Beowulf (12 page)

who is cowering behind a rock, as the SOUNDS OF THE SEARCH begins to fade.

 

Cain is shivering and scared. The SOUNDS OF THE PURSUERS are fading away into the distance. And then, close to us, we hear the HOWL of a wolf-pack…

Cain bolts for it, running through the moors, when suddenly the ground gives way beneath him and he is seemingly swallowed into the Earth.

125 INT. THE BARROW - NIGHT

125

Cain is under the ground. It's dark…but Cain realizes that we are somewhere that glimmers…. that glimmers golden.

 

Cain SWEARS to himself as he bumps into something…and then slowly his eyes begin to get used to the darkness and he sees…

 

GOLD!

 

It's a treasure horde, unimaginable to these times: rings and bracelets, necklaces torques and plates, coins and statues and goblets, piled all around. Helmets and mail-shirts, swords, daggers and spears, shields and harps, statues of hawks and horses…the
world glows in gold
.

 

Cain moves through the gold like a dark shadow….

 

CLOSE ON: Cain's feet as he walks past…

126 A SLEEPING DRAGON

126

THE DRAGON is the color of the hoard, a glittering gold. In fact at first we think it
is
a statue. It's half-human, half dragon, winged and tailed (the wings are folded, the tail is curled) but its face is part human, part reptilian. It is played by the same actor who played young Beowulf, but this should not be immediately obvious.

 

To repeat, this seems like a statue, and might indeed, for the first few shots, be a statue. Eyes closed…

And, as he says that, the Dragon's eyes slowly begin to open, and a smile spreads across its face.

 

CAIN reaches out, tentatively, for a golden goblet, similar to the one Wealthow gave young Beowulf earlier.

CUT TO:

127 EXT. GUTHRIC'S HALL - DAY

127

Guthric is standing at the door to his hall. Then, almost to his surprise, in comes Cain, edging towards him in a servile,

scared sort of way. He is cradling the goblet, so it cannot be seen.

CLOSE ON: Guthric's face -- he says nothing, and then he viciously hits Cain.

Cain goes tumbling to the ground, WHIMPERING and MOANING and pleading.

Guthric kicks at the fallen Cain, and the Golden cup falls from his grasp, and rolls onto the snow.

Guthric looks at Cain, and then reaches down and picks up the goblet.

 

The weal across Cain's face has started to heal and scab. He looks scared.

Guthric holds the Goblet up to the light…

CUT TO:

128 EXT. KING BEOWULF'S CASTLE - DAY

128

The sea spray lashes the rocks in front of Beowulf's castle. We are looking in at from the sea.

129 INT. KING BEOWULF'S CASTLE - ANTEROOM - DAY

129

There are A COUPLE OF GUARDS guarding the way. Old Wiglaf is standing beside Guthric, who is holding something wrapped in cloth at his side.

But he is interrupted in his turn by King Beowulf. Who entered unnoticed.

He offers the goblet, still wrapped in oilcloth, to the King. King Beowulf unwraps the cloth.

CUT TO:

130 EXT. GUTHRIC'S HALL - SUNSET

130

Guthric draws his horse up outside his hall. He's in a good mood, and is singing happily to himself…breaks off as he realizes there's no-one there to meet him.

There's a pause. No-one comes. The place is in silence. Smoke…or mist…hangs on the air.

But there is silence.

Guthric slides off his horse, and walks into his

131 COURTYARD

131

There, in the courtyard, stand, in expressions of UTTER TERROR, as if caught trying to flee, standing and lying, CHARCOAL-BLACKENED, CARBONIZED CORPSES of Lady Guthric, children, slaves…but no Cain.

 

Guthric stares at them in horror. He reaches out and touches his wife's carbonized arm…

 

It drops off and CRUMBLES to charcoal.

 

Guthric looks around in terror and then he grits his teeth, summons what courage he has, draws his sword, and goes into his Hall.

132 INT. GUTHRIC'S HALL - NIGHT

132

The hall is in darkness. The only source of illumination is low firelight, and the dim dusk light coming through the open door. Guthric's sword glitters gold in the firelight. He walks in nervously, looking around, whirling around to stop someone attacking him from behind…and then the large door to the hall swings closed with a loud SLAM.

 

And the room is dark.

Silence.

 

And then, from one corner of the room, there is a glimmer of fire and smoke, illuminating something gold that we can barely see.

The dragon's voice is sly, insinuating, gentle. Guthric cannot see him…perhaps just two golden lights glitter in the darkness -- the dragon's eyes.

There is a GROWL -- the dragon is not pleased at all, and a thin stream of flame hisses out from the darkness where the dragon is, burning half of Guthric's face and hair. Guthric SCREAMS in pain and fright.

Guthric cowers on the floor, his attitude the same as that of Cain, when Guthric was whipping him.

There is a moment of silence.

The dragon LAUGHS.

 

Then the door opens, letting in a little moonlight, but not showing us the Dragon, and it closes again. There is silence in the hall. Guthric begins to sob--

Then from outside we hear A ROARING so loud that the walls begin to SHAKE.

 

And the walls of the hall begin to glow with a bright orange, golden light. The dragon is bathing the hall in fire, but Guthric does not realize that, as he gets to his feet trying to work out what's going on…and then he…and we understand…as the entire hall becomes, in the twinkling of an eye…
an exploding fireball
.

CUT TO:

133 EXT. KING BEOWULF'S CASTLE - WALKWAY - NIGHT

133

The night sky shines brightly.

 

King Beowulf stands on the castle roof, staring up at the constellations. He is alone. He SIGHS, and goes inside…

134 INT. KING BEOWULF'S CASTLE - SPIRAL STAIRWAY - NIGHT

134

He walks along, down the narrow winding stairs of his castle, descending slowly.

135 INT. KING BEOWULF'S CASTLE - MEAD HALL - DAY

135

About TWENTY THANES are standing around in the hall, partying. There is something insipid about their partying though -- the Thanes of 50 years ago had more fun. These guys are -- well, some of them are watching and betting on a gambling game being played with ivory cubes, rune-dice, others are talking by the fire.

 

A couple of them -- BONSTAN and FRODA -- are looking at the souvenirs hanging on the wall:
Beowulf's Bow
;
The hilt of the giant sword
that “killed Grendel's Mother”;
a huge shield
; the
wolf-skin/bear skin
that Beowulf wore when he was younger…

 

The Dragon Cup
is on display in the hall, taking pride of place, beside the throne.

 

Old Wiglaf wanders over to Bonstan and Froda, who are staring at the things on the wall.

And over Wiglaf's protests, he reaches the bow down from the wall. Then he tries to bend it, and fails, hurting his finger on the string of the bow.

 

LAUGHING, Bonstan takes it from him and tries to bend it, and perhaps others of them try and fail -- through all this Old Wiglaf is saying things like--

King Beowulf likes to enter unannounced it seems, as he has done so yet again, and he says:

He passes the bow to King Beowulf, who looks at it, for a moment -- will he try to bend it? We wonder -- and then King Beowulf puts it back on the wall.

Golden Mead pours into the dragon's golden cup…and he sees, golden and distorted, his own reflection.

DISSOLVE TO:

136 THE DREAM OF GRENDEL'S MOTHER

136

In Beowulf's dream, the Jan Svankmajer-esque doll of young Beowulf is facing a monster -- a huge, golden, monster woman, being animated by stop motion. The monster picks up the Beowulf doll when suddenly the DREAM SHIFTS TO…

 

Grendel's Mother and Young Beowulf, in real life, kissing each other desperately, passionately, underwater.

 

They break the surface and Grendel's mother begins LAUGHING, in slow motion, water drops glistening around her and SUDDENLY IT'S…

 

King Beowulf, who has replaced Young Beowulf…his old fingers touch her cheeks and the swell of her breast.