221 ANGLE FROM BEHIND POSTER 221

as Norton rips the poster from before our eyes. Stunned faces
peer in. CAMERA PULLS SLOWLY BACK...to reveal the long
crumbling tunnel in the wall.

222 INT -- ANDY'S CELL -- MINUTES LATER (1966) 222

RORY TREMONT, a guard barely out of his teens, tries not to
look nervous as they lash a rope around his chest. He's
getting instructions from six different people at once.

RED (V.O.)
They got this skinny kid named Rory
Tremont to go in the hole. He wasn't
much in the brains department, but
he possessed the one most important
qualification for the job...
(they slap a flashlight
in his hands)
...he was willing to go.

223 INT -- TUNNEL -- DAY (1966) 223

Rory squeezes down the tunnel on his belly.

RED (V.O.)
Probably thought he'd win a Bronze
Star or something.

224 INT -- VERTICAL SHAFT -- DAY (1966) 224

Dark as midnight. Concrete walls rise on both sides. If you
imagine them as two huge slices of bread, the meat of this
particular sandwich is about three feet of airspace and a dark
tangle of pipes between the cellblocks. Rory's appears, shining
his flashlight down the shaft. Somewhere, a rat SQUEAKS.

RED (V.O.)
It was his third day on the job.

RORY
Warden? There's a space here
between the walls 'bout three feet
across! Smells pretty damn bad!

NORTON (O.S.)
I don't care what it smells like!

HADLEY (O.S.)
Go on, boy! We got a hold of you!

Looking none too happy about it, Rory squeezes from the tunnel
and dangles into the shaft. He gets lowered, shining his
light, smothered by darkness. Not having a good time.

RORY
Hoo-whee! Smell's gettin' worse!

NORTON (O.S.)
Never mind, I said! Just keep going!

RORY
Smells pretty damn bad, Warden! In
fact, it smells just like shit.

His feet touch the ground -- or what he assumed was the
ground. It's not. In fact, it's just what it smells like. He
sinks in past his ankles. He slips and sits heavily in it.

RORY
Oh God, that's what it is, it's
shit. oh my God it's shit. pull me
out 'fore I blow my groceries, oh
shit it's shit, oh my Gawwwwwwd!

225 INT -- ANDY'S CELL -- DAY (1966) 225

Red and others listen to violent barfing from below.

RED (V.O.)
And then came the unmistakable
sound of Rory Tremont losing his
last few meals. The whole cellblock
heard it. I mean, it echoed.

That's it for Red. He starts laughing. Laughing, hell, he's
bellowing laughter, laughing so hard he has to hold himself,
laughing so hard tears are pouring down his cheeks. The look
of rage on Norton's face makes him laugh all the harder.

226 INT -- SOLITARY WING -- NIGHT (1966) 226

Abrupt silence. LOW ANGLE on steel door.

RED (V.O.)
I laughed myself right into
solitary. Two week stretch.

227 INT -- SOLITARY -- NIGHT (1966) 227

RED
It's shit, it's shit, oh my God
it's shit...

He starts laughing all over again, fit to split.

RED (V.O.)
Andy once talked about doing easy
time in the hole. Now I knew what
he meant.

228 EXT -- SHAWSHANK PRISON -- WIDE SHOT -- DAY (1966) 228

Virgin landscape. Charming rural road. Suddenly, State Police
cruisers rocket up the road with SIRENS AND LIGHTS.

RED (V.O.)
In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from
Shawshank Prison.

229 EXT -- FIELD -- DAY (1966) 229

Shawshank is half a mile distant. WE TRACK ALONG a muddy creel
as STATE TROOPERS and PRISON GUARDS scour the brush. A TROOPEE
fishes a prison uniform out of the creek with a long stick.

RED (V.O.)
All they found of him was a muddy
set of prison clothes, a bar of
soap, and an old rock-hammer damn
near worn down to the nub.

TROOPER g2 pulls the rock-hammer from the weeds. SWISH PAN
to a POLICE PHOTOGRAPHER. His FLASHBULB GLARE produces:

230 A BLACK AND WHITE STILL PHOTO 230

of the hapless cops posing with Andy's reeking uniform and the
worn rock-hammer. PUSH IN on the hammer.

RED (V.O.)
I remember thinking it would take a
man six hundred years to tunnel
through the wall with it. Andy did
it in less than twenty.