From Dusk Till Dawn FROM DUSK TILL DAWN Screenplay by Quentin Tarantino "I earnestly wish an end would come to this bloody race I am forced to run." -Countess in Jess Franco's "La Comtesse Noire" FADE IN: EXT. LIQUOR STORE - DAY A convenience store in a Texas Suburb. No other businesses surround it. CLOSE-UP: A light switch is flipped on. The sign on top of the store lights up. It reads: "BENNY'S WORLD OF LIQUOR." SUBTITLE APPEARS AT BOTTOM OF SCREEN: BIG SPRING, TEXAS 109 MILES WEST OF ABILENE 345 MILES EAST OF THE MEXICAN BORDER A Texas Ranger patrol car pulls into the parking lot and a real live Texas Ranger, EARL MCGRAW, steps out. McGraw is in full ranger uniform - button shirt, cowboy hat, boots, mirrored shades, tin star and a colt revolver on his hip. It's about an hour and a half before sundown and McGraw is off duty for the day. The only other car in the parking lot is a 1975 Plymouth (Charley Varrick's car). INT. BENNY'S WORLD OF LIQUOR - DAY A young Hawaiian Shirt wearing man named PETE sits on a stool behind the counter. A few CUSTOMERS fiddle about. A MAN wearing a black suit, black tie, and wire rim glasses holds hands with a PRETTY BLONDE GIRL in cutoffs and bare feet. They look through magazines. Another black suit wearing MAN holds hands with a RED-HEADED GIRL in a prep school uniform. They look through the beer cooler in the back of the store. Both girls are around seventeen. MCGRAW enters the store. MCGRAW Hot goddamn day! PETE Haven't felt it a bit. Been inside with the air conditioner blastin' all day long. MCGRAW Not even for lunch? PETE I'm by myself today, ate my lunch outta the microwave. McGraw walk over to the beer cooler, as if done ritually every night (it is), takes out a beer, pops it open and joins Pete by the front counter. MCGRAW Jesus Christ man, that microwave food'll kill ya as quick as a bullet. Those burritos are only fit for a hippie high on weed. Pull me down a bottle of Jack Daniels. I'm gettin' tanked tonight. PETE Whatsamatter? MCGRAW Awww, it's just been a shit ass day. Every inch of it hot and miserable. First off, Nadine at the Blue Chip got some sorta sick, so that Mongoloid boy of her's was workin' the grill. That fuckin' idiot don't know rat shit from Rice Krispies. I ate breakfast at nine, was pukin' up pigs in a blanket like a sick dog by ten thirty. PETE Isn't there a law or something against retards serving food to the public? MCGRAW Well, if there ain't there sure oughta be. Who knows what goes on inside a mongoloids mind? PETE You could sue the shit out of her, ya know. That kid belongs under a circus tent, not flippin' burgers. You could own that fuckin' place. MCGRAW What the hell would I do with that grease pit? Besides, Nadine's got enough of a cross to bear just taking care of that potato head. Then all this Albiene shit happened. You heard about that bank robbery in Abilene, didn't ya? PETE That's all that's been on the box all day. They killed some people, didn't they? MCGRAW Four Rangers, three cops, and two civilians. And they took a lady bank teller as a hostage. Pete doesn't say anything. MCGRAW They'll probably make a run for the border, which would bring 'em this way. And if we get our hands on those shit asses, we're talking payback time. We'll get 'em all right. I gotta piss. I'm gonna use your commode. PETE Knock yourself out. McGraw drops his last drip of beer, crushes the can and exits in the bathroom. The black suited man by the beer cooler turns around and, with the prep school girl in tow, walks rapidly toward Pete. We see that the girl is crying. BLACK SUITED MAN #1 (to Pete) Do you think I'm fuckin' playing with you, asshole? (points to the tearful prep school girl) Do you want this little girl to die? (pointing to the blonde with the other guy) Or that little girl? Or your bosom buddy with the badge? Or yourself? I don't wanna do it, but I'll turn this fuckin' store into the Wild Bunch if I even think you're fuckin' with me. The two men in black suits are the notorious Abilene bank robbers, SETH and RICHARD GECKO, "The Gecko Brothers." And the other customers are all being held hostage. Seth is the one with the prep girl. Richard is the one with the blonde. Everybody speaks low and fast. PETE What do you want from me? I did what you said. SETH Letting him use your toilet? No store does that. PETE He comes in here every day and we bullshit. He's used my toilet a thousand times. If I told him no, he'd know something was up. SETH I want that son-of-a-bitch out outta here, in his car, and down the road or you can change the name of this place to "Benny's World of Blood." Richard, holding tightly the hand of the terrified girl, leans next to Seth's ear and whispers something. Seth looks at Pete. SETH Were you giving that pig signals? PETE What? Are you kidding? I didn't do anything! Richard whispers something else in Seth's ear. SETH He says you were scratching. PETE I wasn't scratching! SETH Y