Platoon
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.
