Script To Screen: “Jackie Brown”

A scene from the 1997 movie Jackie Brown, written by Quentin Tarantino, based on an Elmore Leonard novel.

IMDb plot summary: The middle age stewardess Jackie Brown smuggles money from Mexico to Los Angeles for the arms dealer Ordell Robbie. When she gets caught by the agents Ray Nicolette and Mark Dargus with ten thousand dollars and cocaine in her purse, they propose a deal to her to help them to arrest Ordell in exchange of her freedom. Meanwhile Ordell asks the fifty-six year-old Max Cherry, who runs a bail bond business, to release Jackie Brown with the intention of eliminating her. Jackie suspects of Ordell’s intention and plots a complicate confidence game with Max to steal half a million dollar from Ordell.

Here Jackie gets the jump on Ordell.

A CLOSEUP OF MAX'S GUN IN ORDELL ORDELL'S CROTCH

ORDELL
Is that what I think it is?

JACKIE
What do you think it is?


CLOSEUP GUN IN CROTCH

ORDELL
I think it's a gun pressing against
my dick.

JACKIE
You thought right... Now take your
hands from around my throat, nigga.
Ordell flashes his hustler's smile and lets go.

END OF SPLIT SCREEN

Jackie turns Ordell around, gun firmly in his back, and
pushes him against the wall.

ORDELL
What the hell you doin'?

JACKIE
Shut your ass up and grab the wall!
Jackie has Ordell against the wall and is frisking him
the way a cop would. She finds the .22 pistol in his
pocket

ORDELL
Now, baby, that's got nothin' to do
with you. I just carry that. You been
listenin' to them cops too much.

JACKIE
The cops didn't try and strangle my
ass.

ORDELL
Damn, Jackie, I was just playin' with
you.

JACKIE
Well, I ain't playin with you. I'm
gonna unload both these
motherfuckers, you don't do what I
tell you. Understand what I'm saying?

ORDELL
Baby, I ain't come here -
She shoves both guns in Ordell's back.

JACKIE
I said, you understand what I'm
saying

ORDELL
I understand woman, damn!

JACKIE
Go sit over in that chair.
Ordell moves over to a chair across from the couch.
Ordell still tries bullshit...

ORDELL
I'm tellin' you, those cops been
fuckin' wit your mind. They turn
black against black, that's how they
do.

JACKIE
Shut your raggedy ass up and sit
down.
Ordell sits.

JACKIE (CONT'D)
Put both hands behind our head.
Ordell does...

ORDELL
This shits gettin silly now...
Jackie turns the halogen lamp to light.

JACKIE
I gotta tell you to shut up one more
time, I'm gonna shut you up.
Jackie sits down on the couch, holding a gun in each
hand, both pointed dead at Ordell.
A coffee table lays between them.
Ordell, hands behind his head, continues to mumble...

ORDELL
I just came here to talk.

JACKIE
Way I see it, me and you only got one
thing to talk about. What you willing
to do for me?
Ordell looks at her a moment and says;

ORDELL
Well, I can get you a good lawyer -
Jackie shakes her head "no!"

JACKIE
Let's get realistic, baby. Sooner or
later they're gonna get around to
offering me a plea deal, and you know
that. That's why you came here to
kill me.

ORDELL
- Baby, I didn't -

JACKIE
- It's okay. I forgive you. Now,
let's say if I tell on you, I walk.
And if I don't, I go to jail.
Ordell, very interested.

ORDELL
Yeah?

JACKIE
One hundred thousand put in an escrow
account in my name, if I'm convicted
up to a year, or put on probation. If
I have to do more than a year, you
pay another hundred thousand.
Ordell just takes in what the woman said.

ORDELL
I got a problem...

JACKIE
All your money's in Mexico.
Ordell has to smile at the woman.

ORDELL
Yeah.

JACKIE
I been thinkin about that, too, and I
got me a idea.

Here is the movie version of the scene:

It’s great to see what Pam Grier and Samuel L. Jackson do with Tarantino’s dialogue. One thing: Grier adds a few choice MF-bombs to underscore how damn serious she is.

One of the 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 weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

For more Script To Screen articles, go here.