140 The motor pool...the kitchen...the loading dock...the exercise 140
thru yard...the numbing routine of prison life itself...all grinds thru
143 to a stuttering halt. Nobody moves, nobody speaks. Everybody 143

just stands in place, listening to the MUSIC, hypnotized.

144 INT -- GUARD STATION -- DAY (1955) 144

Andy is reclined in the chair, transported, arms fluidly
conducting the music. Ecstasy and rapture. Shawshank no
longer exists. It has been banished from the mind of men.

145 EXT -- EXERCISE YARD -- DAY (1955) 145

CAMERA TRACKS along groups of men, all riveted.

RED (V.O.)
I have no idea to this day what
them two Italian ladies were
singin' about. Truth is, I don't
want to know. Some things are best
left unsaid. I like to think they
were singin' about something so
beautiful it can't be expressed in
words, and makes your heart ache
because of it.

CAMERA brings us to Red.

RED (V.O.)
I tell you, those voices soared.
Higher and farther than anybody in
a gray place dares to dream. It was
like some beautiful bird flapped
into our drab little cage and made
these walls dissolve away...and for
the briefest of moments -- every
last man at Shawshank felt free.

146 INT -- PRISON CORRIDOR -- DAY (1955) 146

FAST DOLLY with Norton striding up the hallway with Hadley.

RED (V.O.)
It pissed the warden off something
terrible.

147 INT -- GUARD STATION/OUTER OFFICE -- DAY (1955) 147

Norton and Hadley break the door in. Andy looks up with a
sublime smile. We hear Wiley POUNDING on the bathroom door:

WILEY (O.S.)
LET ME OUUUUT!

148 INT -- SOLITARY WING -- DAY (1955) 148

LOW ANGLE SLOW PUSH IN on the massive, rust-streaked steel
door. God, this is a terrible place to be.

RED (V.O.)
Andy got two weeks in the hole for
that little stunt.

149 INT -- SOLITARY CONFINEMENT -- DAY (1955) 149

Andy doesn't seem to mind. His arms sweep to the music still
playing in his head. We hear a FAINT ECHO of the soaring duet.

150 INT -- MESS HALL -- DAY (1955) 1 50

HEYWOOD
Couldn't play somethin' good, huh?
Hank Williams?

ANDY
They broke the door down before I
could take requests.

FLOYD
Was it worth two weeks in the hole?

ANDY
Easiest time I ever did.

HEYWOOD
Shit. No such thing as easy time in
the hole. A week seems like a year.

ANDY
I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company.
Hardly felt the time at all.

RED
Oh, they let you tote that record
player down there, huh? I could'a
swore they confiscated that stuff.

ANDY
(taps his heart, his head)
The music was here...and here.
That's the one thing they can't
confiscate, not ever. That's the
beauty of it. Haven't you ever felt
that way about music, Red?

RED
Played a mean harmonica as a younger
man. Lost my taste for it. Didn't
make much sense on the inside.

ANDY
Here's where it makes most sense.
We need it so we don't forget.

RED
Forget?

ANDY
That there are things in this world
not carved out of gray stone. That
there's a small place inside of us
they can never lock away, and that
place is called hope.

RED
Hope is a dangerous thing. Drive a
man insane. It's got no place here.
Better get used to the idea.

ANDY
(softly)
Like Brooks did?

FADE TO BLACK