Raising Arizona

His index finger and thumb are pinched together-holding the leg of a struggling fly that he has just plucked from the air.

SMALLS
... and the people that took him...

He flicks the fly away.

SMALLS

... I'll kick their butts.

He sits back down.

SMALLS

... No extra charge.

Nathan stares grimly at Smalls.

NATHAN
And if I don't pay?

SMALLS

Oh I'll get your boy regardless. Cause if you don't pay, the market will.

NATHAN

You wanna know what I think? I think you're an evil man. I think this is nothin' but a goddamn screw job. I think it's a shakedown. I think you're the one took Nathan Jr. and my fine friend, I think you're the one gonna get his butt kicked...

Nathan swivels to punch numbers on a telephone.

NATHAN
... I think I'm on the phone to the cops right now, and I –

He swivels back, looking up, and his speech stops short.

HIS POV

The office is empty. A whipcrack effect builds to the cut and:

CLOSE ON HI

His eyes snap open as the whipcrack echoes away.

He has been slumped over the kitchen table, asleep.

GALE (O.S.)

Up and attem, H.I. Today is the first day of the rest of your fife...

EVELLE (O.S.)

... and already you're fuckin' it up.

Hi looks up.

Gale and Evelle are smiling down at him.

EVELLE
Come on, the missus'll be back from town soon.

Hi takes the envelope that he was slumped over, to Ed written on its face. As he sticks it to the refrigerator door with a broccoli magnet:

HI
Where's the baby?

EVELLE

Bedroom, in his crib.

GALE

He's sawin' toothpicks, he'll be fine.

There is a harsh knock at the door. All three tense.

GALE

... You expectin' anybody?

Hi is staring. The knock comes again.

HI
No. You two stay outta sight.

He goes to the door, pulls back its shade and peeks out. Under his breath:

HI

Shit.

He opens the door.

EXT. TRAILER

It is Glen. He backs nervously down to the foot of the stoop as Hi stands in the half open doorway. Glen comes to rest a few feet away from the stoop.

He is wearing a neckbrace. The bridge of his eyeglasses is taped together. Cotton wadding is stuffed up his nose, which is darkly discolored. He holds a rolled up newspaper.

His station wagon is parked behind him, idling.

HI
Morning Glen.

Glen speaks in a very nasal voice:

GLEN
I ain't comin' in if ya don't mind. I'll just keep my distance.

HI

I didn't invite you in, Glen.

GLEN

Well don't even bother. First off, you're fired – and that's official.

HI

I kinda figured that, Glen.

GLEN

Well that ain't why I'm here neither. No sir. You're in a whole shitload of trouble, my friend.

Hi is looking at him evenly.

HI

Why don't you just calm down, Glen.

GLEN

Why don't you make me?! Know that little baby you got in there? Remember him? I know what his real name is!

Hi is suddenly nervous and urgent:

HI
Wanna keep your voice down, Glen?

GLEN

I'll pitch my voice wherever I please! His name ain't Hi Jr.! His name ain't Ed Jr.! But it's junior an right! Yes sir, it's Nathan Jr.!

Hi takes one step down holding out a calming hand.

Glen takes two nervous steps away and reassures himself by resting a hand on the door of his station wagon.

GLEN
... Stay away from me, McDunnough!

Hi stops short. Glen smiles.

GLEN
... Sure, you're an awful big man when you got somethin' around to clobber a guy with!

HI

(softly)

I ain't a big man.

GLEN

That's right! And now you're at my mercy!

He spits on the dirt in front of him.

GLEN

... I'm your worst nightmare! I wanted to just turn you in for the re-ward. But Dot, she wants something to cuddle. So it looks like that baby's gonna be Glen Jr. From now on!

Hi's face is set in rigid dismay.

GLEN
... I'll give you a day to break the news to Ed...

Glen is getting into his car.

GLEN
... Dot'll be by tomorrow to pick him up.

He slams the door.

GLEN

... It's either that or jail. Oh and say, that reminds me! You'll find a doctor bill in the mail in a few days. I recommend you pay it!

And the car squeals off.

Hi looks back at the trailer.

HIS POV

A slat in the window blind drops back into place.

BACK TO HI

He opens the door.

INT. TRAILER

Evelle is already emerging from the bedroom with the baby in his arms.

Hi moves toward Evelle. His teeth are set; he means business.

HI
What's goin' on here.

Gale steps in front of Hi .

GALE
You know what's goin' on, H.I. It's just business. Now this can go either hard or easy –

Hi gives Gale a hard push to get past him. Gale staggers back but recovers and grabs Hi in a bear hug.

Hi flips Gale. Gale lands on a coffee table which flips up and crashes back down.

Evelle is dancing back out of Hi's reach. As Hi lunges for him the prostrate Gale grabs his legs.
 

Hi goes down hard.

Gale leaps to his feet and – CRASH – bangs his head up against an overhanging lamp. Both of his hands fly up to massage the top of his head.

THOOMP – Hi's fist flies into frame to connect with Gale's unguarded stomach. Gale doubles over, clutching at his gut.

Hi interlaces his fingers to make a club of his two hands.

With Gale's bowed head a target in front of him, Hi swings his hands up over his head.

Hi's knuckles scrape painfully against the plaster of the too – low ceiling. Skin is flayed, plaster crumbles.

Hi grabs at his knuckles in pain. Gale lunges with a mid-body tackle that sends Hi crashing into the wall.

Gale, still on top of him, reaches back to throw a punch.

The reach-back sends his elbow crashing through a window but doesn't stop the punch.

It connects with Hi's jaw.

Gale throws another quick punch, all his weight behind it. Hi's head bobs sideways just in time and Gale's fist goes through the wall. It is momentarily stuck there.

Hi uses the opportunity to grab Gale's one free arm with both of his. He is twisting it to make Gale, roaring with pain, twist around and present his back to him.

Hi climbs aboard, grabbing Gale's face.

Gale, still roaring, is pulling his fist out of the hole. He grabs a lath exposed by the hole and pulls; it tears out of the wall and snaps free, giving him a length of about two feet.

Gale is rampaging around like a Qrizzlil bear hemmed in a too-small space. Hi is hanging on for dear life, his own feet flailing this way and that, knocking over lamps and wall fixtures as Gale bends and twirls about, trying to shake him loose. Gale crashes and bounces off the walls, roaring in pain and fury.

Close shots of Gale's face show his features impossibly and grotesquely contorted by Hi's hand, squeezing, gripping and clutching at it.

Evelle is dancing around with the baby, dodging crashing furniture and flailing body parts.

EXT. WIDE SHOT THE TRAILER

At the cut Gale's roaring drops out. We hear the chirping of birds and the laughter of children playing in the neighborhood.

It is a sunny day.

BACK TO INT. TRAILER

Gale still roars. With a last mighty effort, he finally swings Hi off his body.

Hi crashes against a wall and through it to land in the:

BATHROOM

Amid a shower of plaster dust and lath. Hi has landed, groggily, against the toilet.

Evelle enters now with his hands free, apparently having set the baby down somewhere.

He yanks the cord off the bathroom blinds.

LIVING ROOM

Hi is seated in a straight-back chair, still violently struggling but Gale's arms are wrapped around him from behind.

Evelle is just finishing tying off his wrists behind the chair.

No one talks; there is nothing left to say.

Finished, Gale goes to the door and Evelle goes to the bedroom. He emerges with the baby and precedes Gale out the door, Gale slamming it behind him.

Hi starts bucking and struggling, weeping tears of rage and frustration. He succeeds only in tipping forward, face down into the carpet, the strapped-on chair pressing down on top of him.

His profile is pressed into the carpet.

Offscreen we hear the door of the trailer opening.

HI'S POV

At carpet level. Gale's shoes enter his field of vision. They stride over to a mess of debris in the corner of the living room.

OBJECTIVE SHOT

As Gale paws through the wreckage to expose the copy of Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care. He grabs the book.

HI'S POV

The feet walk away and leave his field of vision.

CLOSE ON HI
 

As we hear the door slam shut with horrible finality.

Hi's mouth stretches wide. He ROARS with grief and frustration.

WIDE SHOT

Moving down the road toward an oncoming car. As the oncoming car gets closer we can see Gale and Evelle in its front seat.

As the car passes we pan with it, to reveal that we have been shooting from the inside of another car, and we hold on the profile of its driver: Ed. She has just watched the other car shoot past.

ED
... Good.

QUICK FADE OUT
 

INT. DEVASTATED TRAILER

As Ed sits heavily into frame, apparently in shock, her frozen profile to the camera as she stares straight ahead into space.

Her foreground hand absently holds a length of cord.

Beyond her in the middle background Hi is rummaging in the debris. He stands up, cropped from the chest down and starts loading bullets into the chamber of Ed's .38 police special.

HI
(frantically)

I know you're worried honey but believe me, there ain't a thing to worry about. We're gonna get him back, there just ain't no question about that...

He snaps the chamber shut and leaves frame, still talking.

HI

... We'll get him back, that's just all there is to it. And you wanna know another thing?

He is walking back into frame holding another handgun now in addition to the .38, this one an automatic.

HI

... I'm gonna be a better person from here on out. And that's final, I mean that's absolutely the way it's gonna be, that's official. You were right and I was wrong...

He snaps a clip into the automatic.

HI

... A blind man could tell you that. Now they ain't gonna hurt him, they're just in it for the score...

Hi is leaving frame again, continuing to talk as we hear him rummaging offscreen.

HI

... But I ain't like that no more, I'm a changed man. You were right and I was wrong. We got a family here and I'm gonna start acting responsibly...

Hi enters frame with the two handguns stuck in his belt, holding his pump-action shotgun.

HI

... So let's go honey...

He primes the shotgun: WHOOSH-CLACK.

HI

... Let's go get Nathan Jr.

TRACKING SHOT

From the front bumper of an automobile. Beautiful desert stretches to the horizon. The road rushes under the camera.