Sleepy Hollow Shooting Script
Katrina and Young Masbath break out into the open. Ichabod drives toward them…
KATRINA Ichabod!
Ichabod meets them, halts the coach and jumps down (as the coach horses trot away), running to put his arms around Katrina and Young Masbath…
ICHAB0D Thank God…
Lady Van Tassel’s mad laughter is heard. Ichabod and Katrina turn as…
Lady Van Tassel rides from around the windmill on her white horse. She shrieks with laughter.
ALONG THE TREELINE, the Horseman breaks into the open… Hell on horseback-full speed ahead…
LADY VAN TASSEL (0.S.) Have you come back to arrest him after all?!
Ichabod thinks fast, moving to the windmill, leading Katrina and Young Masbath along with him.
ICHABOD Quickly… !
Behind, wind tosses Lady Van Tassel’s dress and hair. She holds the Horseman’s skull high.
LADY VAN TASSEL Mind your hat, Constable!
Young Masbath scurries up the ladder and in.
Katrina’s next. Ichabod looks behind… The Horseman is almost upon them.
Ichabod follows Katrina, pulling himself up. The Horseman arrives, dismounting, moving forward…
INT. WINDMILL-NIGHT
Ichabod leaps up, lifts the heavy trap door on its hinges, slams it. The door is POUNDED from outside, buckling.
YOUNG MASBATH It won’t hold.
Ichabod goes to a large GRINDSTONE against a wall. He struggles to roll it…
Young Masbath helps him roll it to the trapdoor. It falls on top with a THUD. Masbath jumps back as the Horseman’s sword jabs up through the grindstone’s center hole.
The sword withdraws. POUNDING begins anew.
EXT. WINDMILL-NIGHT
The Horseman chops at the door with his axe.
INT. WINDMILL-NIGHT
POUNDING CONTINUES, Katrina and Young Masbath back away. Ichabod holds his lantern up, desperate for ideas, searching.
Above, to the right, is the high MILLING PLATFORM, where grain is ground and bagged, and a ladder leading to it. To the left is the crooked, open STAIRCASE.
Ichabod picks up a BAILING HOOK, a plan forming. He gives his lantern to Katrina and points.
ICHABOD Get up these stairs. Open the door to the roof and wait.
Katrina and Young Masbath obey, heading left. Ichabod crosses to the right, starts climbing the ladder to the milling platform…
On the platform, Ichabod grasps a wooden lever, pulling it.
The entire windmill CREAKS and GROANS as massive GEARS and COUNTERWHEELS above begin to turn.
EXT. WINDMILL-NIGHT
The windmill’s rotors slowly begin spinning.
UNDER THE WINDMILL, the Horseman keeps chopping…
His axe exposes grindstone, throwing sparks.
INT. WINDMILL-NIGHT
Katrina looks down from the stairway. The POUNDING on the trap door causes the grindstone to jump.
KATRINA Ichabod…
ICHABOD Keep climbing. I will follow… (under his breath) Hopefully.
Ichabod drags large BAGS of GRAIN, lining them up at the edge of the milling platform.
ABOVE, Young Masbath throws open the door to the roof.
BELOW, Ichabod uses the bailing hook to cut holes into the grain bags, so that MILLED GRAIN SPILLS out and falls to the floor, creating clouds of grain dust.
Ichabod grabs one open bag, dumps it.
He slices into a sack hanging from a pulley system, pushes it so it swings in circles, grain flooding out…
More and more DUST RISES, filling the air…
EXT. WINDMILL ROOF-NIGHT
Masbath and Katrina come out. Rotors spin behind them.
INT. WINDMILL-NIGHT
The GRINDSTONE blocking the trap door FALLS THROUGH as wood splinters and gives. A moment, then the Horseman climbs in.
KATRINA (looking in from above) Behind you!
Ichabod looks down, sees the Horseman, then looks to the staircase adjacent from the high platform. He runs…
He LEAPS across the space between the platform and stairs…
Ichabod grasps the outer rail of the staircase, hanging on, pulls himself up onto the stairs…
Below, the Horseman moves through clouds of billowing dust, runs and LEAPS, incredibly high…
The Horseman grasps a hanging chain, swinging, his momentum carrying him in a wide arc…
Above, Ichabod runs upstairs, to the roof door.
The Horseman’s weight swings him toward the stairwell…
He releases the chain… airborne momentarily…
The Horseman lands high up on the stairwell.
EXT. WINDMILL ROOF-NIGHT
Katrina and Young Masbath help Ichabod onto the roof.
KATRINA Quickly, close it!
ICHABOD No…
Ichabod takes the lantern from Katrina.
ICHABOD (CONT’D) (points) Get to the crest of the roof and be ready to jump.
YOUNG MASBATH Jump? From up here?!
INT. WINDMILL-NIGHT
The Horseman clomps upstairs, axe in hand.
EXT. WINDMILL ROOF-NlGHT
Ichabod shepherds Katrina and Young Masbath to the edge, where the rotors spin close.
ICHABOD Jump for the sails! Wait till I give the word!
KATRINA Ichabod!… I can’t…
ICHABOD Yes, you can, my love-hand in hand…
Ichabod moves back to the trap door.
Katrina and Young Masbath look at the rotors, and down at the long distance between them and the ground.
ICHABOD (CONT’D) Be ready…
Ichabod DROPS the LANTERN into the windmill and runs…
ICHABOD (CONT’D) Now!
INT. WINDMILL-NIGHT
The Horseman continues up. The lantern falls past…
EXT. WINDMILL, ROOF-NIGHT
Young Masbath jumps. Ichabod grips Katrina, jumps…
They hit one rotor, gripping the frame and cloth as the rotor begins its DOWNWARD TURN…
INT. WINDMILL-NIGHT
The lantern hits the ground and shatters-FLAMES EXPLODE!
Throughout the windmill’s interior, grain dust is consumed instantaneously-FLAMES ROAR upward…
FLAMES engulf the Horseman…
EXT. WINDMILL-NIGHT
The rotor is halfway to its lowest point. Masbath, Katrina and Ichabod hang on as the ENTIRE STRUCTURE TREMBLES…
Flames shoot out windows, doors and seams!
