Scripts: Vertigo (12/Sep/1957) - part 5
EXT. BROCKLEBANK APTS. - (DAY) - LONG SHOT
The CAMERA is SHOOTING through the stone gateway across the
small courtyard toward the front door of the apartments. We
see Madeleine emerge. She is dressed completely different
from the night before. She makes her way down to the Jaguar
in the f.g. She gets in, starts up and swings the car round
toward the CAMERA. She passes out of the picture.
EXT. BROCKLEBANK APTS. - (DAY) - LONG SHOT
Across the street, we see Scottie's sedan pull out and also
approach the CAMERA. It too, passes out of the picture.
INT. SCOTTIE'S CAR - (DAY) - CLOSEUP
Scottie sitting at the wheel driving ahead. His eyes are
satisfied. They hold Madeleine's car in view.
EXT. SAN FRANCISCO STREET - (DAY) - LONG SHOT
We see the Jaguar ahead. It turns a left down another street.
It goes for a block and turns right. Then it turns left again,
than it turns right, then it turns left again.
INT. SCOTTIE'S CAR - (DAY) - CLOSEUP
Scottie looks a little dizzy with the constant turning. We
stay with him a little while and we can see from the scene
behind him, that we are still turning left and right.
EXT. SAN FRANCISCO STREET - (DAY) - LONG SHOT
The Jaguar speeds up. It's going down a street, not turning
any more. A few blocks off, we can see the Coit Tower coming
into view.
INT. SCOTTIE'S CAR - (DAY) - CLOSEUP
Scottie seem a little mystified now, as the direction in
which she is going.
EXT. SAN FRANCISCO STREET - (DAY) - LONG SHOT
The Jaguar turns right into a narrow curving street and
finally comes to a sudden stop ahead.
INT. SCOTTIE'S CAR - (DAY) - CLOSEUP
Scottie now wears a look of great astonishment, as he pulls
up hurriedly in the middle of the street.
EXT. SAN FRANCISCO STREET - (DAY) - SEMI-LONG SHOT
From his viewpoints, we see the reason for his astonishment.
Madeleine has alighted and is approaching, of all places,
toward his own red front door.
EXT. SAN FRANCISCO STREET - (DAY) - MEDIUM SHOT
Scottie pulls his car over to the curb and gets out. The
CAMERA PANS him down. He stops short just before he reaches
Madeleine, to see her take a letter from her handbag and put
it into his letter box. He moves up to her.
SCOTTIE
Is that for me?
Madeleine turns quickly, startled, and then sees who it is,
and smiles.
MADELEINE
Oh! Yes. Hello.
SCOTTIE
Good morning. I worried about you,
last night. You shouldn't have run
like that.
MADELEINE
(Embarrassed)
I... suddenly felt such a fool.
SCOTTIE
I wanted to drive you home. Are you
all right?
MADELEINE
(Flashing a smile)
Oh, yes. Fine. No after effects.
(Then, ruefully)
But as I remember now, that water
was cold, wasn't it?
(He nods. She looks
away)
What a terrible thing to do... and
you were so kind...
(With a gesture)
It's a formal thank-you letter. And
a great big apology.
SCOTTIE
You've nothing to apologize for.
MADELEINE
Oh, yes! The whole thing must have
been so embarrassing for you!
SCOTTIE
Not at all, I enjoyed --
And he stops short, now truly embarrassed, and she looks at
him with wide eyes, waiting for him to go on.
SCOTTIE
-- talking to you...
MADELEINE
(With small, contained
amusement)
I enjoyed talking to you.
An awkward pause. Scottie turns abruptly to the door, getting
out his key.
SCOTTIE
I'll get my mail...
He opens the door and bends down to pick up the letter. As
he is reaching for it, he turns his head and speaks almost
without thinking.
SCOTTIE
Would you like some coffee?
MADELEINE
(Quickly)
No! No, thank you!
She says it so impulsively, and with such young vehemence,
that they both start to laugh. He straightens up and opens
the letter.
MADELEINE
I couldn't mail it; I didn't know
your address. But I had a landmark.
I remembered Coit Tower and it led
me straight to you.
SCOTTIE
The first time I've been grateful
for Coit Tower.
He reads the letter as she watches him. He looks up.
SCOTTIE
I hope we will, too.
MADELEINE
What?
SCOTTIE
Meet again, sometime.
MADELEINE
We have.
They smile at one another, and there is a nice moment of
silent rapport. Then:
MADELEINE
Good-bye.
SCOTTIE
Good-bye.
She turns and goes to her car as he stands watching her, and
gets in behind the wheel.
SCOTTIE
(Suddenly walking)
Where are you going?
And he races to the car and leans in the window. She watches
him, open-mouthed, as he crosses the sidewalk. Then:
MADELEINE
I don't know.
SCOTTIE
Shopping?
MADELEINE
No.
SCOTTIE
Well... anywhere in particular?
MADELEINE
No, I Just thought I'd wander.
SCOTTIE
Ah.
(Then)
That's what I was going to do.
MADELEINE
Oh, yes, I forgot: It's your
occupation, isn't it?
And she waits with a small smile.
SCOTTIE
Don't you think it's sort of a waste
for the two of us to...
MADELEINE
Wander separately? Ah, but only one
is a wanderer. Two, together, are
always going somewhere.
SCOTTIE
No... no, I don't think that's
necessarily true.
And now he waits, hopefully.
MADELEINE
(With a smiling nod)
You left your door open.
He turns his head, startled and annoyed, than makes a dash
for the door. As he goes, he turns his head to call back to
her.
SCOTTIE
Don't move!
And he hurries on to the door. She watches him go, and we
are close on her face to see her genuine amusement, and then
the laughter fades a little, and a troubled look comes into
her eyes, a touch of concern.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. ALONG SKYLINE - (DAY) - LONG SHOT
The green Jaguar moving south.
INT. THE JAGUAR - (DAY)
Madeleine is at the wheel, her eyes intent on the road, a
sort, happy smile on her lips. Scottie is at her side,
relaxed. He keeps looking at her as often as he can without
seeming obvious.
SCOTTIE
(Finally)
Do you know where you're going?
MADELEINE
Of course not! I'm a wanderer!
(Pause. Then brightly)
I'd like to go somewhere I've never
been!
SCOTTIE
How can you be sure?
MADELEINE
If I've been there? That's silly!
Either you've been to a place or you
haven't.
She flashes a quick smile of innocence at him, then returns
her eyes to the road. He looks at her profile, wondering.
EXT. SKYLINE DRIVE - (DAY) - HIGH SHOT
The car turns a bend and approaches dark woods and moves
into the blackness and is swallowed up.
DISSOLVE TO:
BIG BASIN REDWOODS STATE PARK - (DAY)
The empty Jaguar in the foreground. The CAMERA MOVES to a
long view of the grove of redwoods. In the distance we see
the figures of Madeleine and Scottie wandering among the
towering trees.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. THE REDWOODS - (DAY)
Madeleine and Scottie near the massive trunk of a tree.
Beyond them, the small stream, bridged by a wide flattened
redwood log.
MADELEINE
How old?
SCOTTIE
Oh... some, two thousand years, or
more.
MADELEINE
The oldest living things?
Scottie nods and watches her, wondering, as she looks about
thoughtfully.
SCOTTIE
You've never been here before.
She shakes her head, lost in thought as she lets her gaze
wander among the trees.
SCOTTIE
What are you thinking?
MADELEINE
(Searching)
Of all the people who have been
born... and have died... while the
trees went on living.
SCOTTIE
(Agreeing)
Their true name is Sequoia
Sempervirens: always green, ever-
living.
MADELEINE
(Flatly)
I don't like them.
SCOTTIE
Why?
MADELEINE
(Simply)
Knowing I have to die...
She looks up at him with a shy, embarrassed smile. Then,
seeing the wandering look in his eyes, she brightens quickly.
MADELEINE
But I like the stream! It's a lovely
stream!
She leaves him and moves quickly out onto the bridge and
loans on the railing to watch the water rippling below. And
then, as he approaches her, she turns and looks at him, wide-
eyed.
MADELEINE
But it makes no sound! Listen!
She listens intensely for a long moment, and looks at him
anxiously.
MADELEINE
Do you hear anything?
SCOTTIE
(Shaking his head)
Only silence. It's always like this.
MADELEINE
(Wondering)
And no birds sing.
SCOTTIE
No birds live here.
MADELEINE
No.
She turns away with gentle, somber, self-contained wonder,
and they cross back to the path in silence, and wander on
along the path in silence. We watch them move away in the
distance, disappear behind a tree, then come into view again,
and now there comes into view the cross-section of a redwood
tree that is on exhibit, with certain of its rings marked to
show what it has lived through, and they approach it.
SCOTTIE
Would you like a drink of water?
MADELEINE
No, thank you.
Scottie moves to the small upright drinking fountain as
Madeleine approaches the tree section and stands before it
and studies it. Scottie gets a drink of water, then comes up
behind Madeleine and stands, and she is seemingly unaware of
his presence. Their backs are to the CAMERA. INSERT OF RINGS
on the tree, marked with dates, beginning, near the center
with the date 909 A.D. and ending with 1930 - tree cut down.
EXT. RED WOODS - (DAY) - CLOSE SHOT
We see the two profiles: Madeleine staring at the tree,
Scottie staring at Madeleine. She raises one gloved hand and
almost idly begins to trace a finger up along the white line
that is marked: 1776 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. And as the
hand moves a little to the left, Madeleine begins to speak,
almost vacantly, oblivious of all but this piece of tree,
and herself.
MADELEINE
Somewhere in here I was born... and
here I died and it was only a moment
for you... you took no notice...
SCOTTIE
(Almost sharply)
Madeleine!
She turns her head to him, only now aware of his presence,
and stares at him without expression. Then slowly she turns
and walks away, and the CAMERA, PANNING HER SLIGHTLY, brings
the head and shoulders of Scottie into the foreground, and
he watches her, wondering anxiously, trying to put things
together in his mind. Madeleine walks on until she disappears
behind one of the distant redwoods.
EXT. RED WOODS - (DAY) - MEDIUM SHOT
Scottie moves over, watching her.
EXT. RED WOODS - (DAY) - LONG SHOT
The CAMERA MOVES OVER as though it is Scottie looking. It
MOVES far enough to reveal that Madeleine is no longer there.
She seems to have disappeared.
EXT. RED WOODS - (DAY) - MEDIUM SHOT
Scottie comes forward, the CAMERA PANNING him, to get a better
view of where Madeleine went.
EXT. RED WOODS - (DAY) - SEMI-LONG SHOT
The CAMERA in Scottie's position, moving around, shows that
there is no sign of Madeleine whatsoever.
EXT. RED WOODS - (DAY) - MEDIUM SHOT
The CAMERA DOLLIES Scottie down toward the trees.
EXT. RED WOODS - (DAY) - SEMI-LONG SHOT
CAMERA is now among the trees where Madeleine was last seen.
As it TRAVELS across them, it finally brings her into view.
She's leaning against a tree with her head bent back.
EXT. RED WOODS - (DAY) - CLOSEUP
Scottie comes to a stop as he sees her.
EXT. RED WOODS - (DAY) - CLOSEUP
Madeleine leaning against the tree. Her eyes are closed and
she is breathing heavily. In the background we see Scottie
approaching her. As he comes up to her, the CAMERA EASES
BACK and MOVES AROUND until it faces her and Scottie.
SCOTTIE
(Gently)
Madeleine...
She opens her eyes slowly, and looks at him, recognizing
him, and yet not quite, as though she were slightly
hypnotized. Scottie speaks gently.
SCOTTIE
Where are you now?
MADELEINE
(Softly, distantly)
Here with you.
SCOTTIE
Where?
MADELEINE
The tall trees...
SCOTTIE
Have you been here before?
MADELEINE
Yes...
SCOTTIE
When?
She shakes her head.
SCOTTIE
Where were you born?
MADELEINE
Long ago...
SCOTTIE
Where?
She shakes her head.
SCOTTIE
When?
Her head continues to move back and forth, gently denying.
His voice is more positive, now, more urgently demanding.
SCOTTIE
Tell me.
The head moves more rapidly, now, as though denying some
inner compulsion.
SCOTTIE
Madeleine! Tell me!
The rapidly moving head stops short, and her eyes open wide,
and she cries out:
MADELEINE
No!... No!
SCOTTIE
(Low and urgent)
Tell me what it is. Where do you go?
What takes you away?
MADELEINE
No, don't ask me!
They are both speaking quickly, now, the words cascading
without pause.
SCOTTIE
When you jumped in the bay, you didn't
know where you were. You guessed but
you didn't know.
MADELEINE
I didn't jump, I fell! You told me I
fell!
SCOTTIE
Why did you jump?
MADELEINE
No!
SCOTTIE
What was it inside that told you to
jump?
She is fighting it strongly, yet pathetically.
MADELEINE
No, I can't tell you!
SCOTTIE
What?!
MADELEINE
(Strongly)
No! Please! Please, please, please,
please, don't ask me!
And her head drops, and she sags, and Scottie stands quietly
watching her, knowing he can push it no further.
MADELEINE
(Softly, tired)
Take me away from here?
SCOTTIE
Home?
MADELEINE
...somewhere in the light.
He takes her arm. She looks up at him with a tired smile.
MADELEINE
And promise you won't ask me again.
Please promise me that.
He looks down at her somberly, promising and refusing nothing.
They start walking, holding together, and the two figures
become small in the distance, moving away through the tall
trees.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. CYPRESS POINT OR POINT LOBOS - (DAY) SAME DAY.
Below the point of land, the sea pounds against the rocks.
Madeleine stands alone, silhouetted against the sky. Scottie
sits in the car, watching her. She does not move. Then slowly
she starts to walk toward the sea, and as he watches he
senses, without being sure, that her pace is increasing, and
suddenly he opens the car door and jumps out and slams the
door and begins to run. But then he sees something, and slows
down quickly and walks, for Madeleine has stopped and turned
and is waiting for him. There is a gentle, apologetic smile
in her eyes. She waits, and he comes to a stop before her.
MADELEINE
Why did you run?
He looks down at her searchingly.
SCOTTIE
(Finally, quietly)
I'm responsible for you now, you
know. The Chinese say that once you
have saved someone's life, you are
responsible for it forever. And so
I'm committed. And I have to know.
MADELEINE
And you'll go on saving me? Again
and again?
He waits. She looks down.
MADELEINE
There is so little I know. It is as
though I were walking down a long
corridor that once was mirrored, and
fragments of mirror still hang there,
dark and shadowy, reflecting a dark
image of me... and yet not me...
someone else, in other clothes, of
another time, doing things I have
never done... but still me... And I
can't stop to ask why, I must keep
on walking. At the and of the corridor
there is nothing but darkness, and I
know when I walk into the darkness,
I'll die.
(Pause; she looks up)
But I've never come to the and; I've
always come back, before then. Except
once.
SCOTTIE
Yesterday.
She nods.
SCOTTIE
And you didn't know. You didn't know
what happened. Until you found
yourself there with me.
She shakes her head.
SCOTTIE
You don't know where you were.
She shakes her head.
SCOTTIE
But the small scenes, the fragments
in the mirror: you remember them.
MADELEINE
Vaguely...
SCOTTIE
What do you remember?
MADELEINE
(Searching)
A room... there is a room, and I sit
there alone... always alone...
SCOTTIE
Would you know the room?
MADELEINE
No... it's in shadow.
SCOTTIE
What else?
MADELEINE
A grave...
SCOTTIE
Where?
MADELEINE
I don't know. An open grave. I stand
by the gravestone looking down into
it. And it's my grave.
SCOTTIE
How do you know?
MADELEINE
I know.
SCOTTIE
There's a name on the gravestone.
MADELEINE
No. It's new and clean, and waiting.
SCOTTIE
(Beginning to feel
lost)
What else?
MADELEINE
(Searching)
This part is dream, I think. There
is a tower and a bell and... a garden
below... but it seems to be in
Spain... a village in Spain. And
then it clicks off, and is gone.
SCOTTIE
A portrait? Do you ever see a
portrait?
MADELEINE
No.
SCOTTIE
Of the woman in the mirror. Would
you know her if you saw her?
MADELEINE
But I'm the woman in the mirror!
SCOTTIE
(Desperately)
No!
She looks up at him, rebuffed, desperately lost, and her
eyes well with tears. Scottie is looking away, lost in
thought.
SCOTTIE
(To himself)
If I could find the key... find the
beginning put it together...
MADELEINE
(Quietly, lost)
And so explain it away? But there
is a way to explain it, you see. If
I'm mad? That would explain it,
wouldn't it?
Scottie looks at her, and her eyes are big with fright and
despair and a plea for denial, and suddenly she breaks, and
the tears flow, and she turns her head away sharply and turns
and runs toward the edge of the land.
SCOTTIE
Madeleine!!
He races after her and catches her and holds her, and she is
against him, clinging tightly, deep in his embrace, and
sobbing fiercely.
MADELEINE
(Muffled, against his
breast)
I'm not mad. I'm not mad. And I don't
want to die, but there's someone
inside me, there's a somebody else,
and she says I must die... Scottie,
don't let me go!
SCOTTIE
I'm here, I've got you...
MADELEINE
I'm so afraid...
(She looks up)
...you won't let it happen...
Her face is close to his and they are clinging tightly
together. He shakes his head, and then suddenly his mouth is
on hers, and they are deep in a kiss. Their lips part, but
remain close together.
MADELEINE
(Whispering)
Don't leave me... stay with me...
SCOTTIE
All the time.
They kiss again, passionately. And the wind blows and the
waves dash against the rocks, throwing up a curtain of spray.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. MIDGE'S APARTMENT - (NIGHT)
...continue to part 6
