Beowulf (9 page)

 

Beowulf turns to the crowd, grinning -- then, suddenly serious, like a politician or a statesman.

And as Beowulf tells them the story of his genius and ability we TRACK BACKWARDS down the hallway of Herot and

89 OUTSIDE IN THE STOCKADE

89

BEOWULF'S VOICE gets quieter and the sound of the CRACKLING OF THE BURNING PYRE gets louder, and the WOMEN QUIETLY SOBBING, and we end on Wiglaf…watching his friends' bodies burning up.

CUT TO:

90 INT. THE GREAT CAVE - GRENDEL'S MOTHER'S LAIR - NIGHT

90

CLOSE ON: Grendel's very dead body.

 

We can hear Grendel's mother, SINGING WORDLESSLY, a song of mourning, very gently and quietly.

 

Then she breaks off her song and she says to Grendel's dead body…

And with that she turns and walks into the pool, descending into its black depths…

CUT TO:

91 INT. HEROT - BEOWULF'S QUARTERS - NIGHT

91

Beowulf is looking at the treasure that he has been given. In the background we can hear a small amount of CELEBRATING from the hall. Beowulf is in his small room, though, examining his gold.

 

Queen Wealthow comes in. She stands in the open doorway, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, and says:

Wealthow does not answer. She touches her fingertips to her lips, and brushes her fingertips against Beowulf's lips, as she turns to leave.

CUT TO:

92 INT. HEROT - HROTHGAR'S QUARTERS - NIGHT

92

Hrothgar is lying on the bed. The door opens, and Wealthow comes in. She begins to undress. Hrothgar stares at her, grinning.

Her tone of voice tells us that she means it.

CUT TO:

93 INT. HEROT - BEOWULF'S QUARTERS - NIGHT

93

Beowulf is picking up handfuls of golden rings and chains and letting them fall, clinking, into the chest: they glitter in the candle-light.

CUT TO:

94 EXT. HEROT - MEAD HALL - NIGHT

94

The last lights go out in the hall. We hear a RUSTLING.

CUT TO BLACK:

95 INT. HEROT - BEOWULF'S QUARTERS - DAY

95

A WOMAN'S SCREAM shatters the stillness. Day shines in. Beowulf was asleep on the furs, fully dressed, surrounded by gold. He pushes himself up off the bed.

CUT TO:

96 INT. HEROT - MEAD HALL - DAY

96

Beowulf throws open a heavy carved door. His eyes open wide like saucers at the horror of what has become of the remaining Danes.

 

Behind him, other Thanes push their way into the room. Their eyes, like Beowulf's, betray the terror in their hearts.

 

The hall, once white wash over stone, has been stained with the blood of the South Danes. Great crimson splashes paint the ceiling. Golden tapestries have been speckled by the milk of slaughter.

 

TWENTY DEAD THANES in all, their bodies ripped into pieces, litter the soaked hall.

 

Thanes continue to push their way into the hall, trying to get a good look at the carnage. But as each man enters he becomes frozen, unable to move into the room filled with death.

 

It has become a feast for the flies. Their buzz adds a horrific edge to the already surreal bloodshed before them.

 

Beowulf steps slowly through the hall assessing the dead. Not a single man lays living. Beowulf draws his sword from his back and holds it in front of him, as if it might defend him from the invisible air of death in the hall.

 

WE TRACK BACKWARDS AND OUT of a huge hole which has been knocked through the far corner of the south hall. Great stones lay in rubble heaps outside the massive keep.

 

Beowulf jumps out of the keep onto the green glade beyond the rubble heap. He runs into an EXTREME CLOSE UP as he scans the horizon where

97 THE MOORS

97

leads beyond Herot and into a dark forest. Close to the rim of the tangled grove, at least a kilometer away, a SHADOWY FIGURE runs. After an instant the figure vanishes into the deep forest. For a moment, it seems as though it may have never been there at all.

98 BEOWULF

98

squints his eyes in the hope of getting another glimpse at the dark apparition.

Behind him, the Thanes are coming out of the huge hole in the keep. No one can seem to answer him.

Beowulf looks at him, afraid to answer.

 

Then, Hrothgar is there, pushing his way through the crowd of Thanes.

CUT TO:

99 INT. HEROT - THRONE ROOM - DAY

99

CLOSE ON: Hrothgar is sitting in his mighty (and portable) throne. He is in his full compliment of battle gear.

Beowulf doesn't seem to happy about this.

Wealthow looks at Hrothgar with an expression that says “yes, Hrothgar, where is Grendel's father?”

Beowulf nods, perhaps a little suspicious.

Beowulf's eyes fix into a stare as he imagines the atrocity taking place.

FLASH TO:

Beowulf turns and looks at Unferth.

He turns to leave.

Beowulf turns around and looks at him.

Unferth looks at his father's sword which he's holding in his hands. He looks a little sad. Unferth begins sheathing it.

Unferth stops short of sliding his sword into its casing.

Unferth smiles and holds the sword out for Beowulf. Beowulf takes it and feels it's weight.

Beowulf nods and turns to leave. He pauses and looks back at Unferth.

Beowulf nods and leaves.

CUT TO:

100 EXT. HEROT - STOCKADE - DAY 1

00

Beowulf comes out of the Hall to find Wiglaf, seven of his thanes, and their little horse, loaded high with provisions, waiting for him.

 

A funeral pyre is burning in the distance.

Beowulf strides off, and his men follow him.

CUT TO:

101 EXT. DARK FOREST - DAY 1

01

It's a wild woodland. Flies and mosquitoes BUZZ around, and Beowulf's men, leading their little horse, are in an appalling mood, sweating and swatting at flies the whole time.

CUT TO

102 EXT. THE GREAT CAVE - DAY 1

02

The great dense weald opens into the rocky mouth of a gigantic cave made of quartz. Into the cave mouth a river runs, fed by hundreds of thousands of dewy drops fallen from the many ferns and leaves that make up the viridian tapestry surrounding it. Indeed, while not raining the air is thick with water.

 

It is a bizarre space, birds soaring about like fish in the sky. Their SCREECHES echo in spirals upward like whale song.

 

Beowulf almost seems to be underwater already, yet he stands on a gray slate boulder
under which
glassy waters feed the cave.

 

In them, tangled in the rocks, is the HEADLESS CORPSE OF ESHER which Grendel's mother must have killed. The man's blood stains the crystal waters red.

 

Beowulf draws Unferth's sword, “Hrunting”, and looks to his men who stand not a hundred meters away in the foliage.

Wiglaf climbs down into the gorge with a fiery torch in his hand. He passes it to Beowulf.

Wiglaf nods and heads back up the hill to the others.

 

Beowulf turns and walks along the current and into the cave, the torch blazing in his right hand.

103 INT. THE GREAT CAVE - DAY 103

The inside of the cave is like some great cathedral of gray slate, stalagmites, and stalactites. Pools of minerals, millions of years in silent creation, become dazzling color shows in the light of Beowulf's torch.

 

Gauging each step, he slowly enters into the great chamber that hides an underground lake. It's waters are dark and placid.

 

Across the body of water, where the cave wall should meet the surface, a tunnel continues into darkness.

 

Beowulf, holding the blazing torch in his right hand and the sword Hrunting in the left, begins to wade into the still water.

 

Soon he is up to his waist in the black liquid, scaling each step with caution, he moves closer and closer to the narrowing end of the chamber.

 

The further Beowulf goes the deeper he gets, and the closer the cave ceiling comes to the placid surface of the water.

 

Soon Beowulf is up to his neck in the reservoir and the cave ceiling is no more than 25 centimeters from the surface of the water.

 

He has left the main chamber behind and now finds himself chin deep in a…

CHANNEL

of water with no more than 13 centimeters of air between it and the cave ceiling.

 

He still holds the torch in his right hand, it's flame so close to the water it could extinguish any second.