EXT. PERIMETER #2 – JUNGLE – LATE AFTERNOON DUSK
The Company is digging into another overnight perimeter on a ridge with a view of the Valley where the Village was. C-Ration fires all around the perimeter.
EXT. COMPANY CP – DUSK — MORNING
At the Company,l Elias, Captain Harris, Barnes, Lt.Wolfe are huddled. Close on Harris, looking from face to face, assuming a judicial attitude.
CAPTAIN HARRIS … and you Lieutenant?
LIEUTENANT WOLFE I didn’t see anything sir.
ELIAS I did.
LIEUTENANT WOLFE That dink was reported to me as NVA sir by Sergeant Barnes. Sergeant Barnes.
Squirreling out of any responsibility.
ELIAS My report sir, will include Lt.Wolfe as being witness to the shooting …
CAPTAIN HARRIS All right, Elias. Sergeant Barnes, I want a report from you …
BARNES You got it sir – and I can throw in plenty of eye- witnesses if you want sir …
HARRIS Not now. We’ll get into this when we get back to base camp. Right now I need every man in the field, I want your guys to stick together … Elias? Barnes? … You hear me? This is no time for fighting with each other. (pause, they nod) Tomorrow we’re going back into that bunker complex – from the East. (continuing) First Platoon will lead … Brigade thinks they might be back there tomorrow. That’s all … Get some rest. (turns away)
Barnes, Elias eye each other and move off.
EXT. PERIMETER #2 – DUSK
Wolfe walks alongside Barnes.
WOLFE Don’t worry about it Sergeant, he won’t be able to prove a thing, he’s a troublemaker but …
Barnes is obviously worried, although he doesn’t let on.
BARNES Elias’ a waterwalker … like them politicians in Washington. Want to fight their war with one hand tied round their balls. Ain’t no time or need for a courtroom out here …
Wolfe leaves him as Barnes turns into his foxhole where Bunny and O’Neill await him anxiously.
O’NEILL How’d it go.
Banres shrugs.
BUNNY Thataway Sarge, fuckin’ Elias man, fuckin’ squeal that’s what he is, gonna get everybody in the platoon in shit. Somebody oughta fix his ass …
Barnes fixing his coffee.
O’NEILL (worried) Gonna be an investigation or something Bob?
Barnes says nothing, a cryptic look.
O’Neill worried, Bunny, taking his cue from Barnes, slaps him on the back.
BUNNY Ya worry too much O’Neill …
EXT. PERIMETER #2 – CHRIS’ POSITION – DUSK
Elsewhere on the perimeter, Chris is digging out a foxhole with Rhah, as King and Lerner prepare the C’s for dinner.
RHAH I know Barnes six months and I’ll tell ya something – that man is MEAN, red in his soul like a dick on a dog.
KING Barnes gets killed, his jaws’d go on clacking …
CHRIS Where’s he form?
RHAH Barnes comes from Hell.
LERNER Tennessee someplace. Hill country.
RHAH Barnes took a bullet right there. At Ia Drang Valley … (points to his forehead) And the cocksucker SURVIVED – that’s BAAAD man. That’s his high, baby. High on WAR!
His eyes flare out dramamtically. Chris, enthralled in spite of himself.
KING He done a year in Japan in the hospital, then when he gets out, the first thing he done is re-up. Four years he been in the field …
RHAH … and you know how many times he done been shot? (Chris shakes his head) Seven times! (with his fingers) Seven.
CHRIS And he still wanted to come back?
LERNER Does a pee wee wanna take a wee wee?
RHAH The Good Lord works his revenge in strange ways.
KING Yeah, you done said it. Revenge on US.
CHRIS Does he have a metal plate in his head?
RHAH (smiles) You mean he’s crazy? No more crazy’n the rest of us been out in the bush too long.
LERNER Well he ain’t normal that’s fosure.
RHAH That’s what he is … Baaaa!
His hand flashes forward in front of Chris. ‘HATE’ is written across the left hand knuckles in a sloppy, purplish-black tatoo. Chris looking at it.
RHAH (CONT’D) … and he’s FILLED with it. He’s roaming these jungles looking for little yellow devils to kill. Remember the Devil does God’s work too. (pause) … and this here’s Elias … Baaaa!
The other knuckle is out – ‘LOVE’ tattooed across it. Rhah smiles his crazy smil. Chris stares fascinated at the two knuckles side by side. A moment on his face.
KING Love, yeah!
LERNER (makes a cuckoo sign) Here we go again with the crazy preacher stuff. Rhah seen too many movies.
RHAH Baaa, got no time to go to the movies. Love and Hate too busy fighting for possession of my soul.
CHRIS Where’s Elias come from?
RHAH (interjecting) ‘Lias come naturally.
LERNER … don’t know. Done some time. Heard he worked the oil wells in Oklahoma, made some bread and washed up in El Lay.
KING Yeah, get married to some crazy El Lay bitch, an actress or somethin’, she blew all his bread – LSD, gurus, all that California shit, and then she turns him into the cops on a drug rap.
RHAH Not the only man to meet his Jezebel either.
KING So he got a reduced and come over here. Nam’s his freedom man, Nam’s his pussy. Three years he been here.
CHRIS Three years, Jesus, he’s crazy as Barnes …
KING Well sometimes a man jes don’ wanna go back. How you gonna talk to civilians man? People back in the world just don’t give a shit, y’know what I mean, to them you’re a fuckin’ animal is all –
LERNER (to Chris) I was home on leave y’know and everybody’s just worried ’bout making money, everybody’s out for themselves, they don’t even want to talk about it man, it’s like the fucking Twilight Zone back there – you wouldn’t even KNOW there’s a war on here. My sister says to me why you have to go there like I started this …
RHAH Baaaa! Fuck it, they sold us out – so what! What’d you’all expect? Civilian life is phoney BULLSHIT man. They’re ROBOTS man – watchin’ dopey television and drivin’ dopey cars, and they fuck up, nobody dies. That’s all right, you keep fuckin’ up, politicians keep lyin’. Cause it don’t really matter. Don’t mean shit. So what! Whatcha want – a parade! Fuck that too! No war time no grunt never got no respect. Till he was dead – and even THEN! You’re fighting for YOURSELF man! You’re fighting for your SOUL, dat’s all. Remember dat. And it’s some goddamn battle too – if you’se a man, wrestle with that angel … (swings his entrenching tool in a rhythmic chain-gang style) … Love and Hate – the whole shitbang show, that’s the story then and now and it ain’t hardly gonna change …
EXT. PERIMETER #2 – JUNGLE – NIGHT
The stars are out in magnificent splendor. A breeze rustling through the trees.
EXT. PERIMETER #2 – CHRIS’ POSITION – NIGHT
Chris is turning in his sleep, perturbed, writhing. The whispering is more and more urgent. Death is all around. He shoots up out of his poncho liner as if shot, stunned. Scared. Looks around. All is quiet. Men sleeping.
Elias is huddled in his poncho on guard next to his foxhole. Chris joins him, sitting, wiping the sleep from his eyes.
CHRIS … I can’t sleep, why don’t you get some sack time.
ELIAS … don’t feel like it either.
CHRIS … beautiful night.
ELIAS Yeah. I love this place at night. The stars … there’s no right or wrong in them, they’re just there.
CHRIS That’s a nice way of putting it.
Elias cuffs a joint, keeping its glow hidden in the dark. A pause, both of them meditative.
CHRIS (CONT’D) Barnes got it in for you, don’t he?
ELIAS (philosophically) Barnes believes in what he’s doing.
CHRIS And you, do you believe?
ELIAS In ’65 – yeah. Now … (pause) No. What happened today’s just the beginning. We’re gonna lose this war …
CHRIS (surprised) You really think so … us?
Elias’ eyes seem to go to some inner place, his passion surging.
ELIAS … we been kicking other people’s asses so long I guess it’s time we got our own kicked. The only decent thing I can see coming out of here are the survivors – hundreds of thousands of guys like you Taylor going back to every little town in the country knowing something about what it’s like to take a life and what that can do to a person’s soul – twist it like Barnes and Bunny and make ’em sick inside and if you got any brains you gonna fight it the rest of your life cause it’s cheap, killing is cheap, the cheapest thing I know and when some drunk like O’Neill starts glorifying it, you’re gonna puke all over him and when the politicians start selling you a used war all over again, you and your generation gonna say go fuck yourself ’cause you know, you’ve seen it, and when you know it, deep down there …
He plants his fist in Chris’ gut, expelling his breath such is the force of the blow – like a power passed between them.
ELIAS (CONT’D) … you know it till you die … that’s why the survivors remember. ‘Cause the dead don’t let em forget.
His eyes blazing, reliving the deaths in the village, licking the wounds for the platoon, mourning the failure of its heroism. Chris looking at him, a little awed by his intensity. Elias looks away, embarrassed that he has sermonized, looks back at the stars.
ELIAS (CONT’D) Oh shit! Sometimes there’s things in my head … man. Grass does that to me, fucks me all up like a crazy Indian …
CHRIS Do you believe that stuff about … knowing you’re gonna die?
ELIAS Yeah, those are the guys that live. I really don’t think Death gives a shit, it’s like a giant garbage can, I think it takes whatever it can get … you never know where it’s gonna come from anyway … so why spin your wheels?
He shrugs, a certain bravado masking his own uncertainty.
CHRIS … You ever think about reincarnation, all that stuff?
A lightning quick movement follows. Elias’ hand passing over his face like a mime, a click of the fingers and he leans closer to Chris. A new expression on his face. Devil’s eyes, mocking child, danger in his soul, excitement, sex – the Elias that Chris saw in the smoking session in base camp. Chris smiles, sucked in, almost laughs and then the face is gone again.
ELIAS Sure, goes on all the time. Maybe a piece of me’s in you now, who knows. But when you die – really die – that’s a big return ticket. (soft) I like to think I’m gonna come back as … as wind or fire – or a deer (likes the image) … yeah, a deer …
He smiles at the thought. Chris looks at him, looks away. A shooting star falls suddenly and dryly through the cosmos. Their eyes.
EXT. JUNGLE – STREAM – DAY (RAIN)
The Platoon moves along a shallow STREAM bordering the jungle. A thick RAIN falls amid cracks of distant thunder. Chris, Rhah, Francis, Big Harold, others are at the rear of the platoon, their ponchos pulled over them like big sad grey tents. There’s a holdup ahead and the Men rest on rocks or stand. The rain makes a pointilistic pattern, the men collages of grey, their rifles slung upside down to keep dry.
Barnes is up ahead, out of the stream bank, on the radio.
EXT. JUNGLE CHURCH – DAY (RAIN)
Lerner’s on point, resting in the shadow of a decaying old French Catholic Church from the 19th Century. The jungle has long ago won the battle, vines creeping into the cracks, remnants of arches layered around the church at the epicenter. Behind Lerner is Sgt.Warren and his radioman.
EXT. JUNGLE CLEARING – DAY (RAIN)
Elias, further back, is checking out the jungle alongside the clearing, noticing a number of old spider holes long since abandoned. He goes over and checks them.
EXT. JUNGLE – STREAM – DAY (RAIN)
Back at the stream, Rhah, looking old and whiskered under his poncho hood, lights up a roach, puffs it. Another crack of thunder. Chris comes over, sits with him on his rock. Rhah passes him the joint. He smokes.
Big Harold pulls a leech out of his open crotch area.
HAROLD Shit, lookit this little fucker trying to get up ma glory hole.
FRANCIS Hey Big Harold, put dat in your turkey loaf it won’t come out your back end.
KING (ribbing) Yeah, big boy, thought you had that laundry gig all laid out?
BIG HAROLD (pissed) Shit, got to paint myself white get one of dem jobs. Get ma request in for a circumcision.
KING Gonna be a rabbi man?
FRANCIS Gonna cut your pecker down to size hunh Big Harold?
BIG HAROLD Dat’s okay wid me, better to have a small one den no one at all.
KING Your girlfriends gonna look for new lovers, man. Best thing a bro’s got’s his flap.
HAROLD I’ll drink to your flap in Chicago, King. All I gotta do is stretch it out to 15 days and I’ll be short 15 and the Beast just wouldn’t dare send me back to the bush.
FRANCIS You gonna get some for me back in the World, Harold? Whatcha gonna do? (dreaming of it)
HAROLD The world’s gonna be ma oyster man. First’s I gonna EAT – all the hamburger and french fries and steaks soaked in onions and ketchup I can get. Then I’se gonna FUCK and SUCK Sandy Bell till I sore all over and can’t fuck no more, and den I’se gonna SLEEP for DAYS, for WEEKS! Den I’se gonna think bout what comes next …
The words carry over Chris staring out at the rain, feeling a leaden fatigued high. Passes the roach, down to a millimeter, back to Rhah who points to his face.
RHAH … you got one right there.
Chris feels for, finds the leech on the edge of his lip, cursing under his breath.
LIEUTENANT WOLFE (in the stream, on radio) All right move out.
The men start slogging on against the rain.
Junior is drinking from the stream, as Fu Sheng passes.
FU SHENG Don’t drink that asshole. You’re gonna get malaria.
JUNIOR Shit I hope so!
EXT. JUNGLE – CHURCH – DAY (RAIN)
On point, Lerner moves out through a remnant of an old arch, somewhat casual in his approach to point.
LERNER Hey Sarge, you wanna tell me which way or do I get to figger it out?
Sgt.Warren, picking up a quick azimuth on his lensatic compass, points. Lerner moves in the new direction.
EXT. JUNGLE – DAY (RAIN)
Lerner moves away from the clearing, working up a slight incline when the MACHINE GUN FIRE erupts out of the jungle, spinning him – throwing him into the dirt like discarded garbage.
The men are down, yelling.
SGT. WARREN Ambush! Incoming! Fucking incoming!
Suddenly an RPG rocket breaks out of the bush, sounding like an atom bomb as it devastates the front of the Platoon. Radio Talk is continuous now, back and forth between the three platoon radios, through the ambush.
O’NEILL DOC, UP HERE! Lerner’s hit! …
More machine gun fire.
FRANCIS DOC! Over here – we got … one … two down. Warren’s hit.
EXT. JUNGLE – CHURCH – DAY (RAIN)
Chris moving up with Rhah and the others out of the stream, they hit the ground next to Sgt.O’Neill, who looks pretty scared, obviously not about to move.
CHRIS What’s going on?
O’NEILL Shit they got RPG’s on our ass. Fucking ambush – they was waiting for us to break trail!
KING WATCH OUT! ROCKET!
Another rocket whistling in. A huge roar. Trees shredded, dirt, dust rising.
CHRIS Who’s on point?
O’NEILL Lerner and Warren.
Chris uses his M-16 to lever himself up into a crouch and suddenly dashes forward, passing Rhah.
RHAH Where you goin’ man!
Chris tearing up. Past Flash – the hip black head with the colored beads. He’s dead, torn and shredded, his face and eyes stuff with dirt. Next to him Doc is frantically tourniqueting Tubbs, shot in the legs. He’s screaming.
Chris keeps moving to the front as if compelled.
EXT. JUNGLE – BARNES’ POSITION – DAY (RAIN)
Barnes is laying out fire.
BARNES Goddamit, you assholes get fucking’ firepower out there! (to Hoyt on radio) Get Two Bravo up here. Get me a gun. (to others) Spread it out! More to the flanks! Look for a fuckin’ target!
Another explosion.
EXT. JUNGLE – FORWARD POINT – DAY (RAIN)
Chris comes alongside Francis near the point, throws himself down. Banging his head against his helmet as he falls. The incoming rounds are tearing up the front of the platoon.
CHRIS (to Francis) Where’s Lerner?
FRANCIS (terrified) Out there man – behind the log.
Looking. A body – moaning, sort of moving, wriggling, as if trying to escape the pain.
CHRIS Oh Jesus!
His eyes moving to Sgt.Warren lying alongside a tree – calmly trying to stack his intestines back into his ruptured stomach. Another RPG comes in.
Chris makes a conscious decision, moves up – bit by bit, shielding himself with tree stumps, ant hills, laying out fire, trying to get closer to Lerner.
Francis following his progress, bug-eyed.
Fu Sheng now comes up with his M-60 – Harold his loader, belts of ammo flapping against their bodies. He fires from the hip, providing cover fire for Chris, then pops down.
EXT. FORWARD POINT – JUNGLE – DAY (DRIZZLING RAIN)
Chris, firing out another magazine, crawls closer to Lerner, trying to ascertain if he’s still alive.
CHRIS Lerner! Lerner, can you hear me man?
Lerner groans. A fresh burst of AK fire rakes the area. Lerner jerks spasmodically with the impact of the rounds.
Chris spots the sniper. In a hole in the ground. Twenty-five meters off. Snapping the magazine out of his AK to reload. A live gook.
Chris tears off a volley at him but the gook disappears in the hole. This is the moement, Chris realizes it, it’s now or never if Chris intends to get the gook. He’s got to make a move before the man has reloaded his weapon.
He pulls his grenade, pops the pin. He lets the spoon fly off, activating the grenade-timer, as he humps to his feet and runs for the gook hole, concentrating, concentrating. That head is going to pop up any second with a freshly-loaded weapon and tear his head off.
Chris won’t make it back to the hole. The throw has to be perfect. He won’t get another chance. He heaves the frag, drops and rolls away. The throw is perfect, the golden arc of flight from the outfield nailing the baserunner. It twists cleanly in the hole. The explosion muffled but deadly.
Chris scrambles to his feet, a look of almost total surprise on his face. He can’t seem to believe he did it. Pointing his M-16 before him, he advances on the hole, looking over the muzzle to see the badly-mangled NVA man twisted at the bottom.
Chris hurries over to Lerner. He’s in bad shape, hit in several places, vaguely conscious.
CHRIS (CONT’D) Gator! Gator! (Lerner groans) I’m gonna get you out man. You’re gonna be okay Gator … okay?
Fu Sheng laying out fire to protect them, Harold splitting off to get more ammo.
Chris getting Lerner to his feet, hauling him back with all his strength, past Francis …
EXT. JUNGLE – WOLFE’S POSITION – DAY (RAIN)
Lt.Wolfe seems disorientated, struggling with the rain water washing off his map, trying to read the coordinates for an arty fire mission.
WOLFE (into the radio) Redleg, Redleg … Ripper Bravo Two Actual. Fire mission. Grid six-four-niner … four-zero-two. Direction six-one-zero-zero. Dinks dug in bunkers. Danger close. Adjust fire, over …
RADIO VOICE Rog, Two Bravo. Solid copy, stand by for shot, out.
ACE Sir, Bravo Three is inbound from the Sierra Whiskey. Should be here in two zero mikes if’n they don’ hit any shit.
WOLFE Fuckin’ A!
Elias runs up to him. Fire all around, incoming and outgoing, makes them yell to each other.
ELIAS Lootenant, they’re kickin our ass, they know we’re gonna bring heavy shit on ’em pretty soon so they’re gonna get in tight under the arty. I spotted a cut running around to the left. Lemme take some men and roll up that flank .. (pointing) I can work right up on ’em …
Wolfe unsure, looks up for the artillery.
WOLFE (to Ace) Get me Barnes … I don’t know ‘Lias, we got four down up there, if I split you off, we …
Elias grabs a stick, urgent, starts drawing their position in the dirt for Wolfe.
ELIAS Look, Lootenant …
Wolfe looks up, relieved as Barnes splashes into the CP group. Thunder peals.
BARNES (yelling at Wolfe and Ace) Where the fuck is red platoon! Tell ’em to get their asses up here! What the fuck you doin’ back here Elias? Round up your assholes and move ’em up front, we’re getting chopped to shit.
ELIAS (yelling back) Barnes, listen to me … there’s 5-6 spiderholes back there (points) next to the church. (draws it into the ground as he talks) Third Platoon’s coming up the stream to reinforce us. Flank’s wide open, dinks get 3-4 snipers in these holes, when Third Platoon comes up, they’ll get us in a crossfire with ’em. We’ll shoot each other to shit, then they’ll hit us with everything they got. It’ll be a massacre!
Barnes looking at the drawing.
WOLFE Sounds pretty far out to me ‘Lias.
ELIAS Maybe but I seen it happen at Ia Drang in ’66, First Cavalry and they cut us to fuckin’ pieces! (back to Barnes) Give me three men, if I’m wrong, I can still roll up that flank.
BARNES
(a look) Take off, but keep your radio here.
Elias goes, stops, looks at Barnes …
ELIAS … You keep pouring out that suppressing fire, Barnes. I don’t wanna be caught out there with my ass hanging out you hear me?
BARNES Don’t tell me how to fight this fucking war, ‘Lias, you go crying to fucking brigade on your time. Out here you belong to me. Now move.
A look. Elias goes fast. More thunder peals. As the 155mm howitzers – sounding like deep tom-toms some three miles distant – beat out their shells. An ominous sound. Closer.
ACE Sir! Shot out. Arty’s on the way!
BARNES (hurrying back to the front) Get that asshole O’Neill up here willya!
EXT. JUNGLE – FU SHENG’S POSITION – DAY
Fu Sheng is laying out fire when he senses something, looks up. The artillery shell sounds too close. Getting bigger and bigger on the horizon. Too big, too loud. A groan of fear on his face, then knowledge. Then … a huge EXPLOSION engulfs him.
EXT. JUNGLE – HAROLD’S POSITION – DAY (RAIN)
BIG HAROLD Short round! It’s short, man! They fuckin’ got Fu Sheng! BARNES! OVER HERE!
EXT. JUNGLE – DAY (RAIN)
Barnes hearing it, starts forward. Another huge shell starting to whistle in on them.
BARNES That fuckin’ idiot!
It explodes. This is about three times the intensity of the RPG. The jungle floor shakes, trees splinter. Barnes is knocked to his knees, rimaces in pain. Hoyt, Barnes’ radio operator, screams out as a fist-sized chunk of hot shrapnel sticks in his back. He’s screeching, frantically trying to shuck the radio from his back, his fatigue shirt smoking.
Barnes jerks the radio off Hoyt’s back, knocks the man to his knees and unsheathes his bayonet. Ripping off the back of his shirt, Barnes sets to digging out the shrapnel.
EXT. MOREHOUSE’S POSITION – DAY (RAIN)
Morehouse is decimated by a third explosion, chunks of shrapnel whirring like battleaxes into the tree trunks.
EXT. JUNGLE – HAROLD’S POSITION – DAY (RAIN)
Big Harold is tearing blindly away from the front, helmet gone, rifle dragging in the mud when he stumbles, sprawling face down. He jumps up, looks back, sees now the wire over which he tripped. It takes a second to register. He shares a look with Bunny who’s already on the ground.
BUNNY Satchel charge! GET DOWN!
Harold goes for the ground the same instant the satchel explodes.
EXT. JUNGLE – CHURCH – DAY (RAIN)
Chris, further back, dumps Lerner with Doc who’s got more than he can handle.
CHRIS Take care of him Doc! Please!
Doc looking at him, a dark look of hopelessness. Lerner is a mess, groaning, reaching for Chris’ hand.
LERNER … don’t … don’t leave me man …
A look between them. Rhah instersecting.
RHAH Taylor – get your ass over here. Move!
CHRIS Hang tough, Gator. Hang in there, man, you’re gonna be OK … just hang on.
Feeling like a liar, peeling the man’s hands off him, leaving him there looking numb. Chris is shaken, Lerner’s blood all over him.
He tears out after Rhah, linking up with Elias and Crawford. Elias motioning them to hurry. Another huge artillery round exploding out to the front.
EXT. JUNGLE – O’NEILL’S POSITION – DAY (RAIN)
Sgt.O’Neill, scared out of his mind, hugging the earth, tries to crawl into a small cut in the ground but finds it occupied by a cringing Junior.
EXT. JUNGLE – WOLFE’S POSITION – DAY (RAIN)
Barnes rushes up out of the forest like Achilles, towering in his rage, at Lieutenant Wolfe, ripping his handset from him as the Lieutenant reads off the coordinates off his map.
BARNES YOU IGNORANT ASSHOLE! – What the fuck coordinates you giving! You killed a bunch of people with that fucked up fire mission! You know that? … ah shit!
Wolfe stares at him, open-mouthed. Disgusted, Barnes hunkers down to read the coordinates from his own map into the handset.
BARNES (CONT’D) Redleg Romeo .. Ripper Bravo Two. Check your fire, check fire, you’re short on our pos! I say again, check your fuckin’ fire! … From Registration point, add one five zero, left five zero, fire for effect!
New incoming fire drowns out Barnes.
EXT. JUNGLE – ELIAS’ POSITION – DAY
Elias – a defiant look on his face – moves fast but cautiously back across the Church landmarks. Chris following then Rhah and Crawford. The RAIN has now settled into a mist hugging the ground.
ELIAS Move it! Move it!
Elias comes to a stop, looks. Behind them we hear the sounds of battle, gauging their distance from the main body.
The spider holes are still empty. But he listens, senses something out there getting closer.
ELIAS (CONT’D) They’re coming …
Chris looking at Rhah. How does he know?
Elias points out an imaginary line across the breaking mist.
ELIAS (CONT’D) Stagger yourselves across this line, shoot anything that moves. They’ll be coming from here.
RHAH (team leader) Gotcha.
ELIAS One of them gets through it’s curtains.
RHAH Where you going?
ELIAS Down along the river ’bout 100 metres, ‘case they try to flank us there. Third Platoon’s coming up on our rear so watch for ’em.
CHRIS I’ll go with you.
ELIAS No … I move faster alone. (a grin)
Elias, his pack stripped, is gone, like a fleet leaf, vanishing into the Jungle.
RHAH (stringing them out) Okay Crawford – over here. Taylor – down twenty yards behind that tree.
EXT. JUNGLE – WOLFE’S POSITION – DAY (MIST)
Barnes has finished correcting the fire mission, hurls the handset back at Wolfe, a wild look in his eyes, studying the incoming fire. Makes a decision.
BARNES Let’s move back, link up with Three. Let the arty do a little work. (to Ace on radio, ignoring Wolfe) Push Two Alpha and Two Charlie. Tell’em to haul ass and re-group at the church. Tell’em NOT to fire. (Ace transmits)
WOLFE What about Elias? We pull back they’ll be cut off. He needs cover fire.
BARNES (looks at him like he’s stupid) I’ll get him. (with a threatening undertone) You just haul ass too lootenant. (going, to Ace) … don’t send Bravo Three up till I get back to the CP. Now move out, all of you.
As he snaps his weapon onto full auto and runs off after Elias in a crouch … a man with a mission.
EXT. JUNGLE – RHAH AND CHRIS’ POSITION – DAY
Next to the Church deployed in the jungle, Rhah looks on, silent.
Chris in his position, waits. It is so silent in comparison to the racket from the battle across the forest. The Mist clings to the trees, moist and lovely. Then, a flicker of movement, sound.
Chris hears it, tightens. His POV – at fifty yards. An evanescence of beige and green uniforms moving towards him very fast, scurrying. They look like headless ghosts.
Chris opens fire.
CHRIS GET EM!!!!!
Rhah and Crawford open up. A rachet of sound, one of the fiures seems to go down, then another but at this distance through jungle it is difficult to say. The firing just as suddenly breaks off and the silence returns.
CHRIS (CONT’D) (ecstatic) Yeah! I got two of them fuckers …
RHAH I got one …
CHRIS … See them go down? Like fuckin’ target practice man, fuck you Charlie!! Ho Chi Minh sucks dead dick! … Crawford! (sees him, stunned)
Crawford, the blond-locked California beach boy, lies on the earth, hit in a lung, having difficulty breathing, moaning in a soft undercurrent. Chris runs up on him.
CHRIS (CONT’D) Oh man! … man!
Attending him. Rhah runs up.
RHAH Looks like a lung babe. But you’re gonna be all right, you only need one of them fuckers.
CRAWFORD Oh shit man I never thought I’d get hit, I was … (gagging)
RHAH Stay cool. We gonna carry you out.
Barnes appears, running towards them, looking down at Crawford, at Rhah.
RHAH (CONT’D) Sarge, ’bout five gooks tried to …
BARNES Where’s Elias?
RHAH … came through right over there. We got three of them, we …
BARNES Didn’t you hear the arty shift? We’re pulling back. Get your wounded man and get the fuck back to the church. Get going.
CHRIS (indicating jungle) … but ‘Lias is still out there.
BARNES I’ll get him. You get the man in, Taylor (indicating Crawford) NOW. Or I’ll Article 15 both your asses. Move!
Chris and Rhah look at Barnes sullenly, then reluctantly start moving Crawford onto a poncho liner they use as a litter.
BARNES (CONT’D) Move it, MOVE IT!
He’s in his blackest rage, the force of his words almost physically pushing the men to move out with Crawford. Barnes turns now to deal with Elias.
EXT. ELIAS’ JUNGLE – DAY
Elsewhere, Elias stands silently, listens to the forest. In the distance the firefight can hardly be heard. His helmet gone, his hair hanging free, he is at his best now – alone. He hears it. Somebody running through the jungle, about 100 yards, boots on leaves, coming towards him.
He begins to move lateral to the sound. His steps unheard, better at this than the enemy.
THREE ENEMY FIGURES now appear, crouched and moving very fast with light equipment through the mist.
Elias swerves up in immediate foreground, his back to us, FIRING. All three Figures fall.
A quick glimpse of Elias, not bothering to stop, moving to his next position.
EXT. BARNES’ JUNGLE – DAY
Barnes, moving through the jungle, reacts to the fire, resetting his course. Like a hunter stalking a deer. Suddenly there’s more firing. Then silence –
EXT. ELIAS’ JUNGLE – DAY
TWO MORE ENEMY lie dead in the jungle. A rustle of movement, then a CRY – chilling, jubilant, a war cry.
A pair of feet moving lightly over the jungle. A glimpse of Elias. In his full glory. Roaming the jungle, born to it.
EXT. BARNES’ JUNGLE – DAY
Barnes fixing on him, moving.
EXT. ELIAS’ JUNGLE – DAY
An NVA SOLDIER, jungle-whiskered, dirty, smart, crouches, listens, looks to his PARTNER. What are they fighting here? The First One mutter something sharp and they split fast in the direction they’ve come.
They get about six steps when Elias suddenly rises up from the bush, not ten yards in front of them, his shots ripping into them, driving the surprised life from them. Elias is gone.
EXT. NVA JUNGLE – DAY
Elsewhere, another three NVA stop, turn and flee back from where they came.
EXT. JUNGLE CHURCH – DAY
Chris and Rhah get Crawford back to the church grounds, lay him down. No activity around them. Chris plunges back into the jungle where they left Barnes.
RHAH Taylor!
EXT. ELIAS AND BARNES’ JUNGLE – DAY
Barnes moving, stops, listens. Something is running towards him. But it’s hidden by the bush. He brings his rifle up smooth and quick, waits, then as the bush parts, Elias is standing there. Looking at Barnes.
Barnes sees him, starts to lower his rifle, but then stops. He raises it back an inch, sights it. Pause. A cold searing look of hatred coming over his face.
In that moment, Elias understands. Quick as a deer, he makes his move, trying to plunge back into the bush.
Barnes fires. Once, twice, three times – the blast rocking the jungle.
Elias jerking backwards into the bush, mortally wounded. Bird cries. A crime against nature.
Barnes calmly lowers his rifle, and walks away from it.
EXT. CHRIS’ JUNGLE – DAY
Chris, cutting through the jungle, hears the shots. He stops, listens. Someone is moving through bush towards him, leaves and foliage shaking.
Chris tightens, raises his rifle.
Barnes steps through into his sight – sees him.
Chris lowers his rifle. Barnes walking past him as if he weren’t even there.
BARNES Elias is dead. Join up with the platoon. Move it.
CHRIS (shocked) He’s dead! Where? … You saw him?
BARNES Yeah. Back about 100 metres. He’s dead, now get going, the gooks are all over the fuckin’ place.
Moving on quickly. Chris has no choice but to follow, looking back one more time.
EXT. CHURCH GROUNDS – JUNGLE – DAY
TWO CHOPPERS are coming into a LZ in front of the Church. The two platoons, Second and Third, reinforcing, are being evacuated as quickly as possible, one load (6-8 men, depending on the wounded) after other. The choppers are spraying dust all over the place. A scene of chaos, radio talk layering it. Doc is out of supplies, making do with improvised bandages, etc.
WOLFE MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT.
Lerner goes by, horribly wounded on a makeshift litter, into the chopper, Doc attending, holding the IV.
Chris catching a glimpse of him, waiting to get on the chopper, turning to look as:
Hoyt and Sgt.Warren, both wounded, are hurried aboard on litters. The chopper lifting off.
Chris and others now running to the corpses of Flash, Morehouse, and Fu Sheng lying under dirty ponchos, their boots sticking out. The ponchos are blown away in a burst of wind off the chopper blades, revealing their faces – dirt stuffing their eyes and mouths, waxen figures.
Chris and the others lifting them and carrying them towards the next chopper now coming in.
They throw the bodies on. Tubbs and Crawford, both wounded, now move past Chris, into the chopper. Chris running back, with King carrying a litter – their eyes falling on:
Barnes talking with Wolfe and Ace, making signals under the roaring sounds of the chopper. Shaking his head. No. No Elias.
Chris and King looking at each other, mute. They numbly start loading Big Harold, minus his leg, onto the stretcher.
The Third Chopper is down now, waiting, roaring blades silhouetting off the face of the cathedral. A ROCKET BLAST suddenly goes off not too far from the chopper, incoming fire. The DOOR GUNNER signaling for them to hurry, laying out fire.
INT/EXT. CHOPPER – JUNGLE – DAY
Chris and King hustling Big Harold’s 250 pounds into the chopper. Climbing in with him. Wolfe, Barnes, Ace running in with them. The perimeter is bare.
Chris’ eyes flitting over Barnes as he jumps in. The chopper lifting off as another explosion rocks the area. The Door Gunner sees something, opens up.
Big Harold, cursing, looks chalky but hog happy as he manages a glance down at the jungle. His right leg is gone. Tears are rolling out of his eyes.
KING Man, you gonna be in Japan this time tomorrow, Big Harold.
BIG HAROLD Yeah, I’se lucky dis time, what’s a leg to get the fuck outta here … (at the NVA) Eat ma shit, you motherfuckers!
He sinks back, sick. Chris’ eyes sudenly fix on something. He can’t believe it. He shoves King, points. King sees it. Both stunned.
Barnes is looking. So’s Lt.Wolfe, so’s Ace. So’s the Door Gunner.
Elias is coming out of the jungle. Staggering, blood disfiguring his face and chest, hanging on with all his dimming strength, looking up at them – trying to reach them.
Chris shakes Wolfe, his words drowned out by the roar.
The Chopper Captain looking down, dips. His co-pilot pointing.
The NVA are coming out of the jungle, closing on the spot where Elias is.
Incoming rounds are hitting the chopper. The Door Gunner maniacally firing.
Barnes looking down at the man, can’t believe it.
Elias is on his last legs now, obviously being hit by the incoming fire of the NVA. He falls to his knees, still stretching upwards for life.
The Chopper Captain shakes his head at Wolfe.
The Chopper dips one more time firing at the NVA, low and fierce over the jungle.
Chris looking back in horror.
Elias crucified. The NVA coming out now by the dozens from the treeline.
Elias crumbling to the ground. Obviously dead or dying.
HELICAPTAIN ON RADIO … we still got one on the deck. Bring the gunships in.
Barnes drawing in.
Chris looking at him in revulsion. He knows. Barnes sees his look, ignores it, all of them sitting there silent, living with that final horrifying image of Elias.
EXT. UNDERGROUND HUTCH – BASE CAMP – NIGHT
The ‘heads’ are assembled – what’s left of them. Rhah, King, Francis, Doc, Adam, a quiet black kid, and Chris, who is impassioned tonight.
CHRIS He killed him. I know he did. I saw his eyes when he came back in …
RADIO VOICE (puffing on his bowl) How do you know the dinks didn’t get him. You got no proof man.
CHRIS Proof’s in the eyes. When you know you know. You were there Rhah – I know what you were thinking. I say we frag the fucker. Tonight.
He looks to King who puffs on a joint, his eyes red.
KING I go with dat, an eye for an eye man.
DOC Right on, nothing wrong with Barnes another shot in the head wouldn’t cure.
RHAH (to Chris) Shit boy you been out in the sun too long. You try that, he’ll stick it right back up your ass with a candle on it.
CHRIS Then what do you suggest big shot?
RHAH (to Chris) I suggest you watch your own asses cause Barnes gonna be down on ALL OF ‘EM.
FRANCIS How you figger that?
RHAH Shit man – Human nature.
Flashes the old knuckle – ‘HATE’.
KING Then you jes gonna forget ’bout Elias and all the good times we done had? Right in here.
RHAH He dugged his own grave.
DOC (correcting) He dug it.
RHAH He DUGGED it too.
CHRIS Fuck this shit!
RHAH You guys trying to cure the headache by cutting off the head. ‘Lias didn’t ask you to fight his battles and if there’s a Heaven – and god, I hope so – I know he’s sitting up there drunk as a fuckin’ monkey and smokin’ shit cause HIS PAINS HE DONE LEFT DOWN HERE. Baaaaaaaaa! (a vehement movement of his head)
CHRIS You’re wrong man! Any way you cut it Rhah, Barnes is a murderer.
KING Right on.
RHAH I remember first time you came in here Taylor you telling me how much you admired that bastard.
CHRIS I was wrong.
RHAH (snorts) Wrong? You ain’t EVER been right – ’bout nothing. And dig this you assholes and dig it good! Barnes been shot 7 times and he ain’t dead, that tell you something? Barnes ain’t meant to die. Only thing can get Barnes … is Barnes!
Barnes stands there, silhouetted in the trap door, looking down at the men who are stunned to see him here.
He steps down into the hutch, his face now lit by candle light. A bottle of whiskey in his hand, drunk, ugly, sweating, but as always, with dignity, possessive of his silence. He feels their fear in the silence, enjoys it.
BARNES (soft) Talking ’bout killing?
He totters slightly as he circles the outer edge of the hutch. No one talks.
BARNES (CONT’D) Y’all experts? Y’all know about killing?
He takes the bowl from Adams, smokes it.
BARNES (CONT’D) You pussies gotta smoke this shit so’s you can hide from reality? … (smokes again) Me I don’t need that shit. I AM reality.
Confronting Chris, he moves on, taunting them all.
BARNES (CONT’D) There’s the way it oughta be and there’s the way it is. ‘Lias he was full of shit, ‘Lias was a crusader – I got no fight with a man does what he’s told but when he don’t, the machine breaks down, and when the machine breaks down, WE break down … and I ain’t gonna allow that. From none of you. Not one …
Walks past Rhah, past King, throws the pot bowl into the dirt of the floor.
BARNES (CONT’D) Y’all loved Elias, want to kick ass, I’se here – all by my lonesome, nobody gonna know. Five you boys ‘gainst me? (pause, very soft) Kill me.
Almost an appeal – naked, intense. Rhah, Francis, Doc look away.
King, the biggest one there, is about to say something, but the moment passes.
Chris waits, his anger on the rise.
Barnes takes a swigger from the whiskey, then turns away contemptuously.
BARNES (CONT’D) I SHIT on all o’ you.
CHRIS KILL YOU MOTHERFUCKER!!!
Chris slams into Barnes, rushing him off his feet. Pounding his face, solid blows.
KING AND OTHERS Get that mother, babe, go … Kick his ass, kill that cocksucker!!!
But Barnes is too quick and very strong and takes the blows, getting outside Chris’ arm, twisting and flipping him in a wrestler’s grip – throwing him hard onto his back on the dirt floor.
The expression of the Men watching slumps, their hopes dashed.
Barnes springs around on Chris, straddles him, one hand pushing his face back, hits him hard. Once. Twice.
Chris grimaces, groans, helpless now. A flick of sound.
A knife whipped out of Barnes’ boot and pressing against Chris’ throat. Chris bleeding from the nose and mouth.
Rhah suddenly spinning into action, fast now, realizing what Barnes intends to do.
RHAH EASY BARNES, EASY MAN!!!
Barnes is on the verge – about to kill again.
Chris waiting.
Rhah coaxing him, moving closer.
RHAH (CONT’D) You’ll do dinky dau in Long Binh Barnes. Ten years – kill an enlisted. Ten years, Barnes, just climb the walls. DON’T DO IT …
Barnes’ eyes tremble in the candle light, his scars ugly, a spasm clenching and locking his facial muscles. Then suddenly he is calm again, very calm. We sense a man of enormous self-control.
Suddenly he flicks his knife across Chris, leaving a mark below his left eye.
Chris gasps. Looking up at Barnes rising off him. The boots alongside his face.
The Men looking on, the tension lowering.
BARNES (contemptuous) Death? What do you guys know about it?
He walks out. Quietly.
EXT. AIR SHOTS – JUNGLE, CHURCH – DAY
Chris sits at the very edge of a Huey Chopper, bandana around his forehead, long hair blowing in the wind, Barnes’ mark below his eyes, slicked out now like a jungle veteran, looking down at the VILLAGE where the massacre occurred.
The Village is still a smoking ruin, a few peasants and water buffalo straggling like ants to reconstruct.
Bunny, next to Chris, pops his gum, indifferent. Barnes, next to him, shifts, reads a map.
Rodriguez is praying, his mouth moving without audible words, getting ready for the drop.
King is making last minute adjustments in his pack.
Bunny now nudges Chris, points. The Church in the Jungle where Elias was killed is visible. An outline of the Cemetery. Uncomfortable memories play over Chris’ face.
