Full Metal Jacket

EXT. DA NANG STREET, VIETNAM – DAY

Motorcycles, cars, Vietnamese civilians. Swinging her hips with exaggerated sexiness, an attractive HOOKER in a mini-skirt walks toward a café table on the pavement where Joker and RAFTERMAN are seated.

Music: Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walking."

The girl stops at Joker's table.

HOOKER

Hey, baby, you got girlfriend Vietnam?

JOKER

Not just this minute.

HOOKER

Well, baby, me so horny. Me so horny. Me love you long time. You party?

JOKER

Yeah, we might party. How much?

HOOKER

Fifteen dolla.

JOKER

Fifteen dollars for both of us?

HOOKER

No. Each you fifteen dolla. Me love you long time. Me so horny.

JOKER

Fifteen dollar too boo-coo. Five dollars each.

HOOKER

Me suckee-suckee. Me love you too much.

JOKER

Five dollars is all my mom allows me to spend.

HOOKER

Okay! Ten dolla each.

JOKER

What do we get for ten dollars?

HOOKER

Everything you want.

JOKER

Everything?

HOOKER

Everything.

JOKER

Well, old buddy, feel like spending some of your hard-earned money?

RAFTERMAN

Just a minute.

Rafterman raises his Nikon and starts photographing Joker and the Hooker.

The girl strikes quick poses for the camera and coughs.

Joker puts his arm around her.

JOKER
You know, half these gook whores are serving officers in the Viet Cong.

The girl coughs again.

JOKER

The other half have got T.B. Make sure you only fuck the ones that cough.

A young vietnamese boy walks up behind Rafterman and grabs the Nikon camera from his hands.

The boy runs to an accomplice sitting on a waiting motorbike and tosses the camera to him. Then in mockery the BOY executes a few, Bruce Lee moves before jumping on the bike and zooming off:

Joker laughs.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. U.S. MARINE BASE – DAY

The main gates of the base. High-security fencing. Tanks, jeeps, trucks. A military helicopter lands.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. DA NANG BASE – DAY

Joker and Rafterman walk down the base street past rows of hootches and other buildings. In the background some marines play basketball.

JOKER
That little sucker really had some moves on him, didn't he?

RAFTERMAN

Yeah... You know what really pisses me off about these people?

JOKER

What?

RAFTERMAN

We're supposed to be helping them and they shit all over us every chance they get... I just can't feature that.

JOKER

Don't take it too hard, Rafterman. It's just business.

RAFTERMAN

I hate Da Nang, Joker. I want to go out into the field. I've been in this country almost three months, and all I do is take handshake shots at awards ceremonies.

JOKER

You get wasted your first day in the field and it'd be my fault.

RAFTERMAN

A high school girl could do my job. I want to get out into the shit. I want to get some trigger time.

JOKER

If you get killed, your mom will find me after I rotate back to the world and she'll beat the shit out of me. That's a negative, Rafterman.

INT. SEA-TIGER HUT – DAY

A Quonset hut. An editorial meeting of The Sea Tiger, the official marine newspaper, is in progress presided over by LIEUTENANT LOCKHART.

Joker, Rafterman, and SIX OTHER MARINE CORRESPONDENS are seated around a large messy table covered with cameras, photographs, newspapers and magazines.

LOCKHART

Okay, guys, let's keep it short and sweet today. Anybody got anything new?

JOKER

There's a rumor going around that the Tet ceasefire is gonna be cancelled.

LOCKHART

Rear-echelon paranoia.

JOKER

A bro in intelligence says Charlie might try to pull off something big during the Tet holiday.

LOCKHART

They say the same thing every year.

JOKER

There's a lot of talk about it, sir.

LOCKHART

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. The Tet holiday's like the Fourth of July, Christmas and New Year all rolled into one. Every zipperhead in Nam, North and South, will be banging gongs, barking at the moon and visiting his dead relatives.

LOCKHART

All right... Ann-Margret and entourage are due here next week. I want someone to be there on the airfield and stick with her for a couple of days. Uh, Rafterman, you take it.

RAFTERMAN

Aye-aye, sir.

LOCKHART

Get me some good low-angle stuff. Don't make it too obvious, but I want to see fur and early morning dew.

RAFTERMAN

Yes, sir.

LOCKHART

(reading)

"Diplomats in Dungarees – Marine engineers lend a helping hand rebuilding Dong Phuc villages..." Chili, if we move Vietnamese, they are evacuees. If they come to us to be evacuated, they are refugees.

CHILI

I'll make a note of it, sir.

LOCKHART

(reading)

"N.V.A. Soldier Deserts After Reading Pamphlets – A young North Vietnamese Army regular, who realized his side could not win the war, deserted from his unit after reading Open Arms program amphlets." That's good, Dave. But why say North Vietnamese Army regular? Is there an irregular? How about North Vietnamese Army soldier?

DAVE

I'll fix it up, sir.

LOCKHART

Lawrence Welk Show's gonna go out on TV in two weeks. Dave, do a hundred words on it. AFTV'll give you some background stuff.

DAVE

Yes, sir.