This is a basic script for a touching movie. It is not complete. updated 10/14/2011
I don’t like cliff hanger.
Likely Rating PG ____________________________________________________________________________
Movie: Bringing Mom Home By: Joshua Webster Act IScene 1
[A montage of scenes from a variety of childrens lives]
Narrator: [video of a child being born with the father close by] everyone is born into this world starting with two parents.
[Video of two parents teaching their child to walk] Two parents to show their children the height they can achieve.
[Clip of a father feed his daughter in a highchair] Each parent hopes for their child to obtain their same level of life they have.
[Clip of a middle class family in the park] from the Suburbs
[Clip of a lower class neighborhood with kids running around in an empty lot and road. The parents are talking to each other close by.] to the slums
[Over view of the world] from land to land, I can vouch for that much.
[Family hugging and laughing] Whether your parents were loving and affectionate towards each other
[Father and mother yelling at each other with a two children fighting over a toy in a corner] or hateful and abusive [Silhouette of one spouse hitting the other]
[Close up of a small girls face, probably three or four. Background: yellow wallpaper with small, brown floral print] they only acted that way because that is what they expected of you. [Child sheds single tear]
Unlike many of my generation I was born to one parent, a father. I never heard of a mothers role till I was in Kindergarten.
I didn’t even know the word mama till I was four, and it wasn’t a word my father taught me
Now Im not saying my father was bad but my mother wasn’t exactly there for me.
I asked him years ago, what happened to her… [Show the father looking into nowhere on the verge of crying.]
I remember him crying for hours after that.
I assumed from that time that she was dead. But my [slightly resentful] dad would never give me a true and straight answer.
Scene 2[High school health class][Lucy is in the third row back and the closet row to the window. There are several kids goofing off around the room.]
Teacher: [talking over the noise in the class] There are many ways we each deal with stress. Mike!
[Mike is one of the kids goofing off. He jumps up in fear]
Mike: [mock seriously] yes sir! [Salutes]
[Laughter][The teacher gives Mike the evil eye as she slaps a ruler on her desk.] [The laughter stops at the smack]
Mike: [seriously now] yes Ms. Millings.
Teacher: [with a smirk] will you answer the question?
Mike: [confused] uuuuuuummmmm well yes? I mean stress. No stress What was the question?
Teacher: I havent asked a question.
Mike: What?
Teacher: [she points to Mikes chair] sit down and pay attention.
[Laughter]
Teacher: Other than blubbering like an idiot. What ways do we deal with stress?
[Silence. Mike slouches in his seat.][The teacher walks over to the lights and turns on a projector, showing a slide with a list of stressors.]
Teacher: now we each have some sort of defense mechanism [fade out to inaudible] known as fight or flight
[Cut to and zoom in on Lucy]
Narrator: That day, I tried to put myself into my fathers shoes. I was trying to figure out why I was the only one that never had a mother. I worked in my mind all the details of what I needed to do. I wanted to know no matter what it meant.
[End scene]
Scene 3
[Lucy, who is 17 now, was raised only by her father, she never knew her mother. Any time she asked her father, he told her: mom was just gone. Sick of getting no real answer, this situation goes on ]
[Sitting at the dinner table eating stew in silence]
Lucy: [cautiously] Daddy… [She takes a last spoonful immediately, then stops eating, waiting for an answer]
Dad: [glances quickly then looks back at his food] yes?
Lucy: [sighs] what happened to mom?
Dad: [straightly] shes gone[he starts eating faster]
Lucy: Dad, where
Dad: [slaps his spoon down on the table; cutting off her question, but not looking at her] what did you learn in school today?
Lucy: Well. [Running with her fathers question] we learned about stress [Dad rolls his eyes] and we learned about denial and that when something bad happen like what happened with MOM
Dad: I dont want the whole class
Lucy: then what happened to mom?
Dad: [obviously defensive] shes gone Okay?
Lucy: [raising her voice some] no, where?!
Dad: [looking away] I dont
Lucy: Heaven?
Dad: you cant
Lucy: Hell?
Dad: [looking past her but speaking under his breath] maybe
Lucy: …[pauses, and shakes her head fighting the shock of her fathers answer]Canada?! [Talks fast with fear and anger] Look at me dad Im not a child tell me is she dead. I just want a forward answer. Everyone knows something about their parents but as long as I remember she has been out of my life. Did I ever know her ?
Dad: You dont want to know
Lucy: [assertively] Yes. Yes I do. YOU may not want me to know, but I do.
[Dad looks at her with sorrow looking for answer or to measuring her up. She looks back prepared to fight back.]
Dad: You aren’t going to drop it.
Lucy: no.
Dad: [surrendering] lets go for a drive.
Lucy: Where?
Dad: dont ask lets just go.
Lucy: [confused] but
Dad: [frustrated and sad] look, you are right, you have the right to know, I’ve been protecting you too long. I just dont want you to end up next to her. Get in the car.
[His daughter just stares, surprised she won but scared at the unknown destination.]
Dad: [heading to the garage door] [irritated] lets move.
[Cut to a montage of them driving through the suburbs where they live. They go out onto the free-way and to the down town of a large city. They head down into the poor side of the city where the place is covered with homeless people loitering around. She stares out her window while he watches the road.]
Dad: [looking around as they drive by the homeless shelter] I loved your mother and I think she loved me. [His daughter looks in his direction] When you were born your mother complained of extreme pains day and night cursing and blaming you [He pulls onto the side of a road next to a rundown park. No children are in the park. There are just winos drinking everything from whiskey to Scope. Lucy watches them, a little scared.] She begged the doctors for every drug known to man, begging for relief from the unknown pain. The doctors search for the source of her complaints I paid for everything to help her [He looks her in the eye] I truly wanted to help but she didn’t want my help.
Lucy: [confused & in shock] but I thought you just said she was getting help
Dad: [expecting the response] [devastated] she was an addict; a druggie; a shooter; a needle junky [Starts crying] long before I met her
Lucy: [in shock to see the response] Im sor
Dad: [through his tears] the doctors had given her morphine when you were born. I think she wanted you just for a legal fix. Its not your fault. She loved the painkillers more than us. And she still does
[He points ahead to an out-of-focus figure of a pan handler on the corner straight ahead, at the other end of the block.]
Lucy: [holding back tears] [whisper] my mom
[She watches as her mother turns towards them, not noticing the vehicle, but asking a stranger for some spare change. Her daughter just stares teary eyed and in awe. ]
[The mother looks older (55 or 60 yrs old) than she truly is (42) but she still has the obvious relation to her daughter.]
Dad: Your mother stole
Narrator: My mother stole needles from the hospital. She had refused to take care of me unless doctor gave into her demands. My mother never cried at her pain she was just angry when the drugs wore off. When the doctor cut her supply she threatened to hurt herself and me. My father apparently did all the crying as he turned from the wife he had married.
[Close up of a coin dropping into mothers cans.]
[Cut out to Black]
Act IIScene 1[4 years later][Lucy is sitting at a corner in her SUV watching her mom.][Mom turns away from the street to talk to someone that tried to walk behind her.][Lucy steps on the gas and drives by, throwing a package towards her mom.][Mom jumps with surprise. She looks around for who was around. She looks down at the package and reads the note pinned to it.][Reads: dont surrender. Dont give up]
Narrator: I went by daily, when I got old enough, secretly giving her clothing and blankets as the seasons changed. When I was ready to go to collage, I chose the university in the city. Just so I could have my imaginary relationship with my mother. I never told my father I wasn’t sure he would agree with my methods. But I was determined to help her I just didn’t know how.
Scene 2[College scene in a commons area] [Lucy, now 21, is talking with two of her friends around a table.][Jamal, 21, black, 63, 180 lbs.][Lizabeth, 19, white, southern draw, 56, 145 lbs.]
Jamal: So you did it again, huh?
Lucy: [Looking up from her sandwich partially confused with a piece of sprout sticking out of the corner of her mouth.] yeah (swallows) I cant let her freeze to death.
Jamal: she wont freeze. Shes lived out
Lizabeth: I went with her this time.
Jamal: great, now she has an accomplice.
Lucy: [defensive] it was just a blanket and coat.
Jamal: You left her money last timemoney she most likely used on drug
Lucy: You dont know that!
[Mike comes up behind Lizabeth with a tray.][Lucy and Jamal stare down each other]
Mike: I Don’t know what?
Lizabeth: [annoyed with Mike’s presents] You’re late. conversation over.