Platoon
EXT. NVA BUNKER – SANDERSON POSITION – DAY
The ensuing explosion shakes the ground, obliterating both boys, brances, smoke and dust flying out.
EXT. NVA BUNKER – CHRIS POSITION – DAY
Out on flank, Chris hits the ground, hugs it.
EXT. NVA BUNKER – COMPLEX – SANDERSON POSTION – DAY
Barnes runs up. Black smoke sweeping through the trees. Sal suddenly appears, stepping out of the smoke, stunned. The front of his body is soaked in blood from a thousand shrapnel holes, his clothes shredded, he stares at Barnes, dazed. Both his arms are gone and blood is geysering out like a water fountain. He crumbles – dead or dying.
BARNES Corpsman!
He runs over to Sal, gets a hold of his face in a vicelike grip, enraged, tries to yell some sense into him.
BARNES (CONT’D) (directly to Sal) Goddamit! Are you fucking kids ever gonna learn! Don’t you understand how easy it is to die!
The Doc running up – one look tells us all we need to know.
DOC Holy Jesus!
EXT. NVA BUNKER COMPLEX – MAIN POSITION – DAY
Lt. Wolfe, shaken, is on the radio with Cpt. Harris, words garbled through the air, trying to describe a primal horror.
EXT. NVA BUNKER COMPLEX – SANDERSON POSITION – DAY
Barnes moving through the wreckage – sees severed limbs sticking in a sandbag.
EXT. NVA BUNKER COMPLEX – MAIN POSITION – DAY
Rhah crouches over a piece of leg tied into a hipbone and a rib.
EXT. NVA BUNKER COMPLEX – DAY
Elias coming out of the tunnel, filthied.
EXT. NVA BUNKER – MAIN POSITION – DAY
Elias coming abreast of Wolfe.
ELIAS Tell Six we need engineers here, this pos. is crawling with traps.
WOLFE They’re on their way … (consulting his map) There’s a gook village half a klik downriver, Battalion wants us to move in and search it ASAP, something’s going on … where’s Barnes?
INT. NVA BUNKER – SANDERSON POSITION – DAY
Barnes is still there in the wrecked bunker, squatting there staring as if his mind has disconnected for a moment. He reaches up, touches his scars. The look on his face suggests he is deeply wronged by this tragedy, that he is taking it very personally.
EXT. NVA BUNKER – MAIN POSITION – DAY
Chris watches him from outside the bunker, awed.
Barnes notices Chris watching him, takes a breath, stands.
BARNES You gonna sit there and play with yourself Taylor or you gonna be part of my war … Awright, saddle up, let’s go – Tubbs you got point.
The men moving into jungle formation, silently.
Chris walking over into line, stops for a moment – noticing a freshly-severed eyeball partially buried in dirt, staring up at him. He turns away, sickened.
EXT. NVA BUNKER COMPLEX – MAIN POSITION – DAY
O’NEILL Where’s Manny?
WARREN Manny! … Hey Buchanan.
There is no answer. The men in the platoon start to look at each other, sensing more trouble.
Elias heads into the bush after him. Barnes watches him go.
Francis, his friend, and Tubbs and King follow.
FRANCIS Hey man whatcha doing … where you at? Get your black ass back in here!
EXT. NVA BUNKER COMPLEX – MANNY’S POSITION – DAY
Out on the flank position, where he once stood, Elias walks out, looks. The jungle is silent once again. Francis, Tubbs, King follow. The others – Barnes, Lt.Wolfe, Warren, Chris, Rhah …
FRANCIS AND OTHERS (whispering loudly) Manny? … Manny?
Their voices trailing off. Bird cries come back.
Elias combing the ground for clues … nothing.
Chris looking on, can’t believe it, none of them can, a collective chill running through the platoon.
EXT. JUNGLE – DAY
The Platoon moving downslope in the Jungle, their faces grim, quiet, deadly. King is on point.
CHRIS (V.O.) We had to get to the village before dark so we left Elias with some men to keep looking and to wait for the engineers … But it was King who found him … about 1000 yards downriver, not far from the village – It was the end of the mystery.
A moving shot approaching Manny. He’s trussed with rope, arms behind his back. Throat cut, eyes startled open, mouth shaped in a scream of terror.
Barnes, the other men looking … Chris. Barnes says it for everyone, ‘The motherfuckers …’
EXT. VILLAGE – TRAIL – DAY
They come up out of the jungle onto the side of a CART TRAIL, where a tiny village overlooks the river. The VILLAGE is poor, a series of thatched hutches made of C-ration cardboard and aluminum beer can sidings, faint whiffs of smoke coming from cook fires. Pigs and dogs wander about.
An OLD VILLAGER watches them pass from his tillable plot, smoking a cigarette, one leg wrapped around his hoe, resting, no expression.
CHRIS (V.O.) … the village, which had stood for maybe a thousand years, didn’t know we were coming that day. If they had they would have run … Barnes was at the eye of our rage – and through him, our Captain Ahab – we would set things right again. That day we loved him …
A pig loiters along the trail, rooting.
Bunny coming up on it with a smile.
BUNNY Hey pig, pig – come here, pig, pig.
The pig grunts. Bunny leveling his shotgun, fires point blank. A horrible squeal.
Chris, directly behind him, looks disgusted.
EXT. VILLAGE – DAY
Tony suddenly points, excited, calls to Barnes.
TONY There goes one!
Their POV – a young VILLAGER fleeing down the slope.
Barnes doesn’t hesitate, nails him with a short volley of well- placed shots.
BARNES (to Tony) Check him out.
He turns back into the village.
EXT. VILLAGE – DAY
Troops fanning out over the village, some TWO DOZEN VILLAGERS scattering to collect their children, dogs barking.
SGTS.O’NEIL AND WARREN Get em out! Get em out!
EXT. VILLAGE TUNNEL – DAY
In another part of the village, Barnes hovers over a hole leading into some kind of tunnel.
BARNES Get out of there you fuckheads move! Move!
Fires a warning shot. Three VILLAGERS climbing out of the spider hole, arms raised, but not showing any emotion. Barnes turning to his radioman Hoyt and Big Harold accompanying.
BARNES (CONT’D) (to Harold) Put’em in the pig pen. (to Hoyt) There’s more down there. Gimme your Willy Pete.
Hoyt, with reluctance in his eyes, hands over a specially shaped grenade.
Barnes stands over the hole, the grenade in hand.
The three VILLAGERS who just came out of the hole, yell from the distance, to others still in the tunnel, pleading with them to come out.
BARNES (CONT’D) FIRE IN THE HOLE!
Barnes throws the phosphorus in. A muted EXPLOSION. Then sizzling acidic fumes. Frying sounds. A hideous scream from somewhere deep in the hole.
Hoyt, watching, is sickened. Barnes businesslike.
The Villagers, in grief, howl and tear at their faces.
FU SHENG (hustling up to Barnes) Sarge, we found some shit!
Barnes going with him.
EXT. VILLAGE – OUTSIDE HUTCH – DAY
The sun is sittin there hot and high in the sky.
Chris, strangling in heat, a demented look on his face, staggers into a hutch with Francis.
INT. HUTCH – VILLAGE – DAY
Threadbare, poor, a typical Buddhist shrine in the corner, motes of light crisscross through the poor matting and c-ration sides.
Chris edges over, pries up a floorboard, flips it over, scared.
There’s a tunnel inside. A long dark dangerous hole.
CHRIS La Dai! La Dai! GET THE FUCK OUTTA THERE!
FRANCIS Hey take it easy man. They’re scared.
CHRIS They’re scared? What about me! I’m sick of this shit man, I”m sick of this shit! They don’t want us here! Who do you think they’re fighting for! GET OUTTA THERE!
Francis doesn’t recognize him in his rage. Bunny now coming in, followed by O’Neill, drawn by the shouting.
EXT. VILLAGE – WEAPONS CACHE – DAY
Barnes stares down at a WEAPONS CACHE buried cleverly underneath the ruce urns. Ace, Fu Sheng, Sgt.Warren, Lt.Wolfe, others, are digging it out. It’s in white plastic wrappings – a load of AK- 47’s, rockets, grenades, claymores, carbines, flares, NVA uniforms. A real find.
SGT. WARREN (to Barnes) … and over here there’s enough rice to feed a whole fuckin’ regiment …
Barnes walking with him over to an undercover rice silo being dug out by Tubbs and Junior. Barnes looks it over.
BARNES (to Warren) … bring the honcho over here. (to Tubb and Junior) Burn it.
INT. HUTCH – VILLAGE – DAY
An Old Woman and her Son, a young man with one leg, throw up their hands, climbing out of the hole with stupid confused looks as Chris, shaking with his own sort of confusion and rage, cuffs them, hustling them out. The Young Man uses a pair of crutches for his blown-off limb, hobbling like a mangy three-legged dog.
BUNNY Hey look at this! Ma and Pa Kettle here. Look at them – greasy gook motherfuckers!
CHRIS Get up out of there! … You see I didn’t wanna hurt you. Why didn’t you come out, when I said so hunh! Why? WHY! WHY? DON’T YOU LISTEN … WHAT ARE YOU SMILING AT HUNH! FUCKING ASSHOLES!
The couple, hands raised, muttering things in Vietnamese, don’t understand a word, shaking their heads stupidly and smiling that impassive Oriental smile which sends Chris into a rage only he can understand.
His finger closes on the trigger of his 16.
Francis, the baby-faced black, looks nervously, sensing the danger … Bunny amused, drawn in by Chris. O’Neill watches passively from the lip of the hutch.
The Young Man continues to grin, not seeming to realize the degree of danger he’s in, which is what Chris wants – a token sign of acquiescence. There is also the added element of showing off his manhood in front of an audience now.
BUNNY Do ’em man, do ’em.
Chris. The trigger. He pulls. But he can’t quite bring himself to kill. The bullets exploding in the dirt at the edges of the young man’s foot.
CHRIS (demonic) DANCE YOU ONE-LEGGED MOTHERFUCKER, DANCE!!!
The Young Man hops up and down in a reflex fear of the sounds of the bullets as they thud into the dirt. Yet his eyes remain fixed on Chris in wonderment.
Chris, firing out the magazine, seems to expend his bloodlust. He ceases, noticing – for the first time – the eyes of the Young Man. They aren’t stupid – nor fearful – but filled with resignation and despair – a despair that Chris, in disgust of himself, recognizes.
Chris lowers the rifle, silent.
The Young Man’s impassive face shines now with tears. That sad young look – as if death itself would’ve been a release. Chris turns his eyes away, an awkward sense of shame.
FRANCIS (leaves) Let’s get out of here man.
But Bunny takes up the slack, moves forward on the young man.
BUNNY (to Chris) You chickenshit man, they’re laughing at you, look at them faces. That’s the way a gook laughs.
The Young Man nodding affable to Bunny and mumbling ingratiating words in Vietnamese.
BUNNY (CONT’D) Yeah sure you are, you’re real sorry ain’t you. You’re just crying out your hearts about Sandy and Sal and Manny – they’re laughing at us! Their family is out there in the fucking bush blowing us away and they’re laughing at us!
O’NEILL (checking out the hutch) Forget it will ya, let’s go …
Chris standing there, watching, sensing something awful is going to come and unable to do anything about it. It comes – suddenly and without warning. Bunny is looking at O’Neill, the Vietnamese couple are muttering something. In one fluid move, Bunny swivels and with unbelievable savagery clubs the young one-legged man in the side of the head with the butt of his 16.
O’NEILL (CONT’D) (stunned)
Hey what are you doing!
BUNNY Fucker!
The young man is groaning on the floor of the hutch. Bunny smashes him – again and again.
BUNNY (CONT’D) That’s for Sandy! And this is for Sal! And this is for fucking Manny! This is for me!
Chris watches, horrified. Never in his life has he seen something so horrifying as this. And yet he does nothing. He is part of it.
BUNNY (CONT’D) (stepping back, examines what’s left of the head, amazed) Wow! You see his fucking head come apart? Look at that … I never seen brains like dat before. Jesus fucking Christ …
The Old Lady is shrieking, hovering over the body of her son. Bunny studying her.
BUNNY (CONT’D) Betcha the old bitch runs the whole show. Probably helped cut Manny’s throat. Probably cut my balls off if she could. (to Chris) Come on, man, let’s do her.
She cowers from him. Chris steps back, horrified. As is O’Neill, more puzzled than horrified.
BUNNY (CONT’D) (hitting her again) Let’s zap all these motherfuckers! Let’s do the whole village!
He backs out of the hutch, scared. Evidently Bunny is temporarily insane. But he spots O’Neill, yells at him.
BUNNY (CONT’D) GET BACK HERE YOU FUCKING COWARD O’NEILL. THIS IS FOR SANDY … THIS IS FOR SANDY MAN! AND SAL! AND MANNY!
As he clubs her to death.
On Chris’ face, blood and brain tissue flying up into it.
EXT. CENTRAL AREA – VILLAGE – DAY
A tiny knot of men are ringed around Barnes who is questioning a sturdy-looking man who is the VILLAGE CHIEF. He has been stripped of his shirt, scars all over his body, scared. He has his ID papers out, trembling, showing them to Lerner who speaks some pidgen Vietnamese.
BARNES Where’d he get these wounds?
Lerner translates, the man talking back.
LERNER He says he was hit in a bombing raid.
TONY He’s a dink fosure.
BARNES Ask him what the weapons are doing here?
LERNER He says they had no choice. The NVA killed the old honcho when he said no. He says the rice is theirs.
BARNES Bullshit … who the hell was the dink we just nailed on the riverbank?
Chris and O’Neill come up, watch. Others coming from different places – sensing the narrowing drama. But half the platoon is still at work in the village. We hear shouts, grenade explosions, occasionally gunfire.
LERNER … He says he doesn’t know, NVA haven’t been around in a couple of months. Maybe it was a scout or …
The men around Barnes grumble.
BARNES Yeah sure it was. What about all that fucking rice and the weapons … who they for? (looking at the Village Chief) Cocksucker knows what I’m saying … don’t you Pop? (a blank look)
ACE You’re goddamn right he does!
Lerner translating. The Village Chief’s WIFE is now on the scene, a middle-aged woman with angry features, yelling at Lerner trying to answer for her husband, a high-pitched barrage of indignant words directed mostly at Barnes, and interspersed with the spitting of her betel nuts on the ground.
The Village Chief trying to talk her down. But things are definitely getting out of control. And the heat from the sun is only aggravating the situation, pounding down on the actors in the drama, their fatigues soaked in sweat and anger.
LERNER (finally) He swears he doesn’t know anything! He hates the NVA but they come when they want and …
JUNIOR He’s lying through his teeth!
TONY Waste the fucker, then see who talks.
BARNES What’s the bitch saying?
LERNER (overwhelmed) She’s going on, I don’t know – why are we shooting the pigs, they’re farmers … they got to make a living, all that crap …
The Woman is still ranting when Barnes turns to her, quite casually levels his M-16, and puts a bullet in her head. She goes down as if pole-axed.
A stunned pause. The Chief looking at his wife. The Villagers in background reacting.
Wolfe looking … Chris looking, shocked. Doc, possibly the straightest of them all, very uncomfortable. They are all shocked insome way, but do nothing against the power of Banres. Barnes walks over to the pig pen with the other Villagers, very casually, confronts them.
BARNES (to Lerner) Tell him he talks or I’m gonna waste more of ’em.
Lerner shaken up, muttering to the Village Chief who is in shock, kneeling next to the body of his wife, muttering in a high whine of pain.
BARNES (CONT’D) Go ahead, Lerner, ask him.
A group of Villagers huddle to one side.
Lerner, shaken, is yelling at all of them, demanding an answer.
LERNER They don’t know Sarge, they don’t know! (half believes it)
Barnes turns his attention on the other villagers, his intentions apparent. Everybody feels them. They’re next. Barnes is unperturbed, very much in command of the situation, no rage, no emotions expressed.
Chris has never seen such a thing in his life – but can’t react. Can’t stop it, just watches it like he’s not quite there.
The same goes for Lieutenant Wolfe, for all of them. The very outrageousness of Barns’ killing seems to quell all protest.
ACE (sensing the impending massacre) Hey Sarge can we get in on this.
Tony advances, the hairy Italian kid from Boston.
TONY Let’s go all the way, let’s go for it! Let’s do the whole fucking village. Come on, Sarge.
Chris’ eyes … Rodriguez next to him, is neutral but willing.
Francis is hesitant.
Fu Sheng and Junior are ready to go for it. Lt.Wolfe is powerless, frozen.
Sgt.Warren stepping up. The massacre is just about to break.
The Villagers know it, kneel in prayer, mutter.
Barnes suddenly grabs and drags a young 19 year-old Woman, the Village Chief’s daughter, across the pen, throws her down on her knees, in front of the stunned Village Chief. She’s screaming.
BARNES This his daughter, right?
Lerner nods. Barnes pulls his .45, puts it alongside her head.
BARNES (CONT’D) (to Village Chief) You lie … You Vee Cee … I caca ado Vee Cee!
He chambers the .45, the Woman begging Barnes for her life, cradling his knees. He sticks the gun down above her skull.
Chris wanting to cry out, to do something – but can’t!
A FIGURE suddenly flares out in the sun, advancing on them. It is Elias.
ELIAS BARNES!!
Barnes looks around. They all look around.
Elias walks right up to him, followed by his men – King, Rhah, Crawford, others from the rear party. He looks around. The corpse of the Wife … the Young Daughter sobbing.
ELIAS (CONT’D) WHAT THE FUCK YOU DOING!
BARNES (pissed) Stay out of this Elias. This ain’t your show.
ELIAS YOU AIN’T A FIRING SQUAD, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!
The stock of his rifle swings up fast and hard smacking Barnes full in the face, breaking two teeth.
Barnes staggers back, hurt, bleeding. Elias is on him like a leopard. Battering him with his fists.
They struggle in the dust, two titans, their faces equally consumed with rage, clawing, spitting, punching, kicking, pounding each other’s skulls in the dirt. A dust storm swirls around them, the men closing around like excited apes at a bloodfeast.
Most of the men seem to be pulling for Barnes – Chris just watching neutral.
LIEUTENANT WOLFE BREAK IT UP! ELIAS! BARNES!
But they rool on, smashing each other’s faces in. Both quick, fast, agile, mean fighters. Sgts.O’Neill and Warren drag them apart.
BARNES You’re dead, you’re fucking dead Elias!
ELIAS YOU – you’re going to fuckin’ jail, buddy, you ain’t getting away with this one!!!!!
WOLFE All right! All right! All right!!! NOW BREAK IT UP. LET’S GO …
They compose themselves, the Villagers looking on, grieving over their loss.
WOLFE (CONT’D) Alright, Six says torch this place! Blow the weapons in place. Round up all suspected Vee Cees and shake it up! We ain’t got much light left.
ELIAS (to Wolfe) Why the fuck didn’t you do something Lieutenant!
WOLFE What are you talking about! (turns away, goes about his business)
ELIAS (spins him around) You know what I’m talking about!
WOLFE No I don’t. I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, Elias! (goes)
Who wants to be reminded? A silence of shame. The Men moving away, Warren, Ace, Tony, Rodriguez, Barnes looking back once, a cold glare.
The Village Chief is a broken-looking man, huddled over his wife’s body.
Elias stands there, frustrated.
Chris glances at him, moves out.
EXT. SMALL VILLAGE – DAY
A zippo cigarette lighter with the engraved initials: ‘From Mai
lin to my Bunny Boy’. It sparks a thick flare as Bunny lights the dry straw on the roof of the Hutch where he killed the Old Woman and Young Boy.
Their legs sticking out at the threshold. The hooch burning fast, aided by the strong sun.
Bunny watches with awe.
EXT. SMALL VILLAGE – DAY
Sgt.Warren and Rodriguez lighting another hooch on fire.
EXT. VILLAGE RICE STORE – DAY
Fu Sheng yelling ‘FIRE IN THE HOLE!’ throws white phosphorus into the rice stores.
EXT. VILLAGE – WEAPONS CACHE – DAY
Barnes and Huffmeister, a big German kid from Texas, are laying the cord to blow the weapons cache.
EXT. SMALL VILLAGE – WELL – DAY
Adams and Parker are poisoning the well with a white phosphorus grenade: ‘FIRE IN THE HOLE!’
EXT. SMALL VILLAGE – DAY
Wolfe, Ace, Tubbs, Warren, Rogriguez rope the DOZEN SUSPECTED VILLAGERS together to take them back for questioning.
Elias watches the Villagers mourn their losses. In the background, explosions, hooches popping with flames, the yells of the violations of the Village winding down.
EXT. SMALL VILLAGE – DAY
Chris wanders through this wreckage in the sun, like a dazed visitor from another planet, not believing it. He sees something, goes towards it – knows what it is.
EXT. VILLAGE – EDGE OF WOODLINE – DAY
Hidden at the edge of the woodline, King hands back a bowl of grass to Rhah, the chief head. They’re puffing away.
KING Whew! – where that come from?
RHAH Found it. Growing in a garden.
KING (smokes) Sheeit, beats burning hutches anyway …
They meditatively look out at the Village – burning hutches sending up spirals of smoke. Shouts. Shots. Chaos.
RHAH Yeah – stoned’s the way to be …
EXT. VILLAGE – DITCH – DAY
In a ditch running alongside the Village, partially concealed by foliage and anthills, Tony, Morehouse, and the ubiquitous Bunny have a 12-YEAR-OLD VIETNAMESE GIRL pinned to the ground, gagged and squirming, naked. They are fucking her to death. Junior looks on, both curious and disgusted, but doesn’t take part.
TONY Take her up the ass …
As they roll her over, like excited dogs in heat.
Chris, coming up, sees their heads dipping up and down on the other side of the anthill, knows what they’re doing. He makes a conscious decision to do something. He runs over.
CHRIS LET HER GO! YOU HEAR ME! YOU ASSHOLE! LET HER GO!
He strides right into them, shoves them off hard. The girl is in tears.
TONY What the fuck you want – she’s a dink.
CHRIS NO – YOU STUPID FUCK … DON’T … DON’T … YOU TOO BUNNY. MOREHOUSE. OFF! NO! DON’T … DON’T!
He seems disconnected, dazed by the sun, like he’s talking to dogs – loud, repetitive words coming out of an anger he can barely control, trying to restore some sanity to a world gone totally nuts today. Don’t they understand? Don’tthey have any sense of a mind? Any kind of decency?
The Men looking at him as if he’s the one who’s gone nuts, not them. Bunny looking at Morehouse looking at Tony looking at Junior. The irony is lost on them, as Chris pushes through to help the poor girl put her scanty clothes back on.
CHRIS (CONT’D) (to the girl) It’s okay … it’s okay …
Elias appears behind Bunny and the others, sees what’s happened. He signals them to move out.
ELIAS Get outta here.
The men grumble and slink off quietly. Elias watching as…
Chris helps her to her feet, wounded in the intestines, she can barely stand, blood saoking in her nether regions. Chris slings her up as gently as he can and carries her.
CHRIS (as if to himself) It’s okay, it’s okay …
EXT. VILLAGE – PIG PEN – DAY
Near the pig pen, a DOZEN SUSPECTS are being led away on ropes by Tubbs, Warren, Rodriguez. The others left behind look back at their village in ruins, homes burning, livestock dead or scattered, belongings thrown and broken in the dirt. BABIES wail, the adults squat there on their heels watching with absolutely no trace of outward emotion.
Past this Bosch-like canvas, Chris – carrying the girl – walks dazed by the horrors of this long afternoon.
EXT. VILLAGE TRAIL – DAY
The soldiers depart the village. A huge EXPLOSION now rocks the earth and sends a spray of smoke into the blue sky as the weapons cache explodes in stages that sound like the end of the world.
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 …
