Wild at Heart

 

 

 

Screenplay by       David Lynch

 

Produced by      Monty Montgomery

          Steve Golin

          Joni Sighvatsson

 

Directed by      David Lynch

 

 

 

Cast List:

 

Nicolas Cage      Sailor Ripley

Laura Dern      Lula Pace Fortune

Diane Ladd      Mariette Fortune

Willem Dafoe      Bobby Peru

Isabella Rossellini    Perdita Durango

Harry Dean Stanton    Johnnie Farragut

Crispin Glover      Dell

Grace Zabriskie      Juana

J.E. Freeman      Marcello Santos

W. Morgan Sheppard    Mr. Reindeer

Calvin Lockhart      Reginald Sula

 

 

 

And now the story of Sailor and Lula...

 

 

 

FADE IN:

 

 

EXT. CITY STREET – DAY

 

A MAN rides a screaming massive Japanese motorcycle – wound out to maximum R.P.M. up the street.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

SIGN BY ROADSIDE

 

The sign reads "KIDS PLAYING – SPEED BUMPS".

 

CUT TO:

 

 

EXT. CITY STREET – DAY

 

With a whine from hell, the front tire of the motorcycle hits a speed bump.

 

The motorcycle becomes airborne and on the way up slices itself in half as it scrapes along the full length of a Datsun Kingcab.

 

In the air, the rider and motorcycle twist violently as they fly by.

 

The motorcycle bounces off a black '66 Chevrolet and makes a sound like the end of the world.

 

The rider hits the same Chevy a moment later. Like a broken ragdoll shot from a canon, the man punches through the back window blowing glass for a block. He stops somewhere under the front seat and a bubble of blood forms out his nose.

 

The motorcycle continues on sliding and spinning with an ear-piercing howl for one entire city block.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD STREETS – VACANT LOT – DAY

 

Two rabid dogs fight ferociously in a vacant lot – ripping each other’s flesh. An OLD COUPLE, both with walkers, inch painfully along nearby.

 

OLD WOMAN

Oh my God! Why they doin' that?

 

OLD MAN

Who the hell knows. What you have in your mouth?

 

The old woman begins to turn away, covering her mouth with her hand.

 

OLD MAN

Spit it out!!! Pull your teeth out... doctor said. What you tryin' to do? SPIT IT OUT!!!

 

The Old Man grabs the Old Woman by the neck and squeezes. Out comes a tangled and sticky ball of hard fruit candies.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

WASP NEST

 

A thousand wasps hover threateningly in the air around the nest. A SMALL GROUP OF HARDENED CRIMINAL NINE-YEAR OLDS sporting hideous grins, bat the nest violently to and fro with sticks. One kid busies himself shooting a large can of Black Flag garden spray into a crack in the nest. Another stomps half-dead wasps up and down the sidewalk. All the kids are making animal noises of one sort or the other.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

 

The telephone rings. MARIETTA PACE FORTUNE, a rich Southern woman around fifty, carries her Martini and Rossi sweet vermouth drink across the livingroom and answers the phone.

 

MARIETTA

Hello... Who is this?

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. PEE DEE COUNTY WORK FARM – DAY

 

A GUARD stands by as SAILOR RIPLEY, twenty-three years old – lost somewhere between the cool long-gone generation and a used-car salesman – speaks on a prisoner phone in a green cement cubicle with one bench.

 

SAILOR

(into phone)

... Sailor Ripley... Can I talk to Lula?

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

 

MARIETTA

There’s no way in hell you can speak to her and...

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. PEE DEE COUNTY WORK FARM – DAY

 

SAILOR

(feeling a smile coming on)

What?...

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

 

MARIETTA

... Yes you heard me... Don’t ever call back here again.

 

Marietta hangs up the phone as LULA PACE FORTUNE, Marietta’s twenty-year old daughter, comes quickly down the stairs.

 

LULA

Mama???

 

MARIETTA

You know who it was and you know you aren’t, and I mean ARE NOT gonna see him EVER... End of story.

 

LULA

(quietly)

Like hell.

 

Marietta, her hand still on the telephone, grips the receiver so hard her knuckles turn white.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – LULA'S ROOM UPSTAIRS – DAY

 

Lula enters her room and cranks up her stereo. Speed metal music jumps up to around one hundred twenty decibels.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. PEE DEE COUNTY WORK FARM – DAY

 

The guard escorts Sailor away from the telephone and back to his cell. The iron bars of the door slide across Sailor’s face and close with a bang.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

EXT. THE MUSIC BAR – NIGHT

 

A beat-up, red ’64 Ford Falcon station wagon filled with insane TEENAGERS on speed and PCP race out of control down the street past the club – leaning out the car in every direction. They scream out to the desolate-looking passerby.

 

TEENAGERS

EAT SHIT MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!!!

 

The camera cranes up to the neon club sign and gets lost among the hot pink neon, the frantic moths and the intense electric buzz.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. THE MUSIC BAR – NIGHT

 

Lula and her friend, BEANY THORN, sit at a table drinking rum Coca-Colas while watching and listening to a white blues band called THE BLEACH BOYS. The group segues smoothly from Elmore James’s "Dust my Broom" into Robert Johnson’s "Me and the Devil" and Beany lets out a snort.

 

BEANY

I can dig this music... But not that singer.

 

LULA

Why? He’s right in the groove.

 

BEANY

He’s so ugly. Guys with beards and beer guts ain’t quite my type.

 

LULA

(giggles)

Seein’s how you’re about as thick as a used string of unwaxed dental floss, don’t know how you can criticize.

 

BEANY

Yeah, well, if he says that all that flab turns into dick at midnight, he’s a liar.

 

Lula and Beany laugh and swallow some of their drinks.

 

BEANY

So, Sailor’s gettin’ out soon, and you’re gonna see him?

 

Lula nods and crushes an ice cube with her back teeth and chews it.

 

LULA

Meetin' him at the gate. That phone call this afternoon was the signal. My deranged mama's hid the keys to my car. But of course, I know exactly where they are.

 

BEANY

I didn't hate me so much, I'd feel better wishin' you luck.

 

LULA

Can't all husbands be perfect, and your Elmo prob'ly wouldn'ta ever got that second one pregnant, you hadn't kicked his ass out.

 

BEANY

So you're gonna be needin' the "blue-bird" pretty soon?

 

LULA

Real soon... I'll be makin' the swap tomorrow, and thanks again, Beany.

 

The Bleach Boys kick into some kind of Professor Longhair swamp mambo.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

EXT. BAY ST. CLEMENT – DAY

 

Plumes of smoke from fires rise in the distance.

 

DISSOLVE TO:

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

 

An empty living room. The smoke from the city fire appears during the course of the DISSOLVE to be in the living room – then it disappears.

 

An empty hallway.

 

An empty stairway.

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – MARIETTA'S BEDROOM – DAY

 

Feet (Lula's) was across carpet.

 

A closet door opens.

 

A hand (Lula's) reaches into the pocket of a coat in her mother's closet. The hand comes out clutching car keys.

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – STAIRWAY – DAY

 

Lula races down the stairs and through a door into the garage.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

EXT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

 

The electronic garage door opens and Lula drives her '80 Black Camaro out and away. The garage door closes automatically.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

EXT. CITY STREETS – DAY

 

Lula drives fast up a neighborhood street. She turns a corner and disappears.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. BEANY THORN'S GARAGE – DAY

 

Lula throws her car keys under the front seat and goes around to Beany's '67 dark blue Thunderbird convertible – fishes around under the T-Bird's front seat for the keys – finds them – jumps in and takes off.

 

DISSOLVE TO:

 

 

EXT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

 

Marietta leaves her Cadillac Seville in her driveway and enters the house. We can hear her calling out for Lula in the distance. The calling changes – it becomes angry. The garage door opens and Marietta comes storming out. She leaps in her Caddy and peels out.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. "SOUTHERN TIME" BAR – DAY

 

Marietta enters the bar on the run. She calls out to the BARTENDER...

 

MARIETTA

Where's Johnnie? He's not in his office.

 

BARTENDER

Haven't seen 'im yet today, Marietta.

 

MARIETTA

(slightly hysterical)

Well I gotta find him – right this minute!

 

CUT TO:

 

 

EXT. PEE DEE COUNTY WORK FARM – DAY

 

Sailor is waiting out front as Lula pulls up in her T-Bird – throwing out a cloud of dust. They're both smiling.

 

LULA

Hey baby...

 

SAILOR

Peanut...

 

They kiss tenderly and then Sailor walks around the car to get in while Lula opens up a suitcase and gets out his snakeskin jacket.

 

SAILOR

Hey, my snakeskin jacket... Thanks, baby... Did I ever tell you that this here jacket for me is a symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom?

 

LULA

'Bout fifty thousand times. I got us a room at the Cape Fear, and guess what?... I hear Powermad's at "The Hurricane."

 

SAILOR

(smiling)

Stab it and steer.

 

Lula tromps it and throws out an even larger cloud of dust.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. CAPE FEAR HOTEL – DAY

 

Sailor and Lula lay on the bed in the Cape Fear Hotel listening to the fan creak.

 

LULA

Did you ever think somethin' like about the wicked witch of the east comin' flyin' in?... Did you ever think somethin' and then later think you've said it out loud to someone?

 

SAILOR

I really did miss your mind while I was out at Pee Dee, honey. The rest of you, too, of course. But the way your head works is God's own private mystery. What was it you was thinkin'?

 

LULA

Well, I was thinkin' about smokin' actually... My mama smokes Marlboros now, used to be she smoked Kools? I stole 'em from her beginnin' in about sixth grade. When I got old enough to buy my own, I bought those. Now I've just about settled on Mores, as you probably noticed? They're longer.

 

SAILOR

I guess I started smokin' when I was about six... My mama was already dead from lung cancer...

 

LULA

What brand'd she smoke?

 

SAILOR

Camels, same as me... Guess both my mama and my daddy died of smoke or alcohol related illness.

 

LULA

Gee, Sailor. I'm sorry, honey. I never would have guessed it.

 

SAILOR

It's okay. I hardly used to see them anyway. I didn't have much parental guiding. The public defender kept sayin' that at my parole hearin'. He was a good ol' boy, stood by me... Even brought me some cartons of cigarettes from time to time.

 

LULA

I'd stand by you, Sailor... through anything.

 

SAILOR

Hell, peanut, you stuck with me after I planted Bob Ray Lemon. A man can't ask for more than that.

 

Lula pulls Sailor over to her and kisses him soft on the mouth.

 

LULA

You move me, Sailor, you really do. You mark me the deepest.

 

Sailor pulls down the sheet, exposing Lula's breasts.

 

SAILOR

You're perfect for me, too.

 

LULA

You remind me of my daddy, you know? Mama told me he liked skinny women whose breasts were just a bit too big for their bodies. He had a long nose, too, like theirs. Did I ever tell you how he died?

 

SAILOR

In a fire, as I recall.

 

LULA

Started he couldn't remember things? Got real violent? Mama kept tellin' me it was on account of lead poisoning from cleanin' the old paint off our house without usin' a mask... But I don't know. Seems like his brain just fell apart in pieces.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – KITCHEN – NIGHT

 

CLYDE FORTUNE tears a door off the kitchen cabinets and strews the cabinet contents all across the counter and floor. He puts his fist through the kitchen window. He leaps on the counter and bats the kitchen ceiling light – smashing it. He kicks over the refrigerator.

 

CLYDE

FUCKIN' BITCH!!!!

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. CAPE FEAR HOTEL – DAY

 

Lula's eyes look off, remembering.

 

LULA

Finally in the middle of the one night, with me and mama asleep upstairs... he poured kerosene over himself and lit a match.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – LIVING ROOM – NIGHT

 

Clyde Fortune, completely engulfed in fire, races across and back the living room until he collapses in a fifties modern armchair. The drapes behind him burst in flames.

 

LULA (V.O.)

Near burned down the house. We got out just in time.

 

The whole living room goes up in flames.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. CAPE FEAR HOTEL – DAY

 

CLOSEUP – The red hot ash of Lula's cigarette as she inhales deeply. As she exhales a cloud of smoke she turns to Sailor.

 

LULA

It was a year before I met you.

 

Sailor takes the cigarette out of Lula's hand and puts it into the ashtray by her bed. He pulls her to him and kisses her throat.

 

SAILOR

You have such a pretty, long neck, like a swan.

 

LULA

Grandmama Pace had a long, smooth white neck. It was like on a statue it was so white?

 

Sailor drifts his thumb over Lula's left nipple then cups her breast in his hand. They kiss.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

 

Marietta pours JOHNNIE FARRAGUT another shot of scotch.

 

MARIETTA

I knew this would happen. Soon as that piece of filth got out of Pee Dee, I knew there'd be trouble. He's just got some kind of influence over her I can't decipher. There's somethin' wild in Lula I don't know where it comes from. You gotta find 'em, Johnnie.

 

JOHNNIE

He served his time for what he did. Another thing... If Lula went with him of her own volition – willingly, that is – there ain't much can be done about it.

 

MARIETTA

Don't talk down to me, Johnnie Farragut. I know what volition means, and that's why I want Sailor Ripley off the planet! He's pure slime and it's leakin' all over my baby. Maybe you could push him into makin' some kinda move and then kill him dead. You'd only be defendin' yourself, and with his record, nobody'd fuss.

 

Johnnie pours himself another tumblerful of Walker Black Label.

 

JOHNNIE

I'll locate Lula, Marietta, and if she's with the Ripley boy, I'll give him a talkin' to and try to convince her to come back with me. That's about all I can do.

 

He takes a long swallow from the tumbler. Marietta begins to cry. She blubbers for a few seconds, and then stops as abruptly as she'd started. Her grey eyes glaze over.

 

MARIETTA

I'll hire a hit man if you don't want to help me stop this thing. I'll call Marcello Santos.

 

JOHNNIE

Now, Marietta, I am goin' to help you. And don't be gettin' carried away. You don't want to be bringin' Santos and his people into it.

 

MARIETTA

You're just jealous of Santos cause he's sweet on me.

 

JOHNNIE

Darlin', you ain't seein' Santos again, are ya?

 

MARIETTA

Oh, Johnnie Farragut... Don't you trust your very own Marietta?

 

JOHNNIE

Sorry, sweetheart. Bein' in love with you like I am brings out that ugly jealous side.

 

MARIETTA

Well stop worryin' about me and start worryin' about how you're gonna get that Lula back here and away from that murderer.

 

JOHNNIE

Sailor ain't a murderer. You got to get off that kick. And far's I can tell, Sailor was entire clean prior to that involvin' Lula. Even there he was protectin' her. You oughta be thankin' him for that. That Bob Ray Lemon they say was comin' after the both of 'em. Why am I tellin' you this, you was around that night. You ought to know just exactly what happened. Sailor just got a little too forceful is all... You remember that night...

 

CLOSEUP – Marietta' eyes as she thinks back.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. BAY ST. CLEMENT HOTEL – BALLROOM – NIGHT

 

We see Marietta standing in a carpeted hallway above the ballroom. Dance band music can be heard in the distance. Sailor appears coming up the hallway – slightly drunk – he carefully sets his drink on the carpet outside the MEN'S ROOM.

 

Marietta's POV of Sailor entering the MEN'S ROOM.

 

CLOSEUP – Marietta's glazed eyes and smiling face.

 

Marietta's POV of walking toward MEN'S ROOM.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – DAY

 

MARIETTA

Maybe I was there, but I didn't see anythin'. All I know's that trash killed a man with his bare hands. Hands which are now prob'ly all over my baby!

 

JOHNNIE

Marietta, settle down now darlin'... I want what's best for her, too – like I said, I'll do what I can to bring her home.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. CAPE FEAR HOTEL – DAY

 

Lula is standing in the bathroom of their room at the Hotel fooling with her hair in front of the mirror. Sailor can see her through the doorway from where he lays on the bed.

 

LULA

Sailor, you are somethin' else, honey... When I was fifteen, Mama told me that pretty soon I'd be startin' to think about sex, and I should talk to her before I did anything about it.

 

SAILOR

But honey, I thought you told me your Uncle Pooch raped you when you was thirteen.

 

LULA

That's true. Uncle Pooch wasn't really an uncle. He was a business partner of my daddy's? And my mama never knew nothin' about me and him – that's for damn sure. His real name was somethin' kind of European, like Pucinski. But everyone just called him Pooch. He came around the house sometimes when Daddy was away. I always figured he was sweet on mama, so when he cornered me one afternoon, I was surprised more'n a little.

 

SAILOR

How'd it happen, peanut? He just pull out the old toad and let it croak?

 

Lula brushes away her bangs and frowns. She takes a cigarette from the pack on the sink and lights it, then lets it dangle from her lips while she teases her hair.

 

LULA

You're terrible crude sometimes, Sailor, you know?

 

SAILOR

I can't hardly understand you when you talk with one of them Mores in your mouth.

 

Lula takes a long, slow drag on her More and sets it down on the edge of the sink.

 

LULA

I said you can be too crude sometimes? I don't think I care for it.

 

SAILOR

Sorry, sugar. Go on and tell me how old Pooch done the deed.

 

LULA

Well, mama was at the Busy Bee havin' her hair dyed? And I was alone in the house.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. FORTUNE HOUSE – KITCHEN – DAY

 

We see what she talks about.

 

LULA (V.O.)

Uncle Pooch came in the side door through the porch, you know? Where I was makin' a jelly and banana sandwich? I remember I had my hair in curlers cause I was goin' that night with Vicki and Cherry Ann, the DeSoto sisters. Uncle Pooch must have known nobody but me was home, cause he came right in and put both his hands on my butt and sorta shoved me up against the counter.

 

CUT TO:

 

 

INT. CAPE FEAR HOTEL – DAY

 

SAILOR

Didn't he say somethin'?

 

Lula shakes her head. She picks up her cigarette, takes a puff and throws it into the toilet.

 

EXTREME CLOSEUP of cigarette in toilet.

 

LULA

Not really. Least not so I recall now.