Andy Dufresne: I understand you’re a man that knows how to get things.
Red: I’m known to locate certain things, from time to time.
Andy Dufresne: I wonder if you might get me a rock hammer.
Red: A what?
Andy Dufresne: A rock hammer.
Red: What is it, and why?
Andy Dufresne: What do you care?
Red: Well, if it was a toothbrush, I wouldn’t ask questions, I’d just quote a price. But then a toothbrush is a non-lethal object, isn’t it?
Andy Dufresne: Fair enough. A rock hammer is about six or seven inches long. Looks like a miniature pickaxe.
Red: Pickaxe?
Andy Dufresne: For rocks.
Red: Rocks.
Andy Dufresne: So, I’m a rock hound. At least, I was in my old life. I’d like to be again on a limited basis.
Red: Or maybe you’d like to stink your toy into somebody’s skull.
Andy Dufresne: No, sir. I have no enemies here.
Red: No? Wait a while. Word gets around. The Sisters have taken quite a liking to you. Especially Bogs.
[they look across the yard to see Bogs staring at Andy]
Andy Dufresne: I don’t suppose it would help any if I explained to them I’m not homosexual.
Red: Neither are they. You have to be human first. They don’t qualify.
Red: Bull queers take by force. It’s all they want or understand. If I were you, I’d grow eyes in the back of my head.
Andy Dufresne: Thanks for the advice.
Red: Well, that’s free. You understand my concern.
Andy Dufresne: Well, if there’s any trouble, I won’t use the rock hammer. Okay?
Red: Then I’d guess you want to escape. Tunnel under the wall, maybe.
[Andy chuckles]
Red: Did I miss something here? What’s funny?
Andy Dufresne: You’ll understand when you see the rock hammer.
Red: Waste of money, if you ask me.
Andy Dufresne: Why’s that?
Red: Folks around this joint love surprise inspections. If they find it, you’re going to lose it. If they do catch you with it, you don’t know me. You mention my name, we never do business again. Not for shoelaces, or a stick of gum. Now, you got that?
Andy Dufresne: I understand. Thank you, Mr., uh…?
Red: Red. The name’s Red.
Andy Dufresne: Red? Why do they call you that?
[Red thinks for a moment before replying]
Red: Maybe it’s because I’m Irish.
Red: [narrating] I could see why some of the boys took him for snobby. He had a quiet way about him. A walk and a talk that just wasn’t normal around here. He strolled like a man in a park, without a care or a worry in the world. Like he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place. Yeah. I think it would be fair to say, I liked Andy from the start.
[after the rock hammer is smuggled to Red]
Red: [narrating] Andy was right, I finally got the joke. It would take a man about six hundred years to tunnel under the wall with one of these.
[as Andy is being beaten by Bogs and his men]
Red: [narrating] I wish I could tell you that Andy fought the good fight, and the Sisters let him be. I wish I could tell you that, but prison is no fairy tale world. He never said who did it. But we all knew.
Red: [narrating] Things went on like that for a while. Prison life consists of routine, and then more routine. Every so often Andy would show up with fresh bruises. The Sisters kept at him. Sometimes he was able to fight them off, sometimes not. And that’s how it went for Andy. That was his routine. I do believe those first two years were the worst for him. And I also believe, if things had gone on that way, this place would have got the best of him. But then, in the spring of 1949, the powers that be decided that…
Warden Norton: The roof of the license-plate factory needs resurfacing. I need a dozen volunteers for a week’s work. As you know, special detail carries with it special privileges.
Red: [narrating] It was outdoor detail, and May is one damn fine month to be working outdoors.
[as they are listening to Hadley’s conversation to the other guards]
Heywood: [mockingly] Poor Byron! Terrible f***ing luck, huh?
Red: Crying shame. Some people really got it awful.
[Red notices Andy’s stopped working and is looking at Hadley]
Red: Andy, are you nuts? Keep your eyes on your mop, man. Andy!
[Andy turns to continue working]
Guard Trout: Well, alright. You’re going to pay some taxes, but you’ll still end up…
Captain Hadley: Oh, yeah, yeah. Maybe enough to buy a new car. And then what? I’ve got to pay tax on the car. Repair, maintenance, goddamn kids pestering me to take them for a ride all the time. And at the end of the year, you figure the tax wrong, you got to pay them out of your own pocket. I tell you. Uncle Sam. He puts his hand in your shirt and squeezes your tits till it’s purple.
[Andy stops working and starts walking towards Hadley]
Red: Andy! Andy!
Ernie: What’s he doing?
Heywood: Getting himself killed. Keep tarring.
[Andy continues to walk over to Hadley]
Captain Hadley: Some brother! S**t.
[suddenly Trout points his rifle at Andy]
Guard Trout: Hey!
Andy Dufresne: Mr. Hadley, do you trust your wife?
[Hadley takes out his nightstick]
Captain Hadley: Oh, that’s funny. You’re going to look funnier sucking my d**k with no teeth.
Andy Dufresne: What I mean is, do you think she’d go behind your back, try to hamstring you?
Captain Hadley: That’s it. Step aside, Mert. This f***er’s having himself an accident.
[as they watch Hadley pushing Andy towards the edge of the roof]
Heywood: He’s going to push him off the roof.
Andy Dufresne: [to Hadley] Because if you do trust her, there’s no reason you can’t keep that thirty-five thousand!
Captain Hadley: What did you say?
[Hadley stops right at the edge of the roof and holds Andy by his shirt]
Andy Dufresne: Thirty-five thousand.
Captain Hadley: Thirty-five thousand?
Andy Dufresne: All of it.
Captain Hadley: All of it?
Andy Dufresne: Every penny.
Captain Hadley: You’d better start making sense.
Andy Dufresne: If you want to keep all that money, give it to your wife. The IRS allows a one-time-only gift to your spouse for up to sixty thousand dollars.
Captain Hadley: Bulls**t! Tax-free?
Andy Dufresne: Tax-free. IRS can’t touch one cent.
Captain Hadley: You’re that smart banker what killed his wife, aren’t you? Why should I believe a smart banker like you? So I can end up in here with you?
Andy Dufresne: It’s practically legal. Go ask the IRS, they’ll say the same thing. Actually I feel stupid telling you this. I’m sure you would have investigated the matter yourself.
Captain Hadley: Yeah, f***ing-A. I don’t need no smart wife-killing banker to tell me where the bears s**t in the buckwheat.
Andy Dufresne: Of course not, but you do need someone to set up the tax-free gift for you and it’ll cost you. A lawyer, for example.
Captain Hadley: Bunch of ball-washing bastards.
Andy Dufresne: I suppose I could set it up for you. That would save you some money. If you get the forms, I’ll prepare them for you. Nearly free of charge. I’d only ask three beers a piece for each of my co-workers.
Guard Trout: [laughs] Co-workers. Get him. That’s rich, ain’t it?
Andy Dufresne: I think a man working outdoors feels more like a man if he can have a bottle of suds. That’s only my opinion, sir.
[Hadley turns to see Red and the others staring at them in shock]
Captain Hadley: What are you jimmies staring at?! Back to work!
[they quickly continue to tar the roof]
Red: [narrating] And that’s how it came to pass, that on the second to last day of the job, the convict crew that tarred the plate factory roof in the spring of ’49 wound up sitting in a row at ten o’clock in the morning, drinking icy-cold, Bohemia-style beer, courtesy of the hardest screw that ever walked a turn at Shawshank State Prison.
Captain Hadley: Drink up while it’s cold, ladies.
Red: [narrating] The colossal prick even managed to sound magnanimous. We sat and drank with the sun on our shoulders and felt like free men. Hell, we could have been tarring the roof of one of our own houses. We were the lords of all creation.
Red: [narrating] As for Andy, he spent that break hunkered in the shade, a strange little smile on his face, watching us drink his beer.
[Heywood takes a beer and goes to offer to Andy]
Heywood: Hey. Want a cold one, Andy?
Andy Dufresne: No, thanks. I gave up drinking.
Red: [narrating] You could argue he’d done it to curry favor with the guards. Or maybe make a few friends among us cons. Me, I think he did it just to feel normal again, if only for a short while.
[Andy and Red are playing checkers sat in the prison yard]
Andy Dufresne: Chess. Now, there’s a game of kings.
Red: What?
Andy Dufresne: Civilized, strategic.
Red: And a total f***ing mystery. I hate it.
Andy Dufresne: Maybe you’ll let me teach you someday.
Red: [chuckles] Sure.
[referring to chess]
Andy Dufresne: I’ve been thinking of getting a board together.
Red: Well, hey, you’re talking to the right man. I’m the guy that can get things, right?
Andy Dufresne: We might do business on a board, I want to carve the pieces myself. One side in alabaster, the opposing side in soapstone. What do you think?
Red: I think it’ll take years.
Andy Dufresne: Well, years I got. What I don’t have are the rocks. Pickings are pretty slim in the yard. Pebbles, mostly.
Red: Andy, we’re getting to be kind of friends, aren’t we?
Andy Dufresne: Yeah, I guess.
Red: Can I ask you something? Why did you do it?
Andy Dufresne: I’m innocent, Red. Just like everybody else here. What are you in for?
Red: Murder. Same as you.
Andy Dufresne: Innocent?
Red: Only guilty man in Shawshank.
[Andy goes to Red in the as the inmates are watching “Gilda” starring Rita Hayworth]
Andy Dufresne: Red.
Red: Ah, wait, wait, wait, wait. Here she comes. This is the part I like, just when she does that s**t with her hair.
Andy Dufresne: Oh, yeah. I know. I’ve seen it three times this month.
[the inmates whoop when Rita Hayworth is shown flipping her hair back in the film]
Red: Hah! God, I love it!
Andy Dufresne: I understand you’re a man that knows how to get things.
Red: Yeah, I’m known to locate certain things from time to time. What do you want?
Andy Dufresne: Rita Hayworth.
Red: What?
Andy Dufresne: Can you get her?
[Red looks at Rita Hayworth on the screen]
Red: Take a few weeks.
Andy Dufresne: Weeks?
Red: Well, yeah, Andy. I don’t have her stuffed down the front of my pants right now, I’m sorry to say. But I’ll get her. Relax.
Andy Dufresne: Thanks.
[Andy is attacked by Bogs and his men who drag him into the projection room]
Bogs Diamond: Ain’t you going to scream?
Andy Dufresne: Let’s get this over with.
[Andy turns, picks up a film reel and hits Bogs and his men with it]
Rooster: He broke my f***ing nose!
Bogs Diamond: Now, I’m going to open my fly and you’re going to swallow what I give you to swallow. Then when you’ve swallowed mine, you’re going to swallow Rooster’s. You done broke his nose, I think he ought to have something to show for it.
Andy Dufresne: Anything you put in my mouth, you’re going to lose.
Bogs Diamond: No. You don’t understand. You do that, and I’ll put all eight inches of this steel in your ear.
Andy Dufresne: Alright. But you should know that sudden, serious brain injury causes the victim to bite down hard. In fact, I hear the bite reflex is so strong they have to pry the victim’s jaws open with a crowbar.
Bogs Diamond: Where do you get this s**t?
Andy Dufresne: I read it. Know how to read, you ignorant f***?
Bogs Diamond: Honey, you shouldn’t.
[Bogs starts punching Andy repeatedly]
Red: [narrating] Bogs didn’t put anything in Andy’s mouth, and neither did his friends. What they did do is beat him within an inch of his life. Andy spent a month in the infirmary. Bogs spent a week in the hole.
[after Bogs comes out of solitary and beaten up by Hadley]
Red: [narrating] Two things never happened again after that. The Sisters never laid a finger on Andy again, and Bogs never walked again. They transferred him to a minimum-security hospital upstate. To my knowledge, he lived out the rest of his days drinking his food through a straw.
[as they watch Bogs in a wheelchair, being driven off]
Red: I’m thinking Andy could use a nice welcome back when he gets out of the infirmary.
Heywood: Sounds good to us. I figure we owe him that much for the beer.
Red: The man likes to play chess. Let’s get him some rocks.
[as they are digging up grounds outside the prison Heywood finds a big rock]
Heywood: Guys. I got one. I got one. Look.
Floyd: Heywood, that isn’t soapstone. And it ain’t alabaster, either.
Heywood: What are you, a f***ing geologist?
Snooze: He’s right. It ain’t.
Heywood: Well, what the hell is it?
Red: A horse apple.
Heywood: Bulls**t.
Red: No, horse s**t. Petrified.
Heywood: Oh, Jesus Christ!
[Heywood drops the feces as the others laugh at him]
Heywood: Oh, damn!
Red: [narrating] Despite a few hitches, the boys came through in fine style. And by the weekend he was due back, we had enough rocks saved up to keep him busy till rapture. I also got a big shipment in that week. Cigarettes, chewing gum, sipping whiskey, playing cards with naked ladies on them, you name it. And of course, the most important item, Rita Hayworth herself.
[after Hadley and Trout toss his cell for contraband; referring to the bible]
Warden Norton: Pleased to see you reading this. Any favorite passages?
Andy Dufresne: “Watch ye, therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh.”
Warden Norton: Mark 13:35. I always liked that one. But I prefer, “I’m the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
Andy Dufresne: John, Chapter 8, Verse 12.
Warden Norton: I hear you’re good with numbers. How nice. A man should have a skill.
[referring to the sandpapers in Andy’s cell]
Captain Hadley: Want to explain this?
Andy Dufresne: It’s called a rock blanket. It’s for shaping and polishing rocks. A little hobby of mine.
[Hadley looks at the rocks, picks one up to smell it]
Captain Hadley: It’s pretty clean. Some contraband here, but nothing to get in a twist over.
[Norton notices Andy’s Rita Heyworth poster on the wall]
Warden Norton: I can’t say I approve of this. But I suppose exceptions can be made.
[Norton and Hadley walk out of Andy’s cell]
Captain Hadley: Lock them up!
[as the cells are being locked Norton turns]
Warden Norton: I almost forgot. I’d hate to deprive you of this.
[he gives back the bible to Andy]
Warden Norton: Salvation lies within.
Andy Dufresne: Yes, sir.
Red: [narrating] Tossing cells was just an excuse. The truth is, Norton wanted to size Andy up.
[as Andy is taken to Norton’s office]
Warden Norton: Do you enjoy working in the laundry?
Andy Dufresne: No, sir, not especially.
Warden Norton: Well perhaps we can find something more befitting a man of your education.
[Andy is transfered to the prison library]
Andy Dufresne: I’ve been reassigned to you.
Brooks Hatlen: I know, they told me. Ain’t that a kick in the head? Well, I’ll give you the dime tour. Come on.
[he takes Andy to the small room containing all the books]
Brooks Hatlen: Well, here she is. Shawshank Prison library. National Geographics. Reader’s Digest. Condensed books. Louis L’Amour. Look Magazine. Erle Stanley Gardners. Every evening, I load up the cart and make my round. I enter the names on this clipboard here. Easy-peasy, Japanesey. Any questions?
Andy Dufresne: Brooks, how long have you been librarian?
Brooks Hatlen: Oh, I come here in ’05, and they made me librarian in 1912.
Andy Dufresne: And in all that time, have you ever had an assistant?
Brooks Hatlen: No. No, not much to it really.
Andy Dufresne: Well, why me? Why now?
Brooks Hatlen: I don’t know, but it’ll be nice to have some company down here for a change.
Captain Hadley: Dufresne!
[Andy turns and sees Hadley with another guard named Dekins]
Captain Hadley: That’s him. That’s the one.
[Hadley leaves and Dekins walks over to Andy]
[as Brooks recounts Andy and Dekins meeting to the others]
Brooks Hatlen: And then Andy says, “Mr. Dekins, do you want your sons to go to Harvard, or Yale?”
Floyd: He didn’t say that?
Brooks Hatlen: As God is my witness, he did! Dekins just blinked for a second, and then he laughed himself silly. And afterwards he actually shook Andy’s hand.
Heywood: My a**!
Brooks Hatlen: Shook his hand. Hell, I near soiled myself! All Andy needed was a suit and a tie, and a little jiggly hula girl on his desk, and he would have been, “Mr. Dufresne, if you please.”
Red: Making a few friends, huh, Andy?
Andy Dufresne: I wouldn’t say “friends”. I’m a convicted murderer who provides sound financial planning. It’s a wonderful pet to have.
Red: Got you out of the laundry though, didn’t it?
Andy Dufresne: Well, it might do more than that. How about expanding the library, get some new books in there?
Ernie: If you’re going to ask for something, ask for a pool table.
Snooze: Right.
Heywood: How do you expect to do that? I mean, get new books in here, Mr. Dufresne, if you please?
Andy Dufresne: Ask the Warden for funds.
[the others laugh]
Brooks Hatlen: Son, son, son, six wardens have been through here in my tenure, and I’ve learned one immutable, universal truth. Not one of them born whose a**hole wouldn’t pucker up tighter than a snare drum when you asked them for funds.
[after Andy’s asked Norton for funds]
Warden Norton: The budget’s stretched thin as it is.
Andy Dufresne: I see. Perhaps I could write to the State Senate and request funds directly from them.
Warden Norton: As far as they’re concerned there’s only three ways to spend the tax payers hard earned money when it comes to prisons, more walls, more bars, and more guards.
Andy Dufresne: Still, I’d like to try, with your permission. I’ll write a letter a week. They can’t ignore me forever.
Warden Norton: Sure can. But you write your letters if it makes you happy. I’ll even mail them for you. How’s that?
Red: [narrating] So, Andy started writing a letter a week, just like he said. And, just like Norton said, Andy got no answers.
Red: [narrating] The following April, Andy did tax returns for half the guards at Shawshank. The year after that, he did them all, including the Warden’s. The year after that, they rescheduled the start of the intramural season to coincide with tax season. The guards on the opposing teams all remembered to bring their W-2s.
Red: [narrating] Yes, sir. Andy was a regular cottage industry. In fact, it got so busy at tax time, he was allowed a staff.
[we see Red assisting Andy]
Andy Dufresne: Hey, Red, can you hand me a stack of 10-40s?
Red: [narrating] It got me out of the wood shop a month out of the year, and that was fine by me. And still he kept sending those letters.
[Brooks is holding a knife to Heywood’s throat]
Brooks Hatlen: Stay back! Stay back! Stab back there!
Red: What the hell’s going on?
Jigger: You tell me. One second he’s fine, then out comes the knife.
Red: Brooks. Brooks, we can talk about this, right?
Brooks Hatlen: Nothing to talk about, Goddamn it! It’s all talked out. I’m going to cut his f***ing throat!
Red: Heywood? Wait, what’s he done to you?
Brooks Hatlen: It’s what they done! I got no choice.
Andy Dufresne: Brooks, you’re not going to hurt Heywood. We all know that, even Heywood knows that. Right, Heywood?
Heywood: Yeah, I know that, sure.
Andy Dufresne: You know why you’re not going to hurt him? Because he’s a friend of yours, and because Brooks Hatlen is a reasonable man.
Red: That’s right. That’s right. Isn’t that right, guys?
Jigger: Yes!
Andy Dufresne: So put the knife down. Brooks. Brooks, look at me. Put the knife down. Brooks. Look at his neck, for God’s sake. Brooks, look at his neck. He’s bleeding.
[Brooks starts weeping]
Brooks Hatlen: It’s the only, it’s the only way they’d let me stay.
[after Brooks lets go of Heywood and drops the knife and starts weeping]
Andy Dufresne: Hey, hey. Come on. Take it easy. You’re going to be alright.
Heywood: Him? Hell, what about me? Crazy old fool goddamn near cut my throat.
Red: Ah, s**t, Heywood, you’ve had worse from shaving. What the hell did you do to set him off, anyway?
Heywood: I ain’t do nothing! I come in here to say fare-thee-well. Ain’t you heard? His parole’s come through.
[referring to Brooks]
Andy Dufresne: I just don’t understand what happened in there, that’s all.
Heywood: The old man’s as crazy as a rat in a tin s**thouse is what.
Red: Oh, Heywood, that’s enough out of you!
Snooze: I heard he had you s**tting in your pants.
Heywood: F*** you!
Red: Would you knock it off? Brooks ain’t no bug. He’s just, he’s just institutionalized.
Heywood: Institutionalized, my a**.
Red: The man’s been in here fifty years, Heywood. Fifty years. This is all he knows. In here, he’s an important man. He’s an educated man. Outside, he’s nothing. Just a used-up con with arthritis in both hands. Probably couldn’t get a library card if he tried. You know what I’m trying to say?
Floyd: Red, I do believe you’re talking out of your a**.
Red: You believe whatever you want, Floyd. But I’m telling you, these walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized.
Jigger: S**t. You can never get like that.
Ernie: Oh, yeah? Say that when you’ve been here as long as Brooks has.
Red: Goddamn right. They send you here for life, that’s exactly what they take. The part that counts, anyway.
[Brooks steps outside the prison gates looking lost and sad]
Brooks Hatlen: [voice over] Dear fellas, I can’t believe how fast things move on the outside.
[we see Brooks trying to cross the road and nearly getting run over]
Man in Car: Watch it, old-timer! Are you trying to get killed?
Brooks Hatlen: [voice over] I saw an automobile once, when I was a kid, but now they’re everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry. The parole board got me into this halfway house called The Brewer, and a job bagging groceries at the Foodway. It’s hard work, and I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time.
Brooks Hatlen: [voice over] I don’t think the store manager likes me very much. Sometimes, after work, I go to the park and feed the birds. I keep thinking Jake might just show up and say hello. But he never does. I hope wherever he is, he’s doing okay and making new friends. I have trouble sleeping at night. I have bad dreams, like I’m falling. I wake up, scared. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am. Maybe I should get me a gun and rob the Foodway, so they’d send me home. I could shoot the manager, while I was at it. Sort of like a bonus. I guess I’m too old for that sort of nonsense any more.
Brooks Hatlen: [voice over] I don’t like it here. I’m tired of being afraid all the time. I’ve decided not to stay. I doubt they’ll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me.
[Brooks steps up on a table and etches the inscription “BROOKS WAS HERE” into the wall before hanging himself]
[back in prison Andy is reading Brooks’ letter to the others]
Andy Dufresne: “I doubt they’ll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me. PS. Tell Heywood I’m sorry I put a knife to his throat. No hard feelings. Brooks.”
Red: He should have died in here.
[after Andy gets materials for the library materials and a check]
Guard Wiley: Good for you, Andy.
Andy Dufresne: Wow. It only took six years. From now on, I’ll write two letters a week, instead of one.
Guard Wiley: Oh, I believe you’re crazy enough. Now you’d better get all this stuff out, like the Captain said. Now, I’m going to go pinch a loaf. When I come back, this is all gone, right?
[we see everyone in the prison at a standstill as they listen to the music Andy’s playing]
Red: [narrating] I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. The truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a grey place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away. And for the briefest of moments every last man at Shawshank felt free.
[after Andy comes out of solitary]
Heywood: You couldn’t play something good, huh? Hank Williams or something?
Andy Dufresne: They broke the door down before I could take requests.
Snooze: Was it worth it, two weeks in the hole?
Andy Dufresne: Easiest time I ever did.
Skeet: Bulls**t! There’s no such thing as easy time in the hole.
Snooze: That’s right. A week in the hole is like a year.
Ernie: Damn straight.
Andy Dufresne: I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company.
Floyd: So, they let you tote that record player down there, huh?
[Andy taps his head]
Andy Dufresne: It was in here.
[then his heart]
Andy Dufresne: And in here. That’s the beauty of music, they can’t get that from you.
Andy Dufresne: Haven’t you ever felt that way about music?
Red: Well, I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it though. Didn’t make much sense in here.
Andy Dufresne: Here’s where it makes the most sense. You need it, so you don’t forget.
Red: Forget?
Andy Dufresne: Forget that there are places in the world that aren’t made out of stone, that there’s something inside that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch. It’s yours.
Red: What are you talking about?
Andy Dufresne: Hope.
Red: Hope? Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It’s got no use on the inside. You’d better get used to that idea.
Andy Dufresne: Like Brooks did?
[Red, looking angry, leaves the table]
[1957 Parole Hearings – Red enters the room]
1957 Parole Hearings Man: Sit down.
[Red takes a seat]
1957 Parole Hearings Man: It says here that you’ve served thirty years of a life sentence. You feel you’ve been rehabilitated?
Red: Oh, yes, sir. Without a doubt. And I can honestly say I’m a changed man. No danger to society here. God’s honest truth. Absolutely rehabilitated.
[we see Red getting a “Rejection” stamp in his parole file]
[after his parole rejection]
Red: Thirty years. Jesus, when they say it like that…
Andy Dufresne: You wonder where it went. I wonder where ten years went.
[there’s a pause and Andy hands Red a small box]
Andy Dufresne: Here. Little parole rejection present. Go ahead and open it. I had to go through one of your competitors, I hope you don’t mind. I wanted it to be a surprise.
[Red opens the box to find a harmonica]
Red: It’s very pretty, Andy. Thank you.
Andy Dufresne: Are you going to play it?
Red: No. Not right now.
Red: [narrating] Andy was as good as his word. He wrote two letters a week instead of one. In 1959 the State Senate finally clued into the fact they couldn’t buy him off with just a two hundred dollar check. Appropriations Committee voted an annual payment of five hundred dollars just to shut him up. And you’d be amazed how far Andy could stretch it. He made deals with book clubs, charity groups. He bought remaindered books by the pound.
[as they are sorting through the books obtained by the money Andy received]
Heywood: The Count Of Monte Crisco.
Floyd: That’s Cristo, you dumb s**t.
[Red laughs]
Heywood: By Alexandree Dumass. Dumb-a**?
[Red laughs again]
Andy Dufresne: Dumb-a**?
[Heywood smiles and shows Andy the name written in the book]
Andy Dufresne: Dumas. You know what that’s about?
Heywood: Uh-uh.
Andy Dufresne: You’ll like it, it’s about a prison break.
Red: We ought to file that under Educational too, oughtn’t we?
Red: [narrating] The rest of us did our best to pitch in when and where we could. By the year Kennedy was shot, Andy had transformed a storage room smelling of rat turds and turpentine into the best prison library in New England, complete with a fine selection of Hank Williams.
Red: [narrating] That was also the year Warden Norton instituted his famous “Inside-Out” program. You may remember reading about it. It made all the papers and got his picture in Look Magazine.
[we see Norton giving a speech at a press conference]
Warden Norton: No free ride. But rather a genuine, progressive advance in corrections and rehabilitation. Our inmates, properly supervised, will be put to work outside these walls, performing all manner of public service. These men can learn the value of an honest day’s labor, while providing a valuable service to the community and at a bare minimum of expense to Mr. and Mrs. John Q Taxpayer.
Red: [narrating] Of course, Norton failed to mention to the press that “bare minimum of expense” is a fairly loose term. There are a hundred different ways to skim off the top. Men, materials, you name it. And, oh, my Lord, how the money rolled in.
Red: [narrating] And behind every shady deal, behind every dollar earned, there was Andy, keeping the books.
[pointing to the pie Ned had given to him earlier]
Warden Norton: You want the rest of this?
[he gives the pie box to Andy]
Warden Norton: Woman can’t bake worth s**t.
Andy Dufresne: Thank you, sir.
[Andy and Red are returning the library books to the shelves as they eat Norton’s pie]
Red: He’s got his fingers in a lot of pies from what I hear.
Andy Dufresne: What you hear isn’t half of it. He’s got scams you haven’t even dreamed of. Kickbacks on his kickbacks. There’s a river of dirty money running through this place.
Red: Yeah, but the problem with having all that money is that sooner or later you’re going to have to explain where it came from.
Andy Dufresne: Well that’s where I come in. I channel it, filter it, funnel it. Stocks, securities, tax-free municipals. I send that money out into the real world, and when it comes back…
Red: Clean as a virgin’s honey pot, huh?
Andy Dufresne: Cleaner. By the time Norton retires, I’ll have made him a millionaire.
Red: If they ever catch on, though, he’s going to wind up in here wearing a number himself.
Andy Dufresne: Now, Red, I thought you had a little more faith in me than that.
Red: I know. I know you’re good, Andy, but all that paper leaves a trail. Now, anybody gets curious, the FBI, IRS, whatever, it’s going to lead to somebody.
Andy Dufresne: Well sure it is, but not to me. And certainly not to the Warden.
Red: Alright, who?
Andy Dufresne: Randall Stevens.
Red: Who?
Andy Dufresne: The silent silent partner. He’s the guilty one, Your Honor. The man with the bank accounts. It’s where the filtering process starts. If they trace anything, it’s just going to lead to him.
Red: But who is he?
Andy Dufresne: He’s a phantom, an apparition. Second cousin to Harvey the Rabbit. I conjured him out of thin air. He doesn’t exist, except on paper.
Red: Andy, you can’t just make a person up.
Andy Dufresne: Well sure you can, if you know how the system works, where the cracks are. It’s amazing what you can accomplish by mail. Mr. Stevens has a birth certificate, a driver’s license, social security number.
Red: You’re s**tting me?
Andy Dufresne: If they ever trace any of those accounts, they’re going to wind up chasing a figment of my imagination.
Red: Well, I’ll be damned. Did I say you were good? s**t, you’re a Rembrandt!
Andy Dufresne: You know, the funny thing is, on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.
Red: Ever bother you?
Andy Dufresne: I don’t run the scams, Red, I just process the profits. Fine line maybe, but I’ve also built that library, and used it to help a dozen guys get their high school diploma. Why do you think the Warden lets me do all that?
Red: To keep you happy and doing the laundry. Money instead of sheets.
Andy Dufresne: Well, I work cheap. That’s the trade-off.
[we see another prison bus arriving with a batch of new prisoners]
Red: [narrating] Tommy Williams came to Shawshank in 1965 on a two-year stretch for B and E. That’s breaking and entering to you. The cops caught him sneaking TV sets out the back door of a JC Penney. Young punk. Mr. Rock’n’roll. Cocky as hell.
[as Tommy works along with the other prisoners]
Tommy: Hey, come on, old boys! Moving like molasses! You’re making me look bad.
Red: [narrating] We liked him immediately.
[as they are all sat in the prison cafeteria]
Tommy: So I’m backing out the door, right? Now I got the TV like this. It was a big old thing. I couldn’t see s**t. Suddenly, I hears this voice. “Freeze, kid! Hands in the air.” Well, I just stand there, holding onto that TV. So, finally, the voice says, “Do you hear what I said, boy?” I say, “Yes, sir, I sure did. But if I drop this f***ing thing, you got me on destruction of property, too.”
Snooze: Sounds like you done time all over New England.
Tommy: Yeah, I’ve been in and out since I was thirteen. You name the place, chances are I’ve been there.
Andy Dufresne: Perhaps it’s time you tried a new profession.
[Tommy looks confused]
Andy Dufresne: What I mean is, you don’t seem to be a very good thief. Maybe you should try something else.
Tommy: Yeah, well, what the hell do you know about it, Capone? What are you in for?
Andy Dufresne: Me? The lawyer f***ed me. Everybody’s innocent in here. Don’t you know that?
[the others laugh]
Red: [narrating] As it turned out, Tommy had himself a young wife and a new baby girl. Maybe it was the thought of them on the streets, or his child growing up not knowing her daddy. Whatever it was, something lit a fire under that boy’s a**.
[Tommy approaches Andy in the prison library]
Tommy: I was thinking of maybe trying for my high school equivalency. I hear you helped a couple of fellas with that.
Andy Dufresne: I don’t waste time on losers, Tommy.
Tommy: I ain’t no goddamn loser.
Andy Dufresne: You mean that?
Tommy: Yeah.
Andy Dufresne: You really mean that?
Tommy: Yes, sir, I do.
Andy Dufresne: Good. Because if we do this, we do it all the way. A hundred percent, nothing half-assed.
Tommy: The thing is, see, uh, I don’t read so good.
Andy Dufresne: “Well”. You don’t read so well. We’ll get to that.
Red: [narrating] So Andy took Tommy under his wing. He started walking him through his ABC’s. Tommy took to it pretty well, too. The boy found brains he never knew he had. Before long, Andy started him on his course requirements. He really liked the kid. It gave him a thrill to help a youngster crawl off the s**t heap. But that wasn’t the only reason. Prison time is slow time, so you do what you can to keep going. Some fellas collect stamps, others build matchstick houses. Andy built a library. Now he needed a new project. Tommy was it. It was the same reason he spent years shaping and polishing those rocks. The same reason he hung his fantasy girlies on the wall. In prison, a man will do most anything to keep his mind occupied. By 1966, right about the time Tommy was getting ready to take his exams, it was lovely Raquel.
[we see a giant poster of Raquel Welch now occupying Andy’s wall]
[Tommy is sitting his exam in the library overseen by Andy]
Andy Dufresne: Time. Well?
Tommy: Well, it’s for s**t. I wasted a whole f***ing year of my time with this bulls**t.
Andy Dufresne: It’s probably not as bad as you think.
Tommy: Yeah, it’s worse. I didn’t get a f***ing thing right. It might as well have been in Chinese.
Andy Dufresne: Let’s see how the score comes out.
Tommy: Yeah, well, I’ll tell you how the goddamn score comes out.
[he screws up his exam paper answers and throws it into the trash bin]
Tommy: Two points, right there! There’s your goddamn score! Goddamn cats crawling up trees! Five times five is twenty-five! f*** this place! f*** it!
[he storms out in anger and Andy retrieves Tommy’s screwed up paper]
Tommy: I feel bad. I let him down.
Red: Ah, that’s crap, kid. He’s proud of you. We’ve been friends a long time so I know him as good as anybody.
Tommy: Smart fellow, ain’t he?
Red: As smart as they come. Used to be a banker on the outside.
Tommy: What’s he in here for, anyway?
Red: Murder.
Tommy: The hell you say!
Red: You wouldn’t think it to look at the guy. Caught his wife in bed with some golf pro. Greased them both.
[Tommy looks shocked]
Red: What?
[Tommy recounts his tale to Andy and Red]
Tommy: About four years ago, I was in Thomaston on a two-to-three stretch. I stole a car. It was a dumb-f*** thing to do. About six months left to go, I get a new cell mate in. Elmo Blatch. Big, twitchy f***er. Kind of roomie you pray you don’t get. You know what I’m saying? Six-to-twelve, armed burglary. He said he’d pulled hundreds of jobs. Hard to believe, high-strung as he was. You’d cut a loud fart, he’d jump three feet in the air. Talked all the time, too. That’s the other thing, he never shut up. Places he’d been in, jobs he’d pulled, women he’d f***ed. Even people he’d killed. People who gave him s**t. That’s how he put it.
Tommy: So, one night, like a joke, I say to him, I say, “Yeah, Elmo, who’d you kill?” So he says…
[in flashback we see Elmo replying to Tommy]
Elmo Blatch: I got me this job one time bussing tables at a country club. So I could case
all these big rich pricks that come in. So I pick out this guy, go in one night and do his place. He wakes up. He gives me s**t. So I killed him. Him and this tasty b**ch he was with.
[Elmo starts laughing]
Elmo Blatch: That’s the best part. She’s f***ing this prick, see, this golf pro. But she’s married to some other guy, some hotshot banker. And he’s the one they pinned it on.
[Andy, looking shocked, leaves to tell Norton]
[in Norton’s office after Andy’s told him about Tommy’s story]
Warden Norton: I have to say that’s the most amazing story I ever heard. What amazes me most is you were taken in by it.
Andy Dufresne: Sir?
Warden Norton: Well, it’s obvious this fella Williams is impressed with you. He hears your tale of woe and quite naturally wants to cheer you up. He’s young, not terribly bright. Not surprising he wouldn’t know what a state he’d put you in.
Andy Dufresne: Sir, he’s telling the truth.
Warden Norton: Well, let’s say, for the moment, this Blatch does exist. You think he’d just fall to his knees and cry, “Yes, I did it! I confess! Oh, and by the way, add a life term to my sentence”?
Andy Dufresne: You know that wouldn’t matter. With Tommy’s testimony I can get a new trial.
Warden Norton: Well that’s assuming Blatch is even still there. The chances are excellent he’d be released by now.
Andy Dufresne: Well, they’d have his last known address, names of relatives. There’s a chance, isn’t there?
Andy Dufresne: How can you be so obtuse?
Warden Norton: What? What did you call me?
Andy Dufresne: Obtuse. Is it deliberate?
Warden Norton: Son, you’re forgetting yourself.
Andy Dufresne: The country club will have his old timecards, records, W-2’s, with his name on them.
Warden Norton: Dufresne, if you want to indulge this fantasy, that’s your business. Don’t make it mine. This meeting is over.
Andy Dufresne: Sir, if I were to ever get out, I would never mention what goes on in here. I’d be just as indictable as you for laundering that money.
[Norton rises and slams his hand on his desk in anger]
Warden Norton: Don’t ever mention money to me again, you sorry son of a b**ch! Not in this office, not anywhere!
Andy Dufresne: I’m just trying to set your mind at ease, that’s all. Sir, I didn’t mean…
[two guards enter Norton’s office]
Warden Norton: Solitary. A month!
Guard: Yes, sir.
Andy Dufresne: What’s the matter with you?
Warden Norton: Get him out of here.
[Andy gets dragged away by the two guards]
Andy Dufresne: This is my chance to get out! Don’t you see? It’s my life! Don’t you understand? It’s my life!
Warden Norton: Get him out! Get him out!
Andy Dufresne: This is my life! No!
Floyd: A month in the hole. It’s the longest damn stretch I ever heard of.
Tommy: It’s all my fault.
Red: Oh, bulls**t. You didn’t pull the trigger and you certainly didn’t convict him.
Heywood: Red, are you saying that Andy is innocent? I mean, for real innocent?
Red: Well, it looks that way.
Heywood: Sweet Jesus. How long has he been here now?
Red: 1947. What is that? Nineteen years.
Ernie: Nineteen years.
[as the prisoners are getting their post and Tommy gets an envelope]
Red: What you got? “Board of Education.”
Tommy: The son of a b**ch mailed it.
Red: Looks like he did. You going to open it or you going to stand there with your thumb up your butt?
Tommy: Thumb up my butt sounds better.
[to Andy in solitary]
Elderly Hole Guard: The kid passed. C plus average. Thought you’d like to know.
[Andy smiles to himself]
Warden Norton: I tell you, son, this thing really came along and knocked my wind out. It’s got me up nights, that’s the truth. The right thing to do. Sometimes it’s hard to know what that is. Do you understand? I need your help, son. If I’m going to move on this, there can’t be the least little shred of doubt. I have to know that what you told Dufresne was the truth.
Tommy: Yes, sir. Absolutely.
Warden Norton: Would you be willing to swear before a judge and jury having placed your hand on the Good Book and taken an oath before Almighty God himself?
Tommy: Just give me that chance.
Warden Norton: That’s what I thought.
[as Norton leaves Tommy, Hadley shoots Tommy four times]
[Norton visits Andy in solitary]
Warden Norton: I’m sure by now you’ve heard. A terrible thing. A man that young, less than a year to go, trying to escape. It broke Captain Hadley’s heart to shoot him. Truly, it did. We just have to put it behind us. Move on.
Andy Dufresne: I’m done. Everything stops. Get someone else to run your scams.
Warden Norton: Nothing stops. Nothing. Or you will do the hardest time there is. No more protection from the guards. I’ll pull you out of that one-bunk Hilton and cast you down with the Sodomites. You’ll think you’ve been f***ed by a train. And the library? Gone. Sealed off, brick by brick. We’ll have us a little book barbecue in the yard. They’ll see the flames for miles. We’ll dance around it like wild Indians. You understand me? Catching my drift? Or am I being obtuse?
[to Hadley as Norton turns to leave]
Warden Norton: Give him another month to think about it.
Andy Dufresne: [to Red] My wife used to say I’m a hard man to know. Like a closed book. Complained about it all the time. She was beautiful. God, I loved her. I just didn’t know how to show it, that’s all.
[referring to his wife]
Andy Dufresne: I killed her, Red. I didn’t pull the trigger, but I drove her away. And that’s why she died, because of me. The way I am.
Red: That don’t make you a murderer. A bad husband, maybe. Feel bad about it if you want to, but you didn’t pull the trigger.
Andy Dufresne: No, I didn’t. Somebody else did, and I wound up in here. Bad luck, I guess.
Red: Yeah.
Andy Dufresne: It floats around. It’s got to land on somebody. It was my turn, that’s all. I was in the path of the tornado. I just didn’t expect the storm would last as long as it has.
Andy Dufresne: Do you think you’ll ever get out of here?
Red: Me? Yeah. One day, when I’ve got a long white beard and two or three marbles rolling
around upstairs, they’ll let me out.
Andy Dufresne: I tell you where I’d go. Zihuatanejo.
Red: Zi…what?
Andy Dufresne: Zihuatanejo. It’s in Mexico. A little place on the Pacific Ocean. You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific?
Red: No.
Andy Dufresne: They say it has no memory. That’s where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory. Open up a little hotel, right on the beach. Buy some worthless old boat and fix it up new. Take my guests out charter fishing.
Red: Zihuatanejo, huh?
Andy Dufresne: In a place like that, I could use a man who knows how to get things.
Red: I don’t think I could make it on the outside, Andy. I’ve been in here most of my life. I’m an institutional man now, just like Brooks was.
Andy Dufresne: Well, I think you underestimate yourself.
Red: I don’t think so. I mean, in here I’m the guy who can get things for you, sure. But outside, all you need is the Yellow Pages. Hell, I wouldn’t even know where to begin. The Pacific Ocean? S**t. About scare me to death, something that big.
Andy Dufresne: Not me. I didn’t shoot my wife, and I didn’t shoot her lover. Whatever mistakes I’ve made, I’ve paid for them and then some. That hotel, that boat, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
Red: I don’t think you ought to be doing this to yourself, Andy. These are just s**tty pipe dreams. I mean, Mexico is way the hell down there, and you’re in here, and that’s the way it is.
Andy Dufresne: Yeah, right. That’s the way it is. It’s down there and I’m in here. I guess it comes down to a simple choice really. Get busy living or get busy dying.
[Andy gets up to leave]
Andy Dufresne: Red, if you ever get out of here, do me a favor.
Red: Sure, Andy. Anything.
Andy Dufresne: There’s a big hayfield up near Buxton. You know where Buxton is?
Red: Well, there’s a lot of hayfields up there.
Andy Dufresne: One in particular. It’s got a long rock wall with a big oak tree at the north end. It’s like something out of a Robert Frost poem. It’s where I asked my wife to marry me. We went there for a picnic and made love under that oak, and I asked and she said yes.
Andy Dufresne: Promise me, Red, if you ever get out, find that spot. At the base of that wall, you’ll find a rock that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield. A piece of black, volcanic glass. There’s something buried under it I want you to have.
Red: What, Andy? What’s buried under there?
Andy Dufresne: You’ll have to pry it up to see.
Red: No, I’m telling you, the guy is, he’s talking funnier. I’m really worried about him.
Skeet: We ought to keep an eye on him.
Jigger: That’s fine during the day, but at night he’s got that cell all to himself.
Heywood: Oh, Lord.
Red: What?
Heywood: Andy come down to the loading dock today. He asked me for a length of rope.
Red: Rope?
Heywood: Six feet long.
Snooze: And you gave it to him?
Heywood: Sure I did. Why wouldn’t I?
Floyd: Jesus, Heywood.
Heywood: Hey, how the hell was I supposed to know?
Floyd: Remember Brooks Hatlen?
Jigger: No. Andy’d never do that. Never.
Red: I don’t know. Every man has his breaking point.
[Andy is back working in Norton’s office]
Warden Norton: Get my stuff down to the laundry. And shine my shoes. I want them looking like mirrors.
Andy Dufresne: Yes, sir.
Warden Norton: It’s good having you back, Andy. The place wasn’t the same without you.
Red: [narrating] I’ve had some long nights in the stir. Alone in the dark with nothing but your thoughts, time can draw out like a blade. That was the longest night of my life.
[the next morning, the inmates get out of their cells for rollcall]
Guard Haig: Dufresne! Get your a** out here, boy. You’re holding up the show.
[Andy doesn’t come out]
Guard Haig: Don’t make me come down there, I’ll thump your skull for you!
[he makes his way to Andy’s cell]
Guard Haig: Damn it, Dufresne, you’re putting me behind! I got a schedule to keep. You’d better be sick, or dead in there, I s**t you not! You hear me?
[when he gets to Andy’s cell he’s shocked at what he finds]
Guard Haig: Oh, my holy God.
[to Hadley as they go to Andy’s cell]
Warden Norton: I want every man on this cell block questioned. Start with that friend of his.
Captain Hadley: Who?
[he points to Red as they walk past his cell]
Warden Norton: Him!
[in Andy’s cell]
Warden Norton: What do you mean, he just wasn’t here? Don’t say that to me, Haig. Don’t say that to me again.
Guard Haig: But, sir, he wasn’t.
Warden Norton: I can see that, Haig! You think I’m blind? Is that what you’re saying? Am I blind, Haig?
Guard Haig: No, sir.
[to Hadley as he hands him the previous night’s counts]
Warden Norton: What about you? Are you blind? Tell me what this is.
Captain Hadley: Last night’s count.
Warden Norton: Mm-hmm. You see Dufresne’s name there? I sure do. See? Right there. Dufresne. He was in his cell at lights out. It stands to reason he’d still be here in the morning! I want him found. Not tomorrow, not after breakfast. Now!
Guard Haig: Yes, sir!
[as Red enters Andy’s cell]
Warden Norton: Well?
Red: Well, what?
Warden Norton: I see you two all the time. You’re thick as thieves, you are. He must have said something.
Red: No, sir, Warden. Not a word.
Warden Norton: Lord, it’s a miracle! A man up and vanished like a fart in the wind! Nothing left but some damn rocks on a windowsill.
[he takes the rocks]
Warden Norton: And that cupcake on the wall. Let’s ask her. Maybe she knows.
[referring to Andy’s Raquel Welch poster]
Warden Norton: What say there, Fuzzy Britches? Feel like talking? Ahh, I guess not. Why should she be any different? This is a conspiracy, that’s what this is. One big..
[he starts throwing Andy’s rocks at Red and Hadley]
Warden Norton: …damn conspiracy! And everyone’s in on it! Including her!
[he throws a rock at the poster afterwhich revealing a large hole where Andy escaped through]
Red: [narrating] In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank Prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub. I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty.
Red: [narrating] Oh, Andy loved geology. I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature. An Ice Age here, a million years of mountain-building there.
Red: [narrating] Geology is the study of pressure and time. That’s all it takes really. Pressure and time. That and a big goddamn poster.
[we see Andy using the rock hammer to dig into the wall behind the poster of Rita Hayworth]
Red: [narrating] Like I said, in prison a man will do most anything to keep his mind occupied. It turns out Andy’s favorite hobby was toting his wall out into the exercise yard. A handful at a time. I guess after Tommy was killed, Andy decided he’d been here just about long enough.
[we see the last night before Andy escaped, when he was in Norton’s office]
Red: [narrating] Andy did like he was told, buffed those shoes to a high mirror shine. The guard simply didn’t notice, neither did I. I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a man’s shoes?
Red: [narrating] Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of s**t-smelling foulness I can’t even imagine. Or maybe I just don’t want to. Five hundred yards. That’s the length of five football fields, just shy of half a mile.
Red: [narrating] The next morning, right about the time Raquel was spilling her little secret, a man nobody ever laid eyes on before strode into the Maine National Bank. Until that moment, he didn’t exist, except on paper.
[we see a man entering a bank and going to the bank teller]
Bank Teller: May I help you?
Red: [narrating] He had all the proper ID, driver’s license, birth certificate, social security card. And the signature was a spot-on match.
[we see bank manager looking at Randall Stephens ID and Andy sitting opposite him]
Bank Manager: I must say, I’m sorry to be losing your business. I hope you’ll enjoy living abroad.
Andy Dufresne: Thank you. I’m sure I will.
Bank Teller: Here’s your cashier’s check, sir. Will there be anything else?
Andy Dufresne: Please. Would you add this to your outgoing mail?
[he hands the teller a large envelope]
Bank Teller: I’d be happy to.
Red: [narrating] Mr. Stevens visited nearly a dozen banks in the Portland area that morning. All told, he blew town with better than three hundred and seventy thousand dollars of Warden Norton’s money. Severance pay for nineteen years.
[as Norton finds Andy’s bible in his safe with a note written from Andy]
“Dear Warden. You were right. Salvation lay within. Andy Dufresne.”
[Norton flips the pages to find the outline of the rock hammer that was hidden in the bible]
Red: [narrating] I wasn’t there to see it, but I hear Byron Hadley started sobbing like a little girl when they took him away.
[Norton watches Hadley being arrested from his office window]
Red: [narrating] Norton had no intention of going that quietly.
[as Norton kills himself before the police arrest him]
Red: [narrating] I like to think the last thing that went through his head, other than that bullet, was to wonder how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him.
Red: [narrating] Not long after the Warden deprived us of his company, I got a postcard in the mail. It was blank but the postmark said, Fort Hancock, Texas. Fort Hancock. Right on the border, that’s where Andy crossed. When I picture him heading south in his own car with the top down, it always makes me laugh.
Red: [narrating] Andy Dufresne, who crawled through a river of s**t and came out clean on the other side. Andy Dufresne, headed for the Pacific.
[we see Andy driving in his red convertible car heading towards the Pacific]
[referring to Andy]
Red: [narrating] Those of us who knew him best talk about him often. I swear, the stuff he pulled.
Red: [narrating] Sometimes it makes me sad, though, Andy being gone. I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. But still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they’re gone. I guess I just miss my friend.
1967 Parole Hearings Man: Ellis Boyd Redding. Your files say you’ve served forty years of a life sentence. Do you feel you’ve been rehabilitated?
Red: Rehabilitated? Well, now, let me see. You know, I don’t have any idea what that means.
1967 Parole Hearings Man: Well, it means you’re ready to rejoin society…
Red: I know what you think it means, sonny. To me, it’s just a made-up word. A politician’s word so that young fellas like yourself can wear a suit, and a tie ,and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
1967 Parole Hearings Man: Well, are you?
Red: There’s not a day goes by I don’t feel regret. Not because I’m in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then. A young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can’t. That kid’s long gone, and this old man is all that’s left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It’s just a bulls**t word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don’t give a s**t.
[we see Red getting an “Approved” stamp in his parole file]
[after Red leaves prison and is working as a grocery bagger]
Red: [narrating] Forty years I’ve been asking permission to pi**. I can’t squeeze a drop without say-so.
Red: [narrating] There’s a harsh truth to face. No way I’m going to make it on the outside. All I do any more is think of ways to break my parole, so maybe they’d send me back.
Red: [narrating] A terrible thing to live in fear. Brooks Hatlen knew it, knew it all too well. All I want is to be back where things make sense, where I won’t have to be afraid all the time. Only one thing stops me. A promise I made to Andy.
[Red finds a note from Andy under black volcanic rock he had mentioned to him]
Andy Dufresne: [voice over] Dear Red, if you’re reading this, you’ve gotten out. And if you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don’t you?
Red: Zihuatanejo.
Andy Dufresne: [voice over] I could use a good man to help me get my project on wheels. I’ll keep an eye out for you and the chessboard ready. Remember, Red, hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you and finds you well. Your friend, Andy.
Red: [narrating] Get busy living or get busy dying. That’s goddamn right.
[he etches another inscription next to Brooks’s in the wall, which says “SO WAS RED”]
Red: [narrating] For the second time in my life, I’m guilty of committing a crime. Parole violation. Of course, I doubt they’ll toss up any roadblocks for that. Not for an old crook like me.
[last lines]
Red: [narrating] I find I’m so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.
[we see Red walking on the beach towards Andy, as they meet they embrace each other]
