by Annie Proulx
ENNIS tries to ignore her.
ALMA looks out the window…sees JACK outside his pickup, he leans against the driver door.
ENNIS opens the hall closet. Takes out a duffel bag. Starts to pack.
ALMA’S eyes widen…
ENNIS takes his rod, reel and creel case out of the closet.
ENNIS
That foreman owes me. I worked through a blizzard last Christmas, remember? Besides, I’ll only be a couple of days.
ALMA JR. hears her father’s voice, stumbles out of the bedroom, rubs sleep out of her eyes.
ALMA JR.
Bring me a fish, Daddy, a big fish.
ENNIS
(to Alma Jr. )
Come here.
Gives her a big kiss.
Turns to ALMA.
Awkward.
Gives her a quick one-arm hug, kisses her on the cheek.
ENNIS (CONT’D)
See you Sunday, latest.
Leaves.
ALMA goes to the window.
Looks out…sees ENNIS throw his stuff in the back of JACK’S truck. Gets in the passenger side, JACK gets in the driver’s side.
They pull away, as Riverton comes to life.
ALMA, pale, filled with disquiet, pain, fear, watches them go. Cries.
EXT. WYOMING MOUNTAIN ROAD: DAY: 1967
From afar, the truck making its way up the mountains.
EXT: WYOMING MOUNTAIN ROAD: REMOTE SITE: DAY: 1967: CONTINUOUS:
The truck pulls up to a remote site. JACK puts the truck into park, kills the engine.
ENNIS jumps out of the truck.
ENNIS
Last one in…!
EXT: WYOMING MOUNTAIN ROAD: CLIFF: DAY: 1967: CONTINUOUS:
The boys race to the cliff edge, taking off their clothes as they go. Jump off the cliff into the lake below.
EXT. WYOMING CAMPSITE: NIGHT: 1967
Fire dying down, dinner done, ENNIS and JACK seemingly back in their old routine.
ENNIS lies back, looks up.
JACK
Anything interesting up there in heaven?
ENNIS
I was just sending up a prayer of thanks.
JACK
For what?
ENNIS
For you forgettin’ to bring that harmonica. I’m enjoyin’ the peace and quiet.
JACK
You know, it could be this way. Just like this, always.
ENNIS looks at JACK, sits up.
ENNIS
Yeah? How you figure that?
A beat…JACK takes a deep breath.
JACK
(earnest)
What if you and me had a little ranch together somewhere, little cow-and-calf operation, it’d be some sweet life. Hell, Lureen’s old man, you bet he’d give me a downpayment if I’d get lost. Already more or less said it.…
ENNIS
(tense now)
Told you, ain’t goin’ to be that way.
JACK looks stricken.
ENNIS (CONT’D)
What I’m sayin’, you got your wife and baby down in Texas, I got my life in Riverton.
JACK
Is that so? You and Alma, that’s a life?
ENNIS stands.
ENNIS
Shut up about Alma. This ain’t her fault. (a beat)
Bottom line, we’re around each other and this thing grabs on to us again in the wrong place, wrong time, we’ll be dead.
Lights a cigarette, then…
FLASHBACK: EXT: SIDE OF THE ROAD: WYOMING: DAY: 1952:
LOW ANGLE - ENNIS’S FATHER leads ENNIS and K.E., ENNIS’S older brother, down a narrow trail, to the edge of an irrigation ditch. Camera is on their backs and ENNIS’S FATHER’S head is out of frame.
ENNIS
(V.O.)
There was these two old guys ranched together down home, Earl and Rich. They was a joke in town, even though they was pretty tough old birds. They found Earl dead in a irrigation ditch. They’d took a tire iron to him, spurred him up, drug him around by his dick till it pulled off.…
Nine-year-old ENNIS and eleven-year-old K.E. look down at EARL’S CORPSE.
WE SEE the YOUNG ENNIS looking down at the body—as his eyes widen, WE SEE the horror wash over his nine-year-old face…
CUT BACK:
EXT. WYOMING CAMPSITE: NIGHT: 1967:
Another beat.
JACK
(white)
You seen that?
ENNIS
(flat)
I was what, nine years old? My daddy, he made sure me and my brother seen it. Hell, for all I know, he done the job.
(pause)
Two guys livin’ together? No way. We can get together once in a while way the hell out in the back of nowhere, but…
JACK can hardly believe what he’s hearing now…feels as if he’s in free-fall.
JACK
(voice shakes)
…Once in a while…ever’ four fuckin’ years!?
ENNIS looks at him.
ENNIS
If you can’t fix it, Jack…you gotta stand it.
JACK
(quiet)
For how long?
ENNIS thinks for a moment.
ENNIS
Long as we can ride it.
(pause)
Ain’t no reins on this one.
Both quiet.
Look up at the stars.
EXT. RIVERTON, WYOMING: DEL MAR APARTMENT: DAY: 1971:
The back of the Riverton laundromat.
ALMA JR., age 6, and JENNY, age 4, on a rusty metal swing set, impassively swinging.
From inside the second-floor apartment, sounds of an argument.
ALMA JR. slides her feet on the ground, stops swinging.
JENNY stops, too.
They listen, but can’t really make out what’s said.
ALMA
Supper’s on the stove.
ENNIS
No one’s eatin’ it unless you’re servin’ it, Alma!
ALMA
I already promised I’d take the extra shift.
ENNIS
Well tell him you made a fuckin’ mistake.
The back door swings open and ALMA runs out and down the back steps, turns the corner as ENNIS comes out behind her.
ENNIS (CONT’D)
Alma! Goddammit!
But she’s not coming back. Ennis, flushed, notices the girls.
ENNIS (CONT’D)
Hey.
The girls don’t respond. Awkward silence.
ENNIS (CONT’D)
You girls need a push?
They both start swinging themselves again.
ALMA JR.
No.
He pauses, nods, pauses again, goes back inside.
The girls swing.
EXT: CHILDRESS, TEXAS: SIGN: NEWSOME FARM AND RANCH: DAY: 1971:
WE SEE a sign: NEWSOME FARM AND RANCH, CHILDRESS, TEXAS.
WE PULL BACK to see an immense metal building: this is LUREEN’S father’s business, where both JACK and LUREEN work.
INT: TEXAS: NEWSOME FARM AND RANCH: DAY: 1969:
Two dour FARMERS are watching JACK demonstrate a fancy airconditioned tractor.
JACK, who can drive anything, is doing a fine job of putting the tractor through its paces, but there’s an air of boyish inanity about him. LUREEN, sales binders in hand, passes behind the farmers as they exchange glances.
FARMER #1
Didn’t that piss-ant used to ride the bulls?
FARMER #2
He used to try.…
LUREEN looks over at the oblivious JACK, a look of mild disappointment on her face.
INT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: DEL MAR HOUSE: EARLY EVENING: 1969:
ALMA enters, puts down a grocery bag, sorts through the mail. There’s an electric bill and, beneath it, a postcard addressed to Ennis. She studies the postcard, then puts it back down on the pile of mail as she hears Ennis’s truck pull up.
INT: CHILDRESS, TEXAS: NEWSOME FARM MACH
INERY: DAY: 1969:
LUREEN TWIST sits at a desk, smoking, clicks on an adding machine as she goes through piles of invoices. Calendar—1973—on the wall behind her shows perfect tractors plowing perfect fields.
JACK breezes in.
JACK
(brisk)
Honey, you seen my blue parka?
LUREEN
(doesn’t look up)
Last time I seen it you was in it…that day we had that big ice storm.
JACK opens a closet—nothing in it but office supplies.
JACK
Well, I could of swore I left it here.
LUREEN
(stops clicking for a moment) You know, you been going up to Wyoming all these years. Why can’t your buddy come down here to Texas and fish?
JACK
’Cause the Big Horn Mountains ain’t in Texas. Doubt his pickup would make it this far anyways.
LUREEN
New models coming in this week, remember…and you’re the best combine salesman we got’the only combine salesman, in fact. Daddy can’t drive these newfangled combines.
JACK
I’ll be back in a week. That is, I will be unless I freeze and I might freeze unless I find that parka.
Looks at LUREEN, who shrugs.
LUREEN
I don’t have your goddamn parka. You’re worse than Bobby when it comes to losing stuff.
JACK
Speaking of Bobby, did you call the school back yet about getting him a tutor?
LUREEN
I thought you were gonna call.
JACK
I’ve complained too much, his teacher don’t like me. Now it’s your turn.
LUREEN
Okay, fine.
JACK gives up. Goes over, kisses her. Lips barely touch.
JACK
Gotta go, got fourteen hours of driving ahead of me.
LUREEN
(sigh)
Still don’t seem fair, you drivin’ up there two or three times a year, him never comin’ down here.’
But JACK is already out the door.
INT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: DEL MAR APARTMENT: MORNING: 1969:
Little DEL MAR apartment above the laundromat. Faint sound of washing machines coming from below.
ENNIS finishes packing for a fishing trip.
ENNIS
(to Alma Jr.)
You be good for your mama.
ALMA reads the want ads.
ALMA
Ennis…they got a openin’ over at the power company. Might be good pay.
ENNIS
Clumsy as I am, I’d probably get electrocuted.
ALMA JR.
Daddy, the church picnic’s next weekend. Will you be back from fishin’ by next weekend?
ENNIS puts his coat on.
JENNY
Can’t you take us, Daddy? please?
ENNIS stops…looks at his daughters.
ENNIS
(smile)
All right…long as I don’t have to sing.
ALMA JR. and JENNY jump up and down, clap…then reach up for good-bye kisses.
ENNIS is almost out the door.
ALMA picks up his tackle box, which still sits on the table.
ALMA
You forgettin’ somethin’?
ENNIS walks over, grabs the tackle box.
Leaves.
ALMA, coffee cup in hand, sighs heavily. Inscrutable.
EXT: BIG HORN MOUNTAINS, WYOMING: CAMPSITE: LATE AFTERNOON: 1969:
Fine campsite up in the mountains. JACK’S late-model, clean-as-a-pin pickup truck and horse trailer. TWO HORSES tethered nearby.
ENNIS in his old pickup truck pulls up to a campsite.
He can see in his headlights that Jack has already set up camp. Toots the horn. Smiles.
JACK comes out of the tent, the intense pleasure of being with ENNIS all over his face.
EXT. BIG HORN MOUNTAINS, WYOMING: CAMPSITE: NIGHT: 1969:
ENNIS
Look what I brought.
Offers a small brown paper bag.
JACK weighs it in his hands, opens it: a couple cans of beans.
JACK
Beans.
ENNIS
Gonna fix ’em just the way I used to.
JACK smiles.
EXT: BIG HORN MOUNTAINS, WYOMING: DAY: 1969:
ENNIS and JACK are horseback, trotting across a high meadow. JACK fiddles with his rope. Ropes a sagebrush, then throws it at a rabbit.
JACK
I wish we’d jump a coyote. I’d love to rope a coyote.
ENNIS
(skeptical of Jack’s prowess with the lariat)
I doubt I’ll live to see that miracle.…
They laugh.
EXT: CHILDRESS, TEXAS: NEWSOME FARM AND RANCH: PARKING LOT: DAY: 1972:
JACK and little BOBBY sit in the cab of a large tractor. Little BOBBY, on his daddy’s lap, steers it in circles.
JACK
Whoa, son, there you go.
(Jack takes his hands away)
No hands!
It turns and turns.
JACK (CONT’D)
It’s all yours, Bobby. It’s all yours.
EXT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: RANCH: BACK OF HAY TRUCK: DAY: 1972:
ENNIS stands in the back of a hay truck, looking much like James Dean in “Giant”. Throws open bales of hay out to the cows.
ENNIS
Come on! Come on!
INT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: DEL MAR APARTMENT: EVENING: 1973:
ENNIS slouches in front of the television set, nursing a beer.
The girls, ages seven and nine, play cards on the floor nearby.
ALMA restless.
ALMA
It’s Saturday night. We could still smarten up, head over to the church social.
ENNIS
That fire-and-brimstone crowd?
ENNIS doesn’t even look up.
ALMA
(discouraged)
I think it’d be nice.
ENNIS drinks his beer. Doesn’t answer.
INT: RIVERTON, WYOMING: DEL MAR APARTMENT: BEDROOM: NIGHT: 1973:
ENNIS and ALMA already in bed, kiss.
They begin to make love.
ALMA
As far behind as we are on the bills, it makes me nervous not to take no precautions.…
ENNIS pulls back from her. Looks her in the face.
ENNIS
(stiffens)
If you don’t want no more of my kids, I’ll be happy to leave you alone.
ALMA
(under her breath)
…I’d have ’em, if you’d support ’em.…
Turns his back to her, faces the wall.
ALMA, a look of despair on her face, reaches up and turns off the bedside lamp.
INT: WYOMING COURTHOUSE: DAY: 1975:
ENNIS and ALMA in a bleak little courtroom: divorce court.
Grim.
JUDGE
…Custody of the two minor children, Alma Jr. and Jennifer del Mar, is awarded to plaintiff. Defendant is ordered to pay child support to the plaintiff in the sum of $125 a month, for each of the minor children until they reach the age of 18 years…
ALMA looks sad, but determined…cries quietly.
JUDGE (CONT’D)
(raises gavel)
…Del Mar divorce granted, this 6th day of November 1975.
ENNIS looks miserable.
EXT: WYOMING HIGHWAY: DAY: 1975:
JACK’S pickup truck races across the bleak southern Wyoming landscape after passing an ENTERING WYOMING sign. A dust devil travels across the plains, just off the highway.
INT: WYOMING HIGHWAY: JACK’S TRUCK: DAY: CONTINUOUS: 1975:
WE SEE JACK inside, happy, feeling like he could drive for days and days without sleeping, sings along with the radio playing Roger Miller’s “King Of The Road”. A POSTCARD rests on the dashboard of the truck. JACK picks it up, looks at it again. JACK sings along with the music with exaggerated gestures, can’t stop
grinning.
EXT: OUTSIDE RIVERTON, WYOMING: DEL MAR LINE CABIN: DAY: CONTINUOUS: 1975:
After his divorce, ENNIS has moved into a small, very poor line cabin, miles from nowhere, much like the one he and ALMA had lived in when his daughters were young.
ENNIS seats ALMA JR. and JENNY inside his truck. Shuts the passenger door and walks around to the driver’s side, just as JACK’S truck pulls into his driveway, blocking ENNIS’S truck.
ENNIS is surprised, puzzled as to why JACK is there, but is nonetheless—as always—thrilled to see him.
JACK gets out of the truck. Walks up to ENNIS, they hug one another mightily.
ENNIS
(genuinely surprised and happy)
What’re you doin’ here?
JACK
(excited, holds up the postcard)
Got your message ’bout the divorce.
JACK looks, sees the girls in the truck.
ENNIS
(to Alma Jr. and Jenny)
This is my friend Jack.
(to Jack)
These are my baby girls, Jack…Alma Jr. and Jenny.
JACK looks inside the truck cab—still smiling, waves.
JACK
(back to the moment at hand, still smiling)
Your card said the divorce came through. So…here I am.
ENNIS
Yeah.
JACK
Had to ask ‘bout ten different people in Riverton where you was livin’.
ENNIS realizes now what has happened: JACK thinks, mistakenly, that ENNIS has come around, that this is their chance, finally, to be together.
The smile leaves ENNIS’S face. Rubs his jaw…takes a deep breath. Uncomfortable.
A car drives by, slows down. Ennis glances at it, nervously.
JACK looks at ENNIS…and the smile leaves his face, too. Realizes now that he’s made a terrible mistake: turns pale…his body sags under the weight of disappointment. Humiliated, then devastated.
Curses at himself under his breath.
JACK (CONT’D)
…I guess I thought this means you’d…
ENNIS
(pained)
Jack…Jack, I don’t know what to say.
Ennis looks at his girls in the truck. Looks back at Jack.