sudden heat

EXT.  STREET NEAR WALKER PLACE -  NIGHT

Detective Oscar Grace's car moves up the street past the drives to the grand houses.

EXT.  WALKER BACK LAWN - NIGHT

Racine is at the bottom of the gazebo steps now.  Matty has backed away, toward the waterway.

MATTY:  I did arrange to meet you, Ned.  But that all changed.  You changed it.  I fell in love with you.  I didn't plan that.

RACINE:
(a short, bitter laugh)
You never quit, do you?  You just keep on coming.

MATTY:  How can I prove it to you?  What can I say?

NED:  The glasses, Matty.  Why don't you go down there -- and get them?

MATTY
(fear in her eyes for a moment but her facial expression is firm)
You said they weren't there.

NED:  I said I didn't see them.

Oscar Grace has parked in the Walker driveway; he gets out of the car.  Looks around and sees Ned and Matty out on the dark green lawn, standing several feet apart, facing each other.

MATTY:  I'll go, Ned. I'll go and look for them.

She turns and starts walking toward the boathouse.  She stops and turns back to look at him.

"Ned . . . no matter what you think, I do love you."

A breeze ripples the hem of her white dress.
Then she turns away, walks, and disappears in the darkness.

FOREGROUND - AUDIENCE'S RIGHT:  Ned Racine, staring after her.
BACKGROUND - AUDIENCE'S LEFT:  Oscar Grace.
FURTHER BACKGROUND - the Walker house.
[This is a classic Film-Noir-style shot.]

Racine stands with the revolver in his hand, his hand down at his side, the gun barrel pointing at the ground.  He gazes into the darkness in the direction of the boathouse.

CLOSE on Racine's face.  It's changing now.  It's not just that he's very tired.  The hardness is going out of his look.  As the seconds tick by, and Matty does not reappear, he begins to lose faith in his view of the world.  He begins to be afraid.  Afraid for Matty.  Even now.

A sudden breeze starts the wind chimes TINKLING loudly.

NED
(a dull, low groan)
No.
(a commanding shout)
Matty!

Drops gun, runs forward.

There is a sound like the ROAR of a dragon, and the roof of the boathouse lifts and then disappears in a huge BALL OF FLAME.  The air is sucked around Racine's body, whipping at his clothes, as he falls to the ground and rolls.

Racine knows horror.  He struggles to his feet and stumbles toward the fire.  His body is silhouetted against the leaping, ROARING flames in the night sky.

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Body Heat.  Script by Lawrence Kasdan.

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