Beowulf
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The WHOLE COURT assembled on the stone steps in front of the shuttered and barred mead hall. Queen Wealthow and THE QUEEN’S WOMEN, GUARDS and COURTIERS. Unferth is there, but he is standing in the shadows. RAYS OF SUNLIGHT briefly appear streaming though the clouds
Hrothgar hugs Beowulf to him, proudly.
HROTHGAR
Beowulf! How is your father?
BEOWULF
He died in battle with sea-raiders, two winters back.
HROTHGAR
He was a brave man. Need I ask why have you come to us?
BEOWULF
I’ve come to kill your monster.
The sheer arrogance of this statement sends a LOUD MURMUR through the crowd. Even Hrothgar is taken aback.
Beowulf smiles, having stirred things up.
BEOWULF (CONT’D)
…and taste that famous mead of yours.
Hrothgar LAUGHS with a hearty ROAR. The tension in the crowd is eased.
Now Wealthow steps forward…
WEALTHOW
And there have been many brave men who have come here, and have drunk too much of my Lord’s mead, and have sworn to rid his hall of our nightmare.
(more)
BLUE Rev. 2005-09-11 30.
WEALTHOW (CONT’D) (MORE)
And the next morning, there was nothing left of any of them but blood to be cleaned from the floor…and the benches…and walls.
Beowulf and Wealthow lock eyes…a long, penetrating look.
BEOWULF
I have drunk nothing. Yet. But I will kill your monster.
HROTHGAR
(overly enthusiastic)
He will kill the monster! Did you hear that? Grendel will die!
BEOWULF
Grendel?
HROTHGAR
The monster is called Grendel.
BEOWULF
Then I shall kill your Grendel. I, Beowulf, killed a tribe of giants in the Orkneys. I have crushed the skulls of sea-serpents. And this…this troll of yours shall trouble you no longer.
The Queen is about to say something, but Hrothgar announces to the assemblage…
HROTHGAR
A hero! I knew that the sea would bring us a hero!
A weary, half-hearted CHEER comes from the crowd. They heard all this before. Wealthow looks doubtful. Unferth glares.
Then, Hrothgar raises an eyebrow…
HROTHGAR (CONT’D)
Will you go up to the moors, then, to the cave by the dark pool, and fight the monster in its den?
Beowulf steps forward and waves his hand.
BEOWULF
I have fourteen brave Thanes with me. We have been long at sea.
BLUE Rev. 2005-09-11 31.
BEOWULF (CONT’D)
I think it is high time, mighty Hrothgar, to break open your golden mead, famed across the world; and to feast in your legendary mead hall.
Unferth steps forward…
UNFERTH
The mead hall has been sealed…by his lord’s order. Merry-making in the hall brings the devil Grendel.
Beowulf gives Unferth a long, cold look. Then like a politician on a soapbox…
BEOWULF
(loudly, to the multitude)
Has closing this hall stopped the slaughter?
HROTHGAR
Nay, the demon-murderer killed three horses and a slave in the stable a fortnight ago.
Beowulf says nothing, but a huge Cheshire smile spreads across his face. A smile that’s much too huge.
BEOWULF
Well then…
Hrothgar nods and smiles back. He raises his arms in a dramatic gesture…
HROTHGAR
OPEN THE MEAD HALL!!!
CUT TO:
27 INT. HEROT - MEAD HALL - DAY
27
CLACK! CLACK!! TWO THANES turn a large crank, pulling a chain to lift the huge timber that bars the mead hall door.
SPLASH!! Water is poured over one of the long feasting tables.
SLAVE BOYS lay fresh straw on the floor.
AN OLD WOMAN blows on some embers to start a fire in the great fire-pit.
BLUE Rev. 2005-09-11 32.
BEOWULF’S 14 THANES are gathered around a table in the corner, strapping on their weapons and adjusting their gear.
BEOWULF wanders though the hall, checking it out. He sizes up the huge entrance door with its complicated security bar and heavy iron strapping
HONDSHEW is staring at Yrsa, the plum girl. She bends over a table, scrubbing it. Her breasts straining her halter.
WIGLAF kicks Hondshew in the ass…
WIGLAF
(lecturing his thanes)
We don’t want any trouble with the locals. So, just for tonight, no fighting, and no swifan. Okay?
OLAF, a hulking, muscle-bound thane with a speech impediment, draws his dagger and strikes a combat stance…
OLAF
I wa…wa…wasn’t p…p.. planning on doing any swi…swi…swi…swifan.
Hondshew flashes a lascivious, yellow-toothed smile at Yrsa…
HONDSHEW
(mimicking Olaf)
I wa…wa…was!
WIGLAF
Hondshew. Make me feel like you’re pretending to listen to me. It’s only been five days since you waved your wife goodbye.
HONDSHEW
Five days!! In the name of Odin…no wonder my loins are burning!!
Yrsa sticks her tongue out at Hondshew. The thanes ROAR with laughter.
CUT TO:
28 INT. THE GREAT CAVE - GRENDEL’S LAIR -- SAME
28
CLOSE ON A LAMPREY SUCKING MOUTH
BLUE Rev. 2005-09-11 33.
As it grabs a chunk of flesh…
GRENDEL is feeding bits of a dead thane to a school of blind white MORAY EELS. The horrible sea snakes teem in the cave’s black pool.
Grendel SINGS to itself, a slow, sad, tuneless sort of noise. It holds a spike topped with a decapitated warrior’s head, playing with it as if it were a puppet.
GRENDEL
(pretending he’s the voice of the Thane’s head)
Da-dee-da! Da-dee-da! Who’s laughing now?!
If Grendel were human, it would be considered retarded, perhaps brain-damaged…it’s actually sweet and gentle…except in the matter of eating people, and then only when driven mad with noise.
AN EEL leaps out of the water striking the warrior’s head, tearing off an earlobe…
GRENDEL LAUGHS delightedly at the eels.
GRENDEL (CONT’D)
No more. You get fat! Fat fish! More tomorrow.
A LOUD HISS burbles from somewhere in the pool…
GRENDEL is alarmed; It jumps up. Its fingernails shoot out and become sharp claws. Its deformed torso begins to expand and enlarge. Its eyes narrow.
EXTREME CLOSE ON: GRENDEL’S MOTHER’S LIPS…wet, full, with golden scales…cold-blooded.
GRENDEL’S MOTHER
(a bodiless whisper)
Grrrrendelllllll.
GRENDEL soothes a little, its nails recess back into its fingers. Its torso begins to shrink back to “normal” size.
GRENDEL
Modor?
GRENDEL’S MOTHER’S POV: The CAMERA emerges from the water and slowly floats toward Grendel. Grendel’s mother WHISPERS.
BLUE Rev. 2005-09-11 34.
GRENDEL’S MOTHER
I had an evil dream, my son. You were hurt. I dreamed that you were calling out for me, and I could not come to you. And then they butchered you.
GRENDEL
I am not dead. I am happy. Look, happy Grendel.
Grendel does an awkward, shuffling dance around the cave, SINGING as he does.
GRENDEL (CONT’D)
(singing, tunelessly)
Happy happy, happy happy, happy happy, happy happy…
GRENDEL’S MOTHER
You must not go to them tonight. You have killed too many of them.
GRENDEL
Grendel str
ong. Grendel big. Grendel will eat their flesh and drink their blood and break their bones.
GRENDEL’S MOTHER
Please, my son. Do not go to them.
GRENDEL
(makes a whining sound)
Ohhhh…
GRENDEL’S MOTHER
Please. Promise me this.
Grendel sulks, defeated.
GRENDEL
I swear. I shall not go to them.
GRENDEL’S MOTHER
Even if they make the noises?
Grendel hesitates, then nods, reluctantly, as if it’s being jerked out of him, an awkward little boy promising his mother something.
GRENDEL’S MOTHER (CONT’D)
Gut. Man medo.
CUT TO
BLUE Rev. 2005-09-11 35.
29 INT. HEROT - MEAD HALL - SUNSET
29
A giant copper vat, brimming with golden mead is carried into the hall. BEOWULF’S THANES CHEER!!
But everyone else seems subdued -- like a reception at a funeral. Still, MUSIC IS PLAYING, and maidens are pouring mead.
BEOWULF stands on the dais steps, looking quizzically at a primitive sundial carved into the wall. A prism mounted on the anteroom balcony focuses a point of sunlight on the dial face.
WEALTHOW (O.S.)
It can measure the length of a day.
Beowulf turns to find WEALTHOW. She points to the dial…
WEALTHOW (CONT’D)
…when the sun touches the lowest line…soon the day will be finished.
BEOWULF
And Grendel will arrive?
She stares at him, her face, unearthly in its beauty.
WEALTHOW
I hope that God is kind to you, Sir Beowulf. It would be a great shame on this house, if one so brave and noble were to die in it.
BEOWULF
There is no shame to die in battle with evil.
WEALTHOW
And if you die?
BEOWULF
There will be no corpse to weep over, no funeral to prepare, and none to mourn me. Grendel will dispose of my body in a bloody animal feast, taking my bones and sucking off my flesh…swallowing me down.
Wealthow is a little turned on by the thought of swallowing Beowulf. She collects herself, upset by her reaction.
BLUE Rev. 2005-09-11 36.
WEALTHOW
I would mourn you, my lord.
She looks up at him. It’s a moment of romance, or naked lust…
HROTHGAR (O.S.)
Ah, Beowulf…there you are.
FOUR BRAWNY THANES lower HROTHGAR and his portable throne to the floor. He gets up and approaches Beowulf. His court assembles behind him.
HROTHGAR (CONT’D)
…I was thinking about your father. There was a feud, I believe. He came here fleeing the Wylflings. He’d killed one of them with his bare hands.
BEOWULF
Heatholaf.
HROTHGAR
(nodding vigorously and then continuing)
--that was him! I paid the blood debt for your father, and he swore his oath to me. No good deed goes unrewarded, though. I saved his skin, now you’re here to save ours, eh?
He SLAPS Beowulf on the back.
We hear A LOW, BITTER, LAUGH from the shadows behind the throne.
UNFERTH steps out of the shadows into the light, CLAPPING his hands.
UNFERTH
All hail the great Beowulf! Here to save our pathetic Danish skins, eh?
(bitter irony & plenty of it)
And we are so damned grateful, mighty Beowulf. But can I ask a question -- as a huge admirer of yours?
Beowulf simply stares at him, with the sort of unblinking stare that Clint Eastwood made famous.
BLUE Rev. 2005-09-11 37.
UNFERTH (CONT’D)
You see, there was another Beowulf I heard tell of, who challenged Brecca the mighty to a swimming race, out on the open sea. Was that you?
Beowulf wonders if he’s being set up. But he nods.
BEOWULF
I swam against Brecca.
UNFERTH
Hmm. I thought that it had to be a different Beowulf. Someone else of the same name. You see
(he raises his voice)
--the Beowulf I heard of swam against Brecca, and lost. He risked his life, and Brecca’s, in the deep ocean to serve his own vanity and pride. A boastful fool. And he lost. So I thought it had to be someone else…
Beowulf slowly walks toward Unferth. You could hear a pin drop.
BEOWULF
I swam against Brecca.
UNFERTH
(loudly)
But victory was his, not yours. A mighty warrior who cannot even win a swimming match. Speaking only for myself here, I not only doubt that you will be able to stand for a moment against Grendel, but I doubt you will even have the belly to stay in the hall all night.
Unferth downs his cup of mead and grins.
BEOWULF
I find it difficult to argue with a drunk. And it is true that I did not win the race…
DISSOLVE TO:
30 EXT. OPEN SEA -- DAY -- FLASHBACK
30
Beowulf is swimming in a race with BRECCA, a young warrior the same age as Beowulf.
BLUE Rev. 2005-09-11 38.
Great swells of the sea lift and toss the two swimmers like driftwood, but the two men power alongside each other. Brecca swims with a dagger in his mouth, Beowulf with a sword in one hand. The rugged coast of Finland can be seen in the distance.
BEOWULF (V.O.)
We swam for five days, neck and neck. And I was the more powerful swimmer. I was conserving my strength, for the final stretch.
Beowulf pulls ahead…
BEOWULF (V.O.)(CONT’D)
…Then a storm blew up, and with the storm, came sea monsters.
We HEAR the Thanes in the hall MURMURING with approval.
A SERPENTINE SEA MONSTER -- comes up from the depths. Its tentacles grabbing Brecca, crushing his rib cage and causing Brecca to loose his dagger.
For a moment, Beowulf looks satisfied. He can win the race. But he knows what he must do…
He sighs then plunges down, and with his sword, stabs the serpent…in the eye. Purplish blood stains the ocean.
The serpent relaxes it’s grip on Brecca…but Brecca swims on…Beowulf on the other hand isn’t going anywhere…
ANOTHER SERPENT emerges and wraps its tentacles around Beowulf’s legs. Beowulf slashes at its throat.
BEOWULF (V.O.)(CONT’D)
I hacked and lashed at these foul beasts with my sword…spilling their guts into the sea.
THEN ANOTHER SERPENT APPEARS and Beowulf slices off its tentacle…
THEN FIVE MORE SERPENTS APPEAR AND Beowulf quickly dispatches each of these terrifying, deep-sea monstrosities…
BEOWULF (V.O.)(CONT’D)
Again and again the monsters attacked…dark things from the sea’s dark depths.
BLUE Rev. 2005-09-11 39.
Exhausted and bleeding, Beowulf breaks the surface and swims mightily. With his sword still in hand, he pulls even with Brecca.
The shoreline and finish are a mere 50 yards ahead. A DOZEN GEATS CHEER them on from the beach.
Beowulf passes Brecca and is ahead by a length when…
BEOWULF (V.O.)(CONT’D)
Then…
Beowulf is suddenly pulled violently underwater…
31 BACK TO THE MEAD HALL
31
EXTREME CLOSE ON: Beowulf’s face, remembering something else…something forbidden.
BEOWULF
…one of them seized me in its jaws, and dragged me to the bottom…
Something in his face tells us we may not be hearing the truth. He shuts his eyes…
32 EXT. SEA -- DAY -- FLASHBACK
32
Underwater…Beowulf raises his sword at the creature that has him by the legs…but stops!!
What Beowulf sees is not a sea-serpent, but A BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN WOM
AN…not human, but some sort of Mermaid-form, with sea kelp hair and glistening, golden skin (She has a striking resemblance to Grendel’s Mother).
BEOWULF is awestruck, mesmerized by her beauty.
THE WOMAN seductively beckons Beowulf to swim closer…
BEOWULF (V.O.)
…I killed the monster with my own blade…plunging it into it’s heart…
THE WOMAN wraps her golden arms around Beowulf and kisses him…Beowulf kisses back.
BEOWULF (V.O.)
(CONT’D)…I did not win the race.
BLUE Rev. 2005-09-11 40.
33 BACK TO THE MEAD HALL
33
Beowulf shakes himself out of the memory, forcing it somewhere deep into his subconscious. He continues…
BEOWULF
They sing of my battle with the sea monsters to this day, my friend. And they sing no such songs about Brecca. But I braved their hot jaws, making those lanes safe for seamen…and survived the nightmare.
UNFERTH
(magnificently unimpressed)
Of course. The sea monsters. And you killed, what, twenty was it?
BEOWULF
Nine. But…will you do me the honor of telling me your name?
UNFERTH