Raising Arizona

EVELLE

Are you crazy?! He can't wait here by hisself. Supposin' we get killed in there – it could be hours before he's discovered.

INT. FARMERS AND MECHANICS BANK

As Gale and Evelle bang in through the door. Evelle holds a shotgun; Gale holds a shotgun in one hand and Nathan Jr. in his car seat in the other.

GALE
All right you hayseeds, it's a stick-up! Everbody freeze! Everbody down on the ground!

Everyone freezes, staring at Gale and Evelle. An Old Hayseed with his hands in the air speaks up:

HAYSEED
Well which is it young fella? You want I should freeze or get down on the ground? Mean to say, iffen I freeze, I can't rightly drop. And iffen I drop, I'm a gonna be in motion. Ya see –

GALE

SHUTUP!

Promptly:

HAYSEED

Yessir.

GALE

Everone down on the ground!

EVELLE

Y'all can just forget that part about freezin'.

GALE

That is until they get down there.

EVELLE

Y'all hear that?

There is a murmur of acknowledgment from all the people on the ground.

Gale is tossing Evelle a sack.

GALE
Wanna fill that sack, pardner? We got – shit!

He, is looking in shock at the tellers' counter.

GALE

... Where'd all the tellers go?

There is no one behind the counter.

A muffled voice from offscreen:

VOICE

We're down here, sir.

EVELLE

They're down on the ground like you commanded, Gale.

GALE

I told you not to use m'damn name! Can't you even try to keep from forget' that?!

Evelle is momentarily abashed, but then brightens:

EVELLE
Not even yer code name?

Gale registers understanding.

GALE

Oh yeah... m'code name.

EVELLE

Y'all hear that?

There is a murmur of acknowledgment from all the people on the ground.

GALE

All right now everone, we're just about ready to begin the robbery proper...

EXT. POLICE CAR

The camera is locked down on the roof of the rocketing squad car, looking past its flashing gumballs.

The car is approaching the townlet, its siren wailing.

BACK TO THE BANK

A teller is finishing stuffing the last of two burlap bags. Close on her hands, we see her putting in a cash packet that is really only a few bills and a sleeve surrounding and hiding a small plastic device.

The teller hits a button on the device and it starts ticking; she shoves it into the sack.

EVELLE

All right now everyone, you know how this works: Y'all stay flattened for ten full minutes...

He is grabbing the two sacks and tosses one to Gale, who also picks up the baby. As the two are backing toward the door:

EVELLE

... We might come back in five to check. That's for us to know and y'a to find out.

GALE
Anyone found bipedal in five wears his ass for a hat.

They bolt out the door.

EXT. POLICECAR

Siren jumps in loud at the cut. It is the same locked-down shot over the gumballs.

EXT. GALE AND EVELLE‘S CAR

Peeling out from in front of the bank.

INT. GALE AND EVELLE'S CAR

Gale is driving; Evelle starts pawing through one of the sacks.

GALE
That old timer threw off my concentration. Otherwise it would a gone smoother.

EVELLE

We done okay. Yessir. This ought to split nicely three ways.

A thought registers with Gale and Evelle at the same moment.

They look at each other. They both twist frantically to look in the back seat.

Bellowing:

GALE
Goddamnit! Ya never leave a man behind!

KA-POP! With a loud flat crack something detonates in the front seat and the interior of the car is spattered with bright blue paint.

Gale and Evelle, both covered in blue, are screaming in rage, fear and incomprehension. Blue dollar bills snap and flutter around the inside of the car.

The car is swerving wildly as Gale drives blind, the inside of the windshield covered with blue paint. He reaches forward to wipe clear a patch of windshield.

HIS POV

As the blue paint is smeared away we see Hi and Ed's car parked broadside in the middle of the road. Hi and Ed are in front of it, Hi aiming his scatter gun, Ed a revolver.

The guns spit orange flame.

HI'S POV

Down the barrel of his shotgun. The car with the blue interior is swerving crazily at us, one front tire blown out.

Hi lets go with the other barrel.

The shot chews up the front grill, shatters one headlight and blows out the other front tire. The hood of the car flies open.

The car is squealing to a halt and Gale and Evelle pile out, still bellowing.

GALE
Goddamnit H.I., ain't we got enough to contend with?

Ed is running over to Gale and Evelle's car, throwing open the back door to look for the baby but coming out only with Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care.

Evelle is staggering around in shock, looking in disbelief at his own blue body.

ED
Where's the baby?

Evelle points this way and that, in a state of confusion.

EVELLE

I think we left him on the roof of the... he must be back at the...

Hi and Ed are climbing into their car.

GALE

Let us come with!

Hi and Ed are already peeling out.

GALE
... He's our baby too!

CLOSE ON NATHAN JR.

Sitting placidly in his car seat that sits in the middle of the road in front of the bank.

We can hear the wail of the police siren still approaching.

As we hold on Nathan Jr. we hear the distant booming of a shotgun.

As we boom up to show the empty street beyond the baby, we hear the crack of return fire and furiously squealing brakes. The screech culminates in a loud explosion that snaps off the siren wail. The police car is apparently history.

From beyond the crest of the road ahead a ball of flame has leapt up with the explosion. As the explosion echoes and fades we hear the deep rumble of an approaching engine.

Lenny Smalls' motorcycle appears over the rise. Framed against fire and smoke, he is coming directly toward us, and the baby.

FROM BEHIND HI AND ED
 

As they top a rise coming from the other direction. We see the baby sitting in the middle of the street, and Lenny fast approaching from the background.

LOCKED DOWN TO MOTORCYCLE

The extremely low wide shot, locked down to the speeding bike, shows us rushing toward the rear of Nathan Jr's car seat.

With a clank of chains Lenny's hand drops down into frame, palm forward, tensing to scoop up the car seat that we are almost upon.

A tattoo on Lenny‘s wrist reads "No Prisoners."

REVERSE

Low shot with Nathan Jr. in the foreground.

He is scooped up and out of frame as Lenny roars by.

ON LENNY

Roaring along. He hooks the car seat over his handlebars.

OVER HI AND ED'S SHOULDERS
 

Lenny is approaching. Under her breath:

ED

What is he?
 

HI

... D'you see him too?

Lenny is sawing a shotgun out of his back holster and leveling it at the oncoming car.

Lenny is sighting down the gun, swinging it around as he approaches the car.

Hi and Ed duck just as:

The shotgun spits orange flame and the windshield explodes in.

Lenny roars by.

LENNY'S POV

The baby on the handlebars in the foreground; the road rushing by beyond him.

The bike banks into a hard turn.

FACING HI AND ED
 

Shooting through where the windshield used to be, cutting in at the end of the skid as the car rocks to a halt.

Hi and Ed are raising their heads. Facing forward, they do not see Lenny approaching again through the rear window.

He is sawing out his second shotgun.

Hi looks around, reaches and pulls Ed down beneath him just as:

KA-BOOM! – The second shotgun roars and the back window spits in.

As Lenny roars past the back window he casually flips something in.

LOOKING DOWN AT HI AND ED
 

Folded over in the front seat. Below them something bounces into and around the leg well – Lenny's grenade.

EXT. CAR

As the two front doors fly open and Hi and Ed spill out – Hi from the driver's side, heading for the far side of the road, and Ed from the passenger side.

ON ED
 

As she dives for cover behind a parked car. Beyond her – KABOOM! – their car explodes and bounces, pouring black smoke.

ON HI

The explosion flings him to the ground in the middle of the street.

THROUGH FIRE AND SMOKE

Looking up the street to where Lenny is wheeling his bike in a U-turn. He is not finished yet.

Hi flat on his back, woozily shaking his head.

He weakly raises himself on his elbows to look down the street.

HI'S POV

Looking down the length of his own body. His legs stretch away in a V.

Crashing down from a wheelie, Lenny's roaring bike is almost upon him – aiming up the middle of the V.

HI

He rolls. As the bike is roaring by:

HI'S HAND

Reaches and snags a chain on Lenny's passing boot.