Saving Private Sullivan

(A film script)

 

 

SCENE 1: The grave yard

 

(An American flag flaps against the blue sky. Dan Sullivan and Pete Brett appear coming a walled-walked way and lawn. Close ups of Dan show him looking off. This is followed by a series of shots showing the grave yard filled with white crosses and Jewish stars)

 

PETE:

            You want to tell me again what we’re doing here?

 

DAN:

            I’ve come here because my father died.

 

PETE:

            You’re father died in New Jersey a month ago.

            This place is for people who died on Normandy Beach in 1944.

 

DAN:

            My father and his brother, Jimmy were part of the invasion force.

            Dad got wounded on the beach and sent home. Jimmy survived the landing, but died a short time later in fighting inland.

 

PETE:

            So what does this have to do with your father?

 

DAN:

            Dad never stopped feeling guilty about his surviving when Uncle Jimmy didn’t.

 

PETE:

            You’re old man never got over a lot of things – like you’re being opposed to the war in Vietnam.

 

DAN:

            I was supposed to carry on the tradition.

            Instead I deserted and went to Canada

 

PETE:

            So he stopped talking to you for 40 years.

            Did he talk to you before the end?

 

DAN:

            No – he didn’t acknowledge me except to refer to me to others as “Private Sullivan.”

            It was supposed to be an insult.

 

DAN:

            So you’ve come here trying to make things up with your old man by visiting his brother’s grave?

 

DAN:

            Something like that.

            There it is.

 

(Dan kneels down before the white cross. His hand reached out to touch it. But the cross turns into a rusted iron spike and the quiet lawn turns into a beach with gun fire, explosions and soldiers dying all acround them.)

           

            Get down!

 

(Dan grabs the stunned Pete who is still standing amid a rain of tracer bullets)

 

PETE:

            What the hell is going on here?

            Where are we?

 

DAN:

            I’m not sure myself, but from my father’s descriptions I would say we’re on Omaha Beach. – D-Day, 1944

 

 

PETE:

            D-Day?

            Are you out of your mind?

 

DAN:

            How else would you explain all this?

 

PETE:

            I can’t explain it. And I’m sure you can’t either.

            How did we get here – more importantly, how to we get back

 

DAN:

            I don’t know.

            But I think the more relevant question is: how do we stay alive.

            Come on.

 

PETE

            Where?

 

DAN:

            Just follow the soldiers.

 

(The two rush up the beach along with the others and take shelter along a ridge of sand)

 

 

PETE:

            We can’t be here. This must be a dream or a nightmare.

 

DAN:

            Maybe.

            But I wouldn’t want to test that theory by exposing myself.

(Dan glances around – everything is madness and death)

            If we really are here, then so is my old man, and Uncle Jimmy.

            I never truly believed my old man when he told me how bad this was.

 

PETE: (nodding)

            It’s lucky anyone survived.

 

(action sequences. The Allies break through the lines. Dan and Pete advance with the military. Gradually, the fighting ceases. Pete and Dan lean against a bunker.)

 

PETE:

            So what do we do now?

            Pinch ourselves to see if we’re really awake?

 

DAN:

            I’ve been thinking about that.

            I’ve decided to make things right with my father.

 

PETE:

            How the hell do you figure on doing that?

 

DAN:

            I’m going to save Uncle Jimmy.

 

PETE:

            Are you out of your mind?

            I’m a store clerk; you’re a military drop out.

            This is a war.

            We could get killed.

 

DAN:

            Just grab a uniform.

            We can’t walk around this place dressed like this.

 

PETE:

            Those men are dead.

 

DAN:

            Then they won’t need the uniforms, will they?

 

 

SCENE 2: Walking along the beach – Dan and Pete weave between soldiers recovering bodies and the movement of equipment onto the beach.)

 

DAN:

            I wish I had listened more carefully to my father’s war stories.

            I’m sure he said what unit Uncle Jimmy was in. I just can’t recall.

            I don’t even know exactly what he looks like except that I’m supposed to resemble him a lot.

 

PETE:

            So we’re going to wander around a war zone looking for someone we don’t know?

 

DAN:

            You have some place else to go?

 

PETER:

            Yes, home.

            (looking around)

            If only I knew how to get there

 

 

(An American officer sees them and approaches)

 

OFFICER #1:

            You men there.

            Why aren’t you with your outfit?

 

DAN:

            We don’t exactly know where our outfit is – Sir.

 

OFFICER #1:

            Damn this incompetence.

            (waves to someone off screen)

            I’ll have someone escort you.

 

 

SCENE 3 (Dan and Pete are in a line of moving troops)

 

DAN:

            It’s lucky for us the unit is on the move.

            Everybody seems to think we’re the soldiers we took the uniforms off of.

 

PETE:

            If you haven’t noticed, we’re heading to towards the fighting.

 

DAN:

            Which is where Uncle Jimmy would be.

 

PETE:

            It is also where your Uncle Jimmy got killed – which means we could get killed there, too.

            Didn’t you dessert because you wanted to avoid getting killed

 

DAN:

            I deserted because I thought the war was morally wrong, and didn’t want to have to be apart of it

 

PETE:

            So you’ve decided to make amends by becoming a new John Wayne?

 

(Dan calls out to soldiers moving the other way, asking if any of them have seen or heard of a Jimmy Sullivan. One of them says yes.)

 

SOLDIER #1: (pointing off)

            He got sent to go hold a bridge in that direction.

 

DAN: (to Pete)

            Come on

 

PETE:

            Where now?

 

DAN:

            To find the bridge, naturally.

 

(They slip to the side as the troops continue on. No one notices them leaving.)

 

 

SCENE 4: (They approach the ruins of a town. A sniper fires from a bell tower. They scramble into the wreckage)

 

PETE:

            This is crazy.

            We’re going to get killed

DAN:

            We’re in France in 1944.

            Did you ever think we might already be dead?

 

PETE:

            A cheerful thought.

 

(another officer scrambles to their position)

 

OFFICER #2

            We’re shot handed.

            We’re going to need you guys to help defend the bridge.

            The Germans are expected to make a counter attack shortly.

 

DAN:

            We’re really not combat ready, Sir.

            We’re both clerks.

 

OFFICER #2:

            Combat ready or not, we need you.

            Come along.

 

(Dan and Pete follow the officer and then take up positions behind some rubble near the bridge)

 

PETE: (whispering)

            Need I remind you that I’ve never fired a gun in my life?

 

DAN:

            It’s easy.

            Just point the gun and pull the trigger

 

PETE:

            Hey, Dan.

            There’s a guy over there that looks like you.

            Maybe it’s your uncle

 

DAN (scrambles over to where JIMMY is)

            Uncle Jimmy?

 

JIMMY:

            Do I know you?

 

DAN:

            I’m from Jersey City.

            I know you’re brother, George

 

JIMMY:

            Small world.

            I wish I knew where George is now.

            I’m a little worried about him.

            I know he hit the beach, but I don’t know if he survived.

 

DAN:

            He did.

            He was wounded.

            But it’s a million dollar wound. They’re sending them home

 

OFFICER #2: (Yelling from behind another mound)

            The Germans are coming!

 

(tanks appear; the fighting begins. Dan scrambles back to where Pete is)

 

PETE:

            We’re not going to survive this.

            There are too many of them.

 

DAN: (glancing over at Jimmy)

            Well, if I have to die -- at least, I’ll have died with Uncle Jimmy

 

PETE:

            Good for you.

            My uncle is back in Hoboken.

 

(the attack comes in earnest. Americans fall one after another in the relentless siege. Jimmy is hit. Dan scrambles over to him, holding the wounded man in his arms)

 

JIMMY:

            Take care of George for me

 

(Jimmy dies)

 

DAN:

            Damn it!

            I wanted to save you!

 

(He yanks the dog tags from around Jimmy’s neck – Suddenly Dan and Pete are back in the graveyard, where Dan is still kneeling in front of Jimmy’s grave.)

 

PETE:

            What the hell just happened to us?

            Was that a flash back?

 

DAN:

            If it was, we both had the same one

 

(Dan opens his hand to show the dog tags)