Script To Screen: “Chinatown”

The memorable ending of the classic 1974 movie Chinatown, written by Robert Towne.

Setup: In his investigation, private eye Jake Gittes has uncovered a web of deceit involving the Noah Cross family… and now destiny intervenes.

EXT. CHINATOWN STREET – NIGHT

The streets are crowded. Here and there one can see
Chinese in traditional dress.

GITTES

Driving slowly, spots Katherine with Ramon and
luggage, nearly lost in the crowd. They are walking
toward a car parked near a laundry truck.

Gittes sees them, keeps driving.

CROSS
(suddenly)
Stop the car. Stop the car!

Mulvihill tries to clobber Gittes. Gittes elbows him.
The car jumps the curb and hits a lamppost.

EXT. STREET – CROSS

Leaps out of the car shouting:

CROSS
Katherine! Katherine! Wait!

Gittes is after him, grabbing him. Cross tries to
swing at Gittes with his cane. Mulvihill comes up
behind Gittes and the three of them begin an awkward
wrestling match, the crowd scattering, Mulvihill
pulling his revolver, trying to hit Gittes on the
side of the head. The three men crash to the
pavement.

CURLY

Starts out of the car toward Gittes. Gittes sees him.

GITTES
No, Curly, get 'em out of here! Get
'em out of here!

He bites Mulvihill's hand and furiously pounds it
into the sidewalk, shaking gun loose. Mulvihill and
Gittes try for it but someone else has it.

EVELYN

Holds the gun. She's shaking but apparently in
control of herself.

GITTES

Rises to his feet. Mulvihill starts to help Cross up.

EVELYN
No, don't help him. Don't do anything.

Mulvihill doesn't move. Cross rises on his own.
Evelyn holds the revolver on him.

EVELYN
She's gone. It's no good.

CROSS
Where?

GITTES
(moving to Evelyn)
Let me handle that.

EVELYN
(to Gittes)
I'm all right.

GITTES
(she's not)
Sure, but I'd like to handle it.

Evelyn backs up as her father takes a step toward
her.

CROSS
You're going to have to kill me,
Evelyn. Either that or tell me where
she is.

Evelyn is backing up. Cross moving on her. Evelyn
cocks the pistol.

CROSS
How many years have I got?... she's
mine too.

EVELYN
She's never going to know that.

There's the SOUND of a SIREN. Cross lunges toward
her. Gittes grabs Cross.

Duffy and Walsh are elbowing through the crowd.
Gittes sees them.

GITTES
Duffy, go over and sit on Mulvihill.
(to Walsh)
Jesus Christ, I didn't tell you to
bring the police department with
you.

WALSH
Jake, it's Chinatown. They're all
over the place. You oughta know
better.

GITTES
(to Walsh, meaning
Cross)
Gimme your keys. Watch this old fart,
will you?
(moving to Evelyn)
Take Duffy's car. Curly's boat's in
Pedro, near the Starkist cannery.
It's the Evening Star. He'll be
waiting. I'll take care of this.

She looks to Gittes. He looks at her. She turns and
he looks at her.

She turns and Escobar is standing between her and it.

ESCOBAR
Mrs. Mulwray, you don't want to run
around like that.

GITTES
Oh, Christ. Escobar, you don't know
what's going on. Let her go. I'll
explain it later.

ESCOBAR
Mrs. Mulwray, it's a very serious
offense pointing that at an officer
of the law. It's a felony.

GITTES
Let her go. She didn't kill anybody.

ESCOBAR
(starting toward her)
I'm sorry, Mrs. Mulwray.

GITTES
Lou, she will kill you. Let her go
for now. You don't know.

ESCOBAR
Gittes, stay outta this.

Escobar continues to move toward her. Gittes grabs
him.

GITTES
(to Evelyn)
Now take off.

Evelyn gets in the car. She starts it. Gittes lets
Escobar go.

ESCOBAR
I'll just have her followed. She's
not going anywhere.

There's a single GUNSHOT. Both men look surprised.
Down the block a uniformed officer has fired,
standing beside his double-parked car.

Duffy's sedan slows to a stop in the middle of the
street. It jerks a couple of times, still in gear,
then comes to a halt.

Gittes rushes to the car. He opens it. Evelyn falls
out, inert.

Blood is pouring from her right eye.

GITTES
(yelling)
No!

He holds onto Evelyn as Escobar and others hurry up.
Cross himself elbows through.

GITTES
Where is he? I'll kill him, I'll
kill the son of a bitch.

Several officers contain Gittes.

GITTES
(to Escobar)
Who is he, get his name? I'll kill
him.

ESCOBAR
(badly shaken)
Take it easy, take it easy, it was
an accident.

GITTES
An accident?

Gittes looks down. What he sees horrifies him. Cross
is on the ground, holding Evelyn's body, crying.

GITTES
Get him away from her. He's
responsible for everything. Get him
away from her!

ESCOBAR
(stunned)
Jake, you're very disturbed. You're
crazy. That's her father.

Walsh and Duffy elbow through the crowd.

ESCOBAR
(to them)
You wanna do your partner the biggest
favor of his life? Take him home.
Just get him the hell out of here!

Duffy bear hugs the protesting Gittes, along with
Walsh, literally dragging him away from the scene,
with Gittes trying to shake free.

Through the crowd noises, Walsh can be heard saying,
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."

THE END

Here is the movie version of the last half of the scene:

There are many significant changes between script to screen:

• Evelyn doesn’t just point the gun at Cross, she shoots him in the shoulder.
• The fatal shot doesn’t come from a “uniformed officer” down the block, but one of the policemen standing with Gittes.
• Katherine plays a bigger role in the ending as she freaks out wailing over the death of her mother. Plus, Cross leads her away. This is a big change as it makes the tragedy much more intense: Evelyn just doesn’t die, her death is in vain as the indication is Katherine will end up in Cross’s care.

The biggest single note is this: A bunch of dialogue is cut from the movie scene. The effect combined with the compressed action is to up the tension considerably.

Robert Towne originally intended to have a happy ending. However, during pre-production Roman Polanski and Towne argued over it, with Polanski insisting on a tragic ending. Polanski won the argument and, when the picture was re-released in 1999, Towne admitted that he had been wrong.

Can you imagine Chinatown with a happy ending?

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

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