WIND RIVER
Written by :
Taylor Sheridan
OPEN ON:
SNOW COVERS AN ENDLESS PLAIN ON A MOONLESS NIGHT.
Clumps of sagebrush, huddled together like angry gnomes, are the only evidence of life in this place.
There is no movement.
No sound.
Until ...
The sound of FEET CRUSHING SNOW.
Moving toward us.
Fast.
A GIRL RUNS PAST US -- SCREAMING.
She's in her late teens, wearing a baby blue, down-filled coat. White sweat pants. She runs as though her life depends on it ... Which it does.
GIRL'S VOICE (V.O.)
There is a meadow in my perfect world. Where wind dances the branches of a tree, casting leopard spots of light across the face of a pond ...
ANGLE ON:
BARE FEET slamming frozen earth. Blood staining the snow with every step.
GIRL'S VOICE (V.O.)
The tree stands tall and grand and alone, shading the world beneath it.
WE RUN BESIDE HER.
We take in her pretty face as she sobs, heaves in air, stumbles, and falls out of frame.
GIRL'S VOICE (V.O.)
There will come a day when I rest against its spine and look out over a valley where the sun warms, but never burns ...
She rises, blood drips into her eye from an unseen wound. Takes off again and somehow runs faster -- screams whipping behind her like a cape.
GIRL'S VOICE (V.O.)
I will watch leaves turn.
Green, then amber, then crimson.
Then no leaves at all ...
The faster she runs, the farther the horizon moves from her. As if the earth is tilting to prevent this girl from reaching her destination.
GIRL'S VOICE (V.O.)
But the tree will not die. For in this place, winter never comes ... It is here, in the cradle of all I hold dear, I guard every memory of you.
She finds her stride. Crying less. Running harder. Gaining momentum. Pulling away from us. Getting down to the business of surviving.
GIRL'S VOICE (V.O.)
And when I find myself frozen in the mud of the real -- far from your loving eyes, I will return to this place, close mine, and take solace in the simple perfection of knowing you.
WE WATCH FROM A DISTANCE:
Her white pants match the snow, her black hair matches the night -- all we can see is a baby-blue coat that floats above the plains like a wayward balloon, bouncing above a white desert.