Alice in Wonderland
ALICE Why are we stopping?
MAD HATTER Red storm coming.
The sky opens and red hail stones pelt the earth.
MAD HATTER It won’t last long.
He sits down with his back to the tree. He takes Tiny Alice
out of his pocket and puts her on his knee. Seeing his face
looming above her, she realizes where she’s seen him before.
ALICE I know why you look familiar to me.
You’re in my dream. I’ve had the
same dream all my life. There’s a
an egg man on a wall, you in your
hat, a blue caterpillar…
MAD HATTER (knowingly)
Blue caterpillar. Did you ever think
this dream is trying to tell you
something?
ALICE I don’t know what it would be.
MAD HATTER Perhaps something you already know.
ALICE Possibly. My father used to say…
dreams are the way we whisper
into our own ears.
MAD HATTER An excellent way of putting it.
Your father is saganistute.
ALICE Wsaganistute. And that had
better be a compliment!
MAD HATTER It means a wise man of poetry and
vision.
She smiles. They sit in silence for a moment. The hail stops.
The Hat holds his hand out for her.
MAD HATTER (cont.) Shall we on to Absolem?
EXT. IPLAN – DAY – CaNT.
They cross the barren plain until they reach a wide field of
mushrooms. The Hatter puts the hat on the ground.
MAD HATTER You’re your own from here.
ALICE You’re not coming?
MAD HATTER Absolemcan be temperamental.
I’ll wait here.
EXT. THE FIELD OF MUSHROOMS – DAY
Alice walks through a misty field of thick mushrooms the size
of trees.
THE CATERPILLAR (0.5.)
Who are you?
She squints throuugh the thick mist.
ALICE Ab sol em?
THE CATERPILLAR (0.5.)
Who ARE you?
She still can’t see the speaker.
ALICE I’m not who you think I am.
THE CATERPILLAR (0.5.)
Who do I think you are?
She can see a form ahead where the mist rises in a steady
plume from top of a mushroom. The mist is coming from a
hookah. There’s a CATERPILLER smoking it. He’s blue. Alice
stops dead, her mind reeling.
ALICE Absolem?
THE CATERPILLAR
I don’t think you’re Albsolem,
I think I’m Absolem. I think
you’re Alice.
ALICE You cannot be real.
THE CATERPILLAR
Of course, I’m real.
He blows smoke rings in her face. She coughs.
ALICE Have we met before?
THE CATERPILLAR
You don’t recall? You were young
then, although larger than you
are now. You called it “Wonderland”.
He chuckles and his whole body jiggles like green jelly.
THE CATERPILLAR (cont.)
Stupid girl.
The name sparks a distant memory.
ALICE Wonderland.
Her daydream comes flooding back…falling, the lushbut off-
kilter landscape, strange misshapen people, a blue caterpillar
surrounded by smokey mist, the wry smile of a man in a top
hat, a disembodied cat’s grin, a weeping turtle, an egg man on
a fence, a griphon and the silhouette of a huge-headed woman
screaming.
RED QUEEN (0.5.)
OFF WITH HER HEAD! Alice wakes this time with a revelation.
ALICE It wasn’t a dream at all.
THE CATERPILLAR
Of course not. Stupid girl.
He blows more smoke rings in her face. She waves them away
impatiently.
ALICE I’m not stupid! And stop blowing
smoke in my face!
THE CATERPILLAR
You’re just as impertinent as
