Duma

Synopsis: During a nightly Porsche ride with his doting rascal Xan, white South African farmer Peter finds and adopts an orphaned cheetah cub, dubbed Duma (just Swahili for cheetah). It becomes the boy's inseparable playmate, even taking it to bed. Peter made clear from the start that the cheetah should be returned to the wild before its full adulthood. But the father is stricken down with a disease just before the cheetah could be returned. Xan's mother sells the farm and moves in with a city aunt. The cheetah escapes, but finds Xan at school, where the new boy is bullied. He decides to run away to the mountains with Duma. On the way they face countless perils, which courage, Xan's intelligence and Duma's instinct overcome.
Director(s): Carroll Ballard
Production: Warner Bros. Pictures
  1 win.
 
IMDB:
7.3
Metacritic:
82
Rotten Tomatoes:
93%
PG
Year:
2005
100 min
$810,666
Website
358 Views


Dad, back there. We hit it.

No, we didn't hit it. Come on.

- Where is he?

- Listen. Over there.

- See it?

- Come on. Come on.

- Over there, look.

- Yeah.

Go around behind.

- Got it!

- Xan! Xan! Here!

Here! Here!

Slow down, you!

All right, what's that?

How the devil did

you get out here, fella?

- He's shaking like a leaf. See that?

- Yep.

- You think he's lost, what?

- Yeah.

- Yeah?

- See his mom?

No.

Well...

I think you're right, yeah.

Come here, you.

Here, take him. Take him.

Hey, you.

How's he doing? He's hungry, huh?

What on earth are you doing?

Watch and learn, my friend.

Ice cream goes in here.

Flower goes on top.

Baby bottle.

Enjoy.

Cheers.

- He's a feisty guy.

- Yeah. And voil.

He's drinking.

- His face. Black streaks.

- Yeah.

- You know what that means.

- What?

A cheetah.

A cheetah. Yeah.

The world's fastest animal.

From zero to 60 in two seconds.

I bet it's faster than your Porsche.

Maybe.

You think we should hang on to him?

Yeah.

Why not?

Where else is he gonna go?

Xan?

We can't keep him forever.

Not any more than your mom

and I can keep you.

He's gonna go back to the world

he came from one day.

Mom! Mom!

- Get it off! Get it off!

- Mom, hurry! It's got Dad!

- It's a monster! Come on! Come on!

- Save yourselves!

- God, it's ripping me apart!

- Xan?

Stop tearing at me,

you terrible animal. It's...

Oh, hello.

Hello.

- Look what we found.

- And who's this?

That was a close one.

- Not nearly close enough.

- I was almost torn asunder.

- What is this?

- See what we found?

I'm glad I'm not his mum.

I'd be heartbroken to lose him.

Hey, sexy mama. Your place or mine?

What?

- Dad?

- Xan.

Did I tell you about teaching

that bird questionable phrases?

What did I tell you, huh?

Wait. Wait!

Wait.

Now go.

In Africa, they say that when

you give someone a name...

...they become your responsibility.

A proper name should capture

the most important qualities...

...and point them

towards a certain kind of life.

I tried different names for the cub...

...like Fuzzy, Spots or Speedy.

But nothing stuck.

As he became part of our daily lives...

...he got to know

everything around the farm.

And I think he started to feel

like it was his place too.

Then Mom thought of Duma,

the Swahili word for cheetah.

We all thought it sounded pretty good.

So then Duma became our responsibility.

- How fast does it go?

- Don't worry about how fast now.

Don't worry about how fast.

Just worry about how to start, all right?

- Yeah.

- A little petrol, just a little.

- Press this down.

- And what is that gear?

One down...

Yeah, one down, four up. All right?

Put your hand on it.

Let it go. Let it go.

Go ahead.

That's it. Feel that?

- Yep.

- You like that, right?

All right, hold on.

You want to go fast now? That's it.

Try one more time.

If you let it out too fast, look.

Here, you're popping it like that.

You don't want to do that.

- Tight.

- Pull it to that side.

Tight. Tight.

Pull on it. There you go.

Beauty. One more.

There you are.

One more, one more. Tight, tight.

All right.

Now, wait. Watch it, watch it.

Don't ever underestimate what you

can do with a bit of baling wire.

It's good, eh?

Come on. Hang on! You got it!

There he goes!

Dad!

Dad!

It seemed impossible that anything bad

could have happened to my dad.

Before he got sick...

...he never let anything stop him.

He was always looking

at the bright side.

Mom and I took care of the farm

while Dad was in hospital.

The doctor said

he recovered really well...

...and that everything

was going to be okay.

Come on, Duma! Let's give it some stick!

That's 50 K!

Come on, Duma!

Look! There it is!

Look at that stride, now.

- Come on, Duma!

- Come on, boy!

Hey, we're at 60!

Now he's overtaking us!

Seventy, man!

Hang on!

I lost my hat!

Eighty!

Ninety!

- Beauty! You, beauty, you!

- Go, Duma!

- Beauty!

- A hundred, now!

From too much love of living

From hope and fear set free

We thank with brief thanksgiving

Whatever gods may be

Pause...

...after each line.

Read it like you're singing a song.

The sound of the words are the melody.

That no life lives forever

That dead men rise up never

That even the weariest river

Winds somewhere safe to sea

Mom?

I'm sorry.

- Yeah.

- Got any room for me?

Sure, Dad.

So...

We gotta talk about our friend here.

He's almost grown.

- But Duma's...

- Hang on.

He's nearly too old to survive out there.

Duma's got to live

the life he was born to.

So we gotta take him back. Now.

He doesn't want to go.

He doesn't want to be wild.

No, you can't decide that for him, Xan.

He's a wild animal. Remember?

His wildness is something...

...he knows without even knowing it.

It's in his bones. It's in his blood.

Like a memory, yeah?

Like how I know I belong here...

...on Grandpa's farm.

But there's hardly any cheetahs left.

Where else would he go

besides our farm?

We're here, yeah?

And then all the way...

...up there.

We found him here.

And just north and west...

...mountains, yeah?

Little valley.

The river.

Lots of springbok and gazelle.

Big-cat heaven.

Chase, trip, bite. How hard could it be?

Chase, trip, bite.

So you and I will take him up next week.

Okay? We'll camp out...

...do a bit of fishing.

It'll be lekker, man, send him off.

What happened?

Where's Dad?

- Hey, Xan.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes

Karen Janszen

All Karen Janszen scripts | Karen Janszen Scripts

1 fan

Submitted on August 05, 2018

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Duma" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/duma_7349>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Watch the movie trailer

    Duma

    Browse Scripts.com

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.