Script To Screen: “Cast Away”

From Cast Away, written by William Broyles, Jr..

Setup: After surviving on an island for years, Chuck [Tom Hanks] sets sail in a makeshift raft, accompanied only by his faithful friend Wilson… a volleyball.

The sky clears. The waves are still big. The fish are back.
And then come the sharks, cutting through the water. Chuck
can't get up to get his spear, he just has to watch as blood
darkens the water.And then the sharks are gone.Chuck comes to his knees slowly, then a big wave hits.
Wilson is swept into the ocean!For a moment Chuck is uncomprehending. He watches as Wilson
slowly floats away. CHUCK
Please, no sharks.Then he dives in to the water! Swims frantically after
Wilson.Wilson floats away from him. He swims, but he's so weak.
Finally he gets to Wilson. He reaches out, but only pushes
the ball farther away.It bobs on the waves. Chuck treads water, exhausted.Where is the raft? CHUCK
Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.Then he turns back the other way. The raft has drifted by
him. He can go after Wilson, or he can go after the raft. CHUCK
Shit! Wilson!He swims toward the raft, barely moving. No matter how hard
he swims, the raft seems to recede from him.Finally he reaches it, hangs on the side, breathing hard,
choking, crying.He struggles to pull himself on board.But he is weak, so weak. He can't do it.Summoning some primitive reserve of strength, he tries again.
This time he slides on.He lies on the raft, panting.Then with all his strength he pulls himself to his feet,
holds on to the mast, scans the ocean for Wilson. CHUCK
Wilson!Nothing but waves.This is too much. Chuck starts to cry.

Here is the scene from the movie:

Two small, but significant changes from script to screen:

• The film version draws out the scene for a longer period of time. Chuck dives into the water. Starts swimming. Heads back to the raft. Grabs it by the rope. Swims again in Wilson’s direction. Loses hold of the rope. Has to go back to grab it. By that point, Wilson is too far away. Chuck returns to the raft.
• An added series of lines by Chuck in which he keeps repeating, “I’m sorry, Wilson. I’m sorry.”

The net effect is to make for a more dramatic and emotionally gripping moment where we see how deeply Chuck has been committed to his ‘friend’ Wilson.

I’ll see you in comments for a discussion of this scene from Cast Away.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

For more articles in the Script To Screen series, go here.