Myth Day 4 and Conclusion

DAY 4:

EXT. TREE, MORNING.

The boy wakes from his sleep. He is still in the branches of the tree he fell into. He tries to move but winces and then recalls that his knee was hurt jumping from the ridge above him. Painfully he begins to disentangle himself from the branches and climb downwards toward the ground. He lands awkwardly remembering his shoeless foot which is also bloody and badly bruised.

Once descended, he appears uncertain as to which direction he should go. He looks back and then decides to go on towards home. He is limping badly but the bloody knee has congealed.

As he walks he begins to have flashbacks of his father’s murder and his inability and fear in trying to help him. He stops. His face is full of tears. He slumps down to the floor crying profusely. He recalls in flashback sitting down as a child while his Grandfather told him all about the great warriors of the past. He suddenly feels ashamed.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Father, I let you down when I should have died at your side. I was scared. I sat with my Grandfather for years as he told me of the great warriors, listening to every word and learning nothing. I will find my Grandfather and my brother, and fight with them against these creatures and, if I have to, I shall die with them.

He turns and begins walking back toward where he ran away from his Grandfather.

EXT. BADLANDS, LATE MORNING.

The boy spots a jackrabbit

DISSOLVE:

EXT. AN AREA CLOSE TO AN INDIAN VILLAGE, MORNING, A FEW YEARS BEFORE THE PRESENT ACTION.

A rifle barrel pokes out of a clump of bushes. It is pointing toward a jackrabbit. A sudden breeze blows in disturbing the rabbit. It runs off. The rifle barrel withdraws and then the boy and his Grandfather stand up from behind the bush. They are out hunting.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Never mind Grandfather, we’ll get him again.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
No my son we must not kill him now.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Why?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Because the Wind Horse has saved him.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
The Wind Horse?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Have I never told you of the Wind Horse?

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
No.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Sit down and listen then.

They sit down and the Grandfather begins to talk:

‘At the time when day and night were still deciding who comes first, there lived a horse that was called Wind Horse, and was the fastest and gentlest of all the Indian ponies.

Wind Horse felt no fear for there was no-one who could harm him and if there were an Indian wounded or lost that needed a ride, Wind Horse was there to help him and carry him away.

One day, as Wind Horse was feeling the good feeling from being free, he heard a cry for help. He ran to the edge of the forest and saw an Indian boy with his foot caught in a bear trap. The boy’s foot was cut off and he could not move.

Wind Horse went to the side of the boy and as the boy leaned to him he bent to let the boy on his back.

The boy who had no name, had lived alone all his life for no-one wanted him. As he rode the wind on the horse he could feel the good feeling that Wind Horse felt, but Wind Horse knew that the boy’s wound could never be healed and took him to the place of the Indian Burial Grounds.

As they approached the grounds the boy could see they were shrouded in mist.
As he set down the boy recognized where he was and asked the horse if he was to die. Wind Horse told him that his body would pass away but his spirit would never die and that he would never be alone again.

Suddenly there was a strange sound, a music he had never heard before but seemed familiar and then out of the mist came several figures. Although he did not recognize them he knew they were the great warriors and tribesmen of the old days and had come to take him with them.

He turned to face Wind Horse to thank him for saving him and the horse bowed and then leapt galloping into the sky taking the mist with him and when it cleared there was no-one left standing in the Burial Grounds’

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
But why does Wind Horse protect rabbits?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
He doesn’t protect all the rabbits and all the prairie dogs and all the coyotes, only the special ones.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Is that why there aren’t so many Indians now?

DISSOLVE

EXT. BADLANDS, CAMPFIRE, AFTERNOON.

The boy comes across the camp that his Grandfather had slept the previous night. The fire is out. As he searches around he lets out a huge gasp as he discovers the bodies of his brother and Grandfather. They have been mutilated with huge claw tears across their bodies. He breaks down and sobs.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
I have failed my father and now I am too late to right the wrong.

He picks up his Grandfather’s head and cradles it in his arms.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
I should not have left you. I ran away because I thought I was man enough to assist my father and I discovered I was still a frightened child. Now, when I want to act like a man, I am as helpless as a child again.

If the bear-man wants me I will not run away this time and I will not fight. I deserve to be clawed as you are, but not for bravery, for cowardice.

CUT TO:

EXT BADLANDS, AFTERNOON

The boy has covered his brother’s body with stones and is about to begin covering his Grandfather when he notices the two big fingers on his Grandfather’s right hand. They are fixed together with the rest of the fingers and the thumb curled into the palm.

It was the sign his Grandfather gave him when he had written out the end of one of his stories that had been interrupted by the boy’s father. He looks around and notices one particular large stone sitting out of place on a small rocky ledge. He goes over and lifts it. There is a note written underneath; the note his Grandfather was writing the night before.

It reads:

‘My son, if you find this note we are victims of the bear-man. I feel in my heart that you are alive, but you must carry out the final wish of your Grandfather. Pine Ridge is too far for you to make it alone, they will catch you. You must go to the sacred burial ground where you will be safe.

You must perform the ghost dance, the Wovoka, that I showed you two summers ago. You must summon up the ancient warriors; they are needed to combat the bear-man.

I was wrong to lie to you on the road about the stories, but I only wanted to get you and your brother away safely. I hope you can forgive me and that I haven’t weakened your belief. You must keep your faith. It is the only thing that has the power to eradicate fear. God keep you safely.’

The boy pockets the note and continues to cover his Grandfather’s body with the stones. He arranges them thus that his grandfather’s face is still visible before the last stone is lain over it. He kisses it and then places the last rock over his face. As he stands there, there is a roar in the distance. The boy turns toward the direction of the roar.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Bear-man, I am ready for you and your family. I will lead you to a place where the Indian still has power and you will be destroyed forever.

FADE TO BLACK.

EXT. BADLANDS, LAHOTA SIOUX SACRED BURIAL GROUND, LATE AFTERNOON.

The boy enters the sacred burial ground. The sun is already beginning to race toward twilight. He looks around at the site. He is determined to see his task through but he is trembling. He gathers wood and prepares to make a fire. The air is still and he lights the fire. After a few moments he kneels and closes his eyes murmuring prayers in preparation for the Wovoka.

The sun has almost set. The boy comes out of his trance and begins the dance. He has been performing it for some time as the area outside the campfire grows darker. He stops dancing, waiting for something to happen. Nothing does.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Grandfather! What I am doing wrong? I have danced exactly the way I have been shown and no-one comes, no-one answers.

He sinks to his knees.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Perhaps you didn’t lie Grandfather; perhaps they are only stories after all. The gods are non-existent and there are no ancient warriors lying in wait to reclaim a glorious past. They are the past.

They are only history. They are a remedy to cure us, to enable us to accept the humilities of the present for the false promise of a rosy future. They are as powerless now as they were against the white man. I am alone and…

He stops speaking as he sees a pair of feet come into view. He looks up. It is the bear-man.

MAN
Well little man, you escaped us yesterday and we have spent the whole day searching the trail to Pine Ridge, only to find you here. Are you as stupid as your Grandfather thinking you will be safe in this place of superstitious nonsense, I wonder?

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
(Showing a brave face but quaking with fear)
You have no power here bear-man.

MAN
You believe that too. Listen my friend, I am an old creature and I have seen many things that the normal world would pass as magic, but I don’t see any gods or warriors. Are they coming?

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
They will come.

MAN
So sure, but why? Why tonight of all nights? Where were they at Sand Creek; at Wounded Knee? Where have they been for the last 100 years; waiting for tonight’s special events; waiting for one solitary little Indian boy dancing the Wovoka? Are you the Messiah? Are you the chosen one who will raise the warriors from the dead, wipe out the millions of people living in this country? Is it you who will repopulate the plains with Buffalo and wild deer?

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
The Indian needn’t waste his weapons; you and the white man have enough of your own to defeat yourselves.

MAN
We certainly had enough to win two wars. What would have happened to the free world if America had not taken the land, had not become powerful enough to resist the fascists; or perhaps these were stories your Grandfather forgot to tell you?

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
The thief always has a good excuse to steal.

MAN
It’s a lot easier to steal when victim is so careless. But let’s say the bomb and all over the world millions perish; civilisation grinds to a halt, but the Indian is untouched. He clambers out of the wreckage the master of all he surveys. And what will you gain little man; a sky that is eternal night; plants irradiated and dying; water that is undrinkable? How will that bring back the great Sioux nation? Like it or not, they will either rule or no-one will.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
That is why you side with him.

MAN
Who should I have sided with, the Indian? I could see that the Indian could never win. I had to try to blend in. I didn’t believe it would be so difficult. But better to live as I do with them than starve on a reservation.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
You are worse than them.

MAN
Not worse, simply a contemporary. I have learned not to compete with him and so I survive. True we have to move on every few years or so but one day the curse will end. Your nation chose to fight an un-winnable war; losers do not get a share of the spoils.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
The war is not lost.

MAN
Predictable to the end and
(Pause)
…this is the end.

The Woman and the Girl enter and arrange themselves at either shoulder of the Man, their familiar triangular position.

MAN
You cannot be allowed to reach Pine Ridge. I am sure that any story you told of bear men would take some believing but I am not prepared to risk it.

He motions with his head and the Girl moves from behind readying herself for an attack. The boy begins to wheel away in a defensive mode when a breeze suddenly blows through the burial ground and then a thick mist begins to descend behind the boy so that while one half of the area is misted, the other, where the group are standing, is clear. A strange music is heard coming from within the mist. The boy is torn between wanting to turn around to see what is happening but is too afraid to take his eyes of the Girl.

Suddenly she utters a roar and her face begins to assume the appearance of a bear, she leaps out at the boy. A swishing sound comes from the mist and then an arrow follows it meeting the body of the Girl half way. It knocks her back, but as she steadies herself for another charge, a succession of swishes are heard and a dozen more arrows fly from the mist thudding into her body and propelling her into the fire where she lies, burning.

The Woman immediately responds again transforming at the same time and just misses grabbing the boy who manages to elude her the first time but is then cornered and taken by the elbow. She lifts her arm to strike and a huge claw is visible where the hand should have been. She is about to bring it down across the boy’s face when a shape coming from the mist distracts her. As she looks up a spear smashes into her right eye knocking her backwards and pinning her head to a tree behind.

The boy is let go of and recoils in horror at the manner of the Woman’s death. Suddenly he is aware that the Man has vanished and begins to creep around the burial ground. He shuffles about on all fours taking refuge behind a rock and curling up into a ball. He is staring directly into the mist and can see several figures approaching through the murkiness. They appear to be the warriors of the Indian wars. His heart lifts as he sees that one of them is walking directly toward him although still within the mist.

The figure is holding a tomahawk and throws it in the boy’s direction. The tomahawk appears to glow as if some unseen light source was reflecting off it. Then everything goes black as a huge paw enters screen right blocking his POV.

The bear man has risen up behind the rock where the boy is hiding and has dug his claw deep into the boy’s face. As he tears the skin the bear man looks up and sees the tomahawk slicing through the air toward his neck. It severs his head and lands on a flat faced rock behind creating sparks as it lands. The weapon appears to be smoking as the friction burns curl into the air above it. The bear man’s grasp is loosed on the boy’s face as his head and body separate and hit the floor.

The boy is bleeding profusely but not seriously and as he passes out the figures are beginning to recede into the mist, a light breeze is blowing and the sound of horse’s hooves are heard in the distance.

FADE TO BLACK.

EXT. THE POWDER RIVER VALLEY, A SUNNY DAY, THE FUTURE.

The young boy drifts into sleep. In his dream he is standing in a thick mist in the burial grounds when a white horse trots in. He climbs aboard and the horse leaps out through the mist. We see a close-up of the boy asleep on the back of the horse. The background is a starry night and the flowing mane of the horse indicates that they are travelling at some speed.
After a while the horse slows as if to land and the boy awakes. He opens his eyes and begins to stare in wonderment.

Before him and the horse is a vast and beautiful valley. There are herds of buffalo roaming across the plain and Native Indians can be seen riding alongside them. There is an Indian camp in the distance by a silver river. He dismounts and walks to the edge of the hill.
The boy smiles in joy, and then turns his head back toward the horse but the horse is gone. The boy is sad for a moment and lowers his eyes to the ground. After a moment he lifts up his head and the smile returns, but it is a smile of knowing that one has returned home after years of being away.
He walks down and into the valley.

DISSOLVE

CLOSING DAY:

EXT. SACRED BURIAL GROUND, MORNING.

The boy awakens. He winces and begins to search out and feel the wounds on his face, the bruises on his arm and his knee. He struggles but manages to get up on his two feet.

He looks around him and is astonished. There are no signs whatsoever of the battle of the previous evening. The bodies of the group and all the weapons are gone. There seems to be no indication that anything at all happened; no blood only the last remnants of the fire he built.

A sudden thought comes to him and he limps across to a tree on the edge of the burial ground. He looks it up and down and suddenly his eyes rest on one particular spot. He reaches out with his fingertips and begins to feel the bark. There is a deep gouge at the spot where the Woman was impaled through the eye.

He walks over to the area where the mist had sprung up and from where the warriors had appeared. There is no evidence of their appearance; no footsteps, no spent weaponry. He is about to turn away when he espies something caught in a crack between two rocks. He reaches down and extracts a small feather from an Indian headdress. He puts it to his nose to smell and smiles, pocketing the feather.

He kneels to make one last silent prayer of thanks and then stands up and exits the burial grounds.

EXT. BADLANDS, RIDGE BELOW THE CLIFF TOP, AROUND NOON.

The boy is seen, holding his brother’s jacket, standing above a corpse covered in stones. It is the boy’s father and he has returned to protect his father’s body from marauding animals as he did for the other members of his family until he can reach Pine Ridge and have the bodies taken home.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Father, I have healed the wound of my disgrace I carry and can now face you in the next life. I have seen things here that I cannot explain and even if our people were to see the marks on your body, I do not think they would believe me.

So I will keep my own story for my children and theirs, as well as those that Grandfather told me. I will tell them too, that I have seen a vision of the future, where everything will be restored and our people can have hope once more.

The sky begins to darken and the boy looks up at it. He turns to go.

EXT. BADLANDS LOOP ROAD, AFTERNOON.

The boy appears from beyond the far edge of the road, still limping. He stops as he reaches the side of the road.

The sky is dark behind him as if a storm is brewing. He looks up at it whilst at the same time a white Motor home turns the bend in the road, screen left and disappears off again screen left.

The boy begins to cross the road. As he reaches the lane nearest the camera the Motor home enters screen left hitting him head-on. The image freezes. The boy’s body is twisted in towards the bonnet with his left arm flailing out high above his head. His right hand has gripped the edge of the bonnet. The boy’s face is frozen with terror as he gazes toward the cab of the Motor home where he sees the bear man and all his family. Their faces are grim but nonchalant as if they either didn’t care or were unaware of what was happening.

Something dies in his eyes. Perhaps it is hope or maybe his faith but it is more than just life about to exit from his body. The action restarts and the boy disappears underneath the car.

It lies twisted in the road with his one bare foot clearly visible

The Motor home drives into an arch of rock or tunnel of trees. As it enters a howl is heard in the distance.

EXT, BADLANDS, SUNFALL

On an outcrop of rock high above a coyote is sitting.
The same close-up shot of the Native Indian chief is overlaid as we approach the animal. He utters the same speech as before but this time an English translation is given at the bottom of the screen.

‘They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one: they promised to take our land, and they took it.’

It is the famous speech of RED CLOUD of the Oglala Sioux. The image fades and as the camera continues to zoom in, it becomes apparent that the animal is not a coyote but the ‘missing’ Doberman.

The camera continues in toward the dog until about a medium long-shot when it pauses. The dog lies down, leaning its head on its paws. The dog lifts its head, as if it is suddenly aware of our presence, but looks on without any concern.

The camera pulls away as if in fear.

FADE OUT: