Alice in Wonderland
your shoulder.
HAN IS H Well, get it off me!
He frantically brushes at his shoulder.
AL I CE Don’t hurt it! Hold still.
Alice lets the caterpiller crawls onto her finger, then places
it gently onto a tree branch.
HAN I SN You’ll want to wash that finger.
(starting again)
Alice Kingsley…will you be my
wife?
The question hangs in the air. The musicians’ bows are poised.
The party has fallen silent. It seems the whole world is
listening. Unsure of herself, unsure of her future, unsure of
anything in that moment, Alice stammers.
ALICE I…I…would have to say…everyone
thinks I should…and there ‘s no
reason not to…so I suppose my
answer would have to be…I would
have to say…
She trails off as she sees the WHITE RABBIT leaning against a
pillar, glaring at her with undisguised impatience.
13
ALICE (cant.) I need a moment.
She turns and runs, whether she’s running after the Rabbit or
away from Hamish is a question that she’ll often ask herself
in the future.
EXT. THE MEADOW – DAY – CONT
She spots the White Rabbit bounding across a meadow.
ALICE Wait!
She runs into the meadow. But she’s lost him again. She peeks
over the hedgerow. No rabbit. Stumped, she looks around.
CLOSE ON ALICE’S ANKLE A white paw reaches up from out of the ground and grasps her
by the ankle. With a quick jerk, it pulls her down into the
rabbit hole. She screams.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE …and keeps screaming as she tumbles head over heels down the
rabbit hole. She frantically grabs at the walls which are hung
with exotic objects: paintings, ancient maps, cracked mirrors,
demonic masks, etc. She pulls out books, jam jars, a crystal
ball, a badger claw, a monkey’s hand and a human skull in her
frantic effort to stop herself. And down she falls.
She looks up and sees the round bright circle of the rabbit
hole and the blue sky above which grows smaller the further
she plunges.
Gradually, it grows darker as the day passes into night. And
still she falls. Now she can see stars twinkling in the dark
round circle of the hole as she plunges deeper and deeper
beneath the earth’s surface. Finally, after what seems like
hours, Alice dozes off. And still she plunges until…
INT. THE ROUND HALL
WHAN! She hits the bottom, hitting her head onto a wooden
floor and knocking her wind out. Alice gasps. After a moment,
she’s able to breathe again. She rubs the bump on her
forehead.
ALICE That falling dream again.
She looks around. She’s in a round hall lit by lanterns on the
walls and many doors.
ALICE (cont.) Only I’ve never hit bottom
before.
She tries a door. It’s locked. She tries another one and
another. She knocks.
ALICE (cont.) Hello? Hello! Anyone there?
No answer. She moves around the hall from door to door,
knocking and calling. Every door locked.
ALICE (cont.) No way out.
She turns around to see a three-legged glass table with a
little golden key sitting on top. She picks up the key and
tries it in a door. But the key is too small for the lock.
ALICE (cont.) Too small. But if there’s a key
there must be a lock it fits.
She sees a curtain and pulls it aside to reveal a little door
about two feet high.
ALICE (cont.) Ah.
She tries the key in the door. It fits. She opens the little
door and bends down to look through to the other side.
THROUGH THE SMALL DOOR She sees a garden with a fountain. She tries to fit through
the door, but her shoulders get stuck. She pulls back.
Stumped, she goes back to the table and replaces the key. But
now there’s a bottle on the table.
ALICE (cont.) Was this here before?
She looks at a label. “DRINK ME”.
ALICE (cont.) Drink me. What if it’s poison?
She sniffs the contents, recoils, puts the bottle down, stares
at it.
ALICE (cont.) But how can it hurt me if I’m
dreaming?
She picks up the bottle and takes a drink, gags from the
taste. In a moment, she notices that the table is getting
larger.
ALICE (cont.) Curious. Is the table getting
larger or am I getting smaller?
