Wild at Heart

Wild at Heart  

Screenplay by       David Lynch

Produced by      Monty Montgomery

          Steve Golin

          Joni Sighvatsson

Directed by      David Lynch

Cast List:

Nicolas Cage      Sailor Ripley

Laura Dern      Lula Pace Fortune

Diane Ladd      Mariette Fortune

Willem Dafoe      Bobby Peru

Isabella Rossellini    Perdita Durango

Harry Dean Stanton    Johnnie Farragut

Crispin Glover      Dell

Grace Zabriskie      Juana

J.E. Freeman      Marcello Santos

W. Morgan Sheppard    Mr. Reindeer

Calvin Lockhart      Reginald Sula

And now the story of Sailor and Lula...

FADE IN:

EXT. CITY STREET – DAY

A MAN rides a screaming massive Japanese motorcycle – wound out to maximum R.P.M. up the street.

CUT TO:

SIGN BY ROADSIDE

The sign reads "KIDS PLAYING – SPEED BUMPS".

CUT TO:

EXT. CITY STREET – DAY

With a whine from hell, the front tire of the motorcycle hits a speed bump.

The motorcycle becomes airborne and on the way up slices itself in half as it scrapes along the full length of a Datsun Kingcab.

In the air, the rider and motorcycle twist violently as they fly by.

The motorcycle bounces off a black '66 Chevrolet and makes a sound like the end of the world.

The rider hits the same Chevy a moment later. Like a broken ragdoll shot from a canon, the man punches through the back window blowing glass for a block. He stops somewhere under the front seat and a bubble of blood forms out his nose.

The motorcycle continues on sliding and spinning with an ear-piercing howl for one entire city block.

CUT TO:

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD STREETS – VACANT LOT – DAY

Two rabid dogs fight ferociously in a vacant lot – ripping each other’s flesh. An OLD COUPLE, both with walkers, inch painfully along nearby.

OLD WOMAN

Oh my God! Why they doin' that?

OLD MAN

Who the hell knows. What you have in your mouth?

The old woman begins to turn away, covering her mouth with her hand.

OLD MAN

Spit it out!!! Pull your teeth out... doctor said. What you tryin' to do? SPIT IT OUT!!!

The Old Man grabs the Old Woman by the neck and squeezes. Out comes a tangled and sticky ball of hard fruit candies.

CUT TO:

WASP NEST

A thousand wasps hover threateningly in the air around the nest. A SMALL GROUP OF HARDENED CRIMINAL NINE-YEAR OLDS sporting hideous grins, bat the nest violently to and fro with sticks. One kid busies himself shooting a large can of Black Flag garden spray into a crack in the nest. Another stomps half-dead wasps up and down the sidewalk. All the kids are making animal noises of one sort or the other.

CUT TO:

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

The telephone rings. MARIETTA PACE FORTUNE, a rich Southern woman around fifty, carries her Martini and Rossi sweet vermouth drink across the livingroom and answers the phone.

MARIETTA

Hello... Who is this?

CUT TO:

INT. PEE DEE COUNTY WORK FARM – DAY

A GUARD stands by as SAILOR RIPLEY, twenty-three years old – lost somewhere between the cool long-gone generation and a used-car salesman – speaks on a prisoner phone in a green cement cubicle with one bench.

SAILOR

(into phone)

... Sailor Ripley... Can I talk to Lula?

CUT TO:

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

MARIETTA

There’s no way in hell you can speak to her and...

CUT TO:

INT. PEE DEE COUNTY WORK FARM – DAY

SAILOR

(feeling a smile coming on)

What?...

CUT TO:

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

MARIETTA

... Yes you heard me... Don’t ever call back here again.

Marietta hangs up the phone as LULA PACE FORTUNE, Marietta’s twenty-year old daughter, comes quickly down the stairs.

LULA

Mama???

MARIETTA

You know who it was and you know you aren’t, and I mean ARE NOT gonna see him EVER... End of story.

LULA

(quietly)

Like hell.

Marietta, her hand still on the telephone, grips the receiver so hard her knuckles turn white.

CUT TO:

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – LULA'S ROOM UPSTAIRS – DAY

Lula enters her room and cranks up her stereo. Speed metal music jumps up to around one hundred twenty decibels.

CUT TO:

INT. PEE DEE COUNTY WORK FARM – DAY

The guard escorts Sailor away from the telephone and back to his cell. The iron bars of the door slide across Sailor’s face and close with a bang.

CUT TO:

EXT. THE MUSIC BAR – NIGHT

A beat-up, red ’64 Ford Falcon station wagon filled with insane TEENAGERS on speed and PCP race out of control down the street past the club – leaning out the car in every direction. They scream out to the desolate-looking passerby.

TEENAGERS

EAT SHIT MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!

The camera cranes up to the neon club sign and gets lost among the hot pink neon, the frantic moths and the intense electric buzz.

CUT TO:

INT. THE MUSIC BAR – NIGHT

Lula and her friend, BEANY THORN, sit at a table drinking rum Coca-Colas while watching and listening to a white blues band called THE BLEACH BOYS. The group segues smoothly from Elmore James’s "Dust my Broom" into Robert Johnson’s "Me and the Devil" and Beany lets out a snort.

BEANY

I can dig this music... But not that singer.

LULA

Why? He’s right in the groove.

BEANY

He’s so ugly. Guys with beards and beer guts ain’t quite my type.

LULA

(giggles)

Seein’s how you’re about as thick as a used string of unwaxed dental floss, don’t know how you can criticize.

BEANY

Yeah, well, if he says that all that flab turns into dick at midnight, he’s a liar.

Lula and Beany laugh and swallow some of their drinks.

BEANY

So, Sailor’s gettin’ out soon, and you’re gonna see him?

Lula nods and crushes an ice cube with her back teeth and chews it.

LULA

Meetin' him at the gate. That phone call this afternoon was the signal. My deranged mama's hid the keys to my car. But of course, I know exactly where they are.

BEANY

I didn't hate me so much, I'd feel better wishin' you luck.

LULA

Can't all husbands be perfect, and your Elmo prob'ly wouldn'ta ever got that second one pregnant, you hadn't kicked his ass out.

BEANY

So you're gonna be needin' the "blue-bird" pretty soon?

LULA

Real soon... I'll be makin' the swap tomorrow, and thanks again, Beany.

The Bleach Boys kick into some kind of Professor Longhair swamp mambo.

CUT TO:

EXT. BAY ST. CLEMENT – DAY

Plumes of smoke from fires rise in the distance.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

An empty living room. The smoke from the city fire appears during the course of the DISSOLVE to be in the living room – then it disappears.

An empty hallway.

An empty stairway.

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – MARIETTA'S BEDROOM – DAY

Feet (Lula's) was across carpet.

A closet door opens.

A hand (Lula's) reaches into the pocket of a coat in her mother's closet. The hand comes out clutching car keys.

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – STAIRWAY – DAY

Lula races down the stairs and through a door into the garage.

CUT TO:

EXT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

The electronic garage door opens and Lula drives her '80 Black Camaro out and away. The garage door closes automatically.

CUT TO:

EXT. CITY STREETS – DAY

Lula drives fast up a neighborhood street. She turns a corner and disappears.

CUT TO:

INT. BEANY THORN'S GARAGE – DAY

Lula throws her car keys under the front seat and goes around to Beany's '67 dark blue Thunderbird convertible – fishes around under the T-Bird's front seat for the keys – finds them – jumps in and takes off.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

Marietta leaves her Cadillac Seville in her driveway and enters the house. We can hear her calling out for Lula in the distance. The calling changes – it becomes angry. The garage door opens and Marietta comes storming out. She leaps in her Caddy and peels out.

CUT TO:

INT. "SOUTHERN TIME" BAR – DAY

Marietta enters the bar on the run. She calls out to the BARTENDER...

MARIETTA

Where's Johnnie? He's not in his office.

BARTENDER

Haven't seen 'im yet today, Marietta.

MARIETTA

(slightly hysterical)

Well I gotta find him – right this minute!

CUT TO:

EXT. PEE DEE COUNTY WORK FARM – DAY

Sailor is waiting out front as Lula pulls up in her T-Bird – throwing out a cloud of dust. They're both smiling.

LULA

Hey baby...

SAILOR

Peanut...

They kiss tenderly and then Sailor walks around the car to get in while Lula opens up a suitcase and gets out his snakeskin jacket.

SAILOR

Hey, my snakeskin jacket... Thanks, baby... Did I ever tell you that this here jacket for me is a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom?

LULA

'Bout fifty thousand times. I got us a room at the Cape Fear, and guess what?... I hear Powermad's at "The Hurricane."

SAILOR

(smiling)

Stab it and steer.

Lula tromps it and throws out an even larger cloud of dust.

CUT TO:

INT. CAPE FEAR HOTEL – DAY

Sailor and Lula lay on the bed in the Cape Fear Hotel listening to the fan creak.

LULA

Did you ever think somethin' like about the wicked witch of the east comin' flyin' in?... Did you ever think somethin' and then later think you've said it out loud to someone?