Vigil

Synopsis: A lonely girl living on an isolated, mist-cloaked farm is confronted with the changes wrought by a stranger that arrives.
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Vincent Ward
Production: New Zealand Film Commission
  3 wins & 2 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.0
Year:
1984
90 min
269 Views


You know, the more I think about it,

the more I reckon we're heading

for the South Pole.

Maybe the Pole's coming up to us even.

Huh!

Ice-cap shifting...

...coming north.

That's why we're getting

this wicked weather.

Lisa!

Dad! Wait for me!

Hey, Dad!

Where are we going?

To the tops.

A dead hawk

is a good hawk, eh, Dad?

Yeah.

Wire 'em up,

the live ones keep away.

- Are we in the clouds now?

- Fog.

Same thing, Granddad says.

He would.

Clouds, alright.

Dad!

Dad!

Dad!

Dad!

One potato, two potato,

three potato, four.

Coming!

Ready or not!

Coming!

Huh!

Thought I'd lost you.

Toss, when you're working as a team,

you don't lose the boss,

so stay near me.

- Got it?

- I got it.

Oh!

Uh!

Uh!

Uh.

Uh... uh!

Mom!

Mom!

Mom!

He fell.

In nomine Patris et Filius

et Spiritus Sanctus.

Thou shalt not be afraid

of the terror by night,

nor the arrow that flieth by day,

nor for the pestilence

that walketh in darkness,

nor the destruction...

One potato, two potato...

Three potato, four...

Coming!

Ready or not!

Coming!

I better go and fix the carburetor.

What am I going to do with it all?

Burn 'em, give 'em away.

I've got such a lot to do.

I wanted you to know

about the other day.

No need, it's over now.

- Thanks for all that you've done.

- No trouble.

I was shooting your goats, and...

The coroner said it was an accidental death,

now let's leave it at that.

Right.

I just wanted to get it sorted out.

Do you feel better now?

Yeah. Thanks.

Well, now you can piss off.

Pass me the Big Tom.

No, the big one.

Whatcha been doing this morning?

'Coming.'

Here, give us a go.

Huh.

Ha ha!

You got it going, Grandpa!

Keep her in your sights, Toss.

She's got a mind of her own.

Where's she taking us, Grandpa?

That tractor's been sitting out there

watching, waiting.

Before you know it,

she's up and off and after us.

Do you mean the tractor's alive?

Stands to reason.

How do you see it otherwise?

Look...

It sends out little miniatures of itself.

Du-du-du-du-du...

They hit your eyeball and explode, flash.

Get that tractor fixed,

and the world's my oyster.

I'll have time to do the things

I need to do.

Good man, that Ethan Ruir.

Good pair of shoulders on him.

At the funeral, the priest talked about

a valley of death and ashes.

Oh, it's just the sort of thing they say.

See, I've got this idea for a sheep dip

where you make the sheep do all the work.

Where is the valley?

Maybe I could combine it with the turbine.

A small one to start with, and then...

Ho ho!

Where is it?

Oh, it's just priest's talk.

Don't bother with it.

They make simple things complicated

so as to keep themselves in work.

I can use this jacket.

- Got us a new shepherd.

- What do you mean?

- New shepherd. The bloke who...

- Oh, you shouldn't have done that.

There's too much for this old back

to carry. And yours.

Besides, we owe him a favor.

A favor?

We're not staying here.

I'm getting out.

Huh!

We're going to get out, are we?

Well, we'll bloody soon see about that!

Go on, clear out of it, the lot of you!

Go on!

Oh, Mom!

Keep your head down.

It won't take a minute.

Well, maybe we'll get you a ballet teacher

when we leave here.

Mind you, you should have started

a lot earlier.

You'll just have to practice and not let up.

Let your hair grow long, tie it back...

not a loose strand.

Shiny, smooth, clear sharp lines.

How are you, Birdie?

Great set-up you've got here.

Come on in.

That hut on the hill suits me fine.

Now what have you got lined up for me?

What's the matter?

Nothing.

Silly bugger, Justin.

Only time I ever saw him worked up

was over them hawks.

Oh, he got a bit toey

when he thought I was shirking,

but not worked up though.

Not like the hawks got him going.

His passion was hawks.

Or killing them.

Silly bugger.

Takes more than him or you

to wipe out hawks.

He wasn't a smiling man, Justin.

But when he was wiring them

to the fences, he smiled.

And I got to thinking

about Justin and the hawks,

how he saw them,

what they looked like in his head.

You follow?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Now, when you think of hawks,

what do you see?

I see them diving out of the sun,

so that their prey can't see them.

And racing just above the ground

without moving their wings.

Ah, there you are.

What you see depends on who you are.

He just saw them as something bigger

and tougher than he was -

smarter too,

though that wouldn't take much.

I watched him through the years.

And I tried to see the hawks

like he saw them.

Mom! Mom!

Mom, I'm scared.

I've got something to show you.

Surprised, are you?

Of course it isn't finished yet.

Don't seem right to work on it

now he's gone.

Well, no sense in getting Liz more upset.

You had a bit of dust-up

the other day, huh?

Best keep your head down

till she blows warm again.

- When's that gonna be?

- Oh, can't say.

Getting a bit of work done

might warm her up.

Go on.

Grab the parrot beaks

behind the chimney.

'Toss. Toss.'

Course it's here.

Listen.

Sounds hollow?

Course it is.

Known about it for years.

Right.

What's first?

Peg her out.

Right.

Eight foot square.

No sense in skimping.

Here.

Here. Uh!

Bit to your right.

Here.

And... here.

Right.

Twelve-six on your diagonals.

Now.

How high do you reckon

she'd be from that?

About eighteen feet.

Huh, sixty-two.

You see,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes

Graeme Tetley

All Graeme Tetley scripts | Graeme Tetley Scripts

0 fans

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

    "Vigil" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/vigil_22839>.

    We need you!

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

    Watch the movie trailer

    Vigil

    Browse Scripts.com

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

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