...
ON THE ROCK
all three lie there, almost devoid of energy. Then
Hawkeye rises, looks at the others.
Chingachgook nods. He's up. Then Uncas, and they're
moving off into the calm eddy
between the rock they landed on and the shoreline.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FOREST - HURONS - DAY
move along animal paths.
CORA & ALICE
struggle through the branches of trees. No one helps
them. When they fall behind, they
are pushed forward.
HEYWARD
badly beaten, bound, staggers ahead to get behind Maqua.
Then:
HEYWARD
If Magua give women to Yengeese soldiers
... will receive many gifts.
MAGUA
(as if considering)
Gifts?
HEYWARD
Three, four oxen ... much wampum.
MAGUA
Wampum?
HEYWARD
Yes.
MAGUA
Does Yengeese Major have property
across salt sea?
HEYWARD
Yes.
MAGUA
Yengeese Major give all property to Magua.
Magua give Yengeese Major much wampum,
many gifts, maybe three, four oxen.
Magua looks at Heyward derisively. Does this white man
think he's an idiot?
HEYWARD
Gold could be arranged.
MAGUA
For Munro children?
HEYWARD
Yes.
MAGUA
How much gold has the master of the
Yengeese?
HEYWARD
The King? The King has mountains of
gold!
Long pause as if Magua and King George II were seriously
considering this transaction.
MAGUA
Not enough.
Heyward is first realizing with whom he's playing.
HEYWARD
What is enough?
MAGUA
Heart. Give Magua new heart.
Magua totally disdains the Englishman and walks away from
him, starting up a steeper
forested hill.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FOREST - HAWKEYE, UNCAS & CHINGACHGOOK -
TWILIGHT
running cross-country after the Huron column. They leap
over fallen logs and keep
going.
FRONTAL: HAWKEYE
breathing hard, his lips are drawn back, sweat stains his
buckskins.
PROFILE: UNCAS
runs. Then sees something.
BENT BRANCH
where Cora & Alice were struggling up the animal path.
REAR SHOT
as they race across a stream away from us after the war
party and into the night ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FOREST - CORA - NIGHT
supporting Alice, is dragged forward by a Huron warrior
by a woven rawhide thong
tied to her neck.
MAGUA
is imperturbable.
HURONS
move quickly down into a ravine.
HEYWARD
is shoved forward.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FOREST - RUNNING FEET - DAY
Long, loping strides.
HAWKEYE & UNCAS
cover ground like long-distance runners. No noise except
their hard, even breathing.
They're moving down a clear trail.
CHINGACHGOOK
out on the flank. Running hard.
CLOSER: HAWKEYE
lips are drawn back, determined, flashing through the
hard verticals of the forest, now
leaps down an embankment into the soft loam and keeps
going.
CUT TO ...
EXT. HURON VILLAGE - ORNATE CHAIR - DAY
on a rude platform. The entire village is crowded in a
large circle. They all wait for
someone. They've been waiting a long time. In the
perimeter warriors keep Huron at
bay for some reason. We see Magua. He stands apart. They
wait. Then ...
ANCIENT SACHEM
is led to the dais by three women down the main street
between the neat rows of birch
bark lodges. Many scalps and trophies from the massacre
are in evidence. He sits on the
raised platform. He looks to be in his nineties. His dark
wrinkled face is contrasted by
his long white hair. His robe is painted in
hieroglyphical representation of combat. He
wears numerous silver & gold medals, gifts of French,
English and Dutch governors.
Most startling is his face. His dark & lined skin is
enhanced by delicate lines of
tatooing. He looks up to Magua.
SACHEM
(in Huron; subtitled)
The tomahawks of your young men have
been very red.
MAGUA
(in Huron; subtitled)
Many of the Yengeese are dead, great
Sachem.
(sound dissolve to English)
I have brought three of my prisoners,
to honor you. Two are the children
of Munro. Whose scalp hangs on my
lodge pole. And whose heart I cut from
his chest.
Now we see Cora on the ground. Defeat & fear are held in
place by her determination.
Alice looks around, in another place. Heyward's hands are
bound between his back with
a piece of wood wedged through his elbows.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR DIFFERENT FOREST - WIDE FRONTAL: UNCAS, HAWKEYE
&
CHINGACHGOOK - DAY
running. Then Uncas drops and the other two follow.
WIDE OVER THEIR SHOULDERS: THE HURON "CASTLE"
seen in the distance through the sparse trees. They have
dropped at the very periphery
of the forest where the woods end. (The lay of the land
is important for action that
follows: the village is built in a meadow. To the left is
a cliff face that rises to a rocky
promontory. On the right is a path that winds up to the
promontory and beyond, across
the mountains.)
Hawkeye sees ...
HAWKEYE'S POV: THE VILLAGE, CAPTIVES & HURON CROWD
in the center, outside the largest lodge.
HAWKEYE
slams the earth with his fists. They didn't intercept
them in time. Difficult odds just
became impossible.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR HURON VILLAGE - MAGUA - DAY
MAGUA
... the earth was pale. Our tomahawks
were bright. Now they are dull from war.
And the Huron rich with the trophies of
honor ... Magua will sell the English
officer to Les Francais and the reward is
my gift to you, wise one ... The women -
children of the white war chief - will burn
in our fires so all can share in this.
The sachem considers this. Then he looks up and sees
something beyond Magua.
MAGUA
senses the sachem's eye line ...
HAWKEYE
unarmed, walking through the Hurons. A young boy rushes
at him. Hawkeye, at the
last possible second, dodges. Others catch and restrain
the boy. The Hurons are
astounded a European would simply walk into their camp.
CORA
sees him enter, doesn't believe he's there.
CORA
Nathaniel!
Hawkeye glances at her, doesn't respond. The situation is
a stick of dynamite ready to
go off.
HAWKEYE
(to Heyward; low)
Translate for me, Major. Into French.
Every word ... as I say it.
Magua starts towards Hawkeye, his tomahawk slipping into
his hand.
HAWKEYE
(to Sachem)
I come to you unarmed and in peace to
unstop your ears, wise one. Because the
Hurons are mislead by the words of the
wolf who's never spoken the truth.
Sachem gestures with his hand to Magua. Magua reluctantly
stops advancing on
Hawkeye. Heyward's French translation has faded to a
murmur. We hear Hawkeye's
English.
HAWKEYE
Let the children of the dead Colonel Munro
go free and take the fire out of the English
anger over the murder of their helpless ones.
MAGUA
(to Sachem)
Our father, Montcalm, is greater than the
Yengeese in the arts of war. The Huron
do not fear English anger.
HAWKEYE
(to Sachem)
Wise one, the French fathers made peace
and swore to their honor not to break the
friendship. Magua broke it. It is false that
the French would not be friends, still, to
the Huron.
Sachem reacts.
MAGUA
(laughs)
It made our French father happy to never
have to fight the same Yengeese again.
He told me this without telling me this.
Hawkeye realizes this is true.
HAWKEYE
So the Huron are the servants of the French?
To do what the French are shamed to do?
MAGUA
No.
(to Sachem)
Huron serve no one. The French father
believes he fooled Magua because he is so
proud of his cleverness, he is blind. But it
is the Huron path that Magua walks down,
not the French one ... Now, Les Francais,
also, fear Huron. That is good. When the
Huron is strong from their fear, we will make
the terms of trade with Les Francais. And we
will trade as the white man trades. Take land
from the Abnakes; fur from the Osage, Sauk
& Fox. And make the Huron great. Over
other tribes. No less than the whites, as strong
as the whites.
Hawkeye appears to be losing his debate with Magua.
HAWKEYE
(to Sachem)
Magua would use the ways of Les Francais
and the Yengeese ...
MAGUA
(to Sachem)
The red man put down the bow, picked up
the fire stick and became the best warrior
in the forest. Yes. It is the only way.
HAWKEYE
Would the Huron make his Algonquin brothers
foolish with brandy and steal his lands to sell
them for gold to the white man? Would the
Huron have greed for more land than a man
can use? Like Francais Black Robes do?
Would Huron kill tribes with disease? Would
the Huron fool Seneca into taking all the
animals in the forest for beads & brandy? But
sell the fur to the white man for gold? ...
(to Sachem)
Those are the ways of Yengeese and Les
Francais masters. Are they the ways of Huron
men who hunt & work the land? Or of dogs?
... Magua's heart is twisted. He would make
himself into what twisted him. A Dog, become
Master of Dogs. But are Hurons dogs?
... Magua's way is false. It is like the white
sickness. Magua's way will bring only sadness
and shame. Is there another way? I don't know.
(pauses)
I am Nathaniel of the Yengeese; Hawkeye,
adopted son of Chingachgook, of the Mohican
people ... Let the children of the dead Munro go
free ... I speak the truth.
Magua starts to rebut. Sachem holds up his hand and stops
him. Nobody talks. Sachem
whispers to the older men on either side of him.
MAGUA
waits for the decision.
CORA
looks to Alice, then to Hawkeye.
HAWKEYE
exchanges a desperate look with Cora and then senses the
Sachem is staring at him
from the perspective of nearly a century of laws &
judgments. Then ... to every word.
SACHEM
The white man comes like a day that has
passed. And night enters our future with
him ...
(pause)
Our council talks since I was a boy:
What is the Huron to do?
(pause)
But Magua would lead Huron down paths
that make us not Hurons.
(the judgment)
Dark girl burn in fire to heal the twisted
heart of Magua.
Cora, hearing the sentence ... Hawkeye's losing her.
SACHEM
(continuing)
Munro daughter with moon in her hair
must be Magua's wife so Munro's seed
doesn't die.
Alice is gone, living in some dark recess of her mind.
SACHEM
(continuing; dissolves
back to French)
... and Yengeese officer not go to Les
Francais, but back to Yengeese so their
hatred burns less bright. La Longue Carabine,
go in peace.
People move, start to implement the sentence. Hawkeye's
panicked. Cora is jerked
upright. She looks at Hawkeye in terror: Sachem is
starting to depart.
HAWKEYE
No! listen.
(to Heyward)
Tell him I'll trade him! Me for her! Tell him!!
Heyward translates into rapid-fire French.
HAWKEYE
(shouts)
I am La Longue Carabine! My death is a
great honor to the Huron. Take me!
Cora is jerked forward by three Hurons. Magua grabs
Alice. Cora strikes at Magua. He
knocks her aside. Chaos & confusion. Meanwhile:
MAGUA
(French; subtitled)
This is not the voice of wisdom. I go to
the Hurons of the Lakes! You are women.
Send your arrows and guns to the Seneca,
beg from them venison to eat, corn to grind.
Slaves, dogs, rabbits, thieves ... I spit on you!
Those Hurons who hear, do so in deadly, boding silence.
Magua and his fourteen hard
core braves start out as ...
SACHEM
heard Heyward's translation. He looks at Heyward, then
looks at Hawkeye and he nods
his head.
HAWKEYE
sees this. His eyes go to Cora. They've stopped dragging
her towards the fire pit.
Hawkeye steps forward to surrender. Cora is thrown at
him. Cora looks around wildly.
Instead of taking Hawkeye, two warriors grab Heyward.
HEYWARD
is immediately hamstrung and his legs collapse. He gasps.
He's caught under the arms
and dragged forward.
HAWKEYE
I said to trade me!
Hawkeye's holding Cora. Heyward struggles to be seen.
HEYWARD
... compliments, Mr. Poe.
(pause)
Take her and get out.
CORA
(standing)
What are they doing to Duncan?
Duncan!
He's gone. They start to ease away from the mass of
Hurons.
HAWKEYE
(low to himself)
And my compliments to you ...
CORA
Alice?
Hawkeye's concentration is on backing out of the Huron
mob. Will the Sachem's
judgment be honored? Will some warriors hack down Hawkeye
& Cora? As they go ...
CORA
moves towards her sister. But Hawkeye holds her tightly
as they retreat.
CORA'S POV: ALICE
with Magua's group crosses the path. He drags Alice
behind him like baggage. She
regains her feet. Magua is oblivious to her. He's heading
towards the plateau.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR FOREST, TREE LINE - CHINGACHGOOK & UNCAS - DAY
Uncas sees Magua's direction. Uncas touches his father,
grabs his musket and races off.
Chingachgook reaches to stop him, but he's too late.
Chingachgook's hand in the air ...
TWO-SHOT: HAWKEYE & CORA
near the tree line. Hawkeye has eyes only for ...
HAWKEYE'S POV: HURONS
moving towards fire pit. One turns to watch Hawkeye &
Cora depart. Will he arouse
others to attack? Behind him, others are doing something
to Heyward and flames leap
up.
CORA'S EYES
are on Alice, off to the right in the meadow.
HAWKEYE
tense. They're almost there.
CHINGACHGOOK
holding Killdeer.
CHINGACHGOOK'S POV: MASSED HURON
Sky & flames. Suddenly, Heyward's stood upright into the
fire, bound to a bracket by
his arms. As the flames start devouring him ...
HAWKEYE & CORA
close to Chingachgook and the tree line ...
CHINGACHGOOK
tosses Hawkeye Killdeer. As fast as he jams it into his
shoulder he FIRES.
HEYWARD
among the hollering Hurons, is shot dead. It goes
unnoticed.
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR PROMONTORY - UNCAS - DAY
half-way up the rock face. He's approaching an overhang.
He climbs with a reckless
desperation ...
EXTERIOR STREAM - HAWKEYE & CHINGACHGOOK
pound across the (sic) to the meadow towards Magua's path
...
CORA
trying to stay with them, scrambles up ...
EXTERIOR PROMONTORY - UNCAS
reaches the overhang. It juts away from the face six
feet.
THE CEILING OF THE OVERHANG
Uncas' hand jams into a crack in the granite, forms a
fist and twists, making a wedge.
He swings out, dangling in space by the hand wedged into
the rock. His right hand
reaches out and up, searching the vertical face for ...
UNCAS' HAND
... a rock flake. An indentation. Anything ... His
fingers find a diagonal crevice and ...
UNCAS
swings out, now hanging by the vertical face above the
overhang. His features are
distorted with determination. Nothing will stop him. His
right hand grabs another rock.
His arms snap him up. Then push. He's on the ledge.
Moving fast ...
CUT TO ...
EXTERIOR PROMONTORY - HURONS - DAY
on point are approaching the path above the promontory.
Five warriors are ahead of
Magua. One behind him drags Alice.
FIRST
Huron starts up the narrow path. Suddenly ...
UNCAS
slams him off the rock with the butt of his musket.
WIDE ANGLE
Two's musket coming up. Uncas swings. FIRES. Before he's
fallen, Uncas bayonets
Three.
FOURTH
FIRES, misses, swings. Uncas slips the swung musket, but
it catches his elbow. Uncas'
musket falls. Before it hits the ground his tomahawk is
out and hacks Four over the
edge ...
MAGUA
running forward past Five, confronts Uncas head on. It's
incredibly fast.
UNCAS'
three tomahawk swings are dodged by Magua whose own knife
streaks like silver
flashes. Uncas, gashed on arms and chest, feints right
and slams Magua with an open
hand, closes and the men are intertwined steel and muscle
... and Magua throws Uncas.
Going with him and rolling off Uncas, Magua's knife
flashes into his armpit. Uncas'
right arm is useless. He scrambles up. Next to the
expertise of a mature warrior like
Magua, Uncas' raw, young determination may not be enough.
EXTERIOR - MEADOW - CHINGACHGOOK
freezes.
EXTERIOR PROMONTORY - UNCAS
closing, swings. Magua moves inside, stabs Uncas twice,
turns him to face the edge,
ripping his head left to expose the right underside of
his throat.
CLOSE: MAGUA'S
knife arm punches forward.
WIDE: PROMONTORY
Uncas falls down the face onto to the rocks.
CHINGACHGOOK
seeing his boy killed, CRIES out and is charging up the
path, Hawkeye following.
EXTERIOR PROMONTORY - ALICE
backs to the edge.
MAGUA
moves on Alice. His knife is low, about to strike. She
stares at him. Her eyes are like
pools of deep water, calm, open, almost beatific. It
stops Magua ...
MAGUA
inexplicably, drops his knife hand. He's riveted by her.
About him, there's a glimmer of
something else. He wears a human face for this one
moment. He reaches out with his
other hand to offer her safety. To bring her back from
the edge ...
ALICE
looks down at Uncas, her lover, dead on the rocks below.
She turns to Magua with
enigmatic calm. Her eyes seem to see into him. She steps
off the edge. She falls to her
death next to Uncas ...
EXTERIOR MEADOW - CORA
collapses to her knees on the ground and her face falls
forward into her hands ...
HURON WARRIORS
are running down the path to intercept Chingachgook,
charging uphill, fueled by a
father's rage, and Hawkeye. One Huron aims at the center
of Chingachgook's chest ...
HAWKEYE
FIRES past his father's side. The Huron's blown off the
path. Hawkeye races to reload
on the run ...
EXTERIOR PROMONTORY - MAGUA
sees the approach of Chingachgook.
TO CHINGACHGOOK
Huron warriors are an irrelevance. He slams one aside
with his musket.
HAWKEYE FIRES.
HURON
with tomahawk, about to blindside Chingachgook, is SHOT
DOWN.
MAGUA
charging Chingachgook.
VERY WIDE
Two men, like dots, race to collide at the center of the
promontory. Now the others fall
back... It's one-on-one. Hawkeye slows ...
COMBATANTS
Magua - confident, pumped up - feints with his left, his
tomahawk appearing in his
right, sweeping backhand, while his left, magically
holding his blade, is jamming up to
gut Chingachgook. Chingachgook's dead. Except ...
CHINGACHGOOK
isn't there. He rolled and, on one knee with his back to
Magua, his arm slams rearward.
The massive war club crashes into Magua's back.
MAGUA
stunned, turns to hatchet Chingachgook ...
CHINGACHGOOK
now up and towering - slams his club right into Magua's
assault ... destroying it,
breaking Magua's right arm. And ...
CHINGACHGOOK
... with his momentum, spins like a shot-putter and the
next blow cripples Magua's left
side and crushes part of his chest.
ANOTHER BLOW
destroys Magua's collar and shoulder.
MAGUA
amazed. His body is broken and crippled, but he still
stands. He looks into the eyes of
the last warrior of the Mohicans.
CHINGACHGOOK
UNCAS!!!
And he spins and swings. The blade side of the war club
punches into Magua's chest,
caving him in two.
WIDE
Magua dies in the dust.
HAWKEYE
watching Chingachgook's heaving back. It's over.
CORA
alone, kneeling in the meadow. Her eyes downcast ...
FADE OUT ...
FADE IN
EXTERIOR - MOUNTAIN TOP - WIDE REAR SHOT - NEXT DAY
Chingachgook's at the edge, facing the endless rolling
forests to the west. A haze of
sunlight illuminates silver and lead clouds. Hawkeye is a
little apart, watching his father.
HAWKEYE'S POV: CHINGACHGOOK
speaks to the sky.
CHINGACHGOOK
(Mohican)
Great Spirit and the Maker of all Life ...
ON HAWKEYE & CHINGACHGOOK
We HEAR Hawkeye's English translation in VOICE OVER:
CHINGACHGOOK/
HAWKEYE (V.O.):
(in English)
... a warrior goes to you swift and straight
as an arrow shot into the sun. Welcome him
and let him take his place at the council fire
of my people.
(pause)
He is Uncas, my son.
(pause)
Bid them patience and ask death for speed;
for they are all there but one
- I, Chingachgook - Last of the Mohicans.
Chingachgook's hands drop to his sides. He lets out his
breath with a weariness. His
eyes seek Hawkeye's. They hold ...
CORA
is standing, her back to us, in front of a rock-covered
grave with a wooden cross. Next
to it is Uncas' burial platform. Cora [says a] silent
prayer. Then she pauses, crosses
herself. Her emotions are spent. She moves next to
Hawkeye. He takes her hand.
HAWKEYE & CORA]
HAWKEYE
Will you go back to England?
CORA
I have nothing to go back for.
Long pause.
HAWKEYE
Then will you stay in America?
She turns to face him.
HAWKEYE
And will you be my wife?
Pause.
CORA
Yes.
They hold each other's eyes. She searches his face.
CORA
Where will we go?
HAWKEYE
Winter with the Delaware, my father's
cousins. And in the spring, cross the
Ohio and look for land to settle with my
father in a new place called Can-tuck-ee.
They move next to Chingachgook. He senses they're beside
him. Hawkeye's arm is
around her shoulders.
CHINGACHGOOK
The frontier moves with the sun and pushes
the red man of the wilderness forests in front
of it. Until one day there will be nowhere left.
Then our race will be no more, or be not us ...
The frontier place is for people like my white
son and his woman and their children.
HAWKEYE
That's my father's sadness talking.
Hawkeye puts a hand on his shoulder.
CHINGACHGOOK
No. It is true ... One day ... there will be no
more frontier. Then men like you will go, too.
Like the Mohicans.
(pause)
And new people will come. Work. Struggle
to make their light ... One mystery remains.
HAWKEYE
What is that?
Cora, listening to Chingachgook, takes Hawkeye's hand.
CHINGACHGOOK
Will there be anything left to show the world
that we ever did exist?
REAR SHOT
Cora stands next to her man. Hawkeye puts his arm around
his father. They stare out
over the wilderness.
THE END