Nightmare on Elm Street
How the hell’d you know?
A tear coarses down NANCY’s cheek, but her voice remains firm.
NANCY I’ve got a proposition for you. Listen very carefully,
please.
LT THOMPSON Nan, I —
NANCY Please. I’m gonna go get
the guy who did it and bring him to you. I just need you be right there to arrest him. Okay?
LT THOMPSON Just tell me who did it and
I’ll go get him, baby.
NANCY Fred Krueger did it, Daddy, and only I can get him. It’s my nightmare he comes to.
The detective flinches at the name.
LT THOMPSON Where’d you hear about Krueger —
NANCY presses, very firm, very rational.
NANCY
— I want you to come over here and break the door down exactly twenty minutes from now — can you do that?
LT THOMPSON Sure, but…
NANCY That’ll be exactly half past midnight. Time for me to fall asleep and find him.
LT THOMPSON
Sure, sure, honey. You just do that — get yourself some sleep — that’s what I’ve been saying all along.
NANCY And you’ll be here to catch
him, right?
PARKER Lieutenant — they’re waiting upstairs.
THOMPSON waves curtly, still speaking to NANCY.
LT THOMPSON Sure, okay, I’ll be there. Now you just turn in and get some rest, sweetheart. Please. Deal?
NANCY Deal.
NANCY hangs up. LT THOMPSON starts upstairs. But then he stops, and as an afterthought he could never really explain, turns to PARKER.
LT THOMPSON (CONTD) Get outside and watch her house. If you see anything funny call me.
PARKER ‘Anything funny’ like what?
THOMPSON shakes his head, embarassed.
LT THOMPSON I don’t know — but one thing for sure, I don’t want her coming over here. She’s way
too far gone to be able to to handle this.
As PARKER exits, ANGLE CUTS TO NANCY’S KITCHEN as the girl hangs up and sinks back agiainst the wall, trapped by her own resolution. She looks at her watch.
169. INSERT — five past midnight. NANCY switches modes to stopwatch 169. and sets the COUNTDOWN going at twenty-five minutes.
170. INT. GLEN’S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 170.
LT THOMPSON steps into GLEN’s room, anxious to be done with it. He hits a wall of stench and horror even before he takes it in with his eyes, and as soon as he sees the bed he claps his hand
over his mouth, pivots and walks right back into the hallway.
171. INT. HALLWAY. NIGHT. 171.
He sags against the wall, unable to look at the COPS who hover there.
COP
(faint) What the hell did that, Lieutenant? There ain’t even a head left.
LT THOMPSON Goddamed if I know.
(tries to straighten) What’s the Coronor say?
COP He’s in the john puking since he saw it.
172. INT. CELLAR. NIGHT. 172.
NANCY pulls tools and hardware out with grim resolution. Hammer, nails, spools of wire, an old square of heavy fishneting, some old shot gun shells, a file — referring only once to the booklet in her hand.
173. INT. NANCY’S LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. 173.
Barely able to control her shaking hands, NANCY starts stringing off the spool of wire across the living room, crying and swearing at the same time.
DISSOLVE TO HER HANDS wrapping bare lamp wire around two
thumbtacks stuck into the insides of the pinchers of a common wooden clothespin. The wire goes OFF SCREEN.
ANOTHER ANGLE as she inserts a Lifesaver between the two prongs. One end of the fishline is tied to the lifesaver. The whole now is stretched taut about three inches off the living room carpet.
ON NANCY carefully filing a hole in a LIGHTBULB.
OH HER pouring powder and shot from shotgun shells into the opening in the bulb until it’s full, then sealing it with tape.
DISSOLVE TO HER screwing the bulb back into the floor lamp, and
placing the thing near the foot of the stairs.
SC 174 (DELETE)
175. INT. NANCY’S UPSTAIRS HALLWAY. NIGHT. 175.
— NANCY completes installing a sturdy sliding bolt to the outside of her own bedroom door.
— NANCY screws a hinge into the wall directly above her door.
Attached to the hinge is the shank of something — some kind of tool. We can’t see what it is because CAMERA never quite frames the whole thing.
— NANCY tiptoes to her mother’s door and peeks in.
176. INT. MARGE’S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 176.
MARGE lies propped in her bed looking back at NANCY. Her drunkeness has been altered by the SIRENS and BABBLE outside into a sort of comatose clarity.
MARGE Guess I should’n’a done it.
NANCY Just sleep now, Mom.
MARGE Just wanted to protect you, Nan. Just wanted to protect
you…
MARGE slides over on her side. NANCY smooths her hair, covers her as she would a child, then exits the room.
DELETE SC 177
178. INT. NANCY’S ROOM. NIGHT. 178.
The girl enters, turns out her bedside light, slips out of her dress and puts on her nightgown. Then she kneels by her bed.
NANCY (quietly) Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.
She gets into bed and pulls the blankets to her chin.
CLOSE ON NANCY’s face. She stares straight up at the ceiling for
a long moment, then closes her eyes.
CUT TO:
179. INT. GLEN’S LIVING ROOM. NIGHT. 179.
LT THOMPSON trudges down the stais and confronts GLEN’S FATHER.
LT THOMPSON I know it’s hard to think at
a time like this, Walter, but can you think of anyone who could’ve done such a thing?
The father stares away, his voice low and dull.
MR LANTZ
He done it.
THOMPSON looks at the man, baffled.
LT THOMPSON Who? Who did that?
MR LANTZ
Krueger.
LT THOMPSON Krueger?
The father gives him the strangest look.
MR LANTZ
