A Few Good Men

Synopsis: Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) is a military lawyer defending two U.S. Marines charged with killing a fellow Marine at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Although Kaffee is known for seeking plea bargains, a fellow lawyer, Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore), convinces him that the accused marines were most likely carrying out an order from a commanding officer. Kaffee takes a risk by calling Col. Nathan R. Jessep (Jack Nicholson) to the stand in an effort to uncover the conspiracy.
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Production: Columbia Pictures
  Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 10 wins & 26 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.7
Metacritic:
62
Rotten Tomatoes:
81%
R
Year:
1992
138 min
3,617 Views


FADE IN:

EXT. A SENTRY TOWER --

-- in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere.

Small beams of light coming from lamps attached to the tower

cut through the ground mist. We HEAR all the unidentifiable

sounds of night in the woods. We also HEAR, very, very

faintly, a slow, deliberate drum cadence. And as this starts,

we begin to MOVE SLOWLY UP THE TOWER, more becomes visible

now:
... the sandbags on the ground piled ten-high... the

steel, fire escape-type stairway wrapping around the structure

and leading to the lookout post, and finally... THE LOOKOUT

POST, maybe forty feet off the ground.

Standing the post is the silhouette of A MARINE. He's holding

a rifle and staring straight out.

The drum cadence has been building slightly.

CUT TO:

A WIDER SHOT OF THE FENCELINE. And we see by the moonlight

that the tall wire-mesh fence winds its way far, far into

the distance.

SUBTITLE:
UNITED STATES NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY - CUBA.

The drum cadence continues, and we

CUT TO:

INT. A MARINE BARRACKS

We HEAR two pairs of footsteps and then

CUT TO:

THE BARRACKS CORRIDOR

where we see that the footsteps belong to DAWSON and DOWNEY,

two young marines who we'll get to know later. They stop

when they get to a certain door. The drum cadence is still

growing. DAWSON puts his hand on the doorknob and turns it

slowly. He opens's the door and they walk into

INT. SANTIAGO'S ROOM - NIGHT

WILLY SANTIAGO, a young, very slight marine, lies asleep in

his bunk.

DAWSON kneels down by the bed, puts his hand on SANTIAGO'S

shoulder and shakes him gently. SANTIAGO opens his yes, looks

at DAWSON, and for a moment there's nothing wrong --

-- and then SANTIAGO's eyes fill with terror. He lunges out

of the bed -- but forget about it. In one flash DAWSON and

DOWNEY grab him out of bed, and before the scream can come

out, DOWNEY's shoved a piece of cloth into SANTIAGO's mouth.

Everything that happens next occurs with speed, precision

and professionalism.

-- A strip of duct tape is pulled, ripped, and slapped onto

his mouth and eyes --

-- A length of rope is wrapped around his hands and feet.

DOWNEY:

(quietly)

You're lucky it's us, Willy.

-- An arm grabs him tightly around the neck, not choking

him, just holding his head still --

-- The drum cadence has built to a crescendo. We HEAR four

sharp blasts from a whistle and we

SMASH CUT TO:

EXT. THE WASHINGTON NAVY YARD - DAY

and the drum cadence we've been hearing has turned into Semper

Fidelis and it's coming from THE U.S. MARINE CORPS BAND, a

sight to behold in their red and gold uniforms and polished

silver and brass.

The BAND is performing on the huge and lush parade grounds

before a crowd made up mostly of TOURISTS and DAY-CAMPERS.

As the TITLES ROLL, we watch the BAND do their thing from

various angles. Incredible precision is the name of the game.

Each polished black shoe hitting the ground as if they were

all attached by a rod. Each drumstick raised to the same

fraction of a centimeter before striking. A RIFLE DRILL TEAM

that can't possibly be human. Flags, banners, the works.

SUBTITLE:
THE WASHINGTON NAVY YARD, WASHINGTON, D.C.

CUT TO:

HIGH ANGLE of the entire band an we end credits.

CUT TO:

EXT. A RED BRICK BUILDING - DAY

It's an important building, a main building. A few SAILORS

enter and exit and

CUT TO:

A WOMAN:

as she walks across the courtyard toward the brick building.

The WOMAN is JOANNE GALLOWAY, a navy lawyer in her early

30's. She's bright, attractive, impulsive, and has a tendency

to speak quickly. If she had any friends, they'd call her

JO. As she walks, she mutters to herself ...

JO:

I'm requesting... I'm... Captain,

I'd like to request that I be the

attorney assigned to rep -- I'd like

to request that it be myself who is

assigned to represent --

(she stops)

"That it be myself who is assigned

to represent"? ...Good, Jo, that's

confidence inspiring.

Rate this script:4.0 / 7 votes

Aaron Sorkin

Aaron Benjamin Sorkin (born June 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter, producer, and playwright. His works include the Broadway plays A Few Good Men and The Farnsworth Invention; the television series Sports Night, The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and The Newsroom; and the films A Few Good Men, The American President, Charlie Wilson's War, The Social Network, Moneyball, and Steve Jobs. more…

All Aaron Sorkin scripts | Aaron Sorkin Scripts

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Submitted by acronimous on May 18, 2016

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