Script To Screen: “Moonrise Kingdom”

A memorable scene from the 2012 movie Moonrise Kingdom, written and directed by Wes Anderson.

Plot Summary: A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them.

Sam and Suzy standing on the beach listening to the French
singer's record. They face each other, bobbing their heads
and tilting awkwardly to the music. Suzy eventually begins
to dance. Sam does something vaguely like the Twist. They
press against each other and kiss. Suzy says quietly:

SUZY
It feels hard.

SAM
(EMBARRASSED)
Do you mind?

SUZY
I like it.

SAM
(PAUSE)
Tilt your head sideways.

Sam and Suzy kiss again. Sam pushes his hands through
Suzy's hair and draws it back behind her ears. Suzy
whispers:

SUZY
You can touch my chest.

Sam slides his hand up under the training bra and presses
it onto Suzy's breast.

SUZY
They're going to grow more.

Sam nods. He looks to be in a trance.

Here is the scene from the movie:

There are some critical additions in the film version:

• First off, instead of the “I wish I was an orphan” exchange as in the movie, the scene directly preceding the dance scene is when Sam pierces Suzy’s ears so she can wear earrings he’s made.
• Sam does not slip his hand under her bra, but rather simply cups his hand over her breasts atop her bra.
• As they start to slow dance, this is added:

Sam kisses Suzy, then spits to the side.

Sam: I got sand in my mouth.

Suzy: Can you French kiss?
Sam: I think so. Is there any secret to it?
Suzy: The tongues touch each other.
Sam: Okay, let’s try it.

I think this is a case where Anderson decided he wanted to ‘milk the moment’. And why not? This is an inspired bit of business, something toward which the story has been building. The characters (played wonderfully by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) are so earnest, sweet and endearing, the whole scene is just a delight.

Takeaway: If you hit on a great scene, be sure to explore all the possibilities in terms of action and dialogue, looking for any and all memorable moments.

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

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