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Shawshank Redemption
D.A. Mr. Dufresne, describe the confrontation you had with your wife the night that she was murdered.
ANDY It was very bitter. She said she was glad I knew, that she hated all the sneaking around. And she said she wanted a divorce in Reno.
D.A. What was your response?
ANDY I told her I would not grant one.
D.A. "I'll see you in Hell before I see you in Reno." Those were the words you used, Mr. Dufresne, according to the testimony of your neighbors.
ANDY If they say so. I really don't remember. I was upset.
D.A. What happened after you argued with your wife?
ANDY She packed a bag, she packed a bag to go and stay with Mr. Quentin.
D.A. Glenn Quentin. The golf pro at the Snowden Hills Country Club. The man you had recently discovered was your wife’s lover. Did you follow her?
ANDY I went to a few bars first. Later, I drove to his house to confront them. They weren't home...so I parked in the turnout and waited.
D.A. With what intention?
ANDY I'm not sure. I was confused. Drunk. I think mostly I wanted to scare them.
D.A. When they arrived, you went up to the house and murdered them?
ANDY No. I was sobering up. I got back in the car and I drove home to sleep it off. Along the way, I stopped and I threw my gun into the Royal River. I feel I've been very clear on this point.
D.A. Where I get hazy is where the cleaning woman shows up the following morning and finds your wife in bed with her lover, riddled with .38 caliber bullets. Does that strike you as a fantastic coincidence, Mr. Dufresne, or is it just me?
ANDY Yes. It does.
D.A. Yet you still maintain you threw your gun into the river before the murders took place. That's very convenient.
ANDY It's the truth.
D.A. The police dragged that river for three days and nary a gun was found. So there could be no comparison made between your gun and the bullets taken from the bloodstained corpses of the victims. And that also is very convenient, isn't it, Mr. Dufresne?
ANDY Since I’m innocent of this crime, sir, I find it decidedly inconvenient the gun was never found.
D.A. Ladies and gentlemen, you've heard all the evidence, you know all the facts. We have the accused at the scene of the crime. We have foot prints. Tire tracks. Bullets thrown on the ground and bearing his fingerprints. A broken bourbon bottle, likewise with fingerprints. And most of all, we have a beautiful young woman and her lover lying dead in each other's arms. They had sinned. But was their crime so great as to merit a death sentence? And while you think about that, think about this. A revolver holds six bullets, not eight. I submit that this was not a hot-blooded crime of passion! That at least could be understood, if not condoned. No, this was revenge of a much more brutal and cold-blooded nature. Consider this! Four bullets per victim! Not six shots fired, but eight! That means he fired the gun empty...and then stopped to reload so that he could shoot each of them again! An extra bullet per lover...right in the head.
JUDGE You strike me as a particularly icy and remorseless man, Mr. Dufresne. It chills my blood just to look at you. By the power vested in me by the State of Maine, I hereby order you to serve two life sentences, back to back, one for each of your victims. So be it.
MAN #1 Sit.
MAN #2 We see by your file you've served twenty years of a life sentence.
RED Yes, sir.
MAN #2 You feel you’ve been rehabilitated?
RED Oh, yes sir. Absolutely sir. I mean I've learned my lesson. I can honestly say that I'm a changed man. I'm no longer a danger to society. That's God's honest truth.
FLOYD Hey, Red. How’d it go?
RED Some all shit, different day.
HETWOOD Yeah, I know how you feel. I’m up for rejection next week.
JIGGER Yeah, I got rejected last week.
HETWOOD It happens.
JOE Hey, Red, bump me a deck.
RED Get out fuck of my face for you, man! You’re into me for five packs already.
JOE Four
RED Five.
RED There must be a con like me in every prison in America. I'm the guy who can get it for you. Cigarettes, a bag of reefer if that’s your thing, a bottle of brandy to celebrate your kid's high school graduation. Damn near anything, within reason. Yes sir, I'm a regular Sears & Roebuck. So when Andy Dufresne came to me in 1949 and asked me to smuggle Rita Hayworth into the prison for him, I told him no problem.
RED Andy came to Shawshank Prison in early 1947 for murdering his wife and the fella she was bangin'. On the outside, he'd been vice- president of a large Portland bank. Good work for a man as young as he was, when you consider how conservative banks were back then.
FLOYD Hey, Red!
HADLEY You speak English, butt-steak? You follow this officer.
HEYWOOD I never seen such a sorry-lookin' heap of maggot shit in all my life.
CON Hey, fish. Come over here.
FLOYD Takin' bets today, Red?
RED Smokes or coin, bettor's choice.
FLOYD Smokes. Put me down for two.
RED All right. Who's your horse?
FLOYD That little sack of shit, eight, eight from the front. He'll be the first.
HEYWOOD Bullshit. I'll take that action.
ERNIE Me too.
HEYWOOD You're out some smokes, son. Let me tell you.
FLOYD Heywood, if you're so smart, you call it.
HEYWOOD I’ll take that chubby fat-ass there, Red...fifth one from the front. Put me down for a quarter deck.
CON Fresh fish today! We are reeling them in.
RED I must admit I didn't think much of Andy first time I laid eyes on him. Looked like a stiff breeze would blow him over. That was my first impression of the man.
SKEET What do you say, Red?
RED That tall drink of water with the silver spoon up his ass.
SNOOZE That guy? Never happen.
RED 10 cigarettes. Little fella on the end. Definitely. I stake half a pack. Any takers?
SNOOZE That’s a rich bet.
RED C'mon, boys, who's gonna prove me wrong? Heywood, Jigger, Skeet, Floyd. Four brave souls, ten smokes apiece.
VOICE Return to your cellblocks for evening count. All prisoners. return to your cellblocks
HADLEY Turn to the right. Eyes front.
NORTON This is Mr. Hadley, he’s captain of the guard. I am Mr. Norton, the warden. You are convicted felons, that's why they’ve sent you to me. Rule number one: no blasphemy. I'll not have the Lord's name taken in vain in my prison. The other rules you'll figure out as you go along. Any questions?
CON When do we eat?
HADLEY you eat when we say you eat! You shit when we say you shit! You piss when we say you piss! You got that, you maggot- dick motherfucker! On your feet.
NORTON I believe in two things. Discipline and the Bible. Here, you'll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord. Your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank.
HADLEY Unhook them. Turn around. That’s enough. Move to the end of the cage. Turn around. Delouse him. Turn around. Move out of the cage, go to your left. Pick up your colthes and Bible. Next man up.
GUARD Right, right, right, left.
RED The first night's the toughest, no doubt about it. They march you in naked as the day you're born, skin burning and half-blind from that delousing shit they throw on you... and when they put you in that cell, and those bars slam home, that's when you know it's for real. Old life blown away in the blink of an eye...nothing left but all the time in the world to think about it. Most new fish come close to madness the first night. Somebody always breaks down crying. Happens every time. The only question is, who's it gonna be? It's as good a thing to bet on as any, I guess. I had my money on Andy Dufresne...
GUARD Lights out!
RED I remember my first night. Seems like a long time ago now.
VARIOUS VOICES Hey, fish, fish, fish. What are you, scared of the dark?
RED The boys always go fishin' with first-timers...and they don't quit till they reel someone in.
HEYWOOD Fat-Ass...oh, Faaaat-Ass. Talk to me, boy. I know you're there. I can hear you breathin'. Now don't you listen to these nitwits, you hear me? This place ain't so bad. Tell you what… I'll introduce you around, make you feel right at home. I know a couple of big ol' bull queers that’d just love to make your acquaintance... especially that big, white mushy butt of yours...
FAT-ASS God! I don't belong here!
VOICE We have a winner.
FAT-ASS I wanna go home!
HEYWOOD And it's fat-ass by a nose.
VOICES Fresh fish...fresh fish...fresh fish...fresh fish...
FAT-ASS I don’t belong here. I wanna go home! I want my mom.
VOICE I had your mother! She wasn't that great!
HADLEY What the Christ is this horse shit?
VOICE He blasphemed! I'll tell the warden!
HADLEY You'll be tellin' him with my baton up your ass!
FAT-ASS You get me out of here.
HADLEY What is your malfunction you fat barrel of monkey-spunk?
FAT-ASS Please! I ain't supposed to be here! Not me!
HADLEY I ain't gonna count to three! I’m not even gonna count to one! You would shut the fuck up 'fore I sing you a lullabye!
FAT-ASS Please, please! You don’t understand. I’m not supposed to be here.
HADLEY Open that cell. Son of a bitch. If I hear so much as a mouse fart in here the rest of the night, I swear by God and Sonny Jesus, you'll all visit the infirmary. Every last motherfucker in here. Call the trustee. Take that tub of shit down to the infirmary.
RED His first night in the joint, Andy Dufresne cost me two packs of cigarettes. He never made a sound...
GUARD Tier 3 north, clear count! Prepare to roll out. Roll out!
BROOKS Are you, are you gonna eat that?
ANDY I hadn't planned on it.
BROOKS Do you mind?
BROOKS Mmm. That’s nice and ripe.
BROOKS Jake says thank you. Fell out of his nest over by the plate shop. I'm gonna look after him till he's big enough to fly.
JIGGER Oh, no, no, here he comes.
HEYWOOD Mornin', fellas. fine mornin', isn’t it? You know why it's a fine morning, don’t you? Come on, send 'em all down. I want 'em all lined up just like a pretty little chorus line. Look at that. I can’t stand this guy. Oh, lord. Yes! Richmond, Virginia.
FLOYD Smell my ass...
HEYWOOD After he smells mine. Gee, Red. That’s a terrible shame about your horse comin' in last and all. But, I sure do love that winning horse of mine, though. I believe I owe that boy a great big sloppy kiss when I see him.
RED Why don’t you give him some'a your cigarettes instead?, lucky fuck!
HEYWOOD Say Tyrell, you pull infirmary duty this week? How's that horse of mine doing, anyway?
TYRELL Dead. Hadley busted his head pretty good. Doc had already gone home for the night. Poor bastard lay there till this morning. By then... there wasn’t nothing we could do.
ANDY What was his name?
HEYWOOD What'd you say?
ANDY I was just wondering if anyone knew his name.
HEYWOOD What the fuck you care, new fish? Doesn't fuckin' matter what his name was. He's dead.
BOGS Hey, anybody come at you yet? Anybody get to you yet? Hey, we all need friends here. I could be a friend to you. Hard to get. I like that.
RED Andy kept pretty much to himself first. I guess he had a lot on his mind trying to adapt to life on the inside. Wasn’t till a month went by that he opened his mouth to say more than two words to somebody. As it turned out… that somebody was me.
ANDY I'm Andy Dufresne.
RED Wife-killin' banker.
RED Why'd you do it?
ANDY I didn't, since you ask.
RED Hell, you're gonna fit right in. Everybody in here's innocent, didn't you know that? Heywood! What you in here for?
HEYWOOD Didn't do it! Lawyer fucked me!
RED Rumor has it you're a real cold fish. You think your shit smells sweeter than most. Is that right?
ANDY What do you think?
RED I’ll tell you the truth. Haven't made up my mind yet.
ANDY I understand you're a man who knows how to get things.
RED I'm known to locate certain things from time to time.
ANDY I wonder if you might get me a rock-hammer?
RED What?
ANDY A rock-hammer.
RED What is it and why?
ANDY why do you care?
RED Well If you wanted a toothbrush, I wouldn't ask questions. I'd just quote a price. But a toothbrush is a non-lethal object, isn’t it?
ANDY Fair enough. A rock-hammer is about six or seven inches long. Looks like a miniature pickaxe.
RED Pickaxe?
ANDY For rocks.
RED Rocks. Quarts?
ANDY Quartz. And some mica. shale. limestone.
RED So?
ANDY So I'm a rock hound. At least I was in my old life. I'd like to be again on a limited bases.
RED Or maybe you’d like to sink your toy into somebody's skull?
ANDY No, sir, I have no enemies here.
RED No? Wait a while. Word gets around. The Sisters have taken quite a liking to you, yes they have. Especially Bogs.
ANDY Don’t suppose it would help if I explained to them I'm not homosexual?
RED Neither are they. You have to be human first. They don't qualify. Bull queers take by force, that's all they want or understand. If I were you I'd grow eyes in the back of my head.
ANDY Thanks for the advice.
RED Well that’s free. You understand my concern.
ANDY If there's any trouble, I won’t use the rock- hammer. Okay?.
RED Then I guess you wanna escape. Tunnel under the wall maybe? What did I miss? What's so funny?
ANDY You'll understand when you see the rock- hammer.
RED What's an item like this usually go for?
ANDY Seven dollars in any rock and gem shop.
RED My normal mark-up's twenty percent, but this is a specialty item. Risk goes up, price goes up. Let’s make it an even ten bucks.
ANDY Ten it is.
RED Waste of money, if you ask me.
ANDY Why is that?
RED Folks around this joint love surprise inspections. They'll find it, you gonna lose it. If they do catch you, you don’t know me, you mention my name, we'll never do business again. Not for shoelaces or a stick of gum. Now, you got that?
ANDY I understand. Thank you, Mr...?
RED Red. Name's Red.
ANDY Red. Why do they call you that?
RED Maybe it’s because I’m Irish. I could see why some of the boys took him for snobby. He had a quiet way about him, a walk and a talk that just wasn't normal around here. He strolled like a man in a park without a care or worry in the world. Like he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place. Yes, I think it would be fair to say I liked Andy from the start.
GUARD Let’s go! Some of us got a schedule to keep. Move it. Come on. Move it.
MERCHANT How you doing? How’s the wife treating you?
MAN #3 Red.
GUARD Keep it moving.
RED Andy was right. I finally got the joke. It would take a man about six hundred years to tunnel under the wall with one of these.
BROOKS Book?
MAN#4 Not today.
RED Hey, Brooks, delivery for Dufresne.
BROOKS Dufresne, here’s your book.
ANDY Thanks.
BOB We're running low on hexite! Get on back and fetch us up some!
ANDY This will blind you.
BOGS Honey, hush.
BOGS That's it, fight. Better that way.
RED I wish I could tell you that Andy fought the good fight, and the Sisters let him be. I wish I could tell you that, but prison is no fairy-tale world. He never said who did it...but we all knew. Things went on like that for a while. Prison life consists of routine, and then more routine. Every so often, Andy would show up with fresh bruises. The Sisters kept at him. Sometimes he was able to fight them off. And that's how it went for Andy. That was his routine. I do believe those first two years were the worst for him. And I also believe if things had gone on that way, this place would have got the best of him. But then, in the spring of 1949, the powers-that-be decided that...
NORTON The roof of the license-plate factory needs resurfacing. I need a dozen volunteers for a week's work. As you know, special detail carries with it, special privileges.
RED It was outdoor detail, and May is one damn fine month to be workin' outdoors. More than a hundred men volunteered for the job. Wouldn't you know it? Me and some fellas I know were among the names called. It only cost us a pack of smokes per man. I made my usual twenty percent, of course.
HADLEY ...So this big shot lawyer calls me long distance from Texas, I say, yeah. He says, sorry to inform you, but your brother just died.
YOUNGBLOOD God Damn, Byron. I’m sorry to hear that.
HADLEY I’m not. He was an asshole. Run off years ago. Figured him for dead anyway. So this lawyer fellow says to me, your brother died a rich man. Oil wells and shit, close to a million bucks.
TROUT A million bucks?
HADLEY Yeah fucking Incredible how lucky some assholes get.
TROUT You going to see any of that?
HADLEY Thirty five thousand. That's what he left me.
TROUT Dollars? Holy shit, that's great! That’s like winnin' the sweepstake, isn’t it?
HADLEY Dumbshit. What do you think the government's gonna do to me? Take a big wet bite out of my ass, is what.
FLOYD Poor Byron. Terrible fucking luck, huh? Crying shame. Some people really got it awful.
RED Andy, are you nuts? Keep your eyes on your mop, man!
TROUT You’ll pay some tax, but you’ll still end up..
HADLEY Yeah, maybe enough to buy a new car. Then what happens? I got to pay tax on the car. Repairs and maintenance. Goddamn kids pesterin' you to take 'em for a ride all the time. The end of the year if you figure your tax wrong, you’ve got to pay ‘em out of your own pocket.
MERT I tell you! Uncle Sam! He put his hand in your shirt and squeezes your tit till it’s purple.
FLOYD Gettin' himself killed.
HEYWOOD Keep tarring.
HARDLEY Some brother. Shit!
ANDY Mr. Hadley. Do you trust your wife?
HADLEY That's funny. You're gonna look funnier suckin' my dick with no teeth.
ANDY What I mean is, do you think she'd go behind your back? Try to hamstring you?
HADLEY That's it! Step aside, Mert. This fucker's havin' himself an accident.
HEYWOOD Oh God, he's gonna do it, he'll push him off the roof...
ANDY Because if you do trust her, there's no reason you can't keep that 35 thousand.
HADLEY What did you say?
ANDY 35 thousand.
HADLEY 35 thousand, all of it?
ANDY Every penny.
HADLEY You better start making sense.
ANDY If you want to keep all that money, give it to your wife. The IRS allows you a one-time- only gift to your spouse for up to sixty thousand dollars.
HADLEY Bullshit! Tax free?
ANDY Tax free. IRS can't touch one cent.
HADLEY You're that smart banker who killed his wife, aren’t you? Why should I believe a smart banker like you? So I can end up in here with you?
ANDY It's perfectly legal. Go ask the IRS, they'll say the same thing. Actually, I feel stupid telling you all this. I'm sure you would have investigated the matter yourself.
HADLEY Fuckin'-A. I don't need no smart wife-killin' banker to tell me where the bear shit in the buckwheat.
ANDY Of course not. But you do need somebody to set up the tax-free gift for you, and that'll cost you. A lawyer, for example...
HADLEY A bunch a ball-washing bastards.
ANDY I suppose I could set it up for you. That would save you some money. You get the forms, I'll prepare them for you... nearly free of charge. I'd only ask three beers apiece for each of my co-workers.
TROUT Co-workers! Get him! That's rich, ain't it?
ANDY I think a man working outdoors feels more like a man if he can have a bottle of suds. That's only my opinion, sir.
HADLEY What are you jimmies starin' at? Back to work.
HEYWOOD Let’s go. Work!
RED And that's how it came to pass, that on the second-to-last day of the job, the convict crew that tarred the plate factory roof in the spring of '49... wound up sitting in a row at ten o'clock in the morning, drinking icy cold Bohemian style beer, courtesy of the hardest screw that ever walked a turn at Shawshank State Prison.
HADLEY Drink up, while it's cold, ladies.
RED The colossal prick even managed to sound magnanimous. We sat and drank with the sun on our shoulders, and felt like free men. Well we could'a been tarring the roof of one of our own houses. We were the Lords of all Creation. As for Andy, he spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange little smile on his face, watching us drink his beer.
HEYWOOD Hey, wanna cold one, Andy.
ANDY No thanks. I gave up drinking.
RED You could argue he'd done it to curry favor with the guards. Or maybe make a few friends among us cons. Me, I think he did it just to feel normal again...if only for a short while.
RED King me.
ANDY Chess. Now there's a game of kings.
RES What?
ANDY Civilized...strategic...
RED ...and a total fuckin' mystery. I hate it.
ANDY Maybe let me teach you someday.
RED Sure.
ANDY I've been thinking of getting a board together.
RED You are talking to the right man. I'm the guy who can get things.
ANDY We might do business on a board. I wanna carve the pieces myself. One side done in alabaster... the opposing side in soapstone. What do you think?
RED I think it’ll take years.
ANDY Years I've got. What I don't have are the rocks. Pickings are pretty slim in the yard. Pebbles mostly
RED Andy? We're gettin' to be kind friends, ain't we?
ANDY Yes, I guess.
RED Can I ask something? Why'd you do it?
ANDY I'm innocent, Red. Just like everybody else here.
ANDY What are you in for?
RED Murder. Same as you.
ANDY Innocent?
RED The only guilty man in Shawshank.
JONNY Where’s the carnary?
ACTOR How did you know?
JONNY How did I know what?
ACTOR So, you don’t know. Come this is where the carnary is, Jonny. Quite a surprise to hear a woman singing in my house, eh, Jonny?
JONNY That’s quite a surprise.
ANDY Red!
RED Wait, wait, wait. Here she comes. This is part I realize when she does that shit with her hair.
ANDY I know. I've seen it three times this month.
ACTOR Gilda, are you decent?
ACTORESS Me?
RED God, I love it.
ANDY I understand you are a man that knows how to get things.
RED I’m known to locate certain things from time to time. What do you want?
ANDY Rita Hayworth. Can you get her?
ACTORESS So this is Johnny Famel. I heard a lot about you, Johnny.
RED Take a few weeks.
ANDY Weeks?
RED Oh, yaeh, Andy, I don't have her stuffed down the front of my pants right now, I’m sorry to say. But I’ll get her. Relax.
ANDY Thanks.
BOGS Take a walk.
PROJECTIONIST I got to change the reels.
BOGS I said fuck off.
BOGS Ain't you gonna scream?
ANDY Let's get this over with.
ROOSTER He broke fucking my nose!
BOGS Now I'm gonna open my fly, and you're gonna swallow what I give you to swallow. And when you’ll swallow mine, you gonna swallow Rooster's. You done broke his nose, so you think he ought to have somethin' to show for it.
ANDY Anything you put in my mouth, you're going to lose.
BOGS No, you don't understand. You do that, I'll put all eight inches of this steel in your ear.
ANDY All right. But you should know that sudden serious brain injury causes the victim to bite down hard. In fact, I hear the bite-reflex is so strong, they have to pry the victim's jaws open with a crowbar.
BOGS Where do you get this shit?
ANDY I read it. You know how to read, you ignorant fuck?
BOGS Honey, you shouln’t.
RED Bogs didn't put anything in Andy's mouth, and neither did his friends. What they did do is beat him within an inch of his life...
RED Andy spent a month in the infirmary. Bogs spent a week in the hole.
GUARD Time's up, Bogs.
BOGS It’s your world, boss.
VOICE Return to your cellblocks for evening count. All prisoners report for lock down.
BOGS what?
GUARD Where’s he going?
HADLEY Grab his ankle.
BOGS No, no. help me.
RED Two things never happened again after that. The Sisters never laid a finger on Andy again... and Bogs never walked again. They transferred him to a minimum security hospital upstate. To my knowledge, he lived out the rest of his days drinking his food through a straw.
RED I'm thinkin' Andy could use a nice welcome back when he gets out of the infirmary.
HEYWOOD Sounds good to us. I figure we owe him that much for the beer.
RED Man likes to play chess. Let's get him some rocks.
HEYWOOD Guys, I got one. I got one, look!
FLOYD Heywood, that isn’t soapstone! And it ain’t alabaster either..
HEYWOOD What are you, a fuckin' geologist?
SNOOZE He's right, it ain't.
HEYWOOD What the hell is it then?
RED Horse apple.
HEYWOOD Bullshit.
RED No, horse shit. Petrified.
RED Despite a few hitches, the boys came through in fine style... and by the week Andy was due back, we had enough rocks saved up to keep him busy till rapture.
RED Also got a big shipment in that week. Cigarettes, chewing gum, sipping whiskey, playing cards with naked ladies on 'em, you name it... ...and, of course, the most important item. Rita Hayworth herself.
GUARD Okay, look alive! All tiers.
ERNIE They're tossin' cells.
NORTON 199, 123
HARDLY On your feet. Face the wall. Turn around and face the wardon.
NORTON Pleased to see you reading this. Any favorite passages?
ANDY "Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh."
NORTON Mark 13;35. I've always liked that one. But I prefer: "I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
ANDY John. Chapter 8, verse 12.
NORTON I hear you're good with numbers. How nice. A man should have a skill.
HADLEY You wanna explain this?
ANDY It's called a rock blanket. It's for shaping and polishing rocks. A little hobby of mine.
HADLEY It’s pretty clean. Some contraband here, but nothing to get in a twist over.
NORTON I can't say I approve of this... ...but I suppose exceptions can be made.
HADLEY Lock them up.
NORTON I almost forgot. I'd hate to deprive you of this. Salvation lies within.
RED Tossin' cells was just an excuse. Truth is, Norton wanted to size Andy up.
NORTON My wife made that in church group.
ANDY It's very nice, sir.
NORTON You enjoy working in the laundry?
ANDY No, sir. Not especially.
NORTON Perhaps we can find something more befitting a man of your education.
ANDY Hey, Jake. Where's Brooks?
BROOKS Andy! I thought I heard you had job here!
ANDY I've been reassigned to you.
BROOKS I know, they told me. Ain't that a kick in the head? Now, I'll give you the dime tour. Come on.
BROOKS Here she is, the Shawshank Prison Library. National Geographics. the Reader's Digest Condensed books. Louis L'Amours , look magazine, Erle Stanley Gardners. Every evening I roll up the cart and make my rounds. I write on the names on this clipboard here. Easy, peasy, Japanesey. Any questions?
ANDY Brooks? How long have you been librarian?
BROOKS I’m come here in ’05 and they made me librarian 1912.
ANDY Any all that time, have you ever had an assistant?
BROOKS No, not much to it, really.
ANDY Why me? why now?
BROOKS I dunno. But it’d be nice to have some comp'ny down here for a change.
HADLEY Dufresne! That's him. That's the one.
DEKINS I'm Dekins. I was, uh, thinkin' 'bout maybe settin' up some kinda trust fund for my kids' educations.
ANDY I see. Well. Why don't we have a seat and talk it over? Brooks, do you have a piece of paper and a pencil? Thanks. So, Mr. Dekins.
BROOKS And then Andy says, “Mr. Dekins, do you want your sons to go to Harvard or yale?”
FLOYD He didn't say that!
BROOKS God is my witness. Dekins just blinks for a second, then he laughed and actually shook Andy's hand.
HEYWOOD My ass!
BROOKS Shook his hand. I tell you. I hear soiled myself! All Andy needed was a suit and a tie, a little jiggly hula girl on his desk, he would'a been Mister Dufresne, if you please.
RED Makin' a few some friends, Andy.
ANDY I wouldn't say "friends." I'm a convicted murderer who provides sound financial planning. That's a wonderful pet to have.
RED Got you out of the laundry, didn't it?
ANDY It might do more than that. How about expanding the library? Get some new books in there.
FLOYD If you gonna ask for something, ask for a pool table.
HEYWOOD How do you expect to do that, get new books in here, "Mr. Dufresne-if-you-please?"
ANDY Ask the warden for funds.
BROOKS Son, Six wardens have been through here in my tenure, and I have learned one immutable universal truth: not one of 'em been born whose asshole don't pucker up tight as a snare drum when you ask for funds.
NORTON The budget's stretched thin as it is.
ANDY I see. Perhaps I could write to the State Senate and request funds directly from them.
NORTON Far as three ways to spend the taxpayer's hard-earned when it come to prisons. More walls. More bars. More guards.
ANDY Still, I'd like to try, with your permission. I'll write a letter a week. They can't ignore me forever.
NORTON Sure you can, but you write your letters if it makes you happy. I'll even mail 'em for you, how's that?
RED So Andy started writing a letter a week, just like he said. And just like Norton said, Andy got no answers. The following April, Andy did tax returns for half the guards at Shawshank. Year after that, he did them all... including the warden's. Year after that, they rescheduled the start of the intramural season to coincide with tax season... The guards on the opposing teams all remembered to bring their W-2's.
ANDY So, Moresby Prison issued you your gun, but you actually had to pay for it?
THE BATTER Damn right, and the holster too.
ANDY See, that's tax deductible. You can write that off.
RED Yes sir, Andy was a regular cottage industry. In fact, he got so busy at tax time, he was allowed a staff.
ANDY Hey Red, can you hand me a stack of 1040s?
RED Got me out of the wood shop a month out of the year, and that was fine by me. And still he kept sending those letters...
FLOYD Red? Andy? It's Brooks.
RED Watch the door.
JIGGER Please, Brooks, just calm the fuck down, okay?
BROOKS Stay back, stay back! Goddamn it.
RED What the hell's going on?
SNOOZE You tell me, man. One second he was fine, then out came the knife. I better get the guards.
RED No. Brooks, we can talk about this, right?
BROOKS There’s nothing to talk about! I’ll cut his fuckin' throat!
RED Wait, wait a minute. Why? What's he done to you?
BROOKS It’s what they done! I’m gonna kill him. I got no choice.
ANDY Brooks, you're not going to hurt Heywood, we all know that. Even Heywood knows it, right Heywood?
HEYWOOD Sure. I know that. Sure.
ANDY You know what you’re not gonna hurt him because he’s a friend of yours. Because Brooks Hatlen is a reasonable man.
RED Yeah, that's right.
ANDY Yes, so just put the knife down, Brooks. Look at me, put the knife down. Brooks, look at his neck, for God’s sake. Brooks, look at his neck, he’s bleeding..
BROOKS It’s the only, it's the only way they'll let me stay.
ANDY Come on, this is crazy, you know. You don’t wanna do this, come on. Put it, put it down, Take it easy, you’ll be alright.
HEYWOOD Him? What about me? Crazy old fool! Goddamn near cut my throat!
RED Shut off, Heywood. You've had worse from shaving. What'd you do to set him off anyway?
HEYWOOD I do nothin'! Just came in here to say fare-thee-well. Ain't you heard? His parole came through!
ANDY I just don't understand what happened in there, that's all.
HEYWOOD Old man's crazy as a rat in a tin shithouse, is what.
RED Heywood, that’s enough out of you.
ERNIE Heard he had you shitting your pants.
RED You knock it off! Brooks ain’t no bug. He's just institutionalized, that's all.
HEYWOOD Institutionalized, my ass.
RED Man's been in here fifty years, Heywood, 50 years. This is all he knows. In here, he's an important man, an educated man. Outside, he's nothing but a used-up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn't even get a library card if he tried. You know what I'm trying to say?
FLOYD Red, I do believe you're talking out of your ass.
RED You believe what you want, Floyd. But I’m talking you these walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on 'em. That's "institutionalized."
JIGGER Shit. I could never get like that.
ERNIE Say that when you been here as long as Brooks has.
RED Goddamn right. They send you here for life, and that's exactly what they take. Part that counts, anyway.
BROOKS I can't take care of you no more, Jake. You go on now. You're free.
BROOKS Dear Fellas. I can't believe how fast things move on the outside.
BROOKS I saw an automobile once when I was kid. Now they're everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.
BROOKS The parole board got me into this halfway house called the Brewster, and a job bagging groceries at the Foodway... It's hard work. I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time.
WOMAN Make sure you man, double-bags. Last time you didn't double-bag and the bottom near came out.
MANAGER Make sure you double-bag like the lady says, understand?
BROOKS Yes sir, surely will.
BROOKS I don't think the store manager likes me very much. Sometimes after work I go to the park and feed the birds. I keep thinking Jake might show just up and say hello, but he never does. I hope wherever he is, he's doing okay and making new friends. I have trouble sleeping at night. The bed is too big. I have bad dreams, like I'm falling. I wake up scared. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am. Maybe I should get me a gun and rob the Foodway, so they'd send me home. I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus. But I guess I'm too old for that sort of nonsense anymore. I don't like it here. I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided not to stay. I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me.
ANDY I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me. P.S. Tell Heywood I'm sorry I put a knife to his throat. No hard feelings. Brooks.
RED He should'a died in here.
HADLEY What the fuck have you done? It’s goddamn mess. I’ll tell you that.
ANDY What is all this?
HADLEY You tell me, fuck-stick! They're addressed to you.
WILEY Take it.
ANDY "Dear Mr. Dufresne. In response to your repeated inquiries, the State Senate has allocated the enclosed funds for your library project..." This is two hundred dollars.
ANDY "In addition, the Library District has generously responded with a charitable donation of used books and sundries. We trust this will fill your needs. We now consider the matter closed. Please stop sending us letters. "
HADLEY I want all this cleared out before the warden gets back.
ANDY Yes, sir.
WILEY Good for you, Andy.
ANDY It only took six years. From now on, I’ll write two letters a week instead of one.
WILEY I believe you're crazy enough. You better get this stuff downstairs like the Captain said. I'm gonna go pinch a loaf. When I get back, this is all gone, right?
WILEY Andy? Do you hear that? Dufrsne. Andy. Let me out.
RED I have no idea to this day what them two Italian ladies were singin' about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I like to think they were singin' about something so beautiful it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared. Higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away...and for the briefest of moments -- every last man at Shawshank felt free.
RED It pissed the warden off something terrible.
NORTON Open the door! Open it up. Dufresne, open this door! Turn that off! I am warning you, Turn that off.
HADLEY Dufresne, You’re mine now.
RED Andy got two weeks in the hole for that little stunt.
HADLEY On your feet.
PRISONER #1 Hey, look who’s here.
PRISONER #2 Maestro!
HEYWOOD You couldn't play somethin' good, huh? Hank Williams?
ANDY They broke the door down before I could take requests.
FLOYD Was it worth two weeks in the hole?
ANDY Easiest time I ever did.
HEYWOOD Shit. No such thing as easy time in the hole. A week in a hole is like a year.
PRISONER #1 Damn, straight..
ANDY I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company.
RED Oh, they let you tote that record player down there, huh?
ANDY It was here...and in here. That's the beauty of music. They can’t get that from you. Haven't you ever felt that way about music?
RED I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost my taste for it. Didn't make much sense on the inside.
ANDY Here's where it makes most sense. We need it so we don't forget.
RED Forget?
ANDY Forget that there are places in this world that aren’t made out of stone. That there's something inside that that can’t get to, that they can’t touch. That’s yours.
RED what are you talking about?
ANDY Hope.
RED Hope? Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It's got no use on the inside. Better get used to that idea.
ANDY Like Brooks did?
MAN #l Sit down. It says here you've served thirty years of a life sentence.
MAN #2 You feel you've been rehabilitated?
RED I have, without a doubt. I can say I'm a changed man. No danger to society here, that's the God's honest truth. Absolutely rehabilitated.
RED Thirty years. Jesus. When you say it like that...
ANDY You wonder where it went. I wonder where ten years went. Here, a little parole rejection present. Go ahead and open it.
ANDY Had to go through one of your competitors. Hope you don't mind. Wanted it to be a surprise.
RED It's very pretty, Andy. Thank you.
ANDY You gonna play it?
RED No, not right now.
RED Andy was as good as his word. He wrote two letters a week instead of one. In 1959, the state senate finally clued in to the fact they couldn't buy him off with just a 200 dollar check. Appropriations Committee voted an annual payment of 500 dollars, just to shut him up. You'd be amazed how far Andy could stretch it. He made deals with book clubs, charity groups...he bought remaindered books by the pound...
HEYWOOD Treasure Island. Robert Louis...
ANDY ...Stevenson. fiction adventure. What’s next?
RED I got here an auto repair and soap carving.
ANDY Trade skills and hobbies, it goes under educational. Stack right behind you.
HEYWOOD The Count of Monte Crisco...
FLOYD Cristo, you dumbshit.
HEYWOOD ...by Alexandree Dumb-ass.
ANDY Dumas. You'll like it. It's about a prison break.
RED We ought to file that under educational too. Oughtn’t we?
RED The rest of us did our best to pitch in when and where we could. By the year Kennedy was shot, Andy had transformed a storage room smelling of turpentine into the best prison library in New England. Complete with a fine selection of hank Williams.
RED That was also the year Warden Norton instituted his famous "Inside-Out" program. You may remember reading about it. It made all the papers and got his picture in LIFE magazine.
NORTON But rather a genuine, progressive advance in corrections and rehabilitation. Our inmates, properly supervised, will be put to work outside these walls performing all manner of public service. These men can learn the value of an honest day's labor while providing a valuable service to the community -- and at a bare minimum of expense to Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Taxpayer!
RED 'Course, He didn’t mention to the press that "bare minimum of expense" is a fairly loose term. There are a hundred different ways to skim off the top. Men, materials, you name it. And, oh my Lord, how the money rolled in...
NED This keeps up, you're gonna put me out of business! With this pool of slave labor you got, you can underbid any contractor in town.
NORTON Ned, we're providing a valuable community service.
NED That's fine for the papers, but I got a family to feed. The State don't pay my salary. Sam, we go back a long way. I need this new highway contract. I don't get it, I go under. That's a fact. Now you just have some'a this fine pie my missus baked specially for you, and you think about that.
NORTON Ned, I wouldn't worry too much over this contract. Seems to me I've already got my boys committed elsewhere. You be sure and thank Maisie for this fine pie.
RED And behind every shady deal, behind every dollar earned... There was Andy, keeping the books.
ANDY Two deposits, Maine National and New England First. Night drop, as always.
NORTON Get my stuff down t'laundry. Two suits for dry-clean and a bag of whatnot. Tell 'em if they over- starch my shirts again, they're gonna hear about it from me. How do I look?
ANDY Very nice.
NORTON Big charity to-do up Portland way. Governor's gonna be there. Want the rest of that? Woman can't bake worth shit.
RED He’s got his fingers in a lot of pies, from what I hear.
ANDY What you hear isn't half of it. He's got scams you haven't dreamed of. Kickbacks on his kickbacks. There's a river of dirty money flowing through this place.
RED Money like that can be a problem. Sooner or later you gotta explain where it came from.
ANDY That's where I come in. I channel it, funnel it, filter it...stocks, securities, tax free municipals... I send that money out into the big world. And when it comes back...
RED Clean as a virgin's honeypot, huh?
ANDY Cleaner. By the time Norton retires, I will have made him a millionaire.
RED If they ever catch on, he's gonna wind up wearing a number himself.
ANDY I thought you had more faith in me than that.
RED I know you're good, Andy, but all that paper leaves a trail. Anybody gets too curious -- FBI, IRS, whatever I’ll lead to somebody.
ANDY Sure it will. But not to me, and certainly not to the warden.
RED All right, who?
ANDY Randall Stevens.
RED Who?
ANDY The silent, silent partner. He's the guilty one, your Honor. The man with the bank accounts. That's where the filtering process starts. They trace anything, it’ll just lead to him.
RED But who is he?
ANDY He’s a phantom. An apparition. Second cousin to Harvey the Rabbit. I conjured him out of thin air. He doesn't exist...except on paper.
RED You can't just make a person up.
ANDY Sure you can, if you know how the system works, and where the cracks are. It's amazing what you can accomplish by mail. Mr. Stevens has a birth certificate, driver's license, social security number. If they ever trace any other’s accounts, they'll wind up chasing a figment of my imagination.
RED Well, I’ll be damned. Did I say you were good? Shit, you're Rembrandt.
ANDY The funny thing is. . On the outside, I was an honest man. Straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.
RED Ever bother you?
ANDY I don't run the scams, Red, I just process the profits. Fine line, maybe. But I've also built that library, and used it to help a dozen guys get their high school diplomas. Why do you think the warden lets me do all that?
RED To keep you happy and doing the laundry. Money instead of sheets.
ANDY Well, I work cheap. That's the trade-off.
RED Tommy Williams came to Shawshank in 1965 on a two year stretch for B&E. that’s breaking and entering to you. Cops caught him sneakin' TV sets out the back door of a JC Penney. Young punk, Mr. Rock n' Roll, cocky as hell...
TOMMY Hey, c'mon, old boys! Movin' like molasses! Makin' me look bad!
RED We liked him immediately.
TOMMY ...so I'm backin' out the door, right? I got the TV like this... Big ol' thing. Couldn't see shit. Suddenly, here's this voice: "Freeze kid! Hands in the air!" Well I just stand there holdin' on to that TV, finally the voice says: "You hear what I said, boy?" And I say, "Yes sir, I sure did! But if I drop this fuckin' thing, you got me on destruction of property too!"
HEYWOOD Hey, you done a stretch in Cashman too?
TOMMY Yeah. That was an easy piece of time, let me tell you. weekend furloughs, work programs,. Not like here.
SNOOZE Sounds like you done time all over New England.
TOMNY I’ve been in and out since I was 13. Name the place, chances are I been there.
ANDY Perhaps you should try a new profession. What I mean is, you don't seem to be a very good thief. Maybe you should try something else.
TOMMY What the hell you know about it, Capone? What are you in for?
ANDY Me? A lawyer fucked me. Everyone's innocent in here. Don't you know that?
RED As it turned out, Tommy had himself a young wife and new baby girl...
RED Maybe it was the thought of them on the streets or his child growing up, not knowing her daddy. Whatever it was, something lit a fire under that boy's ass.
TOMMY I'm thinkin' maybe I should try for high school equivalency. Hear you helped some fellas with that.
ANDY I don't waste time with losers, Tommy.
TOMNY I ain't no goddamn loser.
ANDY You mean that?
TOMMY Yeah.
ANDY You really mean that?
TOMMY Yes, sir. I do.
ANDY Good. Because if we do this, we do it all the way. One hundred percent. Nothing half-assed.
TOMMY Thing is, see... ...I don't read all that good.
ANDY You don’t read so well. We’ll get to that.
RED So Andy took Tommy under his wing. Started walking him through his ABCs... Tommy took to it pretty well, too. Boy found brains he never knew he had. Before long, Andy started him on his course requirements. He really liked the kid. Gave him a thrill to help a youngster crawl off the shitheap. But that wasn't the only reason...
RED Prison time is slow time. So you do what you can to keep going... Some fellas collect stamps. Others build matchstick houses. Andy built a library. Now he needed a new project. Tommy was it. It was the same reason he spent years shaping and polishing those rocks. The same reason he hung his fantasy girlies on the wall... In prison, a man'll do most anything to keep his mind occupied. By 1966...right about the time Tommy was getting ready to take his exams...it was lovely Racquel.
ANDY Well?
TOMMY Well. It's for shit. Wasted a whole fuckin' year of my time with this bullshit!
ANDY It’s probably not that bad.
TOMMY It's worse! I didn't get a fuckin' thing right! Might as well be in Chinese!
ANDY We'll see how the score comes out.
TOMMY I'll tell you how the goddamn score comes out...
TOMMY Two points! Right there! There's your goddamn score! Goddamn cats crawlin' up trees, 5 times 5 is 25, fuck this place, fuck it!
TOMMY I feel bad. I let him down.
RED That's crap, son. He's proud of you. We been friends a long time. I know him as good as anybody.
TOMMY Smart fella, ain't he?
RED Smart as they come. Used to be a banker on the outside.
TOMMY What's he in for anyway?
RED Murder.
TOMMY The hell you say.
RED You wouldn't think, lookin' at the guy. Caught his wife in bed with some golf pro. Greased 'em both. Why?
TOMMY 'Bout four years ago, I was in Thomaston on a 2 to 3 stretch. Stole a car. Dumbfuck thing to do. About six months left to go, I get a new cellmate in. Elmo Blatch. Big twitchy fucker. Kind of roomie you pray you don't get, you know what I'm sayin'? 6 to 12 for armed burglary. Said he pulled hundreds of jobs. Hard to believe, high-strung as he was. Cut a loud fart, he jumped three feet in the air. Talked all the time, too, that's the other thing. Never shut up. Places he'd been, jobs he pulled, women he fucked. Even people he killed. People that gave him shit, that's how he put it. One night, like a joke, I say to him: "Yeah? Who'd you kill?" So he says...
BLATCH ...I got me this job one time bussin' tables at a country club. So I could case all the big rich pricks that come in. I pick out this guy, go in one night and do his place. He wakes up and gives me shit. So I killed him. Him and the tasty bitch he was with. That's the best part! She's fuckin' this prick, see, this golf pro, but she's married to some other guy! Some hotshot banker. He's the one they pinned it on!
RED Andy?
NORTON Well. I have to say, that's the most amazing story I ever heard. What amazes me most is you were taken in by it.
ANDY Sir?
NORTON It's obvious this fellow Williams is impressed with you. He hears your tale of woe and quite naturally wants to cheer you up. He's young, not terribly bright. Not surprising he wouldn't know what a state he'd put you in.
ANDY Sir, he's telling the truth.
NORTON Let's say for a moment Blatch does exist. You think he'd just fall to his knees and cry, "Yes, I did it! I confess! By all means, by the way, please adda life term to my sentence!"
ANDY It wouldn't matter. With Tommy's testimony, I can get a new trial.
NORTON That's assuming Blatch is even still there. Chances are excellent he'd be released by now.
ANDY They'd have his last known address. Names of relatives... Well it's a chance. isn't it? How can you be so obtuse?
NORTON What? What did you call me?
ANDY Obtuse! Is it deliberate?
NORTON You’re forgetting yourself.
ANDY The country club will have his old timecards! Records, W-2s with his name on them!
NORTON Dufresne, if you want to indulge this fantasy, that's your business. Don't make it mine. This meeting's over.
ANDY If I got out, I'd never mention what goes on in here. I'd be just as indictable as you for laundering the money!
NORTON Don't you ever mention money to me again, you sorry son of a bitch! Not in this office, not anywhere! Get in here! Now!
ANDY I was just trying to rest your mind at ease, that's all.
NORTON Solitary! A month!
ANDY What's the matter with you?
NORTON Get him out of here.
ANDY It's my chance to get out, don't you see that? It's my life! Don't you understand it's my life?
FLOYD A month in the hole. Longest damn stretch I ever heard of.
TOMMY It's my fault.
RED Like hell. You didn't pull the trigger, and you didn't convict him.
HEYWOOD Red? You saying Andy's innocent? I mean for real innocent? Sweet Jesus. How long's he been in here?
RED 1947. what is that? Nineteen years.
MAIL CALLER Thomas Williams!
RED Board of Education.
TOMMY The son of a bitch mailed it.
RED Looks that way. You gonna open it or stand there with your thumb up your butt?
TOMMY Thumb up my butt sounds better.
TOMMY C'mon, just throw it away. Will you please? Just throw it away?
RED Well, shit.
ELDERLY GUARD Kid passed. C-plus average. Thought you'd like to know.
MERT Warden wants to talk.
TOMMY Out here?
MERT That's what the man said.
TOMMY Warden?
NORTON Tommy, I’m asking you to keep this conversation just between us. I feel awkward enough as it is. We've got a situation here. I think you can appreciate that.
TOMMY Yes sir, I sure can.
NORTON I tell you, son, this thing really came along and knocked my wind out. It's got me up nights, that's the truth.
NORTON The right thing to do. Sometimes it's hard to know out what that is. You understand? I need your help, son. If I'm gonna move on this, there can't be the least little shred of doubt. I have to know if you what you told Dufresne was the truth.
TOMMY Yes sir. Absolutely.
NORTON Would you be willing to swear before a judge and jury...having placed your hand on the Good Book and taken an oath before Almighty God Himself?
TOMMY Just gimme that chance.
NORTON That's what I thought.
NORTON I’m sure by now you’ve heard. Terrible thing. Man that young, less than a year to go, trying to escape. Broke Captain Hadley's heart to shoot him, truly it did. We just have to put it behind us. Move on.
ANDY I'm done. Everything stops. Get someone else to run your scams.
NORTON Nothing stops! Nothing! Or you will do the hardest time there is. No more protection from the guards. I'll pull you out of that one-bunk Hilton and cast you down with the sodomites. You'll think you’ve been fucked by a train! And the library? Gone! Sealed off brick by brick! We'll have us a little book-barbecue in the yard! They'll see the flames for miles! We'll dance around it like wild Indians! Do you understand me? Catching my drift or am I being obtuse? Give him another month to think about it.
ANDY My wife used to say I'm a hard man to know. Like a closed book. Complained about it all the time. She was beautiful. God I loved her. I didn’t know it, that’s all. I killed her, Red. I didn't pull the trigger. But I drove her away. That's why she died. Because of me, the way I am.
RED That don't make you a murderer. Bad husband, maybe. Feel bad about it if you want. But you didn't pull the trigger.
ANDY No. I didn't. Someone else did, and I wound up here. Bad luck, I guess. It floats around. It’s got to land on somebody. It was my turn, that's all. I was in the path of the tornado. I didn’t expect the storm would last as long as it has. Think you'll ever get out of here?
RED Me, yeah, one day. When I got a long white beard and two or three marbles rolling around upstairs. They’ll let me out.
ANDY Tell you where I'd go. Zihuatanejo.
RED Zihuatanejo?
ANDY Zihuatanejo, it’s in Mexico. Little place right on the Pacific Ocean. You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific? They say it has no memory. That's where want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory. Open a little hotel right on the beach. Buy some worthless old boat and fix it up like new. Take my guests out charter fishing. In a place like that, I could use a man that knows how to get things.
RED I don’t think I could make it on the outside. I been in here most of my life. I'm an institutional man now. Just like Brooks was.
ANDY You underestimate yourself.
RED I don’t think so. In here I'm the guy who can get things for you sure, but..out side, all you need is the Yellow Pages, hell. I wouldn't know where to begin. Pacific Ocean? Shit. Like to scare me to death, somethin' that big.
ANDY Not me. I didn't shoot my wife and I didn't shoot her lover, and whatever mistakes I made I've paid for and then some. That hotel and that boat...I don't think that's too much to ask.
RED You shouldn’t be doing this to yourself, Andy! This is just shitty pipedreams! Mexico's way down there, and you're in here, and that's the way it is!
ANDY Yeah, right, that’s the way it is. It's down there, and I'm in here. I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying.
RED Andy?
ANDY Red, if you ever get out of here, do me a favor.
RED Sure, Andy, anything.
ANDY There's this big hayfield up near Buxton. You know where Buxton is?
RED A lot of hayfields up there.
ANDY One in particular. It’s got a long rock wall with a big oak tree at the north end. Like something out of a Robert Frost poem. It's where I asked my wife to marry me. We went for a picnic and made love under that oak. I asked and she said yes. Promise me, Red. If you ever get out, find that spot. In the base of that wall you'll find a rock that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield. Piece of black volcanic glass. Find something’s buried under it I want you to have.
RED What, Andy? What's buried under there?
ANDY You'll just have to pry up to see.
RED No, I’m telling you, the guy, he’s talkin' funny. I'm really worried about him.
SKEET We ought to keep an eye on him.
ZIGGER That's fine, during the day. But at night he's got that cell all to himself.
HEYWOOD Oh Lord. Andy come down to the loading dock today. He asked me for a length of rope. Six foot long.
SNOOZE And you gave it to him?
HEYWOOD Sure. Why wouldn't I?
FLOYD Jesus, Haywood
HEYWOOD How was I s'pose to know?
FLOYD Remember, Brooks Hatlen
ZIGGER Andy'd never do that. Never.
RED I don’t know. Every man has his breaking point.
NORTON Lickety-split. I wanna get home.
ANDY Just about finished, sir.
ANDY Three deposits tonight.
NORTON Get my stuff down to the laundry. And shine my shoes. I want 'em lookin' like mirrors. It’s good havin' you back, Andy. Place wasn't the same without you.
GUARD Open number twelve!
VOICE Lights out!
RED I have had some long nights in stir. Alone in the dark with nothing but your thoughts, time can draw out like a blade... That was the longest night of my life...
GUARD #1 Give me a count.
GUARD #2 Tier 3 south, clear..
GUARD #3 Man missing on tier two! Cell 245!
HAIG Dufresne? Get your ass out here, boy! You're holding up the show! Don't make me come down there now! I'll thump your skull for you!
HAIG Dammit, Dufresne, you're putting me behind! I got a schedule to keep. You better be sick or dead in there, I shit you not! You hear me? Oh my Holy God.
NORTON I want every man on that cellblock questioned! Start with that friend of his!
HADLEY who?
NORTON Him.
HAIG Open 237.
NORTON What do you mean "he just wasn't here?" Don't say that to me, Haig! Don't say that to me again!
HAIG But sir! He wasn't!
NORTON I can see that, Haig! Think I'm blind? Is that what you're saying? Am I blind, Haig?
HAIG No sir!
NORTON What about you? You blind? Tell me what this is!
HADLEY Last night's count.
NORTON You see Dufresne's name there? I sure do! See Right there, "Dufresne." He was in his cell at lights out! Stands to reason he'd still be here this morning! I want him found! Not tomorrow, not after breakfast! Now!
HAIG Yes, sir!
NORTON Let’s go. Move your butts. Move it! Well?
RED Well what?
NORTON I see you two all the time, you're thick as thieves, you are! He must'a said something!
RED No sir, Not a word.
NORTON Lord! It's a miracle! Man up and vanished like a fart in the wind! Nothin' left but some damn rocks on the windowsill and that cupcake on the wall! Let's ask her! Maybe she knows! What say there, Fuzzy- Britches? Feel like talking? Guess
not. Why should she be any different?
NORTON This is a conspiracy! That's what this is! It's one big damn conspiracy! And everyone's in on it! Including her!
RED In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank Prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock-hammer damn near worn down to the nub.
RED I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty. Andy loved geology. I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, a million years of mountain-building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes, really. Pressure and time. That and a big damn poster. Like I said. In prison, a man'll do most anything to keep his mind occupied. It turns out Andy's favorite hobby was totin' his wall out into the exercise yard a handful at a time... I guess after Tommy was killed, Andy decided he'd been here just about long enough.
NORTON Lickety-split. I wanna get home.
ANDY Just about finished, sir. Three deposits tonight.
RED Andy did like he was told. Buffed those shoes to a high mirror shine. The guard simply didn't notice. Neither did I. I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a man's shoes? Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit-smelling foulness I can't even imagine. Or maybe I just don't want to. Five hundred yards. The length of five football fields. Just shy of half a mile. The next morning, right about the time Racquel was spilling her little secret... a man nobody ever laid eyes on before strolled into the Maine National Bank. Until that moment, he didn't exist -- except on paper.
FEMALE TELLER May I help you?
RED He had all the proper I.D. Driver's license, birth certificate, social security card. And the signature was a spot-on match.
MANAGER I must say I'm sorry to be losing your business. I hope you'll enjoy living abroad.
ANDY Thank you. I'm sure I will.
TELLER Here's your cashier's check, sir. Will there be anything else?
ANDY Please. Would you add this to your outgoing mail?
TELLER I’d be happy to.
ANDY Good day, sir.
RED Mr. Stevens visited nearly a dozen banks in the Portland area that morning. All told, he blew town with better than 370 thousand dollars of Warden Norton's money. Severance pay for nineteen years.
REPORTER Good morning, Portland Daily Bugle
D.A. Byron Hadley?
D.A. You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, anything you say can be held against you in court of law.
RED I wasn't there to see it, but I hear Byron Hadley was sobbing like a little girl when they took him away.
RED Norton had no intention of goin' that quietly.
D.A. Samuel Norton? We have a warrant for your arrest! Open up! Norton, open the door.
DUTY GUARD I'm not sure which key...
D.A. Norton, make it easy on yourself, Norton.
RED I like to think the last thing that went through his head...other than that bullet...was to wonder how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him. Not long after the warden deprived us of his company, I got a postcard in the mail. It was blank. But the postmark said, "Fort Hancock Texas." Fort Hancock. Right on the border. That's where Andy crossed. When I picture him heading south in his own car with the top down, it always makes me laugh. Andy Dufresne, who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side. Andy Dufresne, headed for the Pacific.
RED Hadley’s got him by the throat, right? Those of us who knew him best talk about him often. I swear, the stuff he pulled.
RED Sometimes it makes me sad, though, Andy being gone. I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright... and when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice...but still, the place you live is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend.
MAN #1 Please, sit down. Your file says you've served forty years of a life sentence. You feel you've been rehabilitated?
RED Rehabilitated. Well, now, let's see now. You know. I don’t have any idea what that means.
MAN #2 Well, it means you're ready to rejoin society as a--
RED I know what you think it means. To me, It's a made-up word, a poli- tician's word. Young fellas like youself can wear a suit and tie and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
MAN #2 Well...are you?
RED There’s not a day goes by I don't feel regret, and not because I'm in here or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was...a young stupid kid who committed that terrible crime... I wanna talk to him. I wanna try and talk some sense to him. Tell him how things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone, this old man is all that's left, and I got to live with that. "Rehabilitated?" That's a bullshit word, so you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth is, I don't give a shit.
RED Here you go, miss. Restroom break boss?
MANAGER You don't need to ask me every time you need to go take a piss. Just go. Understand?
RED Thirty years I've been asking permission to piss. I can't squeeze a drop without say-so. There is a harsh truth to face. No way I'm gonna make it on the outside. All I do anymore is think of ways to break my parole so maybe they’d send me back. Terrible thing, to live in fear. Brooks Hatlen knew it. Knew it all too well. All I want is to be back where things make sense. Where I won't have to be afraid all the time. Only one thing stops me. A promise I made to Andy.
DRIVER There it is.
RED Much boliged.
ANDY Dear Red. If you're reading this, you've gotten out. And if you've come this far, maybe you're willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don't you? I could use a good man to help me get my project on wheels. I'll keep an eye out for you and the chessboard ready. Remember, Red. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you, and finds you well. Your friend. Andy.
RED Get busy living or get busy dying. That is goddamn right. For the second time in my life, I am guilty of committing a crime. Parole violation. Of course I doubt they'll toss up any roadblocks for that. Not for an old crook like me.
RED Fort Hancock, Texas, please.
RED I find I am so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it is the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.
RED I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.
THE END
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