Voila! Finally, the The Last Unicorn
script is here for all you quotes spouting fans of the Rankin-Bass animated
movie. This script is a transcript that was painstakingly
transcribed using the screenplay and/or viewings of The Last Unicorn.If you have any corrections, feel free to
drop me a line. You won't
hurt my feelings. Honest.
Lord Grade Presents
A Rankin-Bass Production
Based on the book by Peter S. Beagle
"THE LAST UNICORN"
(Scene: A forest in late afternoon. Two huntsmen on horses ride in. The
first has a black beard; the second is younger and has red hair and a
feather in his cap.)
ELDER HUNTSMAN: I mislike the feel of these woods. Creatures that live in
a unicorn's forest learn a little magic of their own in time; mainly
concerned with disappearing.
YOUNGER HUNTSMAN: Unicorns? I thought they only existed in fairy tales.
This is a forest, like any other - isn't it?
ELDER HUNTSMAN: Then why do the leaves never fall here, or the snow?
Why is it always spring here? I tell you there is one unicorn left in the
world, and as long as it lives in this forest, we'll find no game to hunt
here.
YOUNGER HUNTSMAN: Let's turn around, hunt someplace else.
ELDER HUNTSMAN: All right.
(They turn and ride to the edge of the forest.)
ELDER HUNTSMAN: (turns back and calls out) Stay where you are, poor
beast! This is no world for you. Stay in your forest and keep your trees
green and your friends protected. And good luck to you, for you are the
last.
(They ride away. Close-up of a white, female unicorn {VOICE OF MIA FARROW}.)
UNICORN (voice only): I am the only unicorn there is? The last?
INTRO.
AMERICA: When the last eagle flies over the last crumbling mountain,
And the last lion roars at the last dusty fountain,
In the shadow of the forest, though she may be old and worn,
They will stare, unbelieving, at the last unicorn...
When the first breath of winter through the flowers is icing,
And you look to the north, and a pale moon is rising,
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn,
In the distance, hear the laughter of the last unicorn!
I'm Alive!
I'm Alive!
When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning,
And the future has passed without even a last desperate warning,
Then look into the stars, where through the clouds a path is torn,
Look and see her, how she sparkles, it's the last unicorn!
I'm Alive!
I'm Alive!
UNICORN (voice only): That cannot be. Why would I be the last? ...What do
men know? Because they have seen no unicorns for a while does not mean
that we have all vanished! We do not vanish! ...There has never been a time
without unicorns. We live forever. We are as old as the sky, old as the
moon. We can be hunted, trapped; we can even be killed if we leave our
forests, but we do not vanish! ...Am I truly the last?
(Enter a butterfly {VOICE OF ROBERT KLEIN}, singing.)
BUTTERFLY: Wave the flag for Hudson Highborn, show them how we stand!
...I am a roving gambler; how do you do?
UNICORN: Hello, butterfly, welcome! Have you travelled very far?
BUTTERFLY: How far would I travel, yessir! - to be where you are? ...Clay
lies still, but blood's a-rover. Red Rover, Red Rover, let Charlie come over!
...Won't you come home, Bill Bailey, won't you come home? ...My wild Irish
rose. (Embraces her horn.)
UNICORN: Be a little respectful, butterfly! Do you know who I am?
BUTTERFLY: Excellent well, you're a fishmonger! You're my everything, you
are my sunshine, you're old and grey and full of sleep, you're my pickle-
faced, consumptive Mary Jane!
UNICORN: Say my name, then. If you know my name, tell it to me.
BUTTERFLY: Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my
body to pieces to call you once by your name!
UNICORN: Say it, if you know.
BUTTERFLY: Rumpelstilstkin! Gotcha!
UNICORN: I should know better than to expect a silly butterfly to know my
name.
BUTTERFLY: One, two, three o'lairy!
UNICORN: Butterfly, in all your wanderings, have you seen others like me?
Have you seen even one?
BUTTERFLY: Oh, have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin
man?
UNICORN: Butterfly, even one? Tell me that you saw only one?
BUTTERFLY: One? One alone, to be my own... [Up goes downwind, up go
down!] Go and catch a falling star...
UNICORN: It serves me right for even asking you. All butterflies know are
songs and poetry and anything else they hear. I guess you mean well. Fly
away, butterfly.
BUTTERFLY: Oh, I must take the A train, oh, I am a cook and a captain bold
and the mate of the Nancy brig. Has anybody here seen Kelly?
UNICORN: I hope you hear many more songs. I must find someone who
knows me, who has seen others like me.
BUTTERFLY (serious voice): "Unicorn". Old French, "unicorne". Latin,
"unicornis". Literally, one horned: "unus", one, and "cornu", a horn. A
fabulous animal resembling a horse with one horn. Visible only to those
who search and trust, and generally mistaken for a white mare. Unicorn.
UNICORN: Oh, you do know me! Please, all I want to know is if you've seen
other unicorns like me, somewhere in the world.
BUTTERFLY: See you later, alligator! Close cover before striking!
UNICORN: Butterfly, have you seen the others? Where have they gone?
Tell me which way I must go to find them!
BUTTERFLY: (strange voice) No, no, listen. Don't listen to me, listen. You
can find the others if you are brave.
(Shows unicorns running down a path, and a great red mass chasing them.)
BUTTERFLY (voice only) They passed down all the roads long ago, and the
Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footsteps.
UNICORN: Red Bull? What is the Red Bull?
BUTTERFLY: Hold tight. Hold tight. Hold tight, hold tight. ...(same strange
voice) His firstling bull has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild
ox. With them, he shall push the unicorns, all of them, to the ends of the
earth. Listen, listen, listen quickly!
UNICORN: I am listening! Where are the other unicorns, and what is the Red
Bull?
BUTTERFLY: Listen, listen! (laughs) The king is in the counting house,
counting out, counting out, counting... It's you or me, moth! Hand to hand
to hand to hand to hand to hand... (He flies off.)
UNICORN: He said I could find the other unicorns. But where? Or was the
story of the Red Bull just another of his songs? ...Oh, I could never leave
this forest. But I must know if I am the only unicorn left in the world.
Suppose they are hiding together, somewhere far away? What if they're
waiting for me, in need of my help?
(A similar scene is shown.)
BUTTERFLY: (voice-over) They passed down all the roads long ago, and the
Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints.
(The unicorn neighs in fear and begins running. She reaches the edge of the
forest, where all the animals of the wood are looking at her. She stares at
them for a second, then turns and runs down the road leading away.)
UNICORN: (voice only) I must go quickly, and come back as soon as I can.
(The unicorn runs down the road.)
BUTTERFLY (voice-over): You can find the others if you are brave.
(Shows unicorn running slower and slower through the seasons...)
(Scene: A fat old man is hoeing in his field as the unicorn walks up the
road towards him.)
FARMER: Well, hello there, little one! Hello there, my dear! And just who
might you belong to? A pretty little thing like you? Come on now, good
girl! Good Bessie. (Takes off his belt and makes it into a loop.) Curry you
up, clean you off, you'll be the prettiest old mare anywhere.
(The unicorn neighs loudly and eludes the belt.)
UNICORN: (voice only) Mare? Mare!? I, a horse? Is that what you take me
for? Is that what you see?
FARMER: So, so, easy, easy, good girl. What a pretty sight you are! Feed
you up, take you to the fair. Come on, horse!
UNICORN: (voice only) A horse, am I? A horse, indeed! (The unicorn hooks
her horn through the belt, throws it to the ground, and runs off down the
road, making the farmer lose his balance and fall.)
FARMER: Now there's a horse! My foot must have slipped.
(Scene: The unicorn is sitting by the side of the road. A man driving a
carriage passes by and all he sees is a horse.)
UNICORN: (voice only) I had forgotten that men cannot see unicorns.
(INTRO) If men no longer know what they are looking at, there may well be
other unicorns in the world yet, unknown and glad of it.
AMERICA: Horizon rising up to meet the purple dawn,
Dust demon screaming, bring an eagle to lead me on.
For in my heart, I carry such a heavy load.
Here I am, on man's road.
Walking man's road...
Walking man's road...
I'm hungry, weary, but I cannot lay me down.
The rain calls, dreary, but there's no shelter I have found.
It will be a long time till I find my abode,
Here I am, on man's road.
Walking man's road...
Walking man's road...
etc.
(Song Scenes: Unicorn walking down the road, rain falling past a bridge.)
(Scene: The unicorn is sleeping in the grass by the side of the road. A
black caravan of wagons approaches. On the side of two of them, a black
canvas is hung. In red letters, it says "Mommy Fortuna's Midnight
Carnival". In smaller ones underneath, "Creatures Of Night, Brought To
Light". We see a bent old woman {VOICE OF ANGELA LANSBURY} driving the
foremost wagon. She has a hat shaped like a tree branch, with a raven on
it. She stops the wagon once she sees the unicorn.)
OLD WOMAN: Well. Well, bless my old husk of a heart. And here I thought
I'd seen the last of them. (Calls to the wagons) Here, you two!
(We see two men get down from the second and third wagons. One is short
and hunched, with an eye patch {VOICE OF BROTHER THEODORE}; the other
is tall; we can't see his face yet {VOICE OF ALAN ARKIN}.)
MOMMY FORTUNA: If he knew... But I don't think I'll tell him. He'll think it's
a horse for sure. Some wizard I hired.
SHORT MAN: Now just what in hell was that you stopped for?
MOMMY FORTUNA: What do you think it is, Rukh? What do you see lying there?
RUKH: Dead horse.
MOMMY FORTUNA: You're a fool! But I knew that. What about you, wizard?
What do you see with your sorcerer's sight?
(Rukh elbows the tall man and laughs. We see his face now; he has no
beard, green eyes, and a pointed blue cap. He stares at the unicorn. The
old woman grabs his collar and pulls his face down to her level.)
MOMMY FORTUNA: Answer me, you juggler!
TALL MAN: I - I see a horse. Just - just a white mare.
MOMMY FORTUNA (chuckles): I thought so. All right. It's a white mare. I
want her for the carnival. The last cage is empty.
RUKH: We'll need rope.
MOMMY FORTUNA: The rope that could hold that mare has not been woven.
We'll make do with cold iron bars.
TALL MAN: Oh, she's waking!
MOMMY FORTUNA: I'll cast a sleep on her! [Skagribbitch! Kastamangya!
Nitchai! Nitchaul!] (Something emanates from the old woman's fingers. It
materializes into a solid, curved, glowing blue horn in front of the
unicorn's real one.)
MOMMY FORTUNA: Now cage her. She'll sleep till sunrise.
(Scene: Morning. The cages are arranged in formation. Rukh is showing a
bunch of villagers around the creatures in the Midnight Carnival.)
RUKH: This here is the manticore. Man's head, lion's body, tail of a
scorpion. (The villagers murmur.) Creatures of night, brought to light!
Here is the dragon. Breathes fire now and then - mostly at people who
poke it, little boy. Its inside is an inferno, but its skin is so cold it burns!
Speaks seventeen languages badly, and is subject to gout. Creatures of
night, brought to light! ...The satyr. Ladies, keep back!
(The tall man sneaks up to the unicorn's cage.)
TALL MAN: I shouldn't be here. But quickly, tell me what you see. Don't be
afraid. Look at your fellow legends and tell me what you see.
UNICORN: What he calls a manticore looks to be no more than a shabby,
toothless lion. And she has them believing that poor old ape with a
twisted foot is a satyr! Illusions! Deceptions! Mirages! Your Mommy
Fortuna cannot truly change things!
TALL MAN: That's true; she can only disguise. And only for those eager to
believe whatever comes easiest.
RUKH (to the villagers): The Midgard Serpent. It's got the whole world in
its coils.
TALL MAN: (to the unicorn) No, she can't turn cream into butter. But she
can make a lion look like a manticore to eyes that want to see a
manticore. Just as she'd put a false horn on a real unicorn to make them
see the unicorn. ...I know you. If I were blind I would know who you are.
UNICORN: Who are you?
TALL MAN: I am called Schmendrick, the magician. You wouldn't have heard
of me. ...I entertain the sightseers as they gather for the show. It's not
much of a job for a real magician, but I've had worse.
UNICORN (looks at a cage nearby): That one is real. That is the harpy
Celaeno.
(The harpy caws out maliciously.)
SCHMENDRICK: Yes. The old woman caught her by chance, asleep, just as
she took you. Oh, she should never have meddled with a real harpy, or a
real unicorn for that matter, because the truth melts her magic, always.
(harpy caws some more)
SCHMENDRICK: She's going to free herself very soon now, and she must not
catch you still caged.
RUKH (sees him): Go on, get away from there! You know what she told you!
SCHMENDRICK (bows clumsily to the unicorn): Don't be afraid! Schmendrick
is with you! Do nothing till you hear from me! (runs away down past the
cages)
RUKH (stops at the unicorn's cage): The unicorn.
VILLAGERS: A unicorn! (murmuring)
(Scene: Later in the day. Rukh is staring at the harpy; Mommy Fortuna is
next to him.)
RUKH: I don't care how many damn spells you've got on her. Get rid of that
harpy! I thinks about it all the time - what she's going to do to us! Get rid
of her, Mommy!
MOMMY FORTUNA: Fool, be still! No other witch in the world holds a harpy
captive, and none ever will. I choose to keep her! I can turn her into wind
if she escapes, or snow! Or into seven notes of music!
(The harpy screams and begins beating her wings. The cage shakes.)
RUKH: (moans): She's breaking through! (runs away)
MOMMY FORTUNA (moves her fingers around; the same sort of essence
flows out of them.): No. Not yet. Not yet. You're mine. If you kill me,
you're still mine.
(The harpy calms down and the cage stops shaking.)
MOMMY FORTUNA: (cackles and talks to the unicorn): The harpy's as real as
you are, and just as immortal. And she was just as easy to capture, if you
want to know.
UNICORN: Do not boast, old woman. Your death sits in that cage and she
hears you.
MOMMY FORTUNA: Oh, she'll kill me one day or another, but she will
remember forever that I caught her, that I held her prisoner. So there's my
immortality, eh? (laughs) Now, you were out on the road hunting for your
own death, and I know where it awaits you. I know him, that one.
UNICORN: Do you speak of the Red Bull? Tell me if you do, and where he is,
if you know!
MOMMY FORTUNA: The Red Bull of King Haggard. So you know of the Bull.
Well, he'll not have you. You belong to me.
UNICORN: You know better. Keep your poor shadows if you will, but let me
go. And - let her go. I cannot see her caged. She is real, like me. We are
two sides of the same magic. Let her go.
MOMMY FORTUNA: I'd quit show business first! Do you think I don't know
what the true witchery is, just because I do what I do? There's not a
witch in the world hasn't laughed at Mommy Fortuna and her homemade
horrors - but there's not one of them who would have dared!
UNICORN: The harpy and me - we are not for you.
MOMMY FORTUNA: Who are you for then? Do you think those fools knew you
without any help from me? (laughs) No! I had to give you a horn they could
see! These days it takes a cheap carnival trick to make folks recognize a
real unicorn. But the Red Bull will know you when he sees you; so you are
safer here. You should thank me for protecting you.
(Scene: That night. Schmendrick sneaks up to the unicorn's cage.)
SCHMENDRICK: Schmendrick is with you! I'm sorry, but I couldn't get away
any sooner.
UNICORN: There has never been a spell on me before. There has never been
a world in which I was not known.
SCHMENDRICK: Oh, I know exactly how you feel. It's a very rare person who
is taken for what he truly is.
UNICORN: Will you help me?
SCHMENDRICK: If not you, no one. You're my last chance.
UNICORN: Can you truly set me free?
SCHMENDRICK: Mommy Fortuna doesn't think so. She sees me as a clumsy
fraud, a trickster. But I am Schmendrick the Magician! - the last of the
red-hot swamis! And I too am real, like you, like her. Yes, I will help you.
UNICORN: Where is the other man?
SCHMENDRICK: Rukh? Oh, don't worry about him. I asked him a riddle, and
it always takes that lout all night to solve riddles. And now... [Shara
sineverel morlin sudai! Suni numira eddi subai!]
(The unicorn sees a forest with green leaves, and her forest creatures
looking at her. But the mirage soon disappears, leaving the cage behind.)
SCHMENDRICK (embarrassed): I-I'm sorry, I would have like that to be the
spell that freed you. That's, uh, that's okay. Next one. Well, let's - try
this one. Okay. [Urchulis sulai esumina gaminajo!] - This is a super-spell.
Tha bars are now as brittle as old cheese, which I crumble and scatter,
so! Whoouch!
(Schmendrick grabs the bars and they burn his hands. The hands are red
and bloody. He shakes them, trying to get the pain off.)
SCHMENDRICK: Whoa, I must have gotten the accent wrong. It comes and it
goes.
UNICORN: Try again. Once more. There's very little time left. Hurry!
(Schmendrick whistles three notes, then sprinkles some powder over the
cage, which begins to shrink.)
SCHMENDRICK: [low words]
UNICORN: Stop the bars!
SCHMENDRICK: No, no, [uh, serenin perenin] - ugh! (the bars stop moving
inwards.) I dare no more. The next time, I might not be able to-
UNICORN: Try again. The spell was wrong, but there was true magic in it.
Try again!
SCHMENDRICK: My dear, you deserve the services of a great wizard, but I'm
afraid you'll have to be glad of the aid of a second-rate pickpocket.
(Schmendrick procures a key ring, which he tries on the lock, which is
shaped like a lion's mouth. One key turns inside.)
LOCK (in Mommy Fortuna's voice): (laughs) Some magician! Some magician!
SCHMENDRICK: Ah, turn blue.
UNICORN: Hurry!
(The lock groans as Schmendrick opens it.)
SCHMENDRICK: Step down, lady! You are free!
(The spell on the unicorn disperses as she leaps out of the cage. Rukh
enters.)
RUKH: Okay, Schmendrick, I give up. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
(The unicorn leaps into the bushes; Rukh doesn't see her.)
RUKH: The cage. You have taken my keys. Why, you thin thief. She'll string
you on barbed wire to make a necklace for the harpy!
(Rukh starts walking back towards Mommy Fortuna's wagon.)
SCHMENDRICK: Run! (He runs at Rukh and jumps him. They struggle on the
ground. The unicorn goes around to the cages and opens the doors with her
horn, freeing the animals inside.)
SCHMENDRICK (fighting with Rukh): You pile of stones! I'll set all your
toenails growing in when you mess with me!
RUKH (comes on top and starts choking Schmendrick): (laughs) Some
magician. You couldn't turn cream into cheese, you Schmendrick you!
(Schmendrick bashes the key ring into Rukh's head. Rukh lets go and falls
off in a daze. The animals are free. Only the harpy remains as the unicorn
faces her.)
SCHMENDRICK: No, she'll kill you! Run, she'll kill you if you set her free!
HARPY (voice only): Set me free. We are sisters, you and I.
(The unicorn touches her horn to the lock. The harpy breaks the cage with
her wings and goes free. She lunges at the unicorn and misses. She
circles around and lunges again - behind the unicorn, at Mommy Fortuna.)
MOMMY FORTUNA: (laughs) Not alone! You never could have freed yourselves
alone! I held you! (She opens her arms as if to embrace the harpy's death
lunge. She is struck down and the harpy settles down to feed on her body.)
SCHMENDRICK: Run, run, [can't hear this sentence] run, run away from here,
now!
UNICORN: No. Come with me. Come with me.
(We hear the harpy cawing and Rukh screaming for a short second.
Schmendrick winces.)
UNICORN: Don't look back, and don't run. You must never run from anything
immortal, it attracts their attention.
(The harpy circles again but doesn't see the two walking away.)
(Scene: A misty forest. Schmendrick is huddled at the foot of a tree, the
unicorn is standing over him.)
SCHMENDRICK: Oh, that poor old woman - I didn't want her to - I didn't
know -
UNICORN: She chose her death long ago. It was the fate she wanted.
SCHMENDRICK: And you, you have no regrets, as I do?
UNICORN: I can never regret. I can feel sorrow, but it's not the same thing.
SCHMENDRICK: Where will you go now?
UNICORN: I am looking for others like me. Have you seen them, magician?
SCHMENDRICK: No, I've never seen anyone like you. Not while I was awake,
anyway.
UNICORN: A butterfly told me of a Red Bull, who pushed all the other
unicorns to the ends of the earth. And Mommy Fortuna spoke of a King
Haggard. So I'm going where they are, to learn whatever they know.
SCHMENDRICK: Take me with you, for lucks, for laughs, for the unknown.
UNICORN: You may come with me if you like, though I wish you'd asked for
some other reward for having freed me.
SCHMENDRICK: Well, I thought about it, but you could never have granted
my true wish.
UNICORN: No. I cannot turn you into something you are not. I cannot turn
you into a true magician.
SCHMENDRICK: That's all right, don't worry about it.
UNICORN: I'm not.
(Scene: An open road.)
UNICORN: What do you know of King Haggard?
SCHMENDRICK: I have heard that he's an old man who rules over barren
country by the sea. Some say that Haggard's land was green and soft once,
before he came, but the minute he touched it, it became hard and grey.
(Scene: They are crossing a river by stepping on stones. The unicorn steps
across first.)
UNICORN: Tell me about the Red Bull.
SCHMENDRICK: The Red Bull? I've heard too many tales, to tell you the
truth. I've heard (stumbles) - I've heard that the Bull is real, that the Bull
is a ghost - (trips over a stone and stumbles on the unicorn, who moves
away quickly at his touch.) Sorry.
(Scene: A red hilltop.)
SCHMENDRICK: I've heard that the Red Bull protects Haggard or else that he
keeps him a prisoner in his own castle - there are so many stories.
(The same scene is shown as with the Butterfly.)
BUTTERFLY: (voice-over) They passed down all the roads long ago, and the
Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints.
(The unicorn neighs and shakes her head wildly.)
(Scene: A forest.)
SCHMENDRICK: (juggling one orange, which turns into many, which then
juggle by themselves. He picks one up and offers it to the unicorn.) Want
one? (shrugs and puts them all back into his bag.)
UNICORN: How much further is it?
SCHMENDRICK: This is the edge of Haggard's kingdom. It's very, very
dangerous country. Mommy Fortuna never came within miles of here.
(The sound of hooves approaches.)
SCHMENDRICK: Listen! ...Oh, oh, I was afraid of that. Run, swiftly, hide
yourself! We'll find each other later!
UNICORN: Why? Who are they?
SCHMENDRICK: Outlaws!
(The unicorn hides in the bushes while Schmendrick climbs a tree. The
outlaws approach. One very large man with stubble stops his horse as he
nears Schmendrick's tree.)
LARGE MAN: Whoa! Well, what have we here? (The tip of Schmendrick's
hat protrudes from the tree.) Hi, lads! Mind your heads now! It's raining
ninnies! (laughs raucously and pulls Schmendrick down from the tree and
onto his horse. They ride off.)
(Scene: A campfire at night. Several very miserable-looking men are
sitting around drinking something from mugs.)
ONE MAN: (spits out the liquid in his cup) Rat soup. Again rat soup.
SECOND MAN: At least she could use a different rat. The third night,
anyway.
(The outlaws ride in. Schmendrick is draped over the large man's horse
sideways.)
SCHMENDRICK: Put me down, you fool!
LARGE MAN: (dunks Schmendrick's head into the horse's back) Aye, lad,
quiet there. You're for Captain Cully himself, you are.
(A fat, red-haired man dressed in richer rags {VOICE OF KEENAN WYNN}
steps forward.)
CAPTAIN CULLY: Well, Jack Jingly! And who is it you bring us, comrade or
captive?
JACK JINGLY: I dunno what he is maself. What happened, Cully? We were
out looking for likely travellers, like always.
CAPTAIN CULLY: (calls over his shoulder) Add some more water to the
soup, love! There's company!
(A thin, middle-ages woman with wild hair the colour of dead weeds {VOICE
OF TAMMY GRIMES} pushes through the ring of men.)
WOMAN: I'll not have it, Cully! Not another mouth to feed! The soup's no
thicker than sweat as it is!
CAPTAIN CULLY: My love, where's your greenwood hospitality?
WOMAN: (looking at Schmendrick) And who's this long lout? I don't like
the look of him. Slit his wizard.
("She had meant to say either weasand or gizzard, and had said both...")
SCHMENDRICK: (getting off the horse) I wouldn't do that, because I am
Schmendrick the Magician! And you, sir, you must be the famous Captain
Cully, boldest of the bold and freest of the free! (never heard of him in his
life)
CAPTAIN CULLY: That I am.
WOMAN: He's guessing, Cully, gut him, before he does you the way the last
one did!
CAPTAIN CULLY: Well, that's only Molly Grue's way. But she has a good
heart, a good heart. (Puts his arm on her shoulder.)
MOLLY GRUE (brushes him off): Off with you.
SCHMENDRICK: And this lady, don't tell me, she must be your faithful and
beautiful companion.
MOLLY GRUE: Maybe he does know.
CAPTAIN CULLY: (laughs) Yes, splendid woman. You are welcome here,
sorcerer. Come to the fire and tell me what you've heard of dashing
Captain Cully and his band of freemen. (Sits him down) Have a taco.
(Scene: Later that night.)
CAPTAIN CULLY: You're a lucky guest this evening, magician. My minstrel,
Willy Gentle, here, was just about to inspire us by singing one of the
adventures of bold Captain Cully and his men.
(General groans and complaints from the men.)
"MERRY" MAN: Nay, Willy! Not that thing again!
MOLLY GRUE: Willy! Sing us a true song! Sing us one about Robin Hood!
CAPTAIN CULLY: There is no Robin Hood! Robin Hood is a myth!
SCHMENDRICK: (gets up and begins murmuring over and over again) Magic,
do as you will. Magic, magic, do as you will. (A wind starts up.)
CAPTAIN CULLY: And now, lads, with that out of the way -
MOLLY GRUE: Look! Oh, look there!
(A tall figure dressed in green comes striding into the campsite, with an
almost-as-tall maiden next to him.)
CAPTAIN CULLY: (rushes to greet them) Sir, madam, I welcome you to my
domain! My name is Captain Cully, of the greenwood! (he bows, and they
pass right through him.)
MOLLY GRUE: Oh, Robin! And Marian!
(Other figures come walking through the campsite.)
MEN: Friar Tuck! That's Friar Tuck there! Will Scarlett...
CAPTAIN CULLY: What is this? This is not happening! Robin Hood is a
myth! We are the reality! ...Magic is magic, but the truth is us! Right?
MEN: Robin! Mr. Hood, sir! Little John! Will! Wait for me! (they all run
after them) Robin! Marian!
MOLLY GRUE: Wait! Wait for me! Marian! (also runs after them)
SCHMENDRICK: (is laughing is head off on the floor) It worked! It worked!
I said "Magic, do as you will", and it worked!
CAPTAIN CULLY: (holds a knife at Schmendrick's neck) That was a
dangerous diversion, Sir Sorcerer.
JACK JINGLY: He's no hedge wizard, Cully. I don't know what he is, ta tell
you the truth. Tie him up, and do you guard him tanight, Cully. (They tie
him to a large tree, with his face in its trunk.) And in the morning, we'll
see what's to be done with a wizard who can call up Robin Hood! Should be
worth something, eh, Cully? (laughs)
CAPTAIN CULLY: Yes indeed! We'll sell him! We'll both be gentlemen of
leisure in a month's time! (laughs)
(Scene: Slightly later. Schmendrick is tied to the tree.)
SCHMENDRICK: I don't even care! [Gotonius basni varsinisn basti gumtina
crosti stormily hasti!]
(Weird lights; the tree comes alive.)
TREE: Oh. Oh. Oh, I love you. I love you. Love love love love love love love
love love.
SCHMENDRICK: Oh, what have I done?
TREE: Always, always. Faithfulness beyond any man's deserving. I will
keep the colour in your eyes when no other in the world remembers your
name. (She mushes Schmendrick's face in her trunk.) There is no
immortality but a tree's love.
SCHMENDRICK: Oh, no, I'm engaged to a Douglas fir. (yells) Help, unicorn,
where are you!?
(Lightning; the unicorn is illuminated and she begins walking toward the
tree.)
TREE: Ooh, galls and fireblight! She shall never have you, the hussy! We
will perish together!
(The unicorn cuts Schmendrick's rope with her horn. The tree goes dead
again. Schmendrick follows her bashfully.)
(Scene: Another part of the forest.)
SCHMENDRICK: Did you see me? Were you watching, did - did you see what
I made?
UNICORN: Yes. It was true magic.
SCHMENDRICK: Yeah. It's gone now, but I-I had it. It had me, but it's gone.
I-I couldn't hold it.
(Molly Grue is in wait ahead of them.)
MOLLY GRUE: Leaving us so early, magician?
(The unicorn jumps into the bushes by the side of the road; too late.)
MOLLY GRUE: (gasps) No. Can it truly be? Where have you been? Where
have you been? (yells) Damn you, where have you been!?
SCHMENDRICK: Don't you talk to her that way!
UNICORN: I am here now.
MOLLY GRUE: (laughs bitterly) Oh? And where were you twenty years ago,
ten years ago? Where were you when I was new? When I was one of those
innocent, young maidens you always come to? How dare you, how dare you
come to me now, when I am this? (She begins crying. The unicorn puts her
head in Molly's lap, and she caresses it.)
SCHMENDRICK: Can you really see her? Do you really know what she is?
MOLLY GRUE: If you had been waiting to see a unicorn as long as I have...
SCHMENDRICK: She's the last unicorn in the world.
MOLLY GRUE: It would be the last unicorn in the world that came to Molly
Grue. (She sniffs.) It's all right. I forgive you.
SCHMENDRICK: Well, it's time for us to go now.
MOLLY GRUE: (gets up) I'm ready.
SCHMENDRICK: You can't come with us! We're on a quest!
MOLLY GRUE: Can't I? Ask her.
SCHMENDRICK: Never! I, Schmendrick the Magician, forbid it! And be wary
of wousing a wizard's wrath - rousing a rizard's - rou - Be wary of making
a-a magician angry! If I chose I could turn you into a frog -
MOLLY GRUE: (laughs) I should laugh myself sick. Have sense, man. What
were you going to do with the last unicorn in the world - keep her in a
cage?
SCHMENDRICK: Oh, you don't even know where we're going!
MOLLY GRUE: Do you think it matters to me?
SCHMENDRICK: We are journeying to King Haggard's country to find the Red
Bull!
MOLLY GRUE: Well, you're going the wrong way. (Begins walking in a
different direction.)
(Scene: A brown valley.)
MOLLY GRUE: I'm sorry, but you were going the wrong way, magician.
SCHMENDRICK: Well, it was a shortcut.
(Scene: A cliff overlooking a decrepit, evil-looking castle.)
SCHMENDRICK: Haggard's fortress. We'll be there tomorrow if we walk all
night.
UNICORN: Where does King Haggard keep the Red Bull?
SCHMENDRICK: I have heard that he roams at night and lies up by day in a
great cavern beneath the castle - but we'll know soon enough.
AMERICA: Moon rising, disguising
Lonely streets in gay display
The stars fade, the nightshade
Closing makes the world afraid.
It waits in silence for the sky to explode.
Here I am, on man's road.
Walking man's road...
(Song Scenes: The party is lying down against trees. The moon gives off a
fiery red light which reflects on their sleeping faces. Molly wakes.)
MOLLY GRUE: Schmendrick, the light!
(The Red Bull comes. The unicorn runs away in fear. He chases her across
the forest, never losing ground.)
MOLLY GRUE: Do something!
SCHMENDRICK: He's driving her! He can't want to kill her or-or he would
have done it by now!
(more chase scenes...)
SCHMENDRICK: He's driving her the way he drove the others - to the castle,
to King Haggard.
MOLLY GRUE: Please! Please do something!
SCHMENDRICK: What can I do? Do you think the Red Bull likes card tricks?
(chasing... The Red Bull is winning.)
SCHMENDRICK: If I could I'd change her into some other creature, some
beast too humble for the Bull to be concerned with. But that would take a
real magician, with real magic - and I can't pretend any more.
MOLLY GRUE: But you do. You have magic. Maybe you can't find it, but it's
there. You called Robin Hood, and there is no Robin Hood. You have all the
power you need, if you dare to look for it.
(The unicorn submits to the Red Bull. She walks slowly before him.)
MOLLY GRUE: Please! It's not fair!
SCHMENDRICK: Run! Run, now! Run!
(The unicorn doesn't listen to him; she plods on, depressed.)
(Schmendrick tries to run in front of the Red Bull; he is thrown aside.)
MOLLY GRUE: Schmendrick!
SCHMENDRICK: (gets up.) Magic, magic, do as you will (repeats in a low
voice. Lines of power stream from his fingers towards the unicorn. He
slowly falls onto his knees and then his face. The Red Bull noses a white
shape on the ground and then walks off. Molly rushes to the side of what
used to be the unicorn.)
MOLLY GRUE (to Schmendrick): What have you done? (holds up the head of a
human girl with a white face and white hair. A brown mark that looks like
a star is on her forehead.)
MOLLY GRUE: What have you done? What have you done!?
(Schmendrick joins her.)
SCHMENDRICK: (excited) What do you mean, what have I done? Only saved
her from the Red Bull by magic, that's all I've done! By magic! By my own
true magic! Doubtless you are wondering how I plan to return her to her
proper shape. Wonder not. The power will come to me whenever I need it.
And one day, one day it will come to me when I call! You were right! You
were right.
MOLLY GRUE: I didn't know you meant to turn her into a human girl!
SCHMENDRICK: The Red Bull came for a unicorn, so she had to become
something else. The magic chose the shape, not I. I am a bearer! I am a
dwelling! I am a messenger!
MOLLY GRUE: You are an idiot! Do you hear me? You lost her! You trapped
her in a human body! She'll go mad!
(The girl begins to stir. She wakes up, and tries to stand.)
SCHMENDRICK: I can change her back. Don't worry about it. I-I can change
her back.
(The girl falls, and goes on all fours.)
GIRL: What have you done to me?
MOLLY GRUE: (begins crying)Oh, no. Oh, please, no!
SCHMENDRICK: (to the girl) You see, I couldn't think of anything else I could
do to save you.
GIRL: What have you done to me? (She hugs herself, and her voice sounds
like a neigh.) I'm a unicorn! I'm a unicorn!
MOLLY GRUE: (grabs her arm) Don't! Don't you hurt yourself! (She drapes
Schmendrick's cloak around the girl's shoulders.)
SCHMENDRICK: Be still! The magic knew what it was doing. In this shape
alone you have some hope of reaching King Haggard and finding out what
has become of the other unicorns.
GIRL (sad voice): I wish you had let the Red Bull take me. I wish you had
left me to the harpy! I can feel this body dying all around me!
SCHMENDRICK: But - but it's only for a little while, I promise you! Soon
you'll have your true shape again, forever!
MOLLY GRUE: Why not now? Schmendrick, you can't let her stay like this,
you can't possibly!
SCHMENDRICK: Why not? Unless you think you could defeat the Bull if you
met him again.
GIRL: No. (She takes the cloak herself and holds it in place.) And I'm afraid
of this human body - more than I was of the Red Bull - afraid!
(Scene: A battlement atop King Haggard's tower. Two sentries are on
guard. The first {VOICE OF CHRISTOPHER LEE} is slower and older than the
second {VOICE OF JEFF BRIDGES}.)
FIRST SENTINEL: A man, and two women, coming here?
SECOND SENTINEL: The young girl - she looks so strange. She has a
newness to her.
(Scene: The front gate of the castle. The two sentinels await the three
travellers. The pale girl has Schmendrick's cloak around her shoulders.)
FIRST SENTINEL: (bars their way) Give your names.
SCHMENDRICK: I am Schmendrick, the Magician. This is Molly Grue, my
helper, and this, this is - this is... the Lady Amalthea. We seek audience
with King Haggard.
FIRST SENTINEL: State your business with King Haggard.
SCHMENDRICK: I will, but to King Haggard himself.
(The first sentinel leads them into the castle and through a dark stairway
down. The floor shakes abruptly and a roar is heard. The Lady Amalthea
cries out.)
SECOND SENTINEL: No, no, it's all right, don't be afraid. It's just the Bull.
(Scene: A dark room with one window and an old, stone seat at one end.)
FIRST SENTINEL: This is King Haggard's throne room.
SCHMENDRICK: Throne room? This is a cell. This is a tomb. Take us to
King Haggard!
(The first sentinel unlaces his helmet and takes it off. He has a grey face
and a thin beard.)
SENTINEL: I am King Haggard. This is Prince Lír, my son.
(The second sentinel takes off his helmet to reveal a friendly, red-headed
face.)
PRINCE LIR: Hi. Glad to meet you.
HAGGARD: (sits down on the chair) What is your concern with me?
SCHMENDRICK: We seek, Sire, to enter your service.
KING HAGGARD: I need no servants.
SCHMENDRICK: Oh, but surely, Sire, a magician, a fine cook, a -
KING HAGGARD: You are losing my interest, and that is very dangerous. My
"court" consists of four men-at-arms.
SCHMENDRICK: Four? But the pleasures of the court, Sire, the music, the
talk, the hunts and the balls and the great feasts -
KING HAGGARD: They are nothing to me. I have known them all, and they
have not made me happy. I will keep nothing near me that does not make
me happy! ...I also keep one magician.
SCHMENDRICK (taken aback): Oh, a magician, huh? What's his name?
KING HAGGARD: He is called Mabruk. He is known in his trade as "the
magician's magician". I can see no reason at all to replace him with some
vagrant, nameless, clownish -
MOLLY GRUE: I can. He doesn't, this marvellous Mabruk, doesn't make you
happy.
SCHMENDRICK: Molly, be still.
KING HAGGARD: And how would you know?
MOLLY GRUE: Well, just look at you!
SCHMENDRICK: Molly! (grabs her to quiet her)
KING HAGGARD: Did you hear that, Mabruk?
(In a haze of smoke, an old man with harsh eyes {VOICE OF PAUL FREES} appears. He wears a
crown and a spangled robe.)
MABRUK: What does your majesty wish of me? Schmendrick, my dear boy,
how nice to see you! (walks over to Schmendrick)
KING HAGGARD: He has come to take your place. He is now my royal
magician.
MOLLY GRUE (whispers to Schmendrick): See?
SCHMENDRICK: (whispers to Molly) Shhh!
MABRUK: The legendary Schmendrick? "The Runeless Wonder?" I realize
your majesty is a great collector of - oddities, but-
KING HAGGARD: The woman is right. A master magician has not made me
happy. I will see what an incompetent one can do. You may go, Mabruk.
MABRUK (very angry look): I am not packed off as easily as that!
(A wind rises in the room. Lír steps in front of Amalthea, hand on his
sword hilt. Amalthea walks past him. The mark on her forehead begins to
glow. The wind dies down, and the only sound left is Mabruk's laughing.)
PRINCE LIR (puts his hand on Mabruk's shoulder): Come on, old man. I'll write you a
reference.
MABRUK: (laughs) Haggard, I would not be you for all the world! You have
let your doom in by the front door, but it will not depart that way!
Farewell, poor Haggard! Farewell... (He laughs and disappears the same
way he appeared.)
(The Lady Amalthea is looking out the window. Haggard comes toward her.
AMALTHEA: (turns at Haggard's approach) Don't!
KING HAGGARD: I will not touch you. What are you looking at?
LADY AMALTHEA: The sea.
KING HAGGARD: Ah, yes. The sea is always good. There is nothing that I
can look at for very long, except the sea. (He stares into her eyes and sees
in them her forest, with woodland animals in it.)
KING HAGGARD: (shouts suddenly) What is the matter with your eyes? Why
can I not see myself in your eyes?
(The Lady Amalthea does not answer.)
KING HAGGARD (to Schmendrick): Who is she!?
SCHMENDRICK: Oh, your majesty, the Lady Amalthea is my niece -
KING HAGGARD: I want to know who she is!
PRINCE LIR: Father, what difference does it make? She's here!
KING HAGGARD (looks at Lír): For once, you are right. She is here. They are
all here. And whether they mean my doom or not, I will look at them for a
while. (To Amalthea) You may come and go as you please. My secrets
guard themselves. Will yours do the same? (Walks off)
PRINCE LIR (to Amalthea): Say, I know where there's some cloth, fine satin. We
could make a dress. (INTRO) Please, lady, let me help you. What can I do
for you? Trust me!
AMERICA: In the sea,
The fish have learned to fly,
On a moonlit night,
On wings of silver,
As the enchanted stars
Sail serenely by.
Do they know
Where do unicorns go?
Where winged horses fly?
Narwhals lost at sea
And never seen again.
Go, go and ask the magpie,
"Where do unicorns go?"
In the trees,
The birds have learned to speak,
Many-coloured,
They keep their secrets
In a parade of clouds
Playing hide and seek.
Do they know,
Where do unicorns go?
Where winged horses fly?
Narwhals lost at sea,
And never seen again.
Does myth and mystery lie
Where the unicorns go?
(Song Scenes: Amalthea looking at the sea; Molly working as a kitchen
maid, washing dishes; Prince Lír going out to battle a dragon, and offering
the head to Amalthea, who is not impressed by it; a copper-and-ashes cat
with an eye patch knocks Schmendrick's juggling balls out of the ring and
chases it to the kitchen.)
(Scene: Lír and Molly are in the kitchen. Lír is peeling potatoes and Molly
is helping him.)
PRINCE LIR: Ow. Mm. And then, she looked at me, and I was sorry I had killed the
thing. Sorry for killing a dragon. Imagine - (Nicks himself with the knife)
Ow!
MOLLY GRUE: Cut away from yourself, not toward. You know, your highness,
I really think you should try something else.
PRINCE LIR: But what's left on earth that I haven't tried? Giants, ogres, black
knights, terrible tasks, fatal riddles! Molly, for her sake I've become a
hero, but my great deeds mean nothing to her!
MOLLY GRUE: Then perhaps the Lady Amalthea is not to be won by great
deeds!
PRINCE LIR: Who is she, Molly? Where does she come from? I don't know any more
about her than I did the first day she came here.
MOLLY GRUE: Your highness-
PRINCE LIR: Except that I wish to serve her, as you do, to help her find whatever
she has come here to find. I wish to be whatever she has most need of.
Will you tell her so?
MOLLY GRUE: I think if you told her yourself-
PRINCE LIR: But she never speaks to me, Molly! Not a word, not a word in all this
time!
(Scene: A balcony overlooking the sea. Molly Grue walks toward the Lady
Amalthea, who is staring over the balcony at the sea.)
MOLLY GRUE: You are cruel to him. You might give him a gentle word, at the
very least. He only wishes you to think of him.
LADY AMALTHEA: Molly? (INTRO) ...Who am I? Why am I here? What is it
that I am seeking in this strange place, day after day? I-I knew a moment
ago, but I-I have forgotten.
MOLLY GRUE: The unicorns. If you are not the last...
LADY AMALTHEA: Once, I can't remember,
I was long ago,
Someone strange,
I was innocent and wise,
And full of pain.
Now that I'm a woman,
Everything is strange.
LADY AMALTHEA: I must go to him. I must face the Bull again and discover
what he has done with them, before I forget myself forever. But I don't
know where to find him. And I'm lonely.
LADY AMALTHEA: Once, when I was searching
Somewhere out of reach,
Far away,
In a place I could not find
Or heart obey,
Now that I'm a woman,
Everything has changed,
Everything has changed,
Everything has changed.
(Song scenes: A large room in the castle with unicorns on the ceiling;
unicorns in the clouds.)
MOLLY GRUE: Schmendrick will find a way down to the Red Bull. He has
been searching every day.
LADY AMALTHEA: I hope for no help from him. He's no magician now, but
the king's poor clown.
MOLLY GRUE: He's doing it for you! He plays the fool for Haggard, trying to
divert him from wondering what you are. You do wrong to mock him.
LADY AMALTHEA: Forgive me. (She runs away, into the castle.)
MOLLY GRUE: My lady!
(The castle shakes and the Bull roars. Molly gasps. The copper-and-ashes
cat {VOICE OF DON MESSICK} seen before walks down the stairs toward her.)
CAT: The Bull be going out. He goes out every sundown to hunt for the
strange white beast that escaped him. You know that perfectly well, so
don't be stupid. (Molly picks him up.) Har-har. So that be a unicorn! She
is very beautiful.
MOLLY GRUE: How do you know she's a unicorn?
CAT: No cat out of its first fur can ever be deceived by appearances.
Unlike human beings, who seems to enjoy it. Ye have very little time.
Soon there'll be a human woman in that body and no unicorn at all ever
again. It may be that she'll marry the good prince, who loves her. (They
have reached the kitchen; Molly puts the cat down on the table and rubs
him between the ears. He closes his eye.) Oh. Oh, purr, purr. Do that. Yes.
That be nice.
MOLLY GRUE: (stops rubbing him) No. No, that cannot be. She is the last.
CAT: (opens his eye with an annoyed look) Well, then, she must do what she
came to do. She must take the king's way down to the Red Bull.
(Molly grabs him and picks him up. He lets out a squeak.)
MOLLY GRUE: Is there a way? Tell me the way. Tell me where we must go!
CAT: Avast! Hark ye closely, mum. When the wine drinks itself, when the
skull speaks, when the clock strikes the right time. Only then will you
find the tunnel that leads to the Red Bull's lair, har har. There be a trick
to it, of course.
(He slithers out of Molly's hands and lands on his feet.)
MOLLY GRUE: Why won't you help me? Why must you always speak in
riddles?
CAT: Because I be what I be. I would tell you what you want to know if I
could, mum, but I be a cat, and no cat anywhere ever gave anyone a
straight answer, har har. (Lifts up his eye patch to reveal a perfectly good
eye.)
(Scene: A balcony of the castle. Snow and wind predominate. King Haggard
snaps his fingers to summon Schmendrick, who loses his coat trying to
get his cards out. Haggard laughs silently.)
(Scene: The kitchen. Molly is giving Schmendrick a hot soup.)
SCHMENDRICK: I can't do this very much longer. He had me juggling teacups
for him all night long. Teacups! With tea in them!
MOLLY GRUE: Schmendrick, I didn't tell you. I found the skull! The one the
cat was talking about. It's up on a pillar in the Great Hall. And the clock -
SCHMENDRICK: Molly, he knows. King Haggard knows what Lady Amalthea
is, I'm sure of it.
MOLLY GRUE: What can we do?
PRINCE LIR (comes down the steps): Molly? I've practically got the whole poem
now, if you wanted to look at it.
MOLLY GRUE: Oh! Yes, of course, your highness. Whatever you like.
(Scene: A confused dream involving scenes from the Midnight Carnival
disaster. Lady Amalthea awakes. Lír's voice can be heard coming up the
steps. He's holding a poem in his hands.)
PRINCE LIR: The lift of longing, the crash of loss, the bitterness of - cross?
Boss? Moss? Damn!
(Lady Amalthea, in her nightgown, comes down the other side of the steps,
a mad and frightened look in her eyes.)
PRINCE LIR: Good evening, my lady.
LADY AMALTHEA: Who are you?
PRINCE LIR: I'm Lír. Don't you know me? I'm Lír.
LADY AMALTHEA: Lír. Prince Lír.
PRINCE LIR: You were dreaming, my lady.
LADY AMALTHEA: Well, I'm always dreaming, even when I'm awake. It is
never finished. I-I will not trouble you, my lord prince. (She begins to
walk away hurriedly.)
PRINCE LIR: Trouble me! Please, trouble me! I would court you with more grace if
I knew how. I wish you wanted something.
LADY AMALTHEA: (INTRO) Drown out my dreams. Keep me from
remembering - whatever wants me to remember it.
PRINCE LIR: I've had time to write a book about
The way you act and look -
I haven't got a paragraph.
Words are always getting in my way,
Anyway, I love you,
That's all I have to tell you,
That's all I've got to say.
And now, I'd like to make a speech about
The love that touches each,
But, stumbling, I would make you laugh.
I feel as though my tongue were made of clay,
Anyway, I love you,
That's all I have to tell you.
I'm not a man of poetry,
Music isn't one with me,
It runs from me,
Runs from me.
PRINCE LIR: And I would like to write a symphony
LADY AMALTHEA: Once, when I was searching
PRINCE LIR: I lost the melody.
Alas, I only finished half.
LADY AMALTHEA: Somewhere out of reach, far away,
PRINCE LIR: And finish I suppose I never may,
Anyway, I love you.
LADY AMALTHEA: In a place I could not find, or heart obey.
PRINCE LIR: That's all I have to tell you.
LADY AMALTHEA: Now that I'm a woman,
PRINCE LIR: That's all I've got to say.
LADY AMALTHEA: Now I know the way.
PRINCE LIR:That's all I've got to say.
LADY AMALTHEA: Now I know the way.
PRINCE LIR+AMALTHEA: That's all I've got to say.
(Song Scenes: Normal love stuff involving doves and unicorns and pools
with ripples.)
(Scene: The Great Hall. Schmendrick is staring at a great broken clock
chiming continuously, out of tune, and a skeleton nearby.)
SCHMENDRICK: Great. Just what I need. Riddles. When the wine drinks
itself, when the skull speaks, when the clock strikes the right time. As if
I didn't have enough troubles. I wonder what time it is.
(We hear the voices of Lír and Amalthea descending the staircase.
Schmendrick hides in a corner.)
PRINCE LIR: Well, of course you're of noble birth; anybody can see that. I mean,
you can't really be that ridiculous magician's niece. That's out of the
question.
(They pass by; Schmendrick come out of hiding and gazes after them.)
(Scene: The balcony overlooking the sea. Amalthea is gazing out to sea.)
LADY AMALTHEA: Your majesty?
KING HAGGARD: (laughs) Love is slowing you down, my lady. (Walks toward
her.) I will catch you at last if you love much more.
LADY AMALTHEA: Look, your son is coming home.
KING HAGGARD: (looks disdainfully out to the road) Lír? He's none of mine.
I picked him up on a doorstep where some peasant had left him. I was
thinking that I had never been happy, and never had a son. It was pleasant
at first, but it died quickly. There is only one thing that has ever made me
happy.
LADY AMALTHEA: What is that?
KING HAGGARD (menacing voice): Do not mock me. I know very well what
you have come for, and you know very well that I have them; try to take
them if you can, but do not mock me! (He shakes her by the shoulder.)
LADY AMALTHEA: My lord, in all your castle, in all your realm, there is
nothing of yours that I desire. Good day, your majesty. (She turns to
leave.)
KING HAGGARD (shouts suddenly): I know you! I almost knew you as soon
as I saw you coming on the road, with your cook and your clown; since
then, there is no movement of yours that has not betrayed you! A pace, a
glance, a turn of the head, the flash of your throat as you breathe, even
your way of standing perfectly still, they were all my spies! ...You made
me wonder for a while. But your time is done. (He looks out to sea. His
voice fills with wonder.) The tide is turning. Come and see. Come here.
(She obeys.) There. (He points to the sea.) There they are. There they are!
They are mine! They belong to me! The Red Bull gathered them for me
one by one, and I bade him drive each one into the sea! Now, they live
there. And every tide carries them within an easy step of the land, but
they dare not come out of the water! They are afraid of the Red Bull. ...I
like to watch them. They fill me with joy. ...The first time I felt it I
thought I was going to die.
(Flashback scene: Two unicorns are fondling each other in a wood.)
KING HAGGARD: (voice-over) I said to the Red Bull, "I must have them. I
must have all of them, all there are, for nothing makes me happy, but their
shining, and their grace." So the Red Bull caught them.
(Scene similar to the butterfly scene: showing the Red Bull driving
unicorns into the sea.)
KING HAGGARD (voice-over): Each time I see the unicorns, my unicorns, it
is like that morning in the woods, and I am truly young, in spite of myself!
(Scene returns to the balcony.)
KING HAGGARD: You are the last.
LADY AMALTHEA: My lord, I-I do not understand. I see nothing at all in the
water!
KING HAGGARD: Do you still deny yourself? Do you dare still pretend to be
human? I'll hurl you down to the others with my own hands if you dare
deny yourself!
LADY AMALTHEA: What are you saying!?
KING HAGGARD: It must be so; I cannot be mistaken. Yet - your eyes. Your
eyes have become empty, as Lír's - as any eyes that - never saw unicorns.
(He looks deeply into her eyes, and he sees only his reflection.) It makes
no difference. I can wait. The end will be the same. I can wait. (He
leaves.)
LADY AMALTHEA: (puts her head into her arms and begins to sob): He is
mad! Mad!
SCHMENDRICK: (walks up and comforts her) Shhh, don't, don't, don't. It's all
right. We'll find them. Come on, come to me. Oh, please, please don't cry.
If you've become human enough to cry then no magic in the world can
change you back. Just come with me. Shh, don't cry. I promise you we'll
find them.
(Scene: The Great Hall. Schmendrick, Molly, and Amalthea are standing
before the skeleton {VOICE OF RENE AUBERJONOIS}, which is laughing like
crazy.)
SCHMENDRICK: Shut up, you pretentious kneecap! How would you like a
punch in the eye?
MOLLY GRUE: Schmendrick, you made it laugh anyway. Maybe that's all you
need for the riddle.
SKULL: It isn't. (laughs some more)
MOLLY GRUE: Oh! You can speak! Schmendrick, it worked!
SKULL: (laughs) Come on. Ask me how to find the Red Bull. Even Prince Lír
doesn't know the secret way, but I do. (laughs)
SCHMENDRICK: So you do, eh? Answer the riddle, then. Tell us the way.
SKULL: Say please.
SCHMENDRICK: Please.
SKULL: No. No!
MOLLY GRUE: Why not? What kind of game is this?
SKULL: (giggles) Oh, it's so nice to have someone to play with! Try me
tomorrow; maybe I'll tell you tomorrow! (laughs)
MOLLY GRUE: But we have no time! We may be too late now!
SKULL: I have time. I've got time enough for all of us. (laughs)
SCHMENDRICK: Never mind him. Give me the wine; let me see what I can do
with the wine.
SKULL: (interested) Wine?
[(There is a part cut out of my copy here. I've come as close as I could
with memory.)
MOLLY GRUE: I couldn't find any. I looked everywhere, but I don't think
there's a drop in the castle.
(Schmendrick glares at her.)
MOLLY GRUE: I *looked*.
SCHMENDRICK: Well, that's it, then. If we can't find the wine -
MOLLY GRUE: I thought, maybe if you had some water to start with -
(Molly takes out a flask of water.)]
SKULL: (laughs) Him? Turn water into wine? (laughs)
SCHMENDRICK: Keep quiet! (to Molly) Let me have it; I'll give it a try.
(takes the flask and opens it) Now you understand, it's not going to be very
good wine. Vin ordinaire, if that. And it'll be too sweet and... Well, here
goes. (Turns his back to the skull and mutters some words in a low voice.)
SKULL: What are you doing? Hey, do it over here, I can't see a thing!
SCHMENDRICK: (holds up the flask, back still to the skull.) It's weak at
best, no nose, no body. Hardly any bouquet at all. Well, that's done it, that's
finally done it! (turns the flask upside down. It's empty. Makes a move to
throw it away.)
SKULL: No, wait, hey, don't! Don't do that! Give it to me if you don't want
it, but don't throw it away! (strains toward it)
SCHMENDRICK: But you're dead! You can't smell wine, can't taste it!
SKULL: But I remember...
SCHMENDRICK: Well, if you should happen to remember the entrance to the
Red Bull's lair as well as you remember wine -
SKULL: Done! Give me one drink now and I'll tell you anything you want to
know.
SCHMENDRICK: You can have all of it - after you tell us the way.
SKULL: The way is through the clock.
SCHMENDRICK: Through that?
MOLLY GRUE: You mean, when the clock strikes the right time it opens, and
there's a secret stair?
SKULL: That clock will never strike the right time. You just walk through
it and the Red Bull is on the other side. Give me the wine.
SCHMENDRICK: Walk through a clock? What am I, a magician?
SKULL: To meet the Red Bull, you have to walk through time. A clock isn't
time, it's just numbers and springs. Pay it no mind, just walk right on
through. About that wine now...
(Schmendrick gives it the empty bottle and it drinks it lustily. An
alcoholic tinge lends itself to its cheeks when it's finished.)
SKULL: Ah, that was the real stuff. That was WINE. You're more of a
magician than I thought.
SCHMENDRICK: Let's go.
MOLLY GRUE: My lady, it's time. We're going to find the others now.
SKULL: (drops the flask and becomes very angry.) Oh no. No you don't. Not
that one. (An alarm goes off.) Unicorn! Unicorn! Haggard! Haggard!
Unicorn! Unicorn!
SCHMENDRICK: Run! (They head for the clock ASAP.)
SKULL: Haggard! There they go! Down to the Red Bull! The clock, Haggard!
There they go! Unicorn! Unicorn!
(They reach the clock.)
SCHMENDRICK: Come on. Go on through. (Amalthea enters the clock and
disappears.)
MOLLY GRUE: Schmendrick! I don't think-
SCHMENDRICK: Go on!
(Molly also goes in. Haggard appears and tries to skewer Schmendrick.
Schmendrick tries to dodge him.)
(Molly and Amalthea are in a hazy, misty, strange place.)
MOLLY GRUE: It worked!
LADY AMALTHEA: Prince Lír!
(He comes out of the mists.)
PRINCE LIR: You would have gone without me?
LADY AMALTHEA: I would have come back. I don't know why I'm here or
who I am, but I would have come back.
PRINCE LIR: No, you would never have come back.
MOLLY GRUE: Never mind all that! Where's Schmendrick?
(Haggard is still trying to get Schmendrick. He nicks him on the head but
Schmendrick ducks through him into the clock.)
(Back in the clock.)
MOLLY GRUE: Where is he? I'll go back myself if you won't!
(Schmendrick walks out of the mists. One hand is on his head.)
MOLLY GRUE: Schmendrick!
SCHMENDRICK: It's all right, it's not deep. (He sees Lír.) How did you know
how to get in?
PRINCE LIR: What was there to know? I saw where she had gone and I followed.
(Haggard begins striking at the clock. It tumbles down.)
(The mists dissipate into a dark cavern.)
SCHMENDRICK: Haggard has destroyed the clock. Now there's no way back
and no way out but through the Red Bull's passage. (They begin walking.)
(Scene: Slightly later. Schmendrick is talking to Lír.)
SCHMENDRICK: And the rest you know. We came here seeking unicorns and
we have possibly found them, at last.
PRINCE LIR: I used to have a dream, over and over, about standing at my window in
the middle of the night and seeing the Bull, the Red Bull-
SCHMENDRICK: Yes. Driving unicorns into the sea. It was no dream.
Haggard has them all now, drifting in and out on the tide for his delight,
all but one. That one is the Lady Amalthea.
PRINCE LIR: Unicorn, mermaid, sorceress, no name you would give her would
surprise or frighten me. I love whom I love.
SCHMENDRICK: Well, that's a very nice sentiment. But when I change her
back into her true self-
PRINCE LIR: I love whom I love.
LADY AMALTHEA: (comes from the front of the party.) I heard what you
said. I will go no further.
SCHMENDRICK: There's no choice. We have to go on.
LADY AMALTHEA: (to Lír) Don't let him change me. The Red Bull has no care
for human beings. We may walk out past him and get away.
SCHMENDRICK: If we do that, all the unicorns in the world will remain
prisoner forever except one, and she will grow old and die.
LADY AMALTHEA: (to Lír) Everything dies. I want to die when you die. I'm
no unicorn, no magical creature! I'm human, and I love you. Don't let him!
Lír, I will not love you when I am a unicorn.
PRINCE LIR: Amalthea, don't.
SCHMENDRICK: Then let the quest end here. I don't think I could change her
back even if you wished it. Marry the prince and live happily ever after.
LADY AMALTHEA: Yes. That is my wish.
PRINCE LIR: No. Lady, I am a hero, and heroes know that things must happen when
it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned.
Unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever. The happy
ending cannot come in the middle of the story. (They walk ahead.)
MOLLY GRUE (to Schmendrick): But what if there isn't a happy ending at
all?
SCHMENDRICK: There are no happy endings, because nothing ends.
MOLLY GRUE: Schmendrick, let her stay the way she is. Let her be.
SCHMENDRICK: That's not in the story. Lír knows that, and so does she.
MOLLY GRUE: You don't care! You don't care what happens to her, or to the
others, just so you become a real magician at last. You don't care!
SCHMENDRICK: I wish I didn't! I wish to God I didn't care about anything
but my magic! But I do! I do.
MOLLY GRUE: Schmendrick!
(The Red Bull comes. He runs straight for the Lady Amalthea.)
SCHMENDRICK: Molly, he knows! He knows!
(Amalthea starts running, but she trips on a rock.)
LADY AMALTHEA: My ankle! Help!
PRINCE LIR: Amalthea!
(He jumps in front of her, sword out. It burns up in his hands.)
PRINCE LIR: Don't move! (The Red Bull crashes by him; he is thrown to the side.
The Bull turns again to Amalthea, who is again running.)
MOLLY GRUE: She'll be killed!
(Schmendrick stares at her. Then he stands up straight.)
SCHMENDRICK: [Agu coganu mutariti copona! Copona!]
(The power goes toward Lady Amalthea. She begins changing back to a
unicorn.)
LADY AMALTHEA: Lír!
PRINCE LIR: Amalthea!
(The change is complete; the unicorn begins running. They are out on the
seashore. The Red Bull chases her.)
MOLLY GRUE: Look!
(The Red Bull is winning again. We see King Haggard looking down from a
balcony atop the castle.)
PRINCE LIR (comes up to Schmendrick): Do something! You have the power! I will
kill you if you don't do something!
SCHMENDRICK: I cannot! Not all the magic in the world can help her now.
MOLLY GRUE: Then what is magic for? What is the use of wizardry, if it
cannot even save a unicorn?
SCHMENDRICK: That's what heroes are for.
PRINCE LIR: Of course, that's exactly what heroes are for.
(He jumps into the Red Bull's path. The Bull does not stop.)
MOLLY GRUE: No!
(Lír's body is face down in the ground. It does not move.)
(The unicorn looks at Lír's body and screams. Her horn lights up and she
begins attacking the Red Bull.)
SCHMENDRICK: She's attacking!
MOLLY GRUE: She's fighting back!
(The Red Bull's hoof touches the water. He turns around and begins
walking into the sea. He is covered by water, and on the waves coming
back in, the unicorns ride. There are hundreds of them, coming in on the
tide. They begin running out to shore, and they circumvent Schmendrick
and Molly, standing by Lír's body. They go around the castle, which begins
to crumble. The floor breaks from under King Haggard's feet.)
KING HAGGARD: The last! I knew you were the last!
(He gives a final laugh as he falls down to the sea. Some of the castle's
pieces shrink and disappear in midair; others fall into the sea.)
(Scene: The seashore. The unicorns have passed; only one remains, who
puts her head in Molly's tear-streaked face.)
MOLLY GRUE: Oh, you stayed. You stayed.
(The unicorn looks at Lír's body. She touches him with her horn. Lír
awakes.)
PRINCE LIR: Father? Father, I had that same dream... No. No, I was dead!
(The unicorn watches Molly and Schmendrick help him up from a
mountainside.)
UNICORN (voice only) I remember you. I remember.
(Lír sees her run away from them.)
(Scene: A forest. Schmendrick and Molly are with Lír.)
PRINCE LIR: I will miss you. I never had any friends before. (Hugs each one.)
SCHMENDRICK: We will come back.
PRINCE LIR: I wish I could see her just once more, to - to tell her all that's in my
heart. She will never know what I really meant to say.
SCHMENDRICK: She will remember your heart when men are fairy tales in
books written by rabbits. Of all unicorns, she is the only one who knows
what regret is - and love.
(Lír gets on his horse and rides away.)
SCHMENDRICK: (turns to Molly) Come with me?
MOLLY GRUE: I will.
(Scene: An open field at night. Molly is sleeping; Schmendrick has
awakened to find the unicorn there.)
UNICORN: You are a true wizard now, as you always wished. Does it make
you happy?
SCHMENDRICK: Well, men don't always know when they're happy, but I-I
think so. And you?
UNICORN: I am a little afraid to go home. I have been mortal, and some
part of me is mortal yet. I am no longer like the others; for no unicorn
was ever born who could regret. But now I do. I regret.
SCHMENDRICK: I am sorry, I have done you evil and I cannot undo it.
UNICORN: No. Unicorns are in the world again. No sorrow will live in me
as long as that joy - save one, and I thank you for that part too. Farewell,
good magician. I will try to go home.
(Schmendrick nods. He wakes up Molly and they both see the unicorn
shining before she dashes away...)
AMERICA: I'm Alive!
I'm Alive!
When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning,
And the future has passed without even a last desperate warning,
Then look into the stars, where through the clouds a path is torn,
Look and see her, how she sparkles, it's the last unicorn!
I'm Alive!
I'm Alive!
(Song scenes: Changing scenery with the unicorn running; finally
returns to her forest at night with the moon shining above the
trees.)
FINIS