Script To Screen: “The Iron Giant”
Published in
4 min readAug 19, 2018
A dramatic scene from the wonderful 1999 animated movie The Iron Giant, screenplay by Tim McCanlies, screen story by Brad Bird, book by Ted Hughes.
Plot Summary: A boy makes friends with an innocent alien giant robot that a paranoid government agent wants to destroy.
EXT. CLIFF - DAYHogarth and the Giant watch the missiles streak into the sky.HOGARTH
What's happening-- ?Hogarth looks out at the sea. On the decks of one of the
warships, he can see people panicking.HOGARTH
There must be some mistake.He looks up at the sky again. A look of fear comes over him.
He begins to pace.HOGARTH
Oh no... oh no...In his voice is a note of desperation we've never heard
before. The Giant seems to notice. He looks at Hogarth
puzzled, trying to understand. Hogarth points at the sky.HOGARTH
The missiles. Missiles! They're nuclear.
Nu-cle-ar. When they come down...He mimes a missile coming down and exploding.HOGARTH (cont'd)
Death...The Giant reacts. Hogarth gestures at the town around him.HOGARTH
...everything...The Giant looks at the sky, then at the town, and after a
moment, back at Hogarth. He picks up two leaves, one green
and one brown.He gives Hogarth the green leaf, keeping the brown one for
himself.HOGARTH
What? What do you mean? I don't
understand!The Giant looks at Hogarth, gently touching the side of his
face with a massive finger. And with that, the Giant blasts
off into the sky. Hogarth looks at his leaf again, and a
look of dawning comprehension comes over himEXT. SPACE - UPPER ATMOSPHERE OVER EASTERN U.S. COASTThe Giant BLASTS ALONG at full power to catch up. His radar
tracking, the giant spots the missiles. Suddenly TWO of the
missles' rockets fire, sending them off toward separate
targets on the earth's surface......while the DAMAGED MISSLE just FIZZLES, and slowly starts
to drop straight down toward Maine far below.INT. AGENT'S CARAnnie and Dean look out the back window.ANNIE
What is it?DEAN
Polaris missile, I think.ANNIE
Shouldn't we get to a shelter?DEAN
It wouldn't matter.They look at each for a long, silent beat. Then he reaches
out and takes her hand.EXT. ROCKWELLA deathly HUSH has fallen over all assembled. Kent, looking
ASHEN, starts slowly backing toward the jeep, and escape.
Without turning around, the General barks loudly at Kent.GENERAL
This is your party, Mansley. Don't even
think about leaving early. Lieutenant??The Lieutenant pulls his sidearm and levels it at Kent. Kent
WINCES, caught.EXT. SPACE - UPPER ATMOSPHEREThe Giant takes off after the first missile. He concentrates,
and the panel on his arm opens up, revealing the now familiar
weapon. He FIRES at the distant glare of the missile rockets
... igniting the warhead on the second shot. There is a
blinding FLASH, followed by a shockwave, but the Giant
remains intact.He doubles back in pursuit of the second missle. Sighting
it, he FIRES --and MISSES repeatedly, losing valuable time as
he moves closer and closer to the missile.Finally he hits it. It EXPLODES too near him, pummeling him,
throwing him back. The Giant recovers and tries to shoot the
remaining missile.EXT. CLIFFSeveral jeeps pull up beside Hogarth who is staring at the
sky. The General and a group of soldiers jump out. Kent,
flanked by soldiers with pistols on him, sits silently in the
back of the jeep. The Captain scoops up Hogarth in his arms
and stares at the sky as well.IN SPACE - ABOVE THE ATLANTIC OCEANThe Giant spots the third missile arcing down toward Maine
and his beloved Rockwell. He CUTS IN HIS AFTERBURNERS, zooms
toward it.The giant catches up to the third missile, but his weapons
are CHARRED, unable to fire. There's only one option left...WITH THE GIANTThe ROAR of his engines fades into silence as a look of peace
falls over his iron face. He wraps his arms around the nose
of the missile, closing his eyes......and slams his fist into the tip of the bomb--FROM EARTHThe blackness of the night sky goes brilliant WHITE.EXT. ROCKWELL - NIGHTLining the streets, the town people see the brilliant white
sky darken, turn back into night... as one, the crowd CHEERS.EXT. OUTER SPACE OVER ASIA - NIGHTPieces of the giant rain all over the Eastern Hemisphere, in
a spectacular display.
Here is the movie version of the scene:
Many differences between the script and the movie. Here are a few:
- Much less dialogue which is so often the case. Through the shooting, editing and testing process, filmmakers will find the visuals make what seemed like necessary exposition unneeded.
- Instead of three errant rockets, only one. That’s an intriguing choice because multiple warheads creates — in theory — a more dramatic scenario, putting the Giant into more of an underdog role. However here, I suspect what went on is they wanted to focus on the emotional point of the scene — the Giant’s self-sacrifice — and making it Giant vs. one rocket allowed them to do that.
- And there’s this: “Superman.” The actualization of the Giant’s metamorphosis into something bigger than himself by embracing his connection to humanity.
Such a terrific movie. And whatever happened to this dude Brad Bird? Anybody know? ;)
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 weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
For more Script To Screen articles, go here.
