IT
Written by
Chase Palmer & Cary Fukunaga
Based on the novel by
Stephen King
STUDIO DRAFT 3-18-2014
OPEN ON:
Rain. Lashing a windowpane. A PIANO PLAYS somewhere off
screen. Beethoven's Fur Elise.
INT. WILL'S BEDROOM - DAY
A little boy gazes out into the storm. Nervous, eager, sweet.
Meet GEORGE DENBROUGH (9).
GEORGE
You sure it's not too bad out
there?
Will (13), his older brother, sits up in bed propped against
a pile of pillows, surrounded by tissues and sheets of
newspaper. HEADLINES and TOYS tell us this is the late 80's --
October, 1987 to be exact. He puts finishing touches on
A PAPER BOAT
WILL
Don't be such a wuss. I'd come if I
weren't dying. Now get the
paraffin.
GEORGE
In the cellar?
WILL
You want it to float or not,
Georgie? Go on. Storm's not gonna
last forever.
GEORGE
Okay, Willy.
George jumps up obediently and goes.
CUT TO:
TITLE CARD:
OCTOBER 1987
2.
INT. WILL'S HOUSE - DAY
George hurries downstairs. He catches a glimpse of their
mother, SHARON DENBROUGH (30s) in the parlor playing piano,
an earthy beauty transported to another world while she
plays.
INT. KITCHEN - WILL'S HOUSE - DAY
George's stomach sinks as he comes face to face with THE
CELLAR DOOR -- the only thing between George and the monster
in the basement of his imagination -- IT.
INT. WILL'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS
A WALKIE-TALKIE SQUAWKS next to Will. The sarcastic walkie-
talkie filtered voice of RICHIE "TRASHMOUTH" TOZIER (12), his
neighbor, filters through the plastic speaker.
RICHIE
(WALKIE-TALKIE FILTERED)
Willy-boy.
Will, annoyed, picks up the walkie-talkie. While looking
through his rain blasted window.
WILL
Trashmouth.
They wave at each other. Richie, bug-eyed glasses, turns the
wave into a middle-finger.
RICHIE (O.S.)
Thought you were sick.
WILL
I am.
RICHIE (O.S.)
Is it mortal?
INT. CELLAR DOORWAY - CONTINUOUS
Flinging it open, George ventures his arm into the DARK VOID.
He gropes around and finds the LIGHT SWITCH. Nothing. George
snatches his arm back.
3.
GEORGE
Oh, balls. The power.
The dark basement glares back at him, taunting.
HERE WE DO SOME SORT OF CALL FROM WILL UPSTAIRS THAT IS A
"CODE" THEY DO WITH EACH OTHER. THIS WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT
US LATER.
INT. WILL'S BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS
GEORGIE RESPONDS WITH HIS OWN CALL FROM DOWNSTAIRS
RICHIE (O.S.)
What was that?
Will coughs hard into a tissue. Half-impatient, half-joking:
WILL
Nothing. Georgie and I are making
a paper boat. Got to go-
RICHIE
Wait-!
Will turns off the walkie-talkie.
INT. KITCHEN - WILL'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS
George rubs the gooseflesh on his arms.
GEORGE
(TO HIMSELF)
I'm getting it. I'm going to get
it. I'm going in. I'm...
He steels himself and plunges into the void.
INT. CELLAR - WILL'S HOUSE - CONTINUOUS
George scrambles down four steps to THE CELLAR SHELF and
sifts through junk as fast as he can: SHOE-POLISH, RAGS, a
dusty bag of colored BALLOONS, a broken FLASHLIGHT, two
mostly empty bottles of WINDEX, and an old can of TURTLE WAX.
George stops and gazes upon the CARTOON TURTLE with hypnotic
wonder. CUT TO POV of something lurking in recesses of the
basement, watching GEORGE framed in the light of the doorway.
4.
Sensing this, George snaps out of it, grabs the BOX OF
PARAFFIN near the back of the shelf, and hurries back up the
stairs, slamming the door in our/It's face.
INT. WILL'S BEDROOM - DAY
Will melts a chunk of paraffin with a match in a ceramic
bowl, then dips his finger into the hot liquid and smears the
wax along the sides of the boat.
GEORGE
Can I do some?
WILL
Okay. Just don't get any on my
blankets or Mom'll freak.
George dips his finger and spreads it.
GEORGE
Too cool.
They finish up and Will gives the boat to George.
WILL
There you go. She's all yours.
GEORGE
She?
WILL
You're the Captain, ain't ya?
Captains call their boats she. Now
put on your rain stuff or you'll
wind up stuck in bed like your
stupid brother.
They both grin, the cozy room full of cheerful brotherly
love. George kisses Will on the cheek, startling him.
GEORGE
Thanks, Willy.
He goes. Will looks to the rain-lashed window, piano still
playing. He's suddenly filled with a sense of foreboding.
WILL
Be careful out there!
5.
EXT. WITCHAM STREET - DAY
A DEAD TRAFFIC LIGHT sways overhead, its dripping black
lenses gazing back at A BOY IN A YELLOW SLICKER AND RED
GALOSHES.
Georgie races down the street past dark houses after his
PAPER BOAT, which sluices along a gutter swollen with rushing
rainwater.
Rain taps on George's hood sounding to his ears like rain on
a shed roof, a comforting almost cozy sound. The buckles of
his galoshes make a merry jingle as he goes.
The boat whistles past a blockade of sawhorses marked DEPT OF
DERRY PUBLIC WORKS, where a gouge in the blacktop sends it
sweeping diagonally across toward a STORM DRAIN.
George races after, trying to grab the boat before it's
swallowed up with all the rainwater. He SLIPS AND SPILLS to
the blacktop, crying out in pain.
The PAPER BOAT surfs up to the drain, circles around twice,
and goes in. George look ready to cry.
GEORGE
Willy's gonna kill me.
He walks over to the drain and peers in, water falling into
darkness. A dank hollow sound comes from within. Suddenly
EYES PEER BACK AT HIM -- from THE GREASY WHITE FACE OF A
CLOWN. Not Bozo, or Ronald McDonald, but something more old
world, freakish, like that of a 19th-century acrobat -- bald,
lithe, almost child-like. Meet PENNYWISE aka BOB GRAY.
George recoils back, shocked by Pennywise's presence. A
VOICE, a perfectly pleasant and reasonable voice, rises up.
PENNYWISE (O.C.)
Hello, Georgie.
George looks around him.
An OLD WOMAN watches him from the kitchen window of a house
just behind the drain.
CUT TO: POV from the OLD WOMAN's house. She turns her
attention back to her cat, scraping out the wet innards of a
can of tuna into a plate on the window sill.
PENNYWISE (O.C.) (CONT'D)
Lost something?
6.
George expression mellows from fear to child-like wonder,
like he's seeing a circus bear balanced on a ball .
GEORGE
How did you get down there?
PENNYWISE
Me? Why the storm of course. Just
bleeeew me away. It blew the whole
circus away. How'd you like to join
the circus, Georgie?
The faint, off-key sound of CALLIOPE MUSIC can be heard.
George inches closer to the storm drain.
GEORGE
Is there cotton candy?
PENNYWISE
Cotton candy? Oh yes. Cotton candy
and bearded women and elephant shit
and all the balloons a little boy
could want. You like balloons,
don't you Georgie?
GEORGE
I sure do. Do they float?
George takes one last fatal step forward.
PENNYWISE
Float? Oh indeed they do, Georgie.
Indeed they do. Everything down
here floats. And when you're down
here with us...
The clown's sing-songy voice curdles into something horrible,
primal even, as George's arm is seized by Pennywise's
unusually LONG arm and CLAW-like hand.
PENNYWISE (CONT'D)
YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!
George's SCREEEEEAAAAAM rings through the sewers as we...
CUT TO the OLD WOMAN's POV again. The cat devours its food,
the old woman pleased with his appetite does not notice...
RACK FOCUS... Georgie's rag doll body flung left and right as
Pennywise feeds on him and tries to pull him through the
metal grate into the sewer.
SMASH CUT TO:
7.
Soaring, percussive MUSIC crescendos over a wide shot of
glacier-cut mountains. Then, SILENCE.
TITLE CARD:
JUNE 1988
EXT. DERRY - AERIAL - SAME
PAN OFF glacier-cut mountains to reveal the TOWN OF DERRY,
MAINE, settled on a crosscut of the Penobscot River and
Kenduskaeg stream. It's a sturdy, picturesque Northeastern
town like any other, its rough-hewn industrial past bleeding
through a gentrified, decaying present.
TILT STRAIGHT DOWN to HANLON ABATOIR
SEVERAL multi-acre, manure filled sheep pens stand empty.
One has 50 sheep ready for slaughter, a path leading from the
pen grows narrower as it feeds into an industrial complex
designed for slaughter.
EXT. HANLON ABATTOIR, OUTDOOR PEN - DAY
LEROY HANLON (50s) works to move the sheep into line while
his son MIKE HANLON (13) watches from behind him.
LEROY
Open the gate.
MIKE
I'm sick of this, dad.
LEROY
People need to eat. Now open the
gate.
Mike opens the gate.
MIKE
How would you feel if you were one
of them?
Leroy, haunted by this thought answers gruffly-
LEROY
Humans aren't raised to be food.
8.
As if he were lying, that humans sometimes ARE raised for
food.
The sheep flood into a thinner pathway leading to the
interior of the complex. Leroy watches them as does Mike.
MIKE
Everyday, watching them stupidly
walk into that killing pen. This
isn't a normal kid's life. You
won't even let me go to school.
INT. HANLON ABATOIR, SLAUGHTER PEN - DAY
Leroy takes the cattle bolt, places it on the head of the
first sheep. WOOMPH. The sheep drops dead.
LEROY
Now why would you want to be in
public school with the rest of
those people down below, in Derry?
He hands it to Mike, expectantly. Mike dispassionately takes
the mechanism and approaches a sheep.
MIKE
Because I want to be in boring
classes with other boring kids and
draw pictures in text books and
play baseball and go to dances and
grind.
He places it on the head of the next sheep, but can't bring
himself to pull the trigger.
Leroy does it for him. WOOMPH. The sheep drops dead.
LEROY
I know, son. I get it. But you
aren't like those people. We may
work with sheep, but those people
are sheep. Trust me.
The last point Leroy believes in like gospel.
A SCHOOL BELL RINGS
EXT. DERRY MIDDLE SCHOOL - DAY
Doors fling open and ROWDY 6TH, 7TH, and 8TH GRADERS spill
out. Books are hurled in the trash, papers strewn all over
the recess yard -- summer is officially commenced.
9.
Swept up among this madness is...
WILL DENBROUGH (13)
Handsome, gangly, red-headed, the memory of his brother still
fresh. He walks with his dorky friends, all talking over each
other: EDDIE KASPBRAK, his EPI-PEN JR. (an adrenaline
injector for kids with life-threatening allergies) holstered
in his medicine-filled fannypack; STAN URIS (12), a trim and
tidy Jewish kid who dresses like a mini-accountant; and
RICHIE TOZIER, the neighbor with the walkie-talkie, a comic
book and video game freak with bug-eye glasses.
EDDIE
So how's it work?
STAN RICHIE
What work? So long suckas!
Richie flips off the school.
WILL
Richie!
EDDIE
The ceremony. Your Bar Mitzvah.
WILL
It makes you officially a man
right?
STAN RICHIE
Kind of. I read verses. From Then a seventh dimensional
the Torah. door opens up and Stan here
has to slay his Ronin master
over a pit of death. He wins
his schlong grows like six
inches.
STAN
Shit, I don't need a Bar Mitzvah
for that.
Richie howls.
WILL
Just your mom's Cosmo.
EDDIE
Marie Claire.
10.
RICHIE
Vogue man. It's all perfumed. I put
on my 3-D glasses and it's like
you're there.
Richie "motor boats" the air in front of him.
ANGLE on a GROUP OF fashionably dressed GIRLS NEARBY. The
bigger, heavier one of the group notices someone off screen.
GIRL #1
There's the ho-bag, now.
PAN to see BEVERLY MARSH (13) a dazzling cloud of auburn hair
and lovely green-gray eyes. Her clothes aren't as nice as the
group of popular girls, but she holds her head high.
GIRL #2
She's the one all the eighth grade
boys talk about.
GIRL #1 GIRL #1 (CONT'D)
They say she gives the best Probably the only way she can
bjs. afford those rags she wears.
Give me your rings, Gretta.
Beverly sees the girls as Girl #1 puts Gretta's rings on her
fingers. Sensing trouble, she turns around and ducks right
back into school.
GIRL #1
Hey cock breath, come here!
PAN back to WILL and his dorky friends. Eddie stops dead,
POINTING TO-
EDDIE
Jesus, she's still here?
The RABBI'S WIFE, sleepless and desperate, lurks on the edge
of school property, scanning the throngs of departing kids
with desperate eyes. Next to her, a FRONT LAWN MARQUEE reads:
REMEMBER THE CURFEW.
7 P.M.
DERRY POLICE DEPARTMENT
STAN
What do you think she's thinking?
WILL
Maybe she expects her son to just
walk out of the school with the
rest of us.
11.
RICHIE
Yeah right, Dorsey Coen's been
living in home ec these last three
weeks.
EDDIE
They're not going to find him.
RICHIE
Sure they will. In a ditch. All
decomposed, covered in worms and
maggots and smelling like your
MOM'S--
Richie is CHECKED TO THE PAVEMENT by TRAVIS BOWERS (16), a
sadistic tower of muscle. His glasses fall off and a pile of
comics and video game magazines spill from his back pack.
TRAVIS
Sorry chode. Didn't see you.
Travis kicks the glasses away. His thug sidekicks laugh:
SNATCH HUGGINS (15), PATRICK HOCKSTETTLER (17) and VICTOR
CRISS (15) -- one a lunkhead oaf, another a perpetually
giggly fire-starting sociopath, and the last one a scrap and
scab junk yard dog type.
Victor grabs Stan's yarmulka and tosses it into the window of
a departing bus.
VICTOR
Frisbee, fuck nut.
Snatch burps in Eddie's face. Eddie wilts under the smell.
Will scoops up the remains of Richie's glasses, smashed by
the bus.
WILL
You suck, Bowers!
Travis and his goons turn. They glare at Will menacingly.
TRAVIS
You say something?
Everyone around them stops and watches, waiting for Will to
respond. Eddie gives Will a look to shut it. He does.
TRAVIS (CONT'D)
Thought so. You got a free ride
this year because of your little
brother. But ride's over,
Denbrough.
(MORE)
12.
TRAVIS (CONT'D)
This summer's gonna be a hurt
train, for you and your faggot
friends.
(to Snatch and Victor)
Let's roll. We got a lard ass to
find.
EXT. EMERGENCY EXIT - DERRY HIGH SCHOOL - DAY
A door opens by the dumpsters and out peaks BEN HANSCOM (13),
the "lard ass" in question, making sure the coast is clear.
He wears an oversized sweatshirt and a pair of girly high-
waisted blue jeans.
BEVERLY
Soooo, you gonna let me go by or is
there a secret password or
something?
He turns to see Beverly.
BEN
Sorry.
He steps aside. Beverly tip-toes past, lighting a cigarette
like a pro.
BEVERLY
"Sorry"'s not much of a password.
Now "kittyhawk," that's a good one.
BEN
Ballyhoo?
BEVERLY
Riproar.
BEN
Barnburner.
Beverly smiles and offers Ben a smoke. He refuses. She shrugs
and blows a smoke ring in his face.
BEVERLY
If you're worried about Bowers and
his merry band of a-holes hassling
you, don't. I saw them all leave
out front.
BEN
Thanks.
13.
BEVERLY
You're the new kid right? I'm--
BEN
(BLURTING)
Beverly Marsh.
A little too quick. His ears turn red with embarrassment.
BEN (CONT'D)
I just know `cuz we were in social
studies. Together, in the same
class. You know, like the
constitution test, and stuff.
(realizing he's vomiting
NONSENSE)
I'm Ben.
Bev smiles, knowingly. It's clear he likes her. Ben notices a
FAINT YELLOW BRUISE on her forearm. Bev notices him noticing.
BEVERLY
(off Ben's look)
I slipped in the shower. What's
your excuse?
BEN
I fell on three boxes of donuts.
Beverly laughs.
BEVERLY
Well, see ya around Ben from sosh
class. "Get laid in the shade."
BEN
Uh, you too, Beverly. "Stay cool."
Ben watches her go, totally smitten.
BEVERLY
K.I.T.
INT. WILL DENBROUGH'S HOUSE - DAY
Dust collects on the piano in the living room. A stale quiet
suffocates the house. The only sound the ticking of a clock
and the distant yelling of playing children.
14.
INT. WILL DENBROUGH'S HOUSE - WILL'S ROOM - SAME
Will Denbrough laces his shoes. As he leaves his room, he
notices the door to George's room is open, his FATHER, ZACH
DENBROUGH (30s), lost in thought notices him.
ZACH
(WITHOUT EMPHASIS)
Hey Champ. Going out to play?
WILL
Yeah, Dad.
Will looks like he wants to say more, but doesn't have the
words to articulate it.
INT. WILL DENBROUGH'S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - DAY
Jumping down the stairs and rounding the corner, he sees his
catatonic Mother, silhouetted by the midday light, sitting in
the darkness, staring blankly at the piano.
WILL
Hi, Ma.
Growing accustomed to his parent's lack of communication, he
sifts through a PILE OF UNOPENED MAIL on the dining table and
finds his report card. Opens it. All A's.
WILL (CONT'D)
I got my report card.
He holds the paper limply in his hands. She doesn't
acknowledge him and instead gets up and slides the doors shut
to the piano room.
INT. EDDIE KASPBRAK'S HOUSE - DAY
Eddie, Richie, Will, and Stan scramble in the front door like
feral animals. An enormous 300-pound woman sits in the living
room doing a puzzle on her own stomach. SONIA KASPBRAK (40s).
EDDIE
Hi Mom.
WILL
Mrs. Kaspbrak.
RICHIE
Ma'am.
15.
INT. EDDIE'S KITCHEN - DAY
They raid the kitchen, stuffing Capri Suns, Ding Dongs,
whatever snacks they can find into their backpacks. Mrs.
Kaspbrak calls from the room.
MRS. KASPBRAK
Eddie-bear, where are you boys off
to?
RICHIE
Eddie-bear?
Will elbows him.
WILL
Just my backyard, Mrs. K. We got a
new, uh, badminton set.
MRS. KASPBRAK
Okay. Just don't go rolling around
too much on that grass, sweetie.
Especially if it's just been cut.
You know how your allergies get.
EDDIE
Yes, ma.
MRS. KASPBRAK
Isn't he cute, boys? So cute.
She wiggles her fat toes at him. He's mortified.
WILL
Cutest boy we know, Mrs. Kaspbrak.
RICHIE
The Miss America of cute boys.
Seriously.
EDDIE
Bye ma.
Fast as they came the boys blow out the front door.
EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF LIBRARY - DAY
Will, Rich, and Eddie speed past the library.
16.
INT. PUBLIC LIBRARY - DAY
All green globes, curving iron staircases, and shadowy charm.
A librarian, MRS. STARRET (50s) places a stack of books in
front of Ben.
MRS. STARRET
Isn't it summer vacation? I would
think you'd be ready to take a
break from the books.
BEN
I like it in here. It's--
He glances at a newspaper behind her: "BODY FOUND NEAR CANAL
NOT THAT OF COEN YOUTH, BORTON ANNOUNCES." Safe.
BEN (CONT'D)
Inspiring.
Mrs. Starret smiles sweetly at this large boy.
MRS. STARRET
Well, even with all this terrible
disappearing of kids business, a
boy should be with his friends,
outside, having fun.
She starts stamping his books. CHUCHUNP.
BEN
(EMBARRASSED)
I'll try, Mrs. Starret.
CHUCHUNP. CHUCHUMP.
MRS. STARRET
What are all these for anyway?
CHUCHUMP.
BEN
I'm reading about the history of
this place. You know how many
spooky things have--
ONE-ARMED OLD MAN
Excuse me, miss?
A ONE-ARMED OLD MAN comes up behind them wearing a U.S.S.
Indianapolis cap.
ONE-ARMED OLD MAN (CONT'D)
Where's the children's section?
17.
CHUCHUMP. Mrs. Starret slides Ben his stack of books.
INT. BEVERLY'S HOUSE, KITCHEN - DAY
Beverly opens her fridge. There's nothing in it but a
plastic jug of margarine, some half-molded white bread, and
suspect milk. She sniffs the milk.
INT. BEVERLY'S HOUSE, LIVING ROOM - MOMENTS LATER
Beverly sips the milk, leaving a wholesome white mustache on
her upper lip. She looks up to see...
Her Mother, MRS. MARSH (30s), a former prom queen long since
faded, watching her. Studying her.
MRS. MARSH
Bev.
BEVERLY
Yeah, Mommy?
Mrs. Marsh sounds like she might be on sedatives.
MRS. MARSH
You had your monthly, yet?
BEVERLY
What Mommy?
MRS. MARSH
Bleeding, between your legs?
Disgusted, Beverly shrinks.
BEVERLY
No. Why?
MRS. MARSH
Soon, soon I figure. And then
you'll be a woman.
She sits down next to Beverly, grasping with her clammy palms
Beverly's free hand.
MRS. MARSH (CONT'D)
When it happens, once every 27
days, you'll bleed, and you'll
bleed the most right before the
end.
18.
Beverly, squeamishly tries to remove her hand from her
mother's, but the harder she pulls away the harder the Mother
holds onto her.
MRS. MARSH (CONT'D)
I want you to go to the pharmacy
today. To be prepared. You'll
need to buy these.
Mrs. Marsh holds up a BLOODY TAMPON from a string.
INT. DERRY SYNAGOGUE - DAY
The Rabbi and Stan read the TORAH. Stan is repeating and
learning pronunciation of the words for his Bar Mitzvah.
He starts to lose attention as he looks around the ornate
room and the beams of light fingering out from the windows.
RABBI
Are you paying attention?
STAN
Yes, sir.
RABBI
Pay attention, son. This is
important. This is about you
becoming a man.
STAN
I am. I'm taking this very
seriously Rabbi.
The Rabbi removes his glasses and looks at Stan. His
thoughts carry him away.
RABBI
Not everyone gets this opportunity,
Stanley.
Stanley nods.
RABBI (CONT'D)
My son, God bless him, might never
get a bar mitzvah. Do you realize
that?
The Rabbi squares up to Stanley, holding both of his
shoulders.
19.
RABBI (CONT'D)
We may never see him again, he may
be dead now. And death is forever,
Stanley, you don't come back from
death.
Stanley nods as the Rabbi starts to tear up. He pulls
Stanley in close to him, as if Stanley were his own long lost
son. Stanley, pressed against the Rabbi can hardly breath.
STAN
Rabbi, I need to go pee.
The Rabbi cries.
STAN (CONT'D)
Rabbi, can I go pee please?
The Rabbi stops, distances himself from Stan again and looks
deep into his eyes.
RABBI
Of course.
He lets him go.
INT. DERRY SYNOGOGUE, DOWNSTAIRS - MOMENTS LATER
Stanley walks down the old, molding stone stairs to the
basement of the synogogue. It's a rounded staircase that
spirals into the deeper foundations of the building.
He can't find the bathroom, but he does see the Mikveh--a
cleansing room for the women of a synogogue during their
monthlies. It drips water and is lit by a spare light bulb.
INT. SYNOGOGUE, MIKVEH - SAME
Stanley walks in, knowing no one is watching him and unzips
his pants to relieve himself in the pool of water.
Suddenly, he notices something bubbling from below. A NAKED
WOMAN, her pale white skin glowing from the light.
He backs away and quickly zips up his pants.
The woman rises to the surface, exhaling a long held breath
of air. She dries the water from her eyes and looks at
Stanley, not at all bothered by her nakedness or Stanley's
witnessing of it.
20.
NAKED WOMAN
You like looking at my body?
STAN
I... I.
NAKED WOMAN
It's okay, I won't tell anyone.
She looks down towards her privates, still below the water.
NAKED WOMAN (CONT'D)
Do you want to see the rest of me?
Her hands slowly move towards her pussy, touching herself.
Stanley starts to back away.
STAN
I should probably be getting back-
NAKED WOMAN
You're going to be a man soon,
won't you? I'll show you mine if
you show me yours.
She starts to get out of water.
ANGLE FROM BEHIND her as she steps out of the water, towards
him. The naked woman's back is full of sores and bleeding,
her butt shredded and rotten.
And as she rises from the water, we see that her legs have
been reduced to bones and gristle.
NAKED WOMAN (CONT'D)
Come here Stanley, come float with
me.
Stanley trips over himself back peddling. He turns around
and jets out of the room just as the naked woman lunges.
INT. DERRY SYNOGOGUE, MAIN FLOOR - SECONDS LATER
Stanley runs up and into the arms of DORSEY COEN'S MOTHER,
breathless. He looks up at her and SCREAMS and runs out of
the building. The Mother looks at the Rabbi, perplexed. He
shrugs and cleans up from their study session.
INT. PUBLIC LIBRARY - DAY
Ben sits at a table of six by himself, flipping through books
on DERRY'S HISTORY.
21.
INDIANS, COLONIZATION, DISAPPEARING SETTLEMENTS, LOGGING,
MURDERS, MASSACRES, it gets more and more violent. Glancing
up, he sees...
The one-armed old man plunk a NICKEL into a jar and take a
STAMPED POST CARD from a tray by the door. A poster there
READS:
LIBRARIES ARE FOR WRITING TOO.
WHY NOT WRITE A FRIEND TODAY?
EXT. PUBLIC LIBRARY - LATER
Ben sits on the steps, POSTCARD in his lap. He clicks a pen
open and, brow furled in concentration, dashes off a HAIKU.
BEN
(whispering it outloud)
Your hair is winter fire,
JANUARY EMBERS
My heart burns there, too.
EXT. CANAL STREET - LATER
Ben is about to the drop the postcard into a MAILBOX when has
second thoughts. He holds it just over the slot. We see that
it's addressed to: MISS BEVERLY MARSH, LOWER MAIN STREET,
DERRY MAINE, ZONE 2. Ben closes his eyes, steels his courage
AND LETS GO.
TRAVIS (O.C.)
Hello hot tits.
Travis, Snatch, Hockstettler, and Victor prowl toward him.
Ben bolts, ass swinging back and forth like a girl. Travis
and his gang take off after him...
EXT. KANSAS STREET - CONTINUOUS
It's no contest. Ben rounds the corner and just makes THE
KISSING BRIDGE, a historic covered wooden bridge carved with
thousands of hearts crossing right where the canal turns into
the wild, untamed barrens, KENDUSKAEG STREAM rushing below.
TRAVIS
Gotcha!
They snag Ben and fling him against the railing. Travis flips
up his sweatshirt, exposing his fat belly, and slaps it hard.
Ben screams like a rabbit, whipsawing back and forth.
22.
SNATCH
Look at that gut!
VICTOR
Sounds like a pig. Don't he sound
just like a pig?
Victor SQUEALS like a pig in Ben's face.
BEN
You better quit, I swear.
Travis pulls a BUCK KNIFE from his jeans. Ben's eyes go wide.
TRAVIS
Or what? You'll go crying to mama?
I'll give you something to cry
about.
Ben looks around for help. A CAR comes slowly down the
street. Travis hides the knife, pressing its steel against
Ben's white belly.
TRAVIS (CONT'D)
Go ahead. Yell. You'll be picking
your fucking intestines off your
sneakers.
The OLD COUPLE behind the wheel CATCH EYES WITH BEN, see his
tears, and STEP ON THE ACCELERATOR. Ben sees A CLOWN riding
in the back seat, grinning -- PENNYWISE.
TRAVIS (CONT'D)
Okay, tits. It's exam time. First
question: when I say `Let me copy'
during finals what do you say?
BEN
Yes! I say yes! Okay! Copy all you
want!
TRAVIS
That's good. Now how can we make
sure that sticks?
BEN
I DON'T--
In two quick motions Travis SLASHES A BRIGHT RED "T" in Ben's
belly.
Snatch and Victor laugh. Hockstettler pulls out his lighter
and a can of hairspray.
23.
HOCKSTETTLER
Let me light his head on fire like
Michael Jackson.
Hockstettler jettisons a fireball with his make-shift flame
thrower, just past Ben's head.
TRAVIS
No! Hold him. I'm gonna carve my
entire name on his cottage cheese
filled ass.
Ben is too shocked to scream. He looks over his shoulder at
the stream behind him, then back at Travis's bloody blade.
TRAVIS (CONT'D)
Now say it with me. What comes
after T?
Ben plants his heel in Travis's chest and launches himself
backward over the railing, out of the grip of Victor and
Snatch. Travis is knocked back on his ass onto the pavement.
EXT. KENDUSKAEG STREAM - CONTINUOUS
Ben tumbles down the culvert, fetching up hard against a
fallen tree. He picks himself up, eye to eye with
A HUB CAP
TRAVIS
Oh, you're dead, tits.
Travis comes leaping over the railing with the knife, Victor
and Snatch right behind. Ben grabs the hub cap and HURLS IT
PELTING Travis IN THE FACE
Travis trips up, taking down Victor and Snatch with him. They
all splash down in the stream, where Travis LOSES THE KNIFE.
Ben darts off across the water into a thicket of woods.
THE BARRENS
Travis gropes around for his lost knife, suddenly hysterical.
TRAVIS (CONT'D)
My knife, Goddamn it! I lost my
daddy's knife!
Victor and Snatch help Travis search the stream, their hands
passing right by where the BLADE IS WEDGED UNDER A LOG.
24.
EXT. THE BARRENS - DAY
Another boy's hand fishes around under water and grasps upon
something. ON Will as he PULLS OUT A SNEAKER. Behind him...
RICHIE and STAN throw branches, rocks, whatever into the
middle of the stream trying to DAM IT UP.
RICHIE
C'mon Eds get your ass down here
and help.
EDDIE paces the embankment with their shoes and socks and
backpacks. He looks anxious.
EDDIE
No way. There's sixty million
diseases in that stream. It's gray
water.
RICHIE
What's gray water?
EDDIE
Tell `em Will. Your dad works for
the public works.
Will is studying the sneaker.
WILL
It's like where all the wash water
and storm drain runoff goes.
EDDIE
Sewer water. Pee and poop. I'm
telling you guys you're splashing
around in Derry's toilet.
Richie and Eddie shrug and continue building their dam.
RICHIE
Smells alright to me.
WILL EDDIE
Guys? Seriously. I don't know why
we're down here. There's
poison ivy and mosquitos and
God knows what else could get
us sick. Not to mention we're
all alone down here. What if
we run into that psycho who's
been picking off kids.
25.
WILL RICHIE
Guys-- I overheard my mom talking to
my aunt in Bangor. She says
it's a sex fiend. Some
drifter. But no one from
Derry. Couldn't be.
WILL
Guys! Shut up!
They all shut up and turn to Will.
RICHIE
Whatcha got there Willy boy?
Will comes sloshing up. He flips Richie the sneaker.
WILL
Look inside.
Richie does. "DORSEY COEN" is written in black marker.
RICHIE
Son of a--
Richie tosses it to Stan who drops it like a hot potato.
WILL
Stan, you idiot.
STAN
Sorry.
EDDIE
What's the big deal? It's just a
sneaker.
Will has to fish it back out of the water.
WILL
It's Dorsey Coen's sneaker.
EDDIE
Shit. This isn't good, guys. This
seriously isn't good. We should go.
RICHIE
How do you think Dorsey feels?
Running around these woods with
only one friggin' shoe.
WILL
If he's still running.
26.
STAN
What if... he's still around here?
They all lock eyes. Will and Richie come to a decision. They
pick up sticks and start sloshing down stream where the shoe
was found. Stan stays frozen.
WILL
Dorsey!
RICHIE
Dorsey!
EDDIE
Guys-- Guys stop. We're gonna get
in trouble.
RICHIE
For what?
EDDIE
I don't know. Disturbing evidence.
Contaminating a scene. We should
just mark where we found the shoe
and leave an anonymous note to
Chief Borton. My mom would have a
major cow if she knew I was playing
down here, I kid you not.
RICHIE
Shit, Eds you get within twenty
feet of a peanut she has a whole
herd. I don't want to think what
she'll have if you come home with
another kid's corpse.
EDDIE
That's not funny, Richie. That's so
not funny. Will, please.
WILL
I'm with Richie. If I were Dorsey
I'd want us to look for me.
EDDIE
Fine. You guys can do what you want
but I'm going. I have no interest
in seeing the muddy mangled body of
SOME--
He turns to see BEN STUMBLE FROM THE WOODS all bloody. Eddie
screams and sloshes out into the stream he was so assiduously
avoiding.
27.
They all see Ben.
RICHIE
Holy friggin' Moses. What happened
to you?
BEN COLLAPSES on the river bank. The boys rush to his side.
EXT. UP-MILE HILL - DAY
Mike streaks past homes and businesses on his bike, riding
into THE CENTER OF DOWNTOWN. He carries a package of MEAT on
his bike.
INT. COSTELLO'S MARKET - DAY
Mike makes his delivery and gets cash from MR. COSTELLO, the
grocer.
INT. DERRY SAVINGS AND LOAN - DAY
Mike deposits the money and takes a free lollypop from the
teller.
EXT. DERRY SAVINGS AND LOAN - DAY
Mike steps outside, throws up the kick, and pushes his bike
out into the street. Will's crew WHOOSHES PAST on their
bikes, Will and Eddie, and Stan and bloody Ben riding double.
RICHIE
Heads up, homeschool!
MIKE
Eat me, townie!
EXT. KISSING BRIDGE - DAY
Travis, Snatch, Victor, and Hockstettler are still looking
for the knife in the water under the bridge.
SNATCH
It probably got washed away,
Travis.
Travis grabs Victor by his collar and growls in his face.
28.
TRAVIS
It ain't been washed away. It's
been stolen.
VICTOR
Stolen, by who?
Travis points up the embankment at Mike, biking home over the
bridge.
TRAVIS
That nigger right there.
EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY
Mike bikes home, sucking on the lollypop, when he notices
something coming up fast behind him.
TRAVIS and his boys in a beat up Trans Am.
He starts peddling faster. Sees the KITCHENER IRONWORKS sign
ahead and skids right down its path towards the ghostly
titanic ruin.
EXT. FIELD - KITCHENER IRONWORKS - DAY
Mike looks around for a place to hide, a bird spooking off
from the twisted carcass of the factory building. The
Penobscot River flows behind.
Travis and his boys skid to a stop in the field, machinery
blocks their pursuit by car so they jump out on foot.
Mike finds a SMOKESTACK laying in shattered sections in the
grass. He stares into its big black bore, picks up a loose
tile, and pitches it in. It lands with a faint echo in the
darkness.
INT. KITCHENER IRONWORKS - MOMENTS LATER
Travis, Snatch, Victor and Hockstettler search for Mike in
the SKELETAL REMAINS of the old ironworks structure itself,
an open wound of twisted iron beams.
Oblivious to any danger other than their own volatile
potential, we get a sense that around every corner, some
ominous figure is just ducking out of sight.
Mike clocks them from inside the smokestack, the dodges
around the perimeter of the ironworks structure.
29.
He nears the CELLAR HOLD, a yawning chasm on the edge of the
ruins. Sees a Derry Historical Society PLAQUE:
ON THESE PREMISES
AN EXPLOSION TOOK THE LIVES
OF 102 SOULS (88 CHILDREN)
EASTER SUNDAY, 1906.
MAY THEY REST IN PEACE
PENNYWISE appears across the cellar hold OVER HIS SHOULDER.
When Mike looks up from reading Pennywise IS GONE.
Mike looks back across the weedy field to THE FENCE, his bike
still leaned against it. It seems a million miles off.
EXT. KITCHENER IRONWORKS
Travis and the boys continue to explore the far side of the
factory, sensing Mike may have made a run for the river.
INT./EXT. KITCHENER IRONWORKS
Sensing an opportunity, Mike books it back to his bike.
INT. KITCHENER IRONWORKS
Hockstettler notices something off screen. Walks towards it.
Following Hockstettler we see what he sees: a lone BALLOON,
as if just leaving the grasp of a child, floating up in the
air.
HOCKSTETTLER
What the fuh...
He looks back at Travis and the others, who are sniffing out
the weeds near the river.
EXT. KITCHENER IRONWORKS
Mike gets to his bike and starts pushing it up the hill. He
looks back towards the factory. Travis and his boys still
haven't come back to their car. Mike pedals home.
30.
INT. KITCHENER IRONWORKS
Travis, angry they didn't find Mike huffs back across the
field, throwing a piece of scrap pipe he found against a
giant corrugated wall. The entire factory vibrates with the
gonging sound.
TRAVIS
Let's go! That jungle monkey ain't
here no more.
Travis walks obliviously past AN EASTER EGG, smeared with
bloody fingerprints, but Hockstettler sees it, picks it up.
HOCKSTETTLER
I'm staying.
The three of them turn towards Hockstettler like he's insane.
TRAVIS
Why?
HOCKSTETTLER
I don't know.
(LAUGHING)
I want to see its insides.
He points towards the door leading to the dark innards of the
factory.
HOCKSTETTLER (CONT'D)
You guys want to come?
TRAVIS
(DISGUSTED)
Why the- Hell no. You mental?
This place gives me the creeps.
EXT. KITCHENER IRONWORKS
Travis and the others load up and peel off in their car.
Hockstettler watches them leave, a cloud of dust in their
place, then turns towards the darkest parts of the factory,
as if pulled deeper into the core unconsciously.
ANGLE OVER CELLAR HOLD, Hockstettler peers in. He grabs a
handhold and sways over its cavernous depth.
HOCKSTETTLER'S POV: Nothing but darkness.
Hockstettler takes out his lighter and hairspray, launching a
fire ball that illuminates the cavern below.
31.
Monoliths of rusted machinery, half-submerged in stagnant
puddles of black mud.
And for an instance, a CLOWN. Pennywise. Then blackness
again.
Hockstettler saw IT, but doesn't believe it. He unleashes
another fire ball. For a second we see the faces of DEAD
CHILDREN amongst the monoliths.
Hockstettler isn't sure if he's seen right. He walks in, the
hair rising on the back of his neck.
INT. CELLAR HOLD - SAME
Hockstettler carefully maneuvers his way down into the hold.
His feet, blindly tapping for purchase.
HOCKSTETTLER
I ain't afraid. Any you ghosts
down here can't hurt me.
As if it were a mantra, to make himself feel less scared.
HOCKSTETTLER (CONT'D)
I seen ghosts. I did them in their
butt holes.
And out of the darkness...
PENNYWISE
Did they float?
He freezes. Did he hear that or was that in his head?
HOCKSTETTLER
I, I- Who's there?
Hockstettler lights a ball of hair spray, it illuminates the
walls near him, but nothing far away.
HOCKSTETTLER (CONT'D)
There's no one down here. There's
no one that can hurt me.
He moves down deeper. Lights the hair spray again, and for
second, we think we glimpsed, deeper in the shadows,
Pennywise.
PENNWISE
(WHISPERING)
Patrick... Answer me.
32.
Now sure he's heard something, Patrick stops. His breathing
starts to rapidly increase. He wants to back up, but he's
frozen.
He lifts up his hair spray can, finger shaking on the plastic
nozzle, he lifts the lighter. CLINK. The flint lights up
the small flame. Sputtering in the flowing air in the
cellar. His breathing is arrhythmic, compressed.
PENNYWISE
Because down here, we all float.
He sprays. The flame spits out and out of the darkness,
PENNYWISE the clown leaps onto Hockstettler, tumbling him
into the cellar hold, he drops the lighter and hairspray,
which rolls down to the feet of a child. A DEAD CHILD.
EXT. KEENE'S PHARMACY - DAY
The pack of boys, Will, Richie, Ben, and Eddie come biking
down Center Street and swing into RICHARD'S ALLEY. They jump
off, bikes clattering to the pavement.
WILL
Okay Richie, you and...
BEN
Ben.
WILL
Ben stay here. We'll get some
bandages and stuff.
Will and Eddie race in, leaving Ben and Richie in the alley
which is emblazoned with a COLORFUL MURAL about the FBI's
ambush of the infamous Bradley Gang, a celebrated slice of
Derry town history.
BEN
Thanks for helping me.
RICHIE
You're not the only one on Bower's
shitlist.
Ben nods, grateful for the company. He notices in the mural,
in one of the windows, a CLOWN watches the ambush with glee.
INT. KEENE'S PHARMACY - DAY
Eddie snatches cotton balls and antiseptic and bandages off
the shelf like an expert. He checks the prices.
33.
EDDIE
Woah, that's a lot of money. Will?
Will pulls out one crumbled dollar.
WILL
All I got. You got an account here
don't you?
EDDIE
You crazy? My mom finds out I
bought this stuff for myself I'll
have to spend the whole weekend in
the emergency room getting x-rayed.
WILL
Well we need to do something. That
kid out there looks like someone
killed him.
They glance at the mirror where MR. KEENE (70s) the grumpy,
eagle-eyed pharmacist watches them like a hawk.
BEVERLY (O.S.)
You consider a diversion?
They all turn to Beverly, who stands there sly and smiling.
WILL
Huh?
BEVERLY
Your friend there. He has that
thingy he always carries around in
his cute little fannypack right?
EDDIE
My EpiPen Jr.?
BEVERLY
Yeah. For when he spazzes out.
EDDIE
I don't spaz. Those are allergic
reactions. Life threatening
allergic reactions.
BEVERLY
Whatever. The point is he has a
track record right? Of spazzing
out.
EDDIE
I DON'T--
34.
WILL
Eds, shut up. She's on to
something.
INT. SAME - MOMENTS LATER - DAY
Mr. Keene fills prescriptions. Eddie flops out of the aisle
clutching his throat. Will and Beverly run out after.
WILL
Oh no. Eddie! Eddie!
BEVERLY
I knew I shouldn't `a given him
that granola. Mr. Keene!
MR. KEENE
You guys know the drill, don't you?
Will fishes the EPI-PEN from the fanny pack.
WILL
I'm a pacifist.
BEVERLY
My mom doesn't like me handling
needles.
Annoyed, Keene comes out from behind the counter. He kneels
next to Eddie and takes the pen, plunging it into his thigh.
Will screens Beverly as she SHOPLIFTS THE SUPPLIES and SLIPS
OUT THE STORE. Eddie opens his eyes, breathing normal.
EDDIE
Thanks, Mr. Keene. That one was a
real shit kicker.
EXT. KEENE'S PHARMACY - DAY
Will and Eddie race out laughing. Bev is waiting on the curb
to meet them. She flips Will the stolen goods.
BEVERLY
Not bad for a bunch of amateurs.
She flashes a pack of STOLEN CIGARETTES and struts off
towards her house. THEY LOVE THIS GIRL. Will closes Eddie's
mouth and they hustle round the corner into RICHARD'S ALLEY.
WILL
We got it!
35.
He flips Ben his medicine. Stan runs up from behind, still
looking blanched from his synogogue experience.
EDDIE
Shit Stan, what happened to you?
You look like you've seen a ghost.
STAN
Nothing.
He sees Ben there, looking like a train wreck.
STAN (CONT'D)
What happened to him?
INT. POLICE STATION - DAY
ANGLE ON A CLOSE-UP of the "Coen shoe" placed on a desk in
front of CHIEF BORTON and OFFICER BOWERS, Travis' hillbilly
father. Will is alone in the room with them while--
INT. POLICE STATION - MAIN BULL PEN - SAME
Ben, all bandaged up, looks on with Eddie, Richie, and Stan
as Will speaks to the police officers.
BEN
Beverly was there?
EDDIE
Yeah.
BEN
And she stole this stuff for me?
Stanley wants Ben to shut up, but Ben is beyond excited.
BEN (CONT'D)
Did she know it was for me?
RICHIE
I don't think she even knows you're
alive man.
BEN STAN
Yes she does. What's going on in there?
RICHIE (CONT'D)
What do you think? He's handing `em
the kid's shoe. It's riveting.
Ben checks his Timex, cracked but working.
36.
RICHIE (CONT'D)
Takes a lickin' and keeps on
tickin', huh?
BEN
My mom gave it to me so I wouldn't
be late for curfew.
EDDIE
I think he means you, Big Ben.
The boys shove him playfully. Ben shoves back.
BEN
It's funny, `til the last week I
didn't think anyone knew my name.
RICHIE
You're pretty friggin' hard to
miss.
EDDIE
Guys, you think whoever kidnapped
Dorsey might of, I dunno... got
Georgie too?
RICHIE BEN
If he creeps in storm drains, Who's Georgie?
maybe.
EDDIE (CONT'D)
Will's little brother. Or was.
Before your time.
RICHIE
Will won't talk about it but the
kid's arm got ripped clean off in a
flash flood or something.
Richie turns towards Stan, who's been unnaturally quiet this
whole time.
RICHIE (CONT'D)
Cat got your tongue?
STAN
What?
RICHIE EDDIE
Why are you so quiet? What's Chief Borton going to
do with a shoe?
STAN BEN
I'm not. I'm listening. A storm drain. Crazy.
37.
Will steps out.
RICHIE
Well?
EDDIE
What did he say?
WILL
Nothing. Thanked me for being a
good young citizen.
RICHIE
So let's get outta here. Police
stations always make me feel guilty
of something.
EXT. OLD CAPE STREET - DAY
The five losers bike home, Will and Eddie, Stan and Ben
riding double. Will skids up to a chain link fence by the
rail yards. Eddie jumping off to take his usual short cut.
They all splinter off their different ways.
EDDIE
Later days.
RICHIE
Barrens? Don't fag out.
WILL
Fag you later.
INT. WILL'S HOUSE - NIGHT
Will lays out on the carpet in front of the TV, eating ice
cream from a carton. His parents sit on opposite ends of the
couch like bookends, father flips through a Popular
Mechanics. His mom stares at the TV, her mind elsewhere.
There seems to be no connection between any of them.
WILL
I found something today.
No response. Finally his Mom stirs.
SHARON
You say something honey?
WILL
That missing Coen boy. I found a
clue.
38.
His parents flash looks.
ZACH
Stay out of it, Will. Let the
police handle these things.
They go back to watching TV. Will tries for some sort of
connection.
WILL
What about Arcadia?
His dad stops mid flip, all the air going out of the room.
WILL (CONT'D)
We haven't talked about our park
trip at the end of the summer.
Usually by now we're all looking at
the brochure together. We have so
much fun there every--
Will's dad throws the magazine down.
ZACH
Enough.
He storms out to his workshop. Sharon is too upset to look
her son in the eye.
WILL
What did I say?
SHARON
Nothing... Your father, it's just
too much to deal with right now.
WILL
I'll mow lawns. Paint fences.
Whatever.
SHARON
It's not that.
She loses it for a moment, then composes herself.
SHARON (CONT'D)
Your brother just looked forward to
this trip so much. That park was
his favorite place in the world.
She takes Will's carton and retreats into the kitchen. Will
is left all alone, TV blaring, spoon hanging over nothing.
39.
WILL
Mine too.
INT. BEVERLY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
A slummy apartment over Lower Main Street. A Red Sox game
blares on from somewhere down the hall. We track down the
hallway and PAN just as Beverly starts to unzip her pants and
close the door.
INT. BEVERLY'S APARTMENT, BATHROOM - NIGHT
Beverly finishes peeing. She reaches for toilet paper but
there isn't any. She rifles through the toiletries under the
old fashioned sink basin looking for anything she can use-
CHILD'S VOICE (O.S.)
Help me.
Beverly looks around for the voice, startled.
CHILD'S VOICE (O.S.) (CONT'D)
Help me, Beverly.
It comes from THE SINK DRAIN, above her head.
She stands, her pants still around her ankles, leaning
forward over the basin, looking down into the dark void.
BEVERLY
Is s-someone there?
Nothing. BEV'S EYE PEERS DOWN THROUGH THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT.
CHILD'S VOICE (O.S.)
We all want to meet you, Beverly.
She gasps, backpedaling, pulling up her pants.
BEVERLY
Who are you?
The single voice turns into a cacophony, bubbling up through
the ages.
CHILD'S VOICE (O.S.)
I'm Matthew... I'm Dorsey... I'm
Veronica... I'm Georgie... Come
play with us down here... Come play
with the clown... You'll float,
Beverly. Oh how you'll float...
40.
Terrified, Beverly dashes out.
INT. BEVERLY'S APARTMENT, LIVING ROOM - NIGHT
Bev finds HER FATHER (40s) asleep in front of the TV, still
in his janitor's uniform from Derry Home Hospital. His
toolbelt is thrown up on the coffee table.
She tip-toes over and steals the TAPE MEASURER.
INT. BEVERLY'S APARTMENT, BATHROOM - NIGHT
Beverly stands over the sink basin, tape measurer in hand.
The voice is silent.
She unfurls the tape into the drain, its tip disappearing
into the void.
FOOT BY FOOT she snakes the tape into the drain, until it's
fully extended at 20 feet. She waits for a voice. Nothing.
Slowly, she begins to reel the tape back in, counting down
the length as it winds back in. 16 feet... 15 feet... 14
feet... AT 13 FEET VISCOUS BLOOD COATS THE TAPE.
BEVERLY GASPS and drops the measurer. It goes clattering into
the sink, the tape coiling up like a snake, blood flickering
everywhere as she stumbles back, tripping into the shower.
BLOOD GOUTS UP FROM THE SINK DRAIN
Like a demonic ejaculation -- blood splatters the mirror, the
wallpaper, bouncing off walls and covering Beverly. She
SCREAMS and runs out the door...
INT. BEVERLY'S APARTMENT, LIVING ROOM - NIGHT
...into her father, who comes charging up the hall. She
screams again, recoiling away.
MR. MARSH
What the devil's gotten into you,
girl?
BEVERLY
The bathroom! Daddy, in the
BATHROOM--
His arm shoots out and GRABS HER WRIST LIKE A VICE.
41.
MR. MARSH
Someone peeking at you, Bevvie?
Huh?
BEVERLY
No... the sink... in the sink...
He stalks past, dragging her behind him. They step into...
INT. BEVERLY'S APARTMENT, BATHROOM - NIGHT
Mr. Marsh looks around, eyes wide, blood splattered
everywhere, but the blood doesn't register with him.
He shoves her against the wall. Hard.
MR. MARSH
You know I hate gettin' rough with
you. I never do when you don't
deserve it.
He points back to the gory sink.
MR. MARSH (CONT'D)
What's my tape measurer doin' outta
my toolbelt?
He steps over and grabs the BLOOD-COATED TAPE, clipping it
onto his belt, blood on his hands now too. He doesn't seem
to see any of it. Only Beverly can. She realizes this.
MR. MARSH (CONT'D)
Answer me girl.
He raises his hand.
BEVERLY
The sink... I was... I thought I
saw a spider...
Uncertain whether he'll hit her anyway, she closes her eyes
and prepares for a smacking.
MR. MARSH
(SMILING)
A spider?
BEVERLY
Yes, sir. I'm sorry for waking you.
He lowers his hand, gentle now, proprietary.
42.
MR. MARSH
I worry about you, Bevvie. I worry
a lot.
Smoothing out her hair over her forehead. The blood on her
face like finger paint. This is when he scares her the most.
MR. MARSH (CONT'D)
You know why I don't drink or smoke
or chase after women like other
fathers do?
BEVERLY
Because you love momma?
MR. MARSH
Not just her, Bevvie. You. You're
almost a woman now, too. And I got
me all I need right here at home.
He rests his forehead against hers, breathes in her scent,
goes back down the hall to his game.
INT. DETAIL ON CEILING - NIGHT
ANGLE ON a wet, dark spot as it grows on a white plaster
ceiling, the first droplet of water forming. SLOW MOTION as
it breaks away and falls through space...
SMASH CUT TO:
INT. WILL'S BEDROOM - NIGHT
...onto Will's head. He doesn't stir. But then it is
followed by SEVERAL OTHERS. Finally, he awakes. Looks up.
A leak in the ceiling.
Will flips back his covers.
INT. BATHROOM HALLWAY - NIGHT
Will grabs a bucket from a utility closet and, walking back,
sees Georgie's room's door open...
INT. GEORGE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT
Will enters, the room frozen in time. GEORGIE'S TOY BOX is
open. Photographs and posters line the walls.
43.
STAR WARS bedsheets crisp and military tight on the bed. A
Lego Turtle on the night stand. Will picks it up.
Will sits down, Turtle in hand, and indulges in the sadness
that has engulfed his home for months. The loss of his
brother hitting him full force, he closes his eyes to fight
back the tears, but cannot.
He cries for George. Photographs of George, illuminated by
passing cars, seem to watch him from the walls.
A SHADOW seems to stretch across Georgie's room from the
doorway.
Will looks up but no one is there.
INT. CORRIDOR - WILL'S HOUSE - NIGHT
Will steps out of George's room and finds DARK FOOTPRINTS IN
THE CARPET. He leans down and touches one -- squishy and
wet. They track down the dark staircase.
Will, heart pounding, follows the wet footprints down the
stairs, careful not to step in any of them.
WILL
Hello? Dad?
INT. DOWNSTAIRS - WILL'S HOUSE - DAY
At the bottom of the stairs Will finds the footprints lead
TOWARD THE KITCHEN WHERE...
WILL
Ma?
Will sees a YELLOW FLASH of something ducking around the
corner. Startled, Will drops the Lego turtle, which smashes
into pieces and scatters across the wood floor...
WILL HEARS GEORGIE'S "CODE" CALL FROM THE OPENING SCENE.
IT COMES FROM THE KITCHEN
Will looks back up the stairs half-expecting his parents to
wake up. Nothing but an eerie silence. He gathers his courage
and follows the wet footprints into...
44.
INT. KITCHEN - WILL'S HOUSE - DAY
Will steps in, face to face with THE CELLAR DOOR, the door
creaking closed, light snapped on behind it, footprints
disappearing down into the cellar.
WILL
(VOICE QUIVERING)
Georgie?
WILL RESPONDS WITH HIS OWN "CODE" CALL. THERE IS NO
IMMEDIATE RESPONSE
Will slowly approaches the door and reaches out for the
handle, but stops with second thoughts. He starts backing
away, too spooked to go down, when he hears...
A CHILD WEEPING BEYOND THE DOOR, then...
GEORGIE'S "CODE" CALL, COMING FROM THE BASEMENT
INT. CELLAR - WILL'S HOUSE - DAY
Will opens the door, rickety stairs leading down into
darkness, the weeper somewhere in the recesses, along with
the steady sound of a LEAK.
Steeling himself, Will descends. He gets to the last few
rungs and is thrown off for a moment seeing HIS REFLECTION in
the basement floor, as if it were A BLACK MIRROR. He realizes
THE CELLAR HAS FLOODED
Will looks up toward the leak/weeping sound and sees, curled
in the same corner where we had that opening POV...
GEORGE IN HIS YELLOW SLICKER.
Rain rolling off him like he's still in a storm flooding the
cellar. He looks up at Will.
GEORGE
Why'd you make me go, Willy?
WILL
Georgie?
Will moves to step into the water when he hesitates, holding
his foot over it. He looks to Georgie whose expression of
distress seems insincere.
GEORGE
Help me, Willy.
45.
Will grabs a rake from the wall and pokes its tip into the
water. It's a good six inches deep.
GEORGE (CONT'D)
You'll float.
Water and muck pour from his mouth as he says these last
words, an endless cascade.
Will recoils. Georgie glides over the water towards Will, and
we realize there is a creature beyond it, the colors of a
clown's costume, PENNYWISE, propping up Georgie's body like a
MEAT PUPPET.
Horrified, Will races up the stairs as...
PENNYWISE crosses the flooded basement and scuffles up the
steps after Will, arms and legs splayed out like a charging
crocodile, Georgie's limp corpse strapped to his back.
Will slams the door on Pennywise's/Georgie's gross face.
INT. WILL DENBROUGH'S HOUSE, WILL'S ROOM
Will slams the door of his room and hides in his bed.
Panting. The DOOR KNOB starts to rattle.
Drip. Will looks up. The leak from the ceiling getting
worse. The DOOR KNOB rattles even more. Shaking until it
seems like its going to fall off.
Silence. Will approaches the door. He grabs a baseball bat
and prepares to attack. Swinging open the door, ready to
swing... it's his FATHER.
ZACH
Will.
Seeing the bat.
ZACH (CONT'D)
Easy! What's wrong? What's all
the noise about?
Will exhales, safety.
WILL
There's a leak in my ceiling. Then
I went to check the cellar and its
FLOODED AND--
Zack looks at Will's ceiling.
46.
ZACH
Where's the leak, son?
Will points at it but nothing registers for Zach.
INT. WILL'S HOUSE, BASEMENT DOOR - MOMENTS LATER
Will and Zach stand over the stairwell. Zach turns the light
on and walks down, much to Will's horror, into a puddle of
water.
ZACH
Dry as a bone, Will. Sure it
wasn't just a dream?
Will holds himself, too freaked out to speak.
EXT. EDGE OF THE BARRENS - MORNING
Will, Stan, Richie, Ben and Eddie stand at the edge of a
police cordon. Beyond, CHIEF BORTON and A LINE OF POLICE
OFFICERS, SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES and VOLUNTEERS sweep the woods
with blood hounds.
RICHIE
But we got a project we're working
on out there.
CHIEF BORTON
Barren's will be off limits for
now, kids. Go on into town and
play there.
They all look on in disappointment. Then pick up their bikes
and head back into town.
A dog picks up a scent near A MORLOCK HOLE -- a cement
cylinder that sticks about four feet out of the ground with a
vented iron manhole cover stamped: DERRY SEWER DEPARTMENT. A
drone comes from somewhere deep within.
Officer Butch Bowers arrives with news for Chief Borton.
OFFICER BOWERS
We've got another one, Chief.
CHIEF BORTON
Another what?
OFFICER BOWERS
Kid gone missing.
47.
CHIEF BORTON
Dear Lord. Who is it?
OFFICER BOWERS
One of my son's friends. Patrick
Hockstettler.
PAN OVER to reveal Travis, waiting meekly inside Officer
Bowers' squad car.
CHIEF BORTON
The family notified you directly?
Officer Bowers nods for Travis to approach.
OFFICER BOWERS
Then I did a little investigating
of my own.
(TO TRAVIS)
Tell him what you told me, boy.
Travis doesn't know where to start.
OFFICER BOWERS (CONT'D)
Tell him, damn it! Tell him who
you last saw him with.
(he turns to Chief Borton)
The negro boy from outside of town.
The ones who run the abatoir.
INT. BEVERLY'S APARTMENT - MORNING
BEN'S HAIKU is propped on a night stand.
Beverly stirs awake. Her sheets and pillows are smeared with
blood. Her face crusted with dried gore.
Groggy, and nearly sleep walking, she sits up and walks out
without taking stock.
INT. BEVERLY'S BATHROOM - MORNING
Bev opens the door, wiping her eyes she approximates the
sink, bends over to wash her face and eyes. With the first
crust of blood removed from her eyelids, she looks into the
mirror and let's out a choked, exhaling GASP of horror.
Surrounded by brown and crusty wallpaper, is Beverly's
realization that the blood was not a dream.
Beverly's Mom appears in the doorway. Beverly turns to her,
speechless, in shock.
48.
MRS. MARSH
Darling, sometimes I look at myself
in the morning and think the same
thing.
Beverly tiptoes out of the horror scene. She shyly looks at
her mother as she dries her hair over a blood-drenched sink,
oblivious to it all.
MRS. MARSH (CONT'D)
Look at these roots.
Beverly is speechless.
INT. HANDLON ABATTOIR - DAY
Puddles of BLOOD seem to lap like small waves towards us.
PAN UP to reveal Mike and Leroy sweeping the blood and water
out of the slaughtering pen.
Officer Bowers followed by SEVERAL POLICE OFFICERS enter the
facility.
OFFICER BOWERS
Leroy Hanlon?
Leroy turns and notices the officers for the first time.
OFFICER BOWERS (CONT'D)
We need to bring in your boy for
questioning.
LEROY
For what?
OFFICER BOWERS
Police business.
Mike turns to his father, frightened, shaking his head.
LEROY
We need a lawyer?
He looks at Mike, searching for any indication what this
could be about. Travis appears in the distance and Mike
instantly knows.
MIKE
Dad, it's-
Officer Bowers roughly grabs Mike by the neck and starts to
lead him out.
49.
OFFICER BOWERS
Let's go, boy.
LEROY
Hey! No need for that.
He grabs Officer Bowers by the arm. Bowers quickly and
excessively puts Leroy in a wrist lock and throttles him
against the killing pen fence. Leroy moans in pain.
OFFICER BOWERS
Search this place, now. It's the
perfect place to hide a body if you
ever needed to.
Officer Bowers looks around in disgust. Travis smiles from
the safety of distance and local power.
LEROY
This ain't right! You need a
warrant, you can't just-
Leroy seizes his arm, then his chest, then crumples to the
ground, losing consciousness in the puddle of blood.
MIKE
Dad!
Mike tries to rush for him but he is forcefully escorted to a
waiting police car. Other Officers look to Bowers for
direction. Officer Bowers turns Leroy over.
OFFICER BOWERS
Call an ambulance.
EXT. BEN'S HOUSE, BEDROOM - DAY
ALL of the boys have gathered in Ben's room. An aimless
summer morning with nothing to do. They play with his junk
and are generally turning his room over. Will examines a
pair of walkie-talkies not unlike his own.
RICHIE
Whoa, what's with the history
project, Benny-boy?
Richie notices that Ben's walls are covered in xerox copies
and historical drawings, all relating to Derry's history.
50.
BEN
Oh, uh, when I first moved here I
didn't have anyone to play with or
anything, so I just started hanging
out in the Library.
All of the boys turn and look at Ben. Seriously?
RICHIE EDDIE
What are you, the "Reading He's a regular Jordy Laforge.
Rainbow"?
Stan takes a closer look.
STAN
Why is it all, like, people getting
killed and missing kids and stuff?
BEN
I don't know. There's just a lot
of that here. Been that way since
the original settlers.
Will, who was more interested in a Viewmaster, turns and
looks at the walls now. Sees a copy of an old-timey document
with 300 signatures. INCORPORATION OF THE TOWNSHIP OF DERRY.
WILL
You have a copy of the Town
Charter. Seriously?
BEN
Derry started as a logging camp
before it was officially on any
maps. 300 people signed the
charter that made Derry Derry. A
month later they all disappeared,
without a trace.
RICHIE
The entire town?
Eddie is freaked out by this revelation.
BEN
The people, the livestock,
everything that was alive.
STAN EDDIE
Jesus. Holy fuck.
RICHIE
(TO STAN)
Aren't you supposed to be Jewish?
51.
Stan thumps Richie in the stomach while still paying
attention to Ben.
BEN
People in neighboring settlements
thought it was Indians or something
but there was no sign of an attack.
The only clue was a well house that
was burnt down to charcoal.
RICHIE
Shit, maybe we could get Derry on
Unsolved Mysteries!
Ben points out on an old map that has a translucent modern
map drawn by hand laid over it, his tracing coordinates-
BEN
It was here. Right on the corner
of what's now Witcham and Jackson.
EDDIE
Hey, isn't that where Will's
brother, Georgie-
Richie slaps Eddie in the back of the head. His fierce eyes
castigating Eddie for not thinking before speaking, Eddie
confused, "wha-?"
WILL
Yeah, it's where Georgie died.
BEN RICHIE
I'm sorry. I didn't- (to Eddie)
Good job numb nuts.
WILL (CONT'D)
Don't worry about it. Why do you
have all this stuff anyway? I
mean. What are you going to do
with it?
Will can't take his eyes off all of the information.
BEN
I don't know. It was just a way to
kill time, I guess.
RICHIE
It's summer, dorkus. If you're
gonna kill time, do it right.
52.
EXT. BASSEY PARK QUARRY, ROPE SWING - LATER
Will, Richie, Eddie, Stan, and Ben, stripped to their tightie-
whities (except Ben who still has a T-shirt), stand in a line
staring at the edge of a rocky outcropping in a quarry turned
pond. The black water of the pond foreboding, endless.
WILL
Who's first.
RICHIE
Eddie?
EDDIE
Screw that.
BEN
I'll go.
EDDIE
Ben, with those cuts you have on
your chest, I'm not sure if getting
in this water-
RICHIE
Will you stop with the grey water
shit. You make it seem like any
water we get in is like swimming in
an out-house.
BEN
What's grey water?
STAN
Don't get him started.
WILL
I'll go first.
BEVERLY (O.C.)
Too late.
The boys turn around to see Bev in a one piece summer dress.
She pulls off the dress quickly, down to her underwear,
sprints off the edge and jumps into the water. BOOM.
Cannonball.
The boys, not wanting to be showed up by the girl take one
last look at each other and jump in. SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!
SPLASH! SPLASH!
All except for Eddie, who crawls down the rock outcropping
and stares at the screaming and laughing kids enviously.
53.
RICHIE
What are you waiting for? Why
don't you get in you pussy?
Eddie dips the toes of one of his feet in. Flabbergasted,
Richie gives up on motivating Eddie.
Richie dives under the water and swims beneath the kicking
legs of all his friends, a shark's P.O.V. He doesn't see...
PENNYWISE floating in from the depths beneath him.
On the surface Ben yelps, something yanking his leg. Richie
surfaces.
BEN
Very funny, Richie.
RICHIE
I thought so.
Something yanks Richie's leg too. Hard. He and Ben wait for
whoever it was to surface from the inky water.
Ben sees Will, Bev, and Stan swimming back toward Eddie on
the edge of the quarry. They scream and laugh and swim their
asses back to land.
EXT. BASSEY PARK QUARRY, SHORE - LATER
The SIX of them now sunbathe on the rocks at the edge of the
pond. Their eyes are closed, soaking in the vitamin D,
except Ben, who can't take his off of Beverly's tanning body.
Will sits up and looks out at the water. It is so black it
seems other worldly. Not breaking his stare from the water,
he addresses the group.
WILL
Do you guys ever feel there's
something wrong with Derry. Like
it's, I don't know, haunted or
something?
EDDIE
Haunted how?
WILL
I keep thinking about Ben's walls.
Ben, happy to have something else to focus on other than
Beverly, looks at Will.
54.
BEN
You mean how all sorts of disasters
and disappearances and stuff keeps
on happening here?
WILL
Yeah. It's strange.
Stan opens his eyes and joins in.
STAN
Like any town, right? That's been
around long enough, bad stuff is
bound to happen. I mean, have you
read the Torah?
Richie, turns over to work on his back.
RICHIE
Boys, you're ruining my sunbathing
vibes with all this chitter
chatter.
Beverly, eyes still closed, places a cigarette in her mouth
and lights up. Ben notices her hands shake as she holds the
cigarette in her mouth. The smoke swirls and dissipates over
them.
BEVERLY
Have you been seeing "things" Will?
Will whips his neck to Beverly. He can't tell if she is
making fun or if she is seriously asking him for a bridge.
WILL
I... If I tell you guys something
you won't think I'm crazy.
RICHIE
We already know you're crazy, Will.
No judgement here.
WILL
I saw Georgie last night. Only.
It wasn't him.
EDDIE
Like. In your dreams?
WILL
No. In my house, he tried to get
me to go into the basement with
him.
55.
RICHIE
That wasn't Georgie, that was your
neighborhood sex offender making a
house call.
WILL
Shut up Richie. It wasn't just
him. I saw this other... I don't
know.
STAN
What did you see Will?
BEN
The clown?
Will, Stan and Eddie look at Ben.
WILL
Yes. That's what it was, a scary
looking clown. And it had these
teeth...
STAN
I saw something, too. In the
basement of the synogogue.
RICHIE
I take it back. I'm judging all of
you and you are all friggin'
wackos.
Beverly, still laying there, exhales a long trail of smoke.
BEVERLY
I need to show you guys something.
EXT. LOWER MAIN STREET - DAY
The FIVE boys and Beverly stand outside her slummy apartment
building. She looks frightened to go inside.
BEVERLY
My Daddy will kill me if he finds
out I had boys in our apartment.
BEN
Isn't he at work?
BEVERLY
Sometimes he comes home for a nap.
56.
WILL
We should leave lookouts. Ben,
Stan, can you?
Ben is ready to protest. Then succumbs, crestfallen.
STAN
What does he look like?
BEVERLY
My Daddy? Mean. Like a drunk.
Will, Richie and Eddie go with Bev.
INT. BEVERLY'S APARTMENT - DAY
Bev opens the door. It creeks open. The apartment seems to
be empty. Afternoon sunlight illuminating floating dust
motes. She scouts around and lets them in.
Will, Richie, and Eddie follow her to a closed door at the
end of the hallway -- THE BATHROOM DOOR
BEVERLY
In there.
RICHIE
Can you give me an indicator of
what I'm about to walk into?
BEVERLY
You'll see.
RICHIE
I hope it's Ed McMahon and I've
just won publishers clearing house
10 million dollar sweepstakes. But
if it is, you really didn't have to
go through so much trouble, you
could have just brought Ed to the
quarry.
She has no intention of going in. Will pushes past Richie and
opens the door.
EDDIE
Oh God. Oh God.
THE BLOOD
Still there, faded into maroon clouds on the mirror and
wallpaper. Richie reels back into the hallway with Beverly.
57.
She looks from Richie to Will.
BEVERLY
You really see it?
RICHIE
It's like someone slaughtered a pig
in here. Or a parent.
Richie is slack jawed.
WILL
What happened?
Bev is so relieved she almost cries.
BEVERLY
The sink. It came out from the
sink. My parents couldn't see it.
I thought I was going crazy.
Will goes to Eddie, who still stands frozen in terror.
WILL
You okay, Eddie? Eddie Kaspbrack?
Eddie snaps to it, suddenly more composed, resolute even.
WILL (CONT'D)
Ed. Go outside. Get Ben and send
him in here.
Eddie just nods and walks out the door.
WILL (CONT'D)
You see it, don't you, Richie?
Richie nods.
WILL (CONT'D)
We can't leave it like this. Let's
clean it up.
INT. BEVERLY'S BATHROOM - DAY
Will, Richie, Ben and Bev clean like grim elves, using a
bucket of hot water, ajax, and some cloth rags. Slowly the
blood washes out. Reaching for the same rag, Will and Bev's
hands touch, a spark between them.
58.
EXT. BEVERLY'S APARTMENT - DAY
Stan and Eddie stand lookout on a curb below.
STAN
What's taking them so long?
EDDIE
There was a lot of blood.
Eddie shakes his head. Something disturbing catches his
attention.
INT. BEVERLY'S BATHROOM - DAY
Will pours the last of pink bucket water down the bathtub
drain. The bathroom now as clean as it ever was. The bucket
is filled with blood stained rags.
RICHIE
All I'm saying is maybe there's
some weirdo going around Derry
dressed as a clown. You know, like
the Joker in a "Dark Knight" comic.
Some whack job who likes to dress
up and kidnap kids.
WILL
Okay, so how did he put Georgie in
my basement?
BEVERLY
Or blood in my sink?
RICHIE
I don't know. Who knows how crazy
people do things, right?
Pebbles hit the window. Richie goes over, sees Eddie and Stan
jumping up and down. The sound of footsteps come up the
hallway. They look at each other, who's the extra footsteps?
INT. STAIRS TO BEVERLY'S APARTMENT - DAY
Mr. Marsh fumbles with his keys outside the door.
INT. BEVERLY'S APARTMENT - DAY
They race through the apartment to a window that opens to
fire escape into the alley. Bev throws it open and Will, Ben,
Bev, and Richie climb through.
59.
WILL
You okay?
BEVERLY
I am now. Thanks to you guys.
The window slams shut behind them just as Mr. Marsh enters
the hallway.
He sees a bloody rag on the counter and picks it up, wiping
his sweaty face, smearing blood all over it.
INT. POLICE STATION, CHIEF BORTON'S OFFICE - DAY
Chief Borton and Officer Bowers hand Mike's mom a copy of
Mike's signed statement. He nearly has to defend himself
from her anger.
CHIEF BORTON MIKE'S MOM
Ma'am. Ma'am. His father is in the hospital
(BEAT) in critical condition and
Ma'am! you, you're supposed to be
protecting the children!
CHIEF BORTON
Ma'am. We were just doing our job,
but he's free to go home with you,
now.
MIKE'S MOM
He damn well better be.
Officer Bowers leans into Mike.
OFFICER BOWERS
You got lucky, boy. Could have
been you who disappeared. Be
careful next time creeping around
old places like that.
MIKE
I told you who chased me there.
Mike nods to TRAVIS BOWERS, who is sitting, shamefully, in an
office next door to Chief Borton's office.
OFFICER BOWERS
Oh, and he will be punished, don't
you worry, I swear on my belt
buckle he will.
Officer Bowers smiles, looks at Travis, whose face reveals he
knows he will get a whooping that night.
60.
MIKE'S MOM
C'mon, Mikey. Your father needs
us.
Mike turns and follows his Mom obediently out of Chief
Borton's office.
INT. POLICE STATION, BULL PEN - SAME
On their way out, Mike and his Mom pass Will, Ben, Bev, Stan,
Eddie and Richie scrambling in the door to the station.
RICHIE
What happened, homeschool?
Mike says nothing, his eyes looking forward in anger. Will
and the others rush toward Chief Borton's office.
OFFICER BOWERS
(blocking the way)
Whoa whoa. Where do you crumb
snatchers think you're going?
WILL
We know what's been taking the
kids. Chief!
Borton steps out. His long day just got worse.
CHIEF BORTON
It's okay, Butch. Someone try to
do something to you kids?
BEN BEVERLY
Not someone. Something. There's like this spirit.
BEN
A clown.
STAN
Or sometimes it's something else.
EDDIE
Only us kids can see it.
Borton narrows his eyes at Richie, the only one silent.
BORTON
Okay, stop. Is this you Tozier?
Did you put them up to this little
practical joke.
61.
WILL
No, we all saw it.
OFFICER BOWERS
Such wild imaginations. Too bad we
can't bottle their little brains.
Dry them out and grind them into
powder to salt our food. Maybe
then we'd see, what was it again?
Borton's exhausted. He's having none of it.
CHIEF BORTON
You youngsters realize there's a
penalty in Derry for filing a false
police report. I don't want to
have to call your parents, now.
BEVERLY
But we're not lying.
CHIEF BORTON
You have any evidence?
The kids all look at each other, stymied.
CHIEF BORTON (CONT'D)
That's what I thought. I don't
want to hear another word of this,
not here, not a whisper of it
anywhere. Now go home, all of you.
Eat dinner with your families,
sleep and have sweet dreams in your
pj's. And tomorrow, you're going
to go play like normal kids and
forget all about this fantasy about
murder and monsters. This is an
adult matter. You got it?
BEN
But you adults aren't doing
anything!
OFFICER BOWERS
Watch your tone, boy.
The kids all stand there, Borton's big frame intimidating.
CHIEF BORTON
I don't see you leaving.
62.
EXT. POLICE STATION - DAY
The kids all step outside, morally deflated.
WILL
I guess we're on our own.
CUT TO:
TITLE CARD over the PENOBSCOT RIVER:
JULY 4th, 1988
EXT. DERRY - AERIAL - SUNSET
A smoky haze obscures the setting sun and rough hewed
mountains.
EXT. KANSAS STREET - DUSK
CRRRRRACK! A mailbox explodes as a Trans-Am speeds off, the
boys inside it whooping and laughing their heads off.
The car swings up to another and Travis Bowers leans out of
the window, throwing in a SIZZLING M-80.
He shuts the lid, pulls back into the passenger seat, and
screams to the driver, Victor.
TRAVIS
Go! Go! Go!
Victor hits it and they roar off. Snatch and MOOSE SADLER
(16) scrunched like sardines in the backseat. They all look
back to see...
CRRRRRACK! The mailbox explodes. The boys share a hip flask
bottle of Southern Comfort-
TRAVIS (CONT'D)
God I love the Fourth.
SNATCH
It's my turn. Pass one back.
63.
Travis fishes the bag full of M-80s and bottle rockets and
they blow another mailbox.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DUSK
Mike enters, sheepish. Leroy is in bed, full of tubes to
bleeping machines. He looks decimated. Mike's mom is on her
way out.
MIKE'S MOM
You'll be okay?
Mike nods. She squeezes Mike's shoulder as she goes.
LEROY
Mom tell you what's the what?
MIKE
Doctors say it's inside your bones.
And spreading.
LEROY
Your Mom's going to need you to be
strong, Mikey. Help keep the
abatoir running.
Mike nods.
MIKE
I'll try.
LEROY
You do or you don't do. No try.
Leroy coughs. His lungs are filling with fluid.
MIKE
It's my fault.
LEROY
Stop that, Mike. There's no one to
blame here. It's nature taking its
course.
MIKE
You're coming home though, right?
Leroy looks at his son, sadness etched in the lines of his
sullen face.
LEROY
Pull up that seat.
64.
Leroy indicates a chair next to the bed. Mike pulls it up
and sits next to his Dad, leaning in close.
LEROY (CONT'D)
There's something I never told
nobody. Not even your mom.
Something that I think you should
know in case...
MIKE
In case of what?
He coughs again. Mike can smell the creeping death coming
from his father's insides.
LEROY
When I was about your age. Me and
my buddies would go to this place
along the canal...
EXT. THE BLACK SPOT - DAY
YOUNG LEROY (13) and YOUNG DICK (13) sneak up along the rail
of the canal outside a raucous, crowded little gin joint.
Only black folks stand in line to get in, music and reverie
blaring from within. The two boys look at all the pretty
girls and snazzy men with awe.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DUSK
MIKE
Dad, I'm responsible. You don't
need to tell me some long tale
about drinking and driving or safe
sex. I'll take care of things-
Leroy squeezes Mike's arm, frustrated. Harder than he
thought he could squeeze.
LEROY
I'm. Not. Done.
Leroy groans through his teeth.
LEROY (CONT'D)
This isn't about you, Mike. It's
not even about me. It's about
Derry. This town is like poison.
He coughs again.
65.
MIKE
Dad?
LEROY
Shut up and listen to me. There
was one night, 1960. I remember
because it was August and Chubby
Checker just dropped "the twist".
INT. THE BLACK SPOT - NIGHT
A hot hot night, the little shack filled up to the rafters
with people dancing, twisting, enjoying themselves. YOUNG
LEROY and YOUNG DICK push their way through the sweaty bodies
to a window. They find some floaters on the sill there and
drink them up. Out the window Leroy notices...
MEN IN WHITE ROBES
Stalk from the woods and light torches.
EXT. THE BLACK SPOT - NIGHT
The men in white robes -- THE MAINE LEGION OF DECENCY --
barricade the door with a cart and light the timbers on fire.
INT. THE BLACK SPOT - NIGHT
Smoke starts to take over the place. People panic, stampede
the doors. They don't budge. Women, men are crushed against
the hot door as people push against them to get out. Young
Leroy among them. He's grabbed by his friend Dick who pushes
him out the window.
EXT. BLACK SPOT - NIGHT
Dick and Leroy go stumbling and coughing away from the
blazing shack, their eyes burning with smoke, blinded. They
trip over the edge into the dark waters of the CANAL.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHT
He seems to float off into a reverie.
LEROY
Worse thing I ever seen. And the
smell, that awful smell -- all
cooked flesh. Somehow we ended up
in the water.
(MORE)
66.
LEROY (CONT'D)
Floating in the blackness, I could
still hear all them screams. It
wasn't until I surfaced that I
could see the truth of it all. Of
Derry.
MIKE
What truth?
LEROY
I saw something, Mikey. Through
the smoke and the burning.
Something I can't even really
explain, but it was there, Dickie
saw it, too.
MIKE
What did you see?
A NURSE walks in with a chemo bag.
NURSE
Mr. Hanlon, you ready?
Mike and Leroy lock eyes. Leroy leans in, whispers so the
nurse can't hear.
LEROY
I saw what was really responsible
for that fire, Mikey. Not the
Legion. See those white boys, they
were there, but there was something
else, orchestrating `em. Had `em
all in a fit and frenzy, moved to
his whims. This thing, I don't
even know how to describe it...
EXT. CANAL BESIDE THE BLACK SPOT - NIGHT
A balloon surfaces from the waters, bringing with it
PENNYWISE. It pulls him over to a survivor swimming in
darkness and Pennywise pounces, dragging the victim under
water.
Leroy and Dick see this and are horrified. They begin
swimming back to the edge when a balloon surfaces nearby,
again pulling Pennywise, his face smeared with blood, from
the water.
It drags the clown toward them. They climb out of the canal
just as Pennywise gets within striking distance. Instead he
pounces on a woman there, dragging her under kicking and
screaming.
67.
On the shore Leroy rests in Dick's arms, the Black Spot now
just a heap of smoldering char, the grounds littered with
burned up bodies.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM
Mike looks at his father, terrified.
NURSE
Mr. Hanlon?
LEROY
(he grabs Mike's shirt
VIOLENTLY)
Be careful out there son.
Especially by the canal. The water
in Derry is no place for no one,
especially a youngster like you.
The nurse hooks up the chemo bag to Leroy's IV. She turns
towards Mike.
NURSE
You might want to wait outside.
Mike hesitantly leaves the room as she pricks the needle into
his dad's catheter, Leroy wincing.
INT. HOSPITAL, CORRIDER - NIGHT
Mike steps out into the corridor. The hospital seems eerily
dark, empty and quiet.
A LIGHT STROBES down the long hall. It draws Mike to it, like
a moth to a flame. He turns the corner and sees...
A fire alarm pulled, white greasy fingerprints on the lever.
Emergency lights strobe along the walls. No sound of an
alarm. No doctors or nurses anywhere.
Suddenly, at the end of the long corridor, a SHEEP trots out
from a door, staccato in the strobing light. It stops, looks
at Mike, then trots into another door.
Mike starts after it, baffled. He approaches the door the
sheep walked into, a stream of WATER FLOODING OUT ONTO THE
FLOOR.
He stops, the water rushing past his feet. He looks back
behind him, the normally lit hallway now far far away.
BAAA
68.
He hears the sheep just inside the open door. He enters
through it without noticing the stencil on the glass of the
door: "DERRY COUNTY CORONER."
INT. HOSPITAL, CORONER'S OFFICE
Mike enters a windowless bunker like room with all the metal
corpse lockers, metal autopsy table and a sink in the corner,
the emergency lights still strobing.
The sheep is nowhere to be found.
Instead Mike finds, in the middle of the floor under the
autopsy table, a DRAIN GURGLING UP WATER, the source of the
flooding out into the corridor.
SLAM!
The door slams behind him. Mike runs over to it, jiggles the
lock, but it won't open. Behind him, in between flashes of
the strobe, PENNYWISE APPEARS THEN DISAPPEARS...
Mike stops dead, sensing It's presence like he did at the old
Ironworks. He slowly looks back as...
ONE OF THE CORPSE LOCKER DOORS CREAK OPEN
Mike opens his mouth to scream but nothing comes out.
He's pounding on the door.
MIKE
Somebody! HELP! Let me out!
(BEAT)
Dad! Mom!
He looks over his shoulder while continuing to BANG. The
tray inside the open locker slowly slides out, like a tongue
from a mocking black mouth. On it, under a white sheet, is a
CORPSE.
Mike dares look back just as the sheet catches and the corpse
is uncovered. It's none other than PATRICK HOCKSTETTLER,
whose legs and arms (up to the elbow) have been bit off,
smaller, CHILD SIZE bite marks cover his body.
Mike jumps to a corner where he grabs a saw to defend
himself.
Water spews up from the drain with more and more pressure, a
pool now covering the floor, the edge of which seeps toward
Mike.
69.
Mike climbs up on a chair, afraid of the water, now with a
full view of Patrick's mutilated body.
JUST THEN PATRICK TURNS HIS HEAD AND LOOKS AT MIKE
PATRICK
It's killing your daddy, Mikey.
Eating him away.
MIKE
Shut up.
PATRICK
A worm inside a rotten apple.
We're all apples, Mikey. All of us.
You know the thing about apples --
MIKE
Stop it.
Patrick's expression turns into a horrific, fearful murmur.
PATRICK
-- they float.
MIKE
No!
THE WALLS START TO SLIDE IN. As if the room were shrinking.
The walls shepherding him towards Patrick's talking corpse.
Mike reaches behind him, scraping at the walls, looking for
anything with purchase. His hands find the FIRE ALARM.
Pulls it.
This time the alarm SOUNDS and the strobe lights freeze, the
room now fully lit.
Mike looks back, calipers raised, and sees the locker doors
closed again, no water on the floor.
The door opens behind him. It's the CORONER, Chief Borton,
and PATRICK'S PARENTS there to identify the remains of their
boy.
Mike is nearly catatonic. He holds onto the Chief, catching
his breath.
CHIEF BORTON
What are you doing here, son?
Speechless and terrified Mike races past them out of the
hospital.
70.
EXT. OLD CAPE STREET - NIGHT
Mike walks home, distraught, mindless to the traffic. He is
nearly hit by a car as he storms away from the hospital.
A Trans Am turns a corner behind him. Headlights on high-
beam. It stops.
Mike turns, sees, realizes who it is, runs.
INT. TRANS AM - SAME
Travis climbs out of the passenger seat and over to the
driver seat.
TRAVIS
Move.
Victor gets out and runs around the car.
SNATCH
Hey, ain't that the little shit
your dad gave you a whoopin' over?
Furious, Travis slams on the gas pedal. POV of CAR, giving
chase to Mike.
TRAVIS
I'm gonna run him over.
EXT. DERRY SIDE STREET - SAME
Mike runs for his life, jumping fences, turning corners, and
running through pedestrians.
Travis' Trans-Am can't always speed, due to the amount of
people on the street.
Just when he's about to get within biting distance, BOOM.
The first of a long series of FIRE-WORKS, explodes over the
Derry sky, illuminating the street in a series of FLASHES.
EXT. BEN'S HOUSE, ROOFTOP - NIGHT
Will, Richie, Stan, and Eddie have gathered on Ben's roof to
watch the fireworks.
71.
BOOM. The boys "oooh" and "aaaah" while stuffing their faces
with an unholy array of massed snacks meant to rot teeth and
discolor the fingers with multi-colored MSG filled flavor
powders.
Richie, with sticky fingers, picks up a walkie-talkie.
RICHIE
Benny-boy, don't forget the ranch
dressing.
The walkie-talkie SQWUAKS back.
BEN
Hey Richie. Eat a bag of dicks.
BOOM. Again, the sky erupts in dazzling light and color AND
CONTINUES TO with fireworks THROUGHOUT AND UNTIL THE END OF
THE FOLLOWING SCENES -- IMAGINE IT AS THE MOST EPIC FIREWORKS
DISPLAY YOU HAVE EVER SEEN.
Beverly, then Ben, appear from one of the dormer windows
leading to Ben's bedroom, with sparklers, bunches of bottle
rockets, roman candles and small firecrackers.
RICHIE
(mimicking Paul Hogan)
You call that a firecracker? This
is a firecracker.
He opens his palms, revealing SEVERAL M-80s. The boys
collectively `woah' with excitement.
BEVERLY
Nice stick, Richie. How about
this.
She opens her backpack, revealing a MORTAR with SIX turrets.
ALL THE BOYS
Holy shit!
WILL
Think that could take "IT" down?
STAN EDDIE
How? We don't even know what That's a good name for it
it is that we're looking for. actually.
RICHIE
What?
EDDIE
"IT."
72.
They nod in agreement.
BEVERLY
I think it depends.
Beverly looks up from a SPREAD OF FIREWORKS laid out on a red
white and blue Captain America towel.
EDDIE
On what?
WILL
What we're scared of. It was
Georgie's corpse for me cuz, cuz
that's what I care about. It was a
naked woman for Stan because he's
so afraid of-
RICHIE
Getting laiiiid.
STAN RICHIE
Only because your Mom- You really want me to start
talking about your Mom?
Don't get me started cause it
won't stop.
WILL
Back to point. It showered Beverly
in blood cuz...
RICHIE
Cuz blood always freaks a girl out.
BEVERLY
Wow, you really don't know shit
about girls do you?
Will smiles.
BEVERLY (CONT'D)
"IT" showered me in blood because I
just got my period... and...
Eddie recoils in disgust while Beverly's mind goes to dark
places, to her father, and what being a "woman" might mean to
him now. Ben and Will both notice this change in her
demeanor.
RICHIE
I didn't need to know that.
73.
WILL
It. It's everything and anything.
All our nightmares. All evil,
wrapped into one.
BEN
Into one freaky looking clown you
mean. That's the only form that
seems to repeat.
RICHIE
Ironic right? Something that's
suppose to make kids laugh,
actually being super freaky.
He does it Rick James style. Everyone laughs.
EDDIE
It makes sense though. If it's
killing kids. A clown is the
perfect cover.
BEVERLY
Adults just ignore them. But kids,
like your brother, Georgie...
WILL
They want to get closer. See their
tricks.
Just then Will sees MIKE running for his life down the
street.
WILL (CONT'D)
Shit. Isn't that-
RICHIE
Home school.
They look where he's running from and see Bowers Gang, in the
Trans-Am delayed by foot traffic.
EDDIE
They're going to cream him.
STAN
At least it won't be our problem
for a night.
BEVERLY
That's cowardly, Stan.
74.
BEN
Beverly's right. We can't always
hide from them. We need to do
something.
STAN
How?
WILL
With these.
Will points to their arsenal of fireworks.
CUT TO:
EXT. BEN'S NEIGHBORHOOD - MINUTES LATER
Mike runs past families and kids distracted by the fireworks
display happening overhead, Bowers gang almost on him in the
Trans Am.
Mike cuts between a lawn between two houses, hopping a fence.
Bowers hits the gas and fishtails it around the next block to
cut Mike off.
Will and his gang see this and take a short cut of their own.
Ben, boy-boobs jiggling, takes up the rear.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT
Mike spills out between lawns on Neibolt street; a dead end.
There is a small pier that cuts into the canal with an old
abandoned "lock house" at the end.
The Trans-Am roars into view at the other end of the block.
Revs the engine.
INT. TRANS AM - NIGHT
Travis is focused on Mike, who is frozen in the street.
TRAVIS
Got the little fucker now.
Another boy runs out with him. Will.
VICTOR
Is that that pussy Denbrough?
75.
TRAVIS
This night just gets better and
better.
Travis slams on the gas.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET - NIGHT
Tires screeching. Travis guns it straight for Mike and Will.
WILL
Don't move.
MIKE
You nuts?
WILL
Trust us. We're here to help you
take these jerks.
MIKE
We?
Looking to the side, Will has his walkie-talkie.
WILL
(into the walkie-talkie)
Not yet... not yet. Now!
Between the Trans-Am and Mike and Will, Ben and Richie heave
their shoulders into a large steel DUMPSTER filled with
construction material. They push it down a driveway that
leads to the street. It creaks, starts to wobble, then move
down the incline. When it hits street level, though, the
gutter stops it from going out into line of the Trans Am.
BEN
Fuck.
Will sees this.
WILL
Oh shit. Abort! Abort!
MIKE
Abort? What does that mean.
WILL
Run!
They're about to dodge the car when-
76.
BEVERLY jumps out firing off her 6-BARRELED MORTAR handheld,
aimed horizontally, at the car. THUMP. The recoil throws
her back while the rocketing projectile explodes in front of
the Trans-Am. Travis and the boys shield their faces
SCREAMING as the front windshield explodes.
BEVERLY
Woah!
THUMP. This one knocks her to the ground as the second
mortar flies right towards the Trans Am. Travis yanks the
wheel to the LEFT as the firework EXPLODES on the side of the
car. He slams on the breaks as Victor, Snatch, and Moose are
flung forward. Victor smashes his face on the dash board.
MIKE
Is that girl for real?
WILL
Real as it gets... Now, Stan and
Eddie!
Eddie and Stan charge from behind a hedge. Lighting bottle-
rockets aimed at the car. Travis and his boys have to duck
for cover as ONE of the rockets ZINGS through the car.
TRAVIS
Those little motherfuckers. Get
out, get out!
The OLDER BOYS climb out the windows, ducking and covering
their eyes from the ONSLAUGHT of bottle rockets and roman
candle projectiles.
Crouched behind the trunk, Travis lights up three M-80's WITH
CLOWN FACES on them and tosses them like grenades at Beverly,
Stan, and Eddie's positions.
The M-80's blow HUGE fist sized holes in the blacktop, bigger
than can possibly be legal, exploding gravel peppering the
kids, stunning them for a moment.
STAN
Holy hell. What kinda gear do they
got?
WILL
I don't wanna stay and find out.
Ben and Richie race up from behind, letting loose another
barrage as they pass Bowers' gang and the Trans Am, giving
cover as the FIRE FIGHT, literally, becomes a retreating
manoeuver towards the pier at the end of Neibolt street.
77.
Travis' boys cover their eyes but they make aggressive
progress towards the kids with their terrifying M-80's.
TRAVIS
I've been waiting all summer to run
into you, Denbrough.
WILL
Leave us alone Bowers. I don't
want anyone to get seriously hurt.
TRAVIS
Hurt? When I'm done with you,
you'll wish you were in that storm
drain with your brother.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET PIER - CONTINUOUS
They regroup at the mouth of the pier, water on both sides,
Bowers in front. He throws another M-80, which tears into a
wood plank. Splinters shoot everywhere.
BEVERLY
Will, we need cover--
BEN
The house. It's our only chance!
Ben points to the Neibolt Street house on stilts over the
black water. An imploded, condemned structure that slopes
like a man's half eaten face. Eddie is instantly horrified.
EDDIE
I don't think that's a good idea.
RICHIE
When do you ever think anything is
a good idea?
WILL
Okay. Ben, we'll hold him off while
we can, you and Stan see if you can
find a way in.
Covering them, Mike, Richie and Will continue to fire off
what fireworks they have left. Bowers' boys light off another
barrage of M-80's. Will, armed with a plank bats one back
like a baseball. BOOM! It explodes at Victors feet.
Ben quickly runs towards the house, followed by Stan and Bev.
Eddie, stuck in the middle, goes after them down the pier.
78.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE - CONTINUOUS
Ben and Stan split up looking for a way in. All windows and
doors are boarded up or locked.
EDDIE
Really guys, there has to be
another option.
RICHIE
You want to swim?!
EDDIE
I'm serious. This house--
BEN, STAN, & BEVERLY
Shut up, Eddie.
And then, as if by magic (or by Pennywise), one of the 2x4s
that cover a window to the basement slips to the ground.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET PIER - NIGHT
Will finds the backpack empty as Mike shoots off the last
bottle rocket. Will picks up some rocks as ammo. Mike and
Richie instinctively follow suit. Will winds up and...
WILL
Charge!!!
NAILS MOOSE IN THE FOREHEAD, drawing blood.
Travis and the others stop dead, incredulous, as rocks pelt
them. It turns into a crazy rock fight. Will looks back.
He can't see any of his friends who are on the other side of
the house.
WILL (CONT'D)
(TO BEN)
Guys hurry!!!
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE - NIGHT
Ben and Beverly look at the window into the blackened hole,
then at each other ominously.
BEVERLY
Rock, paper, scissors?
STAN
I'll go.
79.
Not wanting to be one-upped by Stan, Ben pushes him out of
the way.
BEN
No. I'll go.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET PIER - NIGHT
The fight is getting desperate. Both Will and Mike bleed
from rock hits. Will, Richie, and Mike see Bev waving them
to come. They run for their lives towards the house, Travis
and his goons on their heels.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE - NIGHT
Will, Richie and Mike round the corner of the house. Will
looks down the pier, no one, then THEY HEAR BEN.
BEN
(WHISPERING LOUDLY)
Down here!
TRAVIS (O.C.)
I'm gonna kill you, losers! I swear
I'm gonna kill you all.
Will sees a broomstick wave in the opening, beckoning them to
come in.
WILL
Go! Go! Go!
Mike and Richie slip in, lowering themselves onto a floor
littered with crates and boxes. Will last in just as...
Travis and his buddies round the house. Moose walks right by
the window they slipped into but doesn't seem to see it.
TRAVIS
Where are they?
Victor and Snatch look at Travis for direction. Unmoved,
Travis walks around the boarded up house looking for a way
in.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, BASEMENT
The kids catch their breath and lick their wounds. The
basement is a derelict and creepy undercarriage to a canal
lock house.
80.
A huge coal ENGINE bulked in the shadows, and next to it an
old COAL BIN and stone channel that leads directly to the
canal and water.
RICHIE
If we die here I just want to say
that fight was friggin' awesome.
WILL
Shhhhush.
Richie does a little pistol shoot with his hands to Ben and
mouths "awesome." Ben smiles.
EDDIE
(TO HIMSELF)
We shouldn't be here.
Will watches Travis and his boys walk past the basement
window again. Ben looks to Beverly, sees some gravel in her
leg like buckshot.
BEN
(WHISPERING)
You okay?
BEVERLY
It's just a scrape.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE
Travis is getting frustrated. He can't find where or how the
kids have gotten into the house. He looks straight at the
window the kids crawled through, the 2x4 is still somehow
attached from the outside.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, BASEMENT
The kids can see Travis staring straight at them through the
window, the 2x4 is non-existent, as if Pennywise is
preventing the boys outside from seeing in or entering.
STAN
They can't see the window?
EDDIE
(STILL REPEATING)
We shouldn't be here.
RICHIE
Don't count your chickens.
81.
MIKE
Something wrong with your friend
here?
EDDIE
We shouldn't be here!
WILL RICHIE
Eddie? He's afraid of dirt.
Will covers Eddie's mouth as he continues to yell, "we
shouldn't be here." They watch anxiously as Travis and the
boys feet inch uncomfortably closer to them.
Then Eddie suddenly stops.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE - SAME
Frustrated, Travis and the boys leave.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, BASEMENT
The kids have surrounded Eddie.
BEVERLY
What is it Eddie?
EDDIE
There's something I didn't tell you
guys.
WILL
What?
EDDIE
This house. I saw something here
once. I thought it was just my
mind playing tricks, but now I
know...
They sense what he is about to say isn't going to be good.
EDDIE (CONT'D)
I saw "IT."
Eddie nods.
STAN
Jesus.
82.
RICHIE
(TO STAN)
Why do you keep using our teams,
guy?
STAN
Wha?
MIKE
What does he mean by "IT?"
Will looks to the gang, they all nod. He turns back to their
newest member.
WILL
Something's wrong with Derry.
Haunting it. Hunting and killing
kids. We've all seen it.
Mike looks at them all, judging their earnestness. Feels he
can trust them, an instant connection with people whose fear
clings to your own.
MIKE
I know. I've seen "IT" too.
Just then, the house seems to shiver. As if its foundation
had shifted. A CLANKING SOUND resonates from the pipes.
Water BEGINS TO SEEP in through the cracks in the basement.
BEVERLY
What exactly did you see here,
Eddie?
Ben goes to the window they came through, but instead of
seeing out, it's now covered by the 2x4.
BEN
Guys, uh--
He looks at their feet. They all do. Water coming in fast.
Ben bangs a coal stoker against the boarded window. Rock
solid. Will looks for a way out. The stairs.
WILL
Stairs.
Suddenly they HEAR FOOTSTEPS, above. They look up as dust
falls from one side of the roof, slowly making its way to
directly over them. To the stairs.
EDDIE
(whispering in fright)
It's here.
83.
Will grabs on to Beverly's hand. She holds onto his with
equal vigor. Richie holds onto Eddie.
Ben holds the stoker like a sword. Mike grabs a shovel.
They lead the way up the stairs.
Unless otherwise noted, they ONLY WHISPER now.
RICHIE
I'm not going up there.
The others ignore him, follow Ben and Mike up the stairs.
Richie looks around him at the scary basement, the furnace
hulking in the corner like a being with eyes. The water
surrounds his shoes. He runs up after his friends.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 1ST FLOOR
A door opens in the middle of the kind of creepy hallway you
don't want to find yourself in, ever. Scummy yellow water
stained wallpaper peeling like dead skin from walls. Sconces
hanging from their sockets and detritus is built up on the
wooden floor boards. No footprints anywhere.
Ben sticks his head out. He looks left, nothing, he looks
right, nothing. Directly in front of him, through a dark
parlor, is the FRONT DOOR.
As Ben disappears into the stairs again, the door closes,
revealing PENNYWISE THE CLOWN, at the far end of the hallway.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, BASEMENT STAIRS
Ben still has his hand on the door knob.
BEN
The front door is right there.
Will nods. Let's go.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 1ST FLOOR
Pennywise is gone.
The kids all file out, sticking close to the filthy walls.
They dart into the dark parlor for the door, followed last by
Richie...
The room seems to extend and last longer than anticipated.
Finally they get to the door. Ben tries it. Nailed shut.
84.
EDDIE
Shit. Guys, look.
Everyone turns and sees HUNDREDS OF CROWS perched atop the
railing of the main staircase and in the rafters above.
MIKE
There must be a window open.
Will reads his mind, an upstairs window might be their only
chance to freedom.
WILL
C'mon.
Will leads the way upstairs.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 2ND FLOOR
The children, petrified, slide up the stairs as silently as
possible, trying not to disturb the watching crows. Or alert
whatever else is there. The stairs creak and snap loudly.
They get to a 2nd floor hallway, the wind from an open window
blowing trash around. Will looks around...
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 2ND FLOOR BEDROOM
He beckons them into a bedroom with AN OPEN WINDOW. They
step over a moldy bare mattress shoved against the wall.
Beverly is the first one out the window, then Stan, then
Richie, then Ben. Ben looks back and sees Eddie standing by
the doorway to the hallway.
BEN
Eddie, what are you doing?
Eddie turns towards them, realizes he must have lost
consciousness for a second, doesn't understand why he was
standing there. He walks towards the window when
THE FLOOR GIVES WAY and he tumbles down to the first floor.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 1ST FLOOR, KITCHEN
If the house weren't spooky enough, this room is the
spookiest. A bunch of furniture is gathered in the middle of
the room covered in sheets. A dusty old refrigerator stands
in the corner. Dust everywhere begins to clear from Eddie's
fall. He is knocked out. His arm is clearly broken.
85.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 2ND FLOOR
Will, Mike, and Ben rush back into the house.
WILL
Eddie!
Will runs around the gaping hole in the floor and tries to
run down the stairs when...
THE FLOCK OF CROWS ATTACK
Will covers his eyes as the birds prevent him from going
down. Mike and Ben shore themselves behind him.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 2ND FLOOR BEDROOM
The other kids scream from the window.
BEVERLY
What's happening?!
RICHIE
Whatever it is, we don't want to go
back in there.
BEVERLY
We have to do something.
She looks around.
BEVERLY (CONT'D)
Follow me!
Beverly leads Richie and Stan down to the edge of the roof.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 2ND FLOOR
Will, Mike, and Ben are being pelted by the birds still.
They retreat back into the bedroom and shut the door.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 1ST FLOOR, KITCHEN
Eddie, coming back to consciousness, looks around the room.
He moans in pain.
EDDIE
Guys?
From the hole above, Will and Ben appear.
86.
WILL
Eddie.
Realizing he is alone.
EDDIE
Get me out of here.
WILL
We tried, we can't get down stairs.
EDDIE
What do you mean you can't get down
stairs?
Eddie looks around the creepy room at the sheets. Something
horrible could be under any one of them.
WILL
Do you see anything you could use
to climb out?
EDDIE
I- I think I broke my arm.
He holds it up and the lower part of his arm hangs
irregularly. Behind him the old refrigerator SHAKES,
SOMETHING INSIDE.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 2ND FLOOR BEDROOM - NIGHT
It's 15 feet sheer drop above the dilapidated pier. Richie
is too scared to jump.
BEVERLY
I don't know, Richie.
RICHIE
You gotta a better idea?
Glass breaks and CROWS STORM OUT OF A WINDOW behind them.
Startled, they all lose their footing and fall, crashing down
onto a pile of rope below.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 1ST FLOOR, KITCHEN
Eddie looks to the shaking fridge. Blood oozes out of it and
starts to cover the floor, inching towards him. Eddie backs
away, horrified.
EDDIE
No. No no no. Will? Help me!
87.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 2ND FLOOR BEDROOM
Will sees the blood, looks to Ben and Mike.
WILL
What do we do?
BEN
We can't leave him alone down
there.
Mike looks at the old moldy mattress.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 1ST FLOOR, KITCHEN
Eddie hops onto a rocking chair as the whole floor is coated
with BLOOD.
EDDIE
Hurry, guys!
The fridge door starts to YAWN OPEN. Eddie curls in a ball
and closes his eyes.
EDDIE (CONT'D)
This isn't happening. This isn't
happening.
Inside is Pennywise, all curled up. He unfurls himself like
a coiled snake, holding a balloon on a string. It drags him,
floating just above the bloody floor, across the room toward
Eddie.
PENNYWISE
Open your eyes Eddie-bear. I
brought you some cracker-jack.
EDDIE
Go away!
PENNYWISE
Away? But I just got here? And
we're gonna have soooooo much fun,
you and me. Now open those
peepers.
EDDIE
No.
PENNYWISE
Kee-mon Eddie Bear. Don'cha wanna
see the show? You're the main
event.
88.
Eddie does. Pennywise is over him now, his teeth like razors,
his clawed hands reaching out for Eddie's neck.
PENNYWISE (CONT'D)
You all taste soooooooo much better
when you're afraid.
Eddie screeeeeeeeeams!
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, 2ND FLOOR
Mike lifts up the mattress and sees a decomposed corpse of
some child underneath it. He screams, falling backwards
towards Will and Ben.
INT. NEIBOLT STREET HOUSE, KITCHEN
SUDDENLY ALL THREE OF THEM
Fall onto Pennywise, smacking into the floor, blood
splattering the walls, impact cushioned by Pennywise's body.
They instantly fall to the side.
Will, Mike and Ben look over to see what broke their fall- a
just as startled Pennywise, writhing in anger.
WILL
Ah, fuck!
Eddie scurries away from Pennywise, who bares his fangs at
Will.
CRASH!
Just then the board from the window rips off to Richie, Stan
and Beverly.
She fires a bottle rocket at Pennywise's face, exploding
right into his eye. The clown reels back howling.
Richie and Ben jump in and grab Eddie.
Pennywise pulls the rocket out of his burned socket and
growls at the boys, morphing into an ORANGE GAS that shoots
back into the fridge.
Eddie, Ben and Richie climb to safety through the window,
while Will watches from the window frame Pennywise's escape.
89.
EXT. EDDIE KASPBRAK'S HOUSE - NIGHT
The kids BANG on Mrs. Kaspbrak's door. She opens it, sees his
broken arm and freaks.
EXT. EDDIE KASPBRAK'S HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER
Mrs. Kaspbrak is placing Eddie in the front seat of their
family car. He is delirious with pain.
MRS. KASPBRAK
You! You all did this!
She slams the door shut, hurting Eddie on the inside. The
kids are all too spooked to talk coherently.
MRS. KASPBRAK (CONT'D)
You know how delicate he is!
RICHIE
We were attacked, Mrs. K. Travis
BOWERS AND--
MRS. KASPBRAK
Stop it! Just stop it! If it
weren't for you boys and that
little tramp they'd have nothing
against my Eddie-bear... Ohh, where
are my keys?
She's nearly in tears searching her purse. She dumps it out
on the ground, prescription bottles, used kleenex's, food,
deflated balloons. Gets on her knees and picks through it.
MRS. KASPBRAK (CONT'D)
Eddie's done with you kids, you
hear?
She gets up when she finds the car key, speaking with such
vitriolic focus, she seems possessed.
MRS. KASPBRAK (CONT'D)
Don't come around here again, you
don't deserve him. You're reckless,
churlish little boys.
(TO WILL)
This is why your little brother
died, William, because you are a
LOSER, a reckless reckless reckless
loser. God help me if I were one
of your parents.
90.
She gets in the car and screeches away towards the hospital.
They ALL watch the car disappear down the street.
RICHIE
Well, that went well.
BEN
Guys, I hate to pile on bad news.
Ben noses up to the window, Mrs. Kaspbrack's TV set flashing
in the dark. They all nose up, see what Ben sees.
STAN
No.
ON THE LOCAL NEWS: Chief Borton and Officer Bowers pose in
front of camera with THE ONE-ARMED OLD MAN in the U.S.S.
Indianapolis hat in handcuffs. Caption under them reads:
"CHILD SERIAL KILLER APPREHENDED BY LOCAL POLICE. DERRY
CITIZENRY BREATHS A SIGH OF RELIEF."
BEVERLY
That can't be true. We just saw
"IT."
Mike just shakes his head.
MIKE
This is all crazy. Who are you
guys anyway?
BEN
The only losers in town-
WILL
Who know what's going on.
RICHIE
Welcome to the club, kid.
They half-heartedly pat Mike on the back.
CUT TO:
TITLE CARD OVER THE LAST SLIVER OF LIGHT BEYOND DERRY'S
MOUNTAIN RANGE.
91.
AUGUST
Tilt down to the OVERHEAD shot of what we expect to be "Derry
1988", but instead we see forests, logging trails, a
hardscrabble 19th century downtown, and a LOG CABIN SALOON
squatting on the edge of the swollen Kenduskeag canal. Smoke
billows from its chimney, day drawing down to a misty dark.
EXT. SILVER DOLLAR SALOON - CONTINUOUS
Follow from behind, a MAN in a lumberjack's jacket walking
through the muddy, waterlogged street, a double-bited ax
slung over his shoulder.
A WOMAN pleads with the Sheriff on the side of the street.
WOMAN
He didn't run away, sir! He's just
a child, missing now for more than
three days!
She sees the MAN.
WOMAN (CONT'D)
(TO MAN)
Have you seen my baby, Claude?
He's been gone near...
Claude ignores the woman...
CHRYON:
1879
And walks into the saloon, "SILVER DOLLAR" carved deep and
poorly into the wood over the door.
INT. SILVER DOLLAR SALOON - NIGHT
Dozens of loggers are bellied up at the bar, drinking beers,
spitting chew on the sawdust covered floor. The man with the
ax, CLAUDE HEROUX, elbows himself a place at the bar and
throws down a TWO DOLLAR BILL.
92.
The bartender brings Heroux a schooner of beer, one
hardboiled egg in a bowl, a shaker of salt and some change.
Heroux salts the egg and the beer, his piercing eyes stuck on
A CARD GAME AT A TABLE OF 5 MEN IN BACK
He devours the egg, downs the beer, then lets out a belch.
The man next to him gives a friendly nod. Heroux doesn't
respond. He kicks back from the bar, dragging his ax behind.
Heroux walks past a piano being played, whispers something
into the players ear, then throws the change from his meal --
$1.85 -- onto the piano top. The piano player tips his hat
and changes tune to something more festive, manic almost.
Heroux continues into the back, walking like a man in a half
dream.
At the table, EL KATOOK deals out a hand to a group of
railroad bulls -- TINKER MCCUTCHEON, FLOYD CALDERWOOD,
"STUGLEY" GRENIER, and EDDIE KING, a bearded man whose
spectacles are almost as fat as his gut.
FLOYD CALDERWOOD
You sitting in Claude?
Floyd reaches out to grab his hand when...
THUNK!
Heroux's ax falls, chopping of Floyd's hand at the wrist.
Floyd recoils back shrieking, blood spurting from the stump,
his severed hand remaining on the table.
At the bar somebody calls for more beer. The bartender takes
a casual look back just in time to see...
Heroux bury his ax in Tinker McCutchoen's head. The big man
tries to get up, blood pouring down his face, then sits back
down again. A second chop finishes him.
Floyd, writhing under the table, gropes for his hand on the
table above it. Heroux chops his other hand off, Floyd
screams even louder.
Laughter from the bar as patrons rub the bartender's bald
head for luck. The piano playing only gets more giddy and
festive, then we see who's playing it:
PENNYWISE, fingers dancing across the keys like a virtuoso.
Heroux turns to Ed Katook, who struggles to pull his clutch
pistol from its shoulder holster. He slings the ax sideways
just as Katook gets the pistol out, burying it in his back.
93.
CRACK!
A shot goes off. But at the bar, conversation between two
loggers turns to the weather. This winter will be a jeezer.
Fat Eddie King falls to the floor trying to crab away from
the table. Heroux, bloody ax dragging on the floor, comes
over to the fat man who pleads.
EDDIE KING
Please Claude, I just got married
last month.
The ax comes down into Eddie's ample gut. Blood sprays all
the way up to the Dollar's beamed roof.
Men at the bar laugh and eat their boiled eggs, dully aware
of the gorefest behind them.
Heroux pulls the ax out of his gut like you would a softwood
tree, rocking it back and forth. It finally comes free and he
brings it down again.
THWAP!
Eddie's severed head goes rolling over toward the bar, right
to the foot of a drunk, who without breaking his call for
another drink, kicks it away.
In back, Heroux turns to the last man cowering in the corner:
Stugley Grenier. He takes a swing and Stugley ducks it, ax
splintering the floor.
Stugley scrambles into the OUTHOUSE and closes the door
behind. Heroux, now totally slicked with blood, stalks over
and begins chopping his way in.
He finds the windowless room empty. A sound comes from deep
in the pooping hole. He looks down just in time to see...
Stugley's boots disappear through the pool of shit and piss.
Heroux steps out of the outhouse into the carnage of the back
room. Exhausted and bloody from tip to toe, he takes a seat
at the card table, props his ax next to him, and starts
drinking what's left of the slaughtered men's beers.
No one in the saloon seems to pay much mind to this. No one
except Pennywise at the piano, who takes great pleasure in
the scene and the ditty he's playing, a greasy white smile on
his giddy, evil face...
94.
INT. BEN'S HOUSE, BEDROOM - DAY
The Loser's Club sits in front of Ben.
BEN
And that is the story of the Silver
Dollar Saloon.
They look horrified.
RICHIE
The point of telling us was?
Ben looks at Will.
WILL BEVERLY
I think it's pretty obvious. Derry's not just haunted,
it's cursed.
MIKE
Just like my pa was trying to warn
me the night I met you guys.
BEN
That clown, whatever "IT" is, has
been around Derry doing nasty
things for a long long time. The
Black Spot fire. The Bradley Gang
massacre. All the way back to the
first settlers who disappeared.
Richie holds up a dog-eared copy of "A History of Old Derry".
RICHIE STAN
I don't know, man. That Lumberjack.
FLAPJACK STORY--
RICHIE
Whatevs. It sounds like bunk to
me. Didn't the guy who wrote this
go insane or something?
WILL
Exactly. No one listened to him
like no one listens to us. And
unless we do something, "IT's"
never going to stop.
STAN
What do you mean, us, Will? We're
just kids.
95.
BEVERLY
We hurt it at Neibolt. That's
gotta mean something.
MIKE
Everything dies.
Richie looks at Mike, rolls his eyes.
WILL
We can kill it.
RICHIE
Okay Schwarzenegger twins, simmer
down. We can't even free Eddie from
"mom jail" let alone take down some
freaky shape-shifter with a mind-
meld on all the adults of Derry.
However, I do believe we could sell
this story to "Tales from the
crypt."
BEN STAN
No, no. This is far too I don't want to see "it"
whacked for "Tales." again. Ever.
WILL
I don't think that's a choice,
Stan. "IT" knows we know. We hurt
it. It's going to want to hurt us
back.
MIKE
It's only a matter of time one of
us is found half eaten in the
Barrens. Or worse.
This is too much for Stan. He grabs his backpack.
STAN
I need to study for my bar-mitzvah.
Stan goes. All the kids look to each other.
BEVERLY
He's just scared.
WILL
We're all scared. That's what it
feeds off of. I heard the clown
tell Eddie as much. Our only
defense is to stick together.
96.
RICHIE
Yeah well, the only time I've been
spooked is when I'm with you
jokers. I'm thinking I might be
safer at home. At least I know my
parents won't try to kill me.
Richie goes too, leaving just the four.
INT. WILL'S HOUSE, KITCHEN - DAY
Will enters the back door and grabs Stan's invitation for his
Bar-Mitzvah off the fridge:
HAROLD AND RUTH URIS
CORDIALLY INVITE YOU
TO
THE BAR-MITZVAH OF THEIR SON
STANLEY URIS
ON
SATURDAY, AUGUST 13TH, 1988
He hears fighting in the hallway.
SHARON
Put it back up there! Put it back
now!
ZACH
I just thought, someone else--
INT. WILL'S HOUSE, HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS
His mother stands in the way of his father who holds the
chest of Georgie's toys.
SHARON
I don't care about anyone else. I
care about Georgie. I care about my
little boy who's gone.
WILL
Hey.
They both startle and look at Will standing there.
ZACH
Willy, we need a minute--
WILL
Why? To scream at each other more?
97.
SHARON
This is between your father and me.
WILL
And Georgie right? You, dad, and
Georgie.
ZACH
Willy, stop.
WILL
No. You stop. I hate it. Tip toeing
around you guys like I don't exist.
Like I'm the one who died and the
only one who's still here is Ge--
SLAP!
His mother hits him hard. She instantly regrets it. She runs
down the stairs sobbing. Zach reaches out a comforting hand.
ZACH
You okay?
WILL
What do you care? At least she
heard me.
ZACH
SON--
WILL
I miss Georgie, too.
ZACH
We know.
WILL
Do you? Because it seems like
every adult in this town is blind
to what's really happening, blind
to what any of us kids are going
through.
Will shoulders past his father and runs out the door.
EXT. CORNER OF WITCHAM AND JACKSON - DAY
Will sits on the curb across from the storm drain that killed
Georgie. His eyes burn with anger. He stares into the dark
void, half expecting Pennywise's face to appear any moment.
98.
WILL
C'mon, clown. Show your ugly face!
I'll stick another firecracker in
it for Georgie. Blow your whole
stupid head off. Send you back to
wherever a creeper like you comes
from. Where are you!?
He listens for a response. Nothing. Just the bubbling sound
of water rushing through the sewer. Water. Something dawns
on Will.
EXT. OLD IRONWORKS - DAY
Will bikes up to the edge of the hulking old structure. He
clocks the river flowing just beyond.
Hundreds of black ravens, the same birds from Neibolt, watch
him from perches all along the skeletal structure.
EXT. BEVERLY'S HOUSE - DAY
Will sees Bev's mom leave for work, then bikes around back
where he clocks a tangle of pipes protruding from the back of
the building down into a MORLOCK HOLE marked Derry Sewer.
Mr. Marsh watches Bill from the window above.
EXT. BARRENS - DAY
Will tramps down to the spot where he found the shoe. He
looks back down the stream, water trickling out of the sewer
pipe into the Barrens. The water.
Something watches him from inside the cylinder of the pipe.
EXT. NEIBOLT STREET - DAY
Will bikes up to the mouth of the pier, the house suspended
over the canal, its imploded facade seeming to gape back at
Will like Munch's "The Scream." Water again. In Will's
mind, it all comes together.
99.
EXT. EDDIE KASPBRAK'S HOUSE - DAY
Eddie and his mom sit on the couch and watch soaps. Eddie
plays with a loose thread of his cast, twisting it in his
fingers, not a friend's signature anywhere.
KRSSSST
WILL (O.S.)
Eddie? Eddie you there?
His walkie crackles from a high shelf over the TV. Mrs.
Kaspbrack looks at her son, eyebrows raised.
MRS. KASPBRAK
I thought I took the batteries out
of that thing?
Eddie shakes his head, as if to say he didn't know. She
points for him to get it.
WILL (O.S.)
Eddie? I know where to find--
He grabs the walkie, holds it tenderly in his hands.
MRS. KASPBRAK
Turn it off.
He complies. BANG BANG BANG. They both look at the door.
INT. EDDIE KASPBRAK'S HOUSE, FRONT DOOR
Mrs. Kaspbrak angrily swings open the door. A surprised DR.
HANDOR, Eddie's general practitioner, is on the porch there.
MRS. KASPBRAK
Oh! Dr. Handor. You gave me a
fright.
She spots Will over his shoulder, straddling his bike in the
middle of the street.
MRS. KASPBRAK (CONT'D)
C'mon in.
They step inside. Will pockets his Walkie and goes.
INT. EDDIE KASPBRAK'S HOUSE, EDDIE'S BEDROOM - DAY
Dr. Handor checks Eddie's cast.
100.
DR. HANDOR
How you feeling, son? Any pain?
EDDIE
No. Feels fine I guess.
DR. HANDOR
Kept the cast pretty clean, I see.
Didn't you want any of your friends
to sign it?
EDDIE
I'm not allowed to see them.
DR. HANDOR
Why not?
EDDIE
My Mom thinks they're the reason I
got hurt. She says I'm sensitive
and they don't take care of me like
she does.
Dr. Handor wants to say something, but hesitates.
DR. HANDOR
She means your allergies? Is that
it?
EDDIE
Yeah. Mom says I should always
carry my Epi-pen with me, in case I
ever have an episode.
DR. HANDOR
Mother knows best. Is that it?
Eddie shrugs.
Dr. Handor smiles, considering his next thought. He leans in,
too close for comfort for Eddie. For a moment it's creepy.
DR. HANDOR (CONT'D)
Eddie, do you know what a placebo
is?
EXT. TRAVIS BOWER'S BACKYARD - DAY
A bottle of Southern Comfort sits on a log. BLAM!
Bowers shoots at it with his dad's police issue .45. Victor
and Snatch look on, giggling.
101.
He finally tags it, the bottle shattering into a thousand
pieces. They all whoop and holler.
SNATCH
Can I try?
He reaches for the gun. Bowers pushes him back.
TRAVIS
Sure. Go put the next target out
there.
Travis points to the cat that's lounging there in the grass.
SNATCH
You're foolin' right?
TRAVIS
Do I look like I'm foolin' numb
nuts?
Snatch grabs the kitty and runs out to the stump. He wipes
away the glass and sets the cat down. It starts to meow and
tries to get away.
SNATCH
It's not staying.
Bower lines up a shot, sight of the barrel on the cat.
TRAVIS
Hold it there, butt cheese.
OFFICER BOWERS (O.C.)
What the hell is this?
Officer Bowers steps from his police cruiser in the driveway.
His face as red as fire.
TRAVIS
Nothing, pa. Just cleaning your
gun like you asked.
OFFICER BOWERS
Cleaning my gun, huh?
He stalks up and grabs the gun from Travis. Smells it.
WHAP! He smacks Travis hard in the face, knocking the big boy
to the grass.
OFFICER BOWERS (CONT'D)
Normally I use a rod and cleaner
not bullets and whiskey.
(MORE)
102.
OFFICER BOWERS (CONT'D)
You two punks put your sticky
little fingers on my firearm here?
Victor and Snatch are too scared to talk.
VICTOR
N-N-No sir.
Butch turns the gun on Travis at his feet.
OFFICER BOWERS
You're not worth the salt you lick
boy. I don't know how I let you
squirm your way out your momma's
womb.
TRAVIS
Pa, I'm---
BLAM!
He shoots the ground around Travis feet. Travis squeals like
a girl, utterly terrified. BLAM! BLAM! A large wet stain
spreads around his crotch. Butch Bowers raises the pistol,
as if he were about to whip Travis, who falls to the ground.
Butch shakes his head.
OFFICER BOWERS
(to the boys)
Look at him now boys. Nothing like
a little fear to make a paper man
crumble.
(TO TRAVIS)
Clean your drawers `fore you come
inside.
He spits out his disgust, stalks inside.
Victor and Snatch tip-toe over to Travis, not knowing what to
say or do. Travis does everything he can not to cry.
VICTOR
You okay, Travis?
An odd wind stirs through the grass there, a yellow menacing
gathering of clouds overhead. Travis suddenly notices...
A BALLOON, bobbing over his mailbox, string connected to
something stuffed inside.
Travis pushes past his two cronies and goes over to the
mailbox. Inside he pulls out THE KNIFE. The one he lost at
the beginning. And attached to the string a note:
103.
TO: MR. TRAVIS BOWERS
FROM: MR. ROBERT GRAY
A murderous look screws onto Travis' face as he turns his
attention to his house. And his pa inside.
He snaps the string and starts toward the front door with the
knife. The balloon floats up into the darkening sky.
INT. CORONER'S OFFICE - DAY
A THUNDERCLAP outside. The coroner steps out the door. Will
and Mike slip in behind him, Will propping open the door with
his Walkie.
MIKE
Patrick was in one of the lockers.
All the water bubbled up from
there.
The drain. Will goes to it. Gazes down into the blackness.
WILL
The sewers.
MIKE
What?
WILL
"IT." Whenever it shows up,
there's always water around. The
storm drain where Georgie died.
The leak in my room. Beverly's
sink.
MIKE
My dad saw it near water, too. The
canal.
WILL
I'll bet if you trace every
terrible event in Derry you'll find
the same thing. Water. With the
Penobscot river on one side and
Kenduskeag canal cutting through
it's impossible to escape.
MIKE
Unless you live way out in the
sticks like I do. We have to tell
the others.
104.
Will realizes something.
WILL
Shit, Stan's bar mitzvah. I almost
forgot.
MIKE
I wasn't invited.
Will hands him his invite.
WILL
You are now. Let's go!
A pair of YELLOW EYES glow from the drain.
INT. BEVERLY'S APARTMENT - DAY
Beverly, all gussied up in a pretty white dress, heads for
the door. A hand snatches out from behind and seizes her arm.
MR. MARSH
Where you think you going girl?
BEVERLY
My friend's party. I told ma--
MR. MARSH
You're all prettied up. Who you all
prettied up for?
BEVERLY
No one.
He shoves her against the wall, eyes her little body up and
down. Caresses her hair.
MR. MARSH
Don't lie to me, Bevvie. You know
how I worry about you. I worry a
lot.
BEVERLY
I know daddy.
MR. MARSH
People in town seen you. Got to
sayin' things. Like how my little
girl been sneakin' around all
summer long with a pack of boys.
Only girl to the pack.
105.
BEVERLY
They're my friends, daddy.
He squeezes her cheeks with one hand, holding her head in
place.
MR. MARSH
You sure about that, Bevvie?
BEVERLY
I-- I swear. They're just friends.
MR. MARSH
Friends? I know what's in them
boys minds when they look at you,
Bevvie. I know all too well. They
want to do bad things. Did you let
them do bad things to you?
He looms over her. Something in his manner is detached. Like
he's there but isn't there.
BEVERLY
I'm a good girl daddy. Good, just
like you raised me.
MR. MARSH
Is that so? Then what's this?
He pulls out Ben's Haiku Poem.
BEVERLY
WHERE'D YOU--
MR. MARSH
You had it squirreled away in your
underwear drawer. Why would you
want to hide it with your underwear
Bevvie? What else are you holdin'
out from me.
BEVERLY
It's nothing, daddy. Just a poem.
MR. MARSH
(RECITING)
Your hair is winter fire,
JANUARY EMBERS
My heart burns there, too
He grabs her by the hair and pulls her up to him.
106.
MR. MARSH (CONT'D)
Sounds lusty to me. Who wrote it.
Which one of your boyfriends?
BEVERLY
I told you I don't have one.
MR. MARSH
Don't lie to me!
He drags her down the hall by the hair.
BEVERLY
Daddy stop. You're hurting me.
MR. MARSH
You're ma says you're a woman now.
You bled. What other womanly
things you been doing down in the
deep dark woods with those boys,
Bevvie.
He throws her into his bedroom.
BEVERLY
Nothing. Please, daddy. You don't
have to worry. I promise. Please!
MR. MARSH
Let's see then. Prove to me you
been good.
She doesn't know what he means.
MR. MARSH (CONT'D)
Take off your tights.
BEVERLY
What?
MR. MARSH
I love you Bevvie. You're special.
You're such a pretty girl. But
there's plenty of boys happy to
roon a pretty girl. Plenty of
pretty girls willing to be roont. I
need to know if you're intact.
He unbuckles his belt, but he doesn't look at her like he
wants to whip her, there's another hunger in his eyes.
MR. MARSH (CONT'D)
Your tights, girl. Take `em off.
107.
BEVERLY
Daddy, please.
He slides off his belt and grabs her, smiling, a smile that
feels all too reminiscent of a clown.
MR. MARSH
You'll like it, Bevvie. Be like
you're floating.
Bev kicks him in the balls. Her father lets go, crumpling
down. She knees him in the face as hard as she can, his head
flying back into the side of the door.
Beverly tries to race out the door but he snatches her ankle
and she trips into the hallway. By the time she is up he is
lunging towards her.
She stumbles back into the bathroom and shuts the door,
trying to lock herself inside. He kicks the door open before
the lock catches.
Without thinking Bev grabs the toilet top and smashes it in
her dad's face. He slumps down, unconscious.
She rushes out, then uses a chair propped against the knob to
shut him in the bathroom. Terrified she races out the front
door.
INT. EDDIE KASPBRAK'S HOUSE - DAY
Eddie stands in front of his mom, eyes blazing.
MRS. KASPBRAK
Placebo? Who told you that? Dr.
Handor? He has no right. No right
to say you're making up your
sickness.
EDDIE
Not me, momma... You.
MRS. KASPBRAK
What?
EDDIE
He said I was never allergic until
you made me start carrying around
my Epi-pen. You put those allergies
in my head.
108.
MRS. KASPBRAK
That's a lie, Eddie! A bold faced
lie. You're my treasure. The only
thing I want in this world is to
see you safe and healthy.
EDDIE
Then why did you send my friends
away?
She starts to feel the fluttery bird of panic.
MRS. KASPBRAK
They were bad boys. You know that.
And you... You were so sick when
you were little. So very sick. It
hurt me so much. I never want to
see you go through that again. And
I've kept you healthy, haven't I?
EDDIE
You lied to me mamma. You've been
giving me medicine that's not
really medicine.
MRS. KASPBRAK
Eddie-bear, please--
EDDIE
This is what's going to happen now.
He pulls out his Epi-pen and throws it in the trash. Mrs.
Kaspbrak gasps.
EDDIE (CONT'D)
I'm going out that door and you
won't stop me. I'm going to my
friend Stan's bar-mitzvah and when
I come home you're never going to
tell how weak or sick or delicate I
am ever again.
THUNDER crackles outside.
EXT. DERRY STREETS - DAY
Will and Mike tear through the howling rain on their bikes.
They almost collide into Beverly who comes dashing around a
corner.
WILL
Bev. You okay?
109.
BEVERLY
No. No I'm not.
She looks back over her shoulder, terrified and wet and
shivering.
MIKE
What happened. Bowers?
BEVERLY
No. My daddy. He... he...
WILL
What? What did he do Beverly?
She looks at both of them, tears running down her face, her
pretty dress soaked in the rain.
BEVERLY
I don't know. I don't know if it
was him, or...
MIKE
What?
BEVERLY
I think "IT" was there, controlling
him, I don't know, I can't go back,
I can't go back, Will. I don't know
WHAT-
She starts to cry on Will's shoulder. Will looks at Mike.
They both look up at the convulsive yellow sky. SOMETHING
BIG is about to happen and they both know it.
INT. SYNAGOGUE - DAY
With torrential downpour outside, leaking water drips from
the ceiling onto the crowd below, who have cheerfully
employed umbrellas indoor to deal with the nuisance.
Stan is giving a nervous, but otherwise successful reading of
the Torah, despite the howling wind and end of days vibe.
Richie and Ben sit in the back in their little jackets.
BEN
This storm is crazy. Like the
sky's gonna fall.
SLAM! Everyone looks back towards the door, blown open by
the wind, and at Eddie, who sheepishly was trying to slip in.
110.
Stan smiles at his friend, pleased he's out of "mom jail."
The CANTOR gives him a nudge and continues reading.
Eddie slides in meekly next to Richie and Ben, checking his
clip-on bowtie.
RICHIE
(through his teeth)
Way to make an entry, Eddie-bear.
BEN
How'd you escape?
EDDIE
Guess I'm not as weak as I thought.
INT. TRAVIS BOWER'S HOUSE - DAY
The front door creaks open, Victor and Snatch poking their
heads in, both soaked to the bone.
SNATCH
Travis?
VICTOR
Mr. Bowers?
Nothing. They see a streak of blood on the floor that leads
to the KITCHEN and Butch Bowers on the linoleum floor in a
red pool, stabbed dozens of times, the knife left in his eye.
SNATCH
Holy shit.
Victor vomits. The cat slips in and starts licking up the
blood.
SNATCH (CONT'D)
Travis, dude, you okay?
Snatch continues on into the LIVING ROOM where he finds
TRAVIS sitting in Butch's favorite Lazy-boy in front of the
TV, which is turned on to PENNYWISE THE CLOWN SHOW.
He holds the .45, All slicked in blood, his eyes glazed.
TRAVIS
It's my gun now.
He turns and looks at Snatch and Victor in the doorway.
111.
INT. SYNAGOGUE - DAY
The STORM GROWLS outside. Richie, Ben and Eddie look at each
other, a little on edge. Suddenly the doors crash open again
and Stan stops, once again, looking up...
Will, Bev, and Mike slink into the back of the synagogue,
soaking wet. The Rabbi's wife shoots them a look of daggers.
INT. SYNAGOGUE - DAY
The reading is over and the crowd starts to gather to leave
for the reception. Will, Bev, Ben, Richie, Eddie, and Mike
are all huddled together. Stan is the only one not there.
RICHIE
What do you mean your dad attacked
you?
BEVERLY
It was like that lumberjack Ben
told us about. The one from the
Silver Dollar. He had this look.
Like someone was pushing him to do
it.
WILL
Not someone. "IT".
Eddie, thinking about his mother.
EDDIE
You guys, if "IT" can take over
Beverly's parents, why not the rest
of ours?
BEVERLY
I can't go back there guys. He'll
kill me. Or worse.
This sinks in to everyone. There's only one thing they can
do.
MIKE
Will knows where to find "IT."
EDDIE
What do you mean?
WILL
The sewers. Me and Mike figured it
out. That's how it gets around.
That's where it lives.
112.
RICHIE
Whoa whoa whoa. You don't really
MEAN--
BEN
If it means protecting Beverly,
count me in.
Beverly looks at Ben, consistently impressed by his defense
of her.
EDDIE
Wait, count you in to what?
WILL
The sewers. We go in. All of us.
RICHIE
And friggin do what? In this
storm?
Water is actively dripping on them.
WILL
Get rid of "IT" before "IT" gets
rid of us, one by one. It doesn't
know what to do when all of us are
together, you have to believe me.
INT./EXT. SYNAGOGUE - DAY
Stan shakes hands with his aunts and uncles near the front
door. The wind whips up the women's dresses and unhinges
umbrellas. Will and the gang run to him and whisk him out.
STAN
Hey guys. How'd I do?
RICHIE
I hope your schlong grew those 12
inches cuz you're gonna need it.
STAN
What do you mean?
WILL
C'mon!
The storm picks up force, wind blowing umbrellas inside out
and from the hands of guests trudging back to the parking
lot. One goes tumbling across the gardens and into...
THE BLACK BOILING RIVER and sinks into the dark water.
113.
INT. ZACH DENBROUGH'S WORKSHOP - DAY
Will and the gang arrive like their own hurricane in the dark
cellar workshop. Whipping around the room and picking up
objects, Will unfurls a map on his dad's work table.
The other kids stock up on whatever armor or weapons they can
find -- crossbow, hockey pads, a hubcap as shield, a
sledgehammer, a hockey stick shaved into a stake, satchel
full of car flares, hairspray. Stan is still processing
what's going on. Mixed with their formal wear for the event,
they look mildly ridiculous.
STAN
Hold on. How are we-?
Richie hands Stan a chainsaw.
RICHIE
Happy bar mitzvah, Jason. Bet you
didn't put this sucker on your gift
list.
Someone pounds at the door.
ZACH (O.S.)
Will, what are you doing in there?
Open up.
Everyone looks to Will. He folds up the map into a backpack.
WILL
We need to protect each other Stan.
The seven of us is all we have.
Together "IT" can't hurt us. I
promise.
STAN
How do you know?
More knocking.
ZACH (O.S.)
Willy, now! We need to talk.
Will steps up to Stan.
WILL
I have faith. Just like you.
Stan looks to the others, everyone scared but ready for
battle. Stans steels himself, owning up his chainsaw. The
door shakes with Zach behind it.
114.
ZACH
Damn it, Will!
Will opens the back window and the kids slip out.
EXT. OLD IRONWORKS - DAY
The losers -- ALL 7 OF THEM -- stand on the threshold of the
Old Ironworks cellar hold, the very same one PATRICK
HOCKSTETTLER died in... a yawning chasm of mud, pools of
water and hulking, shattered old boilers.
The rain and wind howls, lightning cracking overhead. Will
points to a huge SEWER PIPE that juts out of the muck.
WILL
(YELLING)
This is our only way into Derry's
original sewer system before it was
sealed off and modernized.
BLING!
A bullet sparks off a iron post next to Will's head.
Travis, Snatch and Victor stand at the crest of the road
leading to the factory. Travis has his dad's gun, aimed like
Dirty Harry at them. He pops off another round, BLANG-PING.
BEN
Oh, fuck!
Will grabs Bev's hand, who grabs Ben's who grab's Eddie's and
on down the line. They follow Will around the cellar hold to
a giant conveyor belt toppled against the edge. They scale
down it into the chasm, bullets pinging around them.
CLICK CLICK CLICK. Travis runs out of ammo. He throws the
gun away and pulls out the bloody knife.
VICTOR
Man, this is where Patrick
Hockstettler went missing.
SNATCH
No way I'm going down there.
Travis glares at Snatch, PENNYWISE appearing near the boy in
a flash of lightning.
Travis lunges with the knife and plunges it into Snatch's
tummy. Victor watches in horror.
115.
TRAVIS
(TO VICTOR)
Still have second thoughts?
Victor shakes his head no. Snatch stumbles back and plunges
into the darkness of the cellar hold...
INT. CELLAR HOLD - SAME
SMACK! Snatch's lifeless body slams into the muck right in
front of Will and the others.
EDDIE
Oh my God oh my God!
WILL
Don't look back!
They dart into the blackness of the huge, rusty pipe.
Travis turns back to Victor, a dull craze in his eyes. He
gestures to the conveyor the kids climbed down.
TRAVIS
After you.
INT. SEWER TUNNELS - DAY
The losers follow Will, who uses his dad's map to lead them
deeper and deeper into the sewers which roar and chime with
rushing water. They turn a corner and come to...
A DEAD END
The stream of water seems to disappear under the stone wall
there. Everyone is terrified.
BEVERLY
Now what?
STAN
Uh, guys?
He shines his light on something in the corner...
WILL
There's suppose to be a tunnel
here. The last tunnel that's shown
on the map.
It's a SHOE. Eddie comes over it.
116.
EDDIE
Dorsey's other shoe.
Stan sweeps his flashlight up the wall. What he finds makes
Richie spring back.
RICHIE
Uh, guys!
Scrawled in blood on the stones is a warning:
STOP NOW OR I'LL KILL YOU ALL!
WORD TO THE WISE FROM PENNYWISE
MIKE
Pennywise?
BEN
Shit, "IT" has a name.
Footsteps echo from behind them.
WILL
Keep moving!
Stan finds a loose stone.
STAN
Here. Will, over here.
They all kick at the stones, which give way to...
INT. SEWER TUNNELS - DAY
Travis and Victor race down the tunnels after them. They
turn the corner and come to the dead end, a pile of stones
kicked out from a BLACK HOLE. Travis kneels down and looks
into it. He can see Will and the gang's FLASHLIGHTS...
TRAVIS
I seeeeeeeeeee yooooooouuuu losers!
INT. BLACK HOLE - DAY
Will and the others slosh on their hands and knees down the
hole, with roots and bursting through its stone ribs.
It grows narrower and narrower to the point of complete and
utter claustrophobia. Mike looks back past Ben and sees...
Two shadowy figures crawling toward them.
117.
MIKE
Hurry!
Will, leading them, comes to a SMALL CORKSCREW in a tangle of
roots blocking them they all have to wrench their way around.
Ben, the last of the group, GETS STUCK.
BEN
No no no no no! Guys!
Travis bears down, his knife clenched in his teeth.
TRAVIS
I'm gonna carve you up, tits. I'm
going to stick this blade right up
your asshole and split you in two.
Feed your ass fat to the friggin'
pigs.
He starts squealing like a pig. Ben is freaked. Two pair of
hands grab Ben's arms and yank hard. He wrenches through the
corkscrew and stumbles out into...
INT. MEMBRANOUS CHAMBER - DAY
A thin membrane floats over gelatinous water, very delicate,
almost skin like. Underneath, thousands of spiders swim, nest
and writhe. He can actually feel their legs push against the
underside of the layer.
BEN
Oh my God oh my God oh my God.
WILL
Don't jiggle it too much, whatever
you do.
MIKE
We don't want it to tear.
Ben freezes, the spiders knowing he's there and gathering
under his butt. Bev, Stan, Eddie and Mike look on from solid
ground on the other side of the membrane.
BEVERLY
Take off your shoes. You'll be
fine. Just move real real slow.
Ben, Mike and Will take off their sneaks and crawl across the
membrane with great care. SPIDERS GATHER wherever they press
a knee or hand, the whole thing sloshing like a water bed.
118.
INT. BLACK HOLE - DAY
Travis and Victor get to the corkscrew pass. There's no way
Travis, huge compared to the other kids, will fit through.
TRAVIS
No! No no no no! Fuck!
VICTOR
We'll never fit. We've gotta go
back.
Travis grabs Victor by the scruff of the neck. A crooked,
bloodthirsty look flashes across his ugly face.
TRAVIS
I need to hear them squeal. Now
you'll fit.
He puts the knife into Victor's hand and points to keep
going. For a split second Victor thinks about stabbing him,
but he's too scared. He squeezes his rangy frame through the
roots into...
INT. MEMBRANOUS CHAMBER - DAY
Victor flops out onto the membrane just as Ben, Will and Mike
join the others on firm ground.
EDDIE
Hurry.
Victor sees them. He's freaked.
VICTOR
No. Guys. Wait! Please! Travis
has gone insane. I'm not trying to
hurt you, just...
Now noticing the room he is in, realizing the danger.
VICTOR (CONT'D)
Take me with you!
Everyone looks to Will, who sees something on the membrane
that gives him pause.
WILL
Victor.
Will is pointing. Beverly follows his eyes to the knife in
Victor's hand, which has PUNCTURED THE MEMBRANE.
119.
BEVERLY
OH NO-
Spiders spill out onto it's surface.
VICTOR
Oh god oh god!
He freaks, spiders jumping on him, his motion only ripping
the membrane more. It finally tears and Victor plunges
beneath the membrane, spiders devouring him, Victor screaming
in agony as they fill his mouth.
Horrified, Will and the others run for their lives.
INT. BLACK HOLE - DAY
Travis hears the screaming, enjoying it.
TRAVIS
Good. That's good, Vic. Kill `em.
Kill `em all!
Suddenly spiders start spilling out from behind the roots of
the corkscrew. Travis screams, and kicks them away. But
more come. Freaked, he retreats back to the sewer tunnels.
INT. IT'S CAVERN - DAY
Will, Ben, Bev, Mike, Eddie, Stan and Richie stumble from the
dark into a massive, soaring, subterranean Pantheon-like
hall, sewer water streaming past their feet...
In the center of the floor is a massive OCULUS, open to what
appears to be the edge of INFINITE SPACE. The water from the
sewers flows down into seven channels around this opening,
ending at...
SEVEN WATERFALLS THAT FALL UPWARDS into a reflecting pool
that covers much of the ceiling, surrounding a stone island
with a CRYPT TYPE STRUCTURE.
The whole cavern seems to be lit from within, a sickly,
pulsing ambient light coming from everywhere and nowhere.
RICHIE
Something tells me we're not in
Derry anymore.
BEN
You think?
120.
Will heads toward the edge of the oculus, where the
waterfalls stream up.
EDDIE
Don't get too close to the edge,
Will.
MIKE
It's up there isn't it? That's
where "IT" sleeps.
Pointing at the reflecting pool.
STAN
You mean Pennywise.
WILL
It doesn't matter what it calls
itself. What matters is it's
afraid to show us what it really
is. Which means we can beat it.
Will sees Beverly over by one of the waterfalls.
BEVERLY
Guess I'm going first again?
WILL
Beverly, wait-!
She jumps into the waterfall and it sweeps her up up up to
the ceiling.
Will and the boys swap holy shit looks. Ben jumps in after
her, then Will, Mike, and Stan.
Richie looks to Eddie, who has the same terrified look as at
the quarry. He holds out his hand.
RICHIE
You still afraid of a little grey
water?
EDDIE
You still wear diapers at night?
Eddie grabs Richie's hand and they jump into the waterfall
together. They are swept up up up into...
121.
INT. THE REFLECTING POOL ON THE CEILING - CONTINUOUS
Plunging into the pool with the others. For a moment they
all flap and kick under water, unsure which way is up, then
Bev grabs them both and pulls them to the surface.
They're upside down now, the oculus opening to space below
them, gravity seeming to work by its own rules in here..
WILL
We all here?
Richie looks back where they just "fell" from.
RICHIE
Mind equals blown right now.
The camera flips around and THE WORLD RIGHTS ITSELF, the
oculus now above. The pool, which seemed small before, is
now enormous -- like a dark, brooding lake -- the crypt
island very far from them.
MIKE
This is nothing like what it looked
like from below.
EDDIE
It's in our head. All the stuff we
see. It's like the allergies my
mom said I had. We make it real.
STAN
We do. Or IT?
WILL
Guys, the island. Let's swim.
They splash toward the crypt island. Ben is the first to
feel something brush past his leg. A replay of the quarry.
BEN
Not funny, Richie.
He looks back and sees no one. Richie is a couple of lengths
to his left.
RICHIE
What?
Ben suddenly realizes. Bev also feels something on her foot.
BEVERLY
The water. There's something in
the water with us.
122.
Suddenly a WORMY TENTACLE extends from the water behind Mike.
Will sees it and whacks it away with his baseball bat.
WILL
Hurry!
The kids hustle it freestyle across the pool for the island.
WE PULL BACK WIDE TO SEE a monstrously big, faintly outlined
starfish-like creature with an orange glowing eye, lurking in
the depths of the reflecting pool.
Will, then Bev, then Richie dodge a tentacle and all get to
the island. Stan is not far behind, with Mike, Eddie and Ben
taking the rear, swatting back more tentacles.
From under Stan the ORANGE EYE APPEARS, the dark water around
him suddenly aglow. He looks down into it and it becomes
clear the eye is really a mouth, and the orange is coming
from deep inside its bowels -- THE DEADLIGHTS.
Stan looks directly into them and is mesmerized, so much so
that he stops swimming.
WILL (CONT'D)
Stan what are you doing!
Paralyzed, Stan starts to sink toward the deadlights when
Mike, shielding his eyes, grabs Stan and swims him back to
the surface.
All the kids give cover with their weapons -- shooting
flares, swinging the sledgehammer, impaling with the stake,
using the hubcap as a shield -- so that Mike, helped by Ben
and Eddie, can drag Stan onto the island.
EDDIE BEVERLY
Stan? Stan, are you okay? Stan!
He stares blankly ahead, as if his mind was wiped blank.
WILL (CONT'D)
Stan, it's us. You in there buddy?
Another tentacle squirms out of the water toward them. Ben
shoots it with a crossbow. It goes slithering back in.
BEN
Guys. I don't think this is the
best place to hang out right now.
EDDIE
Stanley, snap out of it.
123.
Stan blinks conscious. He looks at them all.
STAN
Where am I?
RICHIE
The worst and only bar mitzvah
party you will ever have.
They help Stan to his feet. Mike looks back over his shoulder
for the monster.
MIKE
Guys, the water thing. IT's gone.
Indeed, the reflecting pool is placid as ice.
Will looks back to the crypt, an obsidian stone heptagon-
shaped structure the size of one of Mike's killing pens.
WILL
Maybe. Or just changing into
something else.
EDDIE
What do you mean?
WILL
It's using our fears against us.
It wants us to be afraid.
EDDIE
Because we'll taste better.
RICHIE
And that's supposed to rally us,
Will?
WILL
We have to stick together, to help
each other against that kind of
fear you only have when you're
alone. Alright?
They all nod and follow Will onto the structure, starry deep
space through the oculus visible over their shoulders. They
come to a child-sized TRAP DOOR with an ancient, cosmic
marking. The only way in or out.
WILL PUTS HIS HAND ON THE LATCH
WILL (CONT'D)
Ready?
124.
The kids steal themselves, weapons ready. Mike hammers a
clip into the stone and ties a rope to it. Nods all around.
WILL TURNS THE LATCH
The door creaks open. Nothing but pure blackness inside.
Mike throws down the rope. Will looks at Bev.
WILL (CONT'D)
My turn.
Will takes a breath, drops in...
INT. IT'S CRYPT - DAY
Will shimmies down about 5 feet of rope and lights a car
flare, illuminating the chamber in a blood red pall. The
walls inside are rough, like the surface of a meteor.
Directly under the trapdoor is a fountain like hole in the
floor open to the reflecting pool. Floating on the water is
GEORGIE'S PAPER BOAT
Pennywise emerges from the shadows behind Will, clinging to
the wall, joints all turned and wrong, like a spider.
PENNYWISE
Welcome to the circus, Willy.
SLAM!
The trapdoor slams shut and slices the rope. Will falls to
the floor, flare falling into the water. It dims but doesn't
go out.
It's near PITCH BLACK. Just Will and Pennywise. He can hear
his friends banging on the door, calling for him but can't
see anything.
There's scuffling all around him. Close. Will dives into
the water for the flare. Rises. Sweeps it around.
NOTHING.
WILL
I'm not afraid of you, clown.
PENNYWISE
Your brother wasn't afraid either.
A PAIR OF ORANGE EYES GLOW ABOVE HIM, IN THE DARK. Will
can't see him.
125.
PENNYWISE (CONT'D)
Not until I chewed his little
muscles up.
Will turns just in time for the eyes to recede into the
black. The pounding on the trap door has stopped.
WILL
Guys?
PENNYWISE LUNGES FROM THE CEILING
WILL (CONT'D)
Ahhhh!
Will drops his bag of flares and scrambles off, tripping over
the hole in the floor, leg sloshing in the pool.
Glimpses of Pennywise scuffling in the dark like a spider.
Will finds a corner, the flare running out of spark. He
waves it this way and that, illuminating the dark in front of
him. Swinging his baseball bat wildly at shadows.
WILL (CONT'D)
Come out from the dark then. Come
out from behind that stupid mask
and show me what you really are.
C'mon!
Will looks at the last light of his flare, waiting for the
end. He looks the bat in his clutch only to see it's morphed
into...
A BOY'S SEVERED ARM
He throws it away into the darkness. The flare goes out.
PITCH BLACK
PENNYWISE
Ooooh I'd love to, Will. I'd just
love to show you my deadlights.
Only you wouldn't understand. And
I need you to, Willy, I really
really need you to understand
what's going to happen to you.
What it means for a little kiddie
like you... to float.
A light seems to emanate from the pool underneath them,
illuminating the space, illuminating...
PENNYWISE, STANDING IN THE CORNER
126.
Will sees all of "IT" now. From his bare crusty feet to his
bald head. His claw-like hands and his emaciated acrobat-
like body. He floats just a few inches over the stone floor.
Will's eyes fall to the baseball bat half-way between them.
He lunges for it, Pennywise knocking it away. The clown
seizes his neck, smiles hungrily, bares his twisted fangs.
WILL
I'm sorry, Georgie.
Pennywise goes for a bite and...
THWACK
An arrow shoots through it's face. The injured clown recoils
away. Bev flops out from the reflecting pool, followed by
Ben, Richie, Stan, Eddie, and Mike.
BEVERLY
Break into our homes, we break into
yours.
Pennywise pulls the arrow from his bloody mouth.
BEN
Charge!
THE LOSERS ATTACK PENNYWISE WITH EVERYTHING THEY GOT
Mike with crow bar, Stan with chainsaw, Ben with a hub cap
shield and sledgehammer, Richie with his hockey stick stake,
Eddie with a nail gun. Will grabs his bat and joins them.
Pennywise tries to fend off this "Lord of the Flies"
rebellion, becoming bigger, fiercer, more grotesque, but the
kids are too much. Just when they have "IT" bleeding and
backed into a corner for the death blow...
PENNYWISE
Wait!
Will grabs Ben's sledgehammer. The creature that looks up at
them isn't Pennywise but... GEORGIE
PENNYWISE/GEORGIE
Please, Willy. Please don't hurt
me.
WILL
You're not Georgie.
127.
PENNYWISE/GEORGIE
I am. I'm in here, Willy. We all
are. This is the place we float.
BEVERLY
Will, it's a trick.
PENNYWISE/GEORGIE
It's not your fault Willy. Not
you're fault I'm stuck here. But
you're hurting us all.
MIKE
It's trying to get to you, Will.
Kill it. Kill it now.
WILL
No! I have to think.
PENNYWISE/GEORGIE
Mom and dad they should know. They
should know it's not your fault.
I'll tell `em. I'll tell `em as
long as you don't hurt us anymore.
Will is confused. This is the one thing he wanted to hear.
Beverly hands him his satchel with the car flares.
BEVERLY
Finish him, Will. For all of us.
For Georgie.
Will looks to the scared little boy on the ground.
RICHIE
I'm taking this fucker out.
WILL
No.
Will grabs his stake away. He turns to Georgie. Kneels
down. Takes his wet little head in his hands.
WILL (CONT'D)
I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't go
out there with you. I'm sorry I
was sick.
GEORGIE
It's okay, Willy. I know.
Everything'll be okay.
WILL DOES THE CALL BACK AND SOMETHING IN THE WAY GEORGIE
RESPONDS SNAPS WILL OUT OF HIS STUPOR. GEORGIE'S GONE
128.
WILL
Hairspray.
Bev sprays it through his lit flare. Torching Georgie.
GEORGIE
No! No Willy! Please!
GEORGIE REVERTS BACK TO PENNYWISE, screaming horribly and
lunging at the kids one last time. IT finally gives up,
slumping to the floor dead, a black charred clownish corpse.
Richie touches the remains and they deflates, almost as if a
balloon.
The trapdoor above them blows away, as if it were sucked off
by a cyclone, out of the oculus, and into what looks like the
stars of outer space.
EDDIE
Did we kill it?
Will isn't sure, he looks at the rest of them.
MIKE
You did it, Will.
Bev hugs him. Ben watches, enviously.
RICHIE
It's miller ti--
Suddenly the GRAVITY SPELL WEARS OFF and the kids all fall to
the ceiling of the stone crypt. Bev almost falls out into
space, caught by Ben just in time.
The water from the waterfalls and from the reflecting pool
all collapse back toward the floor, along with some of the
stones in the crypt around them, which begins to crumble.
At first the losers hang on, afraid to fall, but eventually
they lose grip and fall toward the oculus, which has begun to
fill up with the water from the falls and reflecting pool.
They all plunge safely into the new pool below, Will's foot
kicking out the bottom of it into outer space before being
pulled back by Stan.
WILL
We've got to get out of here.
129.
INT. DERRY SEWERS - DAY
The losers hurry their way out of the sewers, storm water
quickly rising around them. Will leads the way with a car
flare. They come to another dead-end grate.
RICHIE
Shit!
WILL
We'll get out. C'mon.
INT. ANOTHER PIPE - LATER
They continue to look for a way out, the water now up to
their chests. The losers look cold, lost, and in despair.
STAN
We're going to drown down here
aren't we?
EDDIE MIKE
I'm so cold. All this water. It's still
going to win.
WILL
No. I don't know--
BEN
We're dead. So dead.
BEVERLY
Guys, stop it. Focus.
Everyone turns to Bev. Their muse. Their light.
SHE TAKES EDDIE'S FACE IN HER HANDS
SHE TAKES STAN'S FACE IN HER HANDS
SHE TAKES RICHIE'S FACE IN HER HANDS
SHE TAKES MIKE'S FACE IN HER HANDS
SHE TAKES BEN'S FACE IN HER HANDS
SHE TAKES Will'S FACE IN HER HANDS
130.
EXT. PENOBSCOT RIVER - DAY
One by one the kids shoot out of a STORM PIPE into the
PENOBSCOT RIVER, just like Georgie's paper boat. They pop up
like tops, blinking owlishly against the daylight.
The sky is blue. The storm has passed.
EXT. RIVERBANK - DUSK
Will, Bev, Mike, Ben, Richie, Eddie and Stan slump soaked,
shivering, and exhausted on the embankment. Derry is in full
view across the river, a red ball setting behind it.
They gather themselves on the bank, breathing hard as the
adrenaline of survival courses through their veins.
RICHIE
Now can we celebrate?
BEVERLY
Will?
Stan sees an OBJECT GLITTER in the sunlight. He picks it up,
face sober and thoughtful -- an old GLASS COKE BOTTLE. He
takes it by the neck, shatters it against a rock, and
LOOKS TO WILL, NODDING
Will knows exactly what this means. He steps up to Stan, who
SLASHES Will'S PALM with the shard. One by one the others
approach, Stan slashing everyone's palms, does his own last.
WILL
Swear, guys. Swear if IT isn't
dead, if it ever returns, we'll
come back and fight it together.
They all clasp hands and lock eyes. A BLOOD OATH IS SWORN.
INT. TRAVIS BOWERS HOUSE - DUSK
Travis, hair now SHOCK WHITE, expression blank and broken,
sits in his chair in front of white fuzz of the TV. His
father's corpse is still on the floor, blood matted
everywhere. POUNDING ON THE FRONT DOOR.
131.
EXT. TRAVIS BOWERS HOUSE - NIGHT
Chief Borton and other Derry cops frog march Travis out of
the house in cuffs through a scene of POLICE, NEWS REPORTERS,
and a CORONER CARTING OUT A BODY BAG.
INT. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHT
Mike races past nurses and doctors, a swell of optimism
building with every stride. He turns the corner into...
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHT
Leroy's bed is empty. His mom is packing up his dad's things.
She looks up, tears in her eyes. Mike is devastated.
MIKE
But we beat It. We beat the
cancer.
MIKE'S MOM
What are you talking about?
MIKE
Derry. The clown. It.
Mike's mom takes him into her arms.
MIKE'S MOM
He's in a better place, Mikey. I
know it's hard to believe. But you
have to. Remember what your father
always said...
EXT. HANLON FARM - DAY (FLASHBACK)
Leroy shows Mike a baby lamb, freshly born from its mother's
womb.
LEROY
See son, everything has a cycle.
Just when you think the world
couldn't get any colder, something
good always grows.
INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHT
Mike holds his mother tight, remembering, tears rolling down
his cheeks. A PIANO BEGINS TO PLAY...
132.
EXT. WILL'S HOUSE - NIGHT
Fur Elise. Will recognizes it as he comes up the front walk.
It comes from INSIDE HIS HOUSE. He races inside, hopeful,
past a box of Georgie's toys left out on the sidewalk.
CUT TO:
TITLE CARD:
SEPTEMBER
EXT. WILL'S HOUSE - DAY
Zach and Sharon Denbrough pack the last of the camping gear
on top of the family Wagoneer.
ZACH
Load up!
Will stands at the curb with his gang -- Richie, Ben, Bev,
Eddie, Stan, and Mike. They hand him a present.
BEVERLY
We all pitched in.
EDDIE
Well Richie mostly.
RICHIE
I had to mow like five hundred
lawns. Stan smoked the clippings.
STAN BEN
What does that even mean? You gonna open it?
Will does. Inside is a VINTAGE PENTAX CAMERA.
MIKE
We hear Arcadia's pretty amazing
this time of year.
BEVERLY
Take some pictures for us.
WILL
Thanks.
133.
They have a group hug.
SHARON
Willy c'mon!
INT. WILL'S WAGONEER - MOVING - DAY
They pull out of the driveway, camera on Will's lap. Zach and
Sharon smile back affectionately from the front seat.
Will turns to see his friends wave bon voyage with their
SCARRED HANDS. A reminder of an oath to be kept.
EXT. WITCHAM & JACKSON STREET/SKY OVER IT - DAY
As Will drives off we RISE UP UP UP over the intersection
Georgie was killed, HIGH OVER DERRY, until we come to...
A floating RED BALLOON
It POPS!
|
