Cold Mountain

Ruby:
They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say 'Sh*t, it's raining!'

Ada:
What we have lost will never be returned to us. The land will not heal - too much blood. All we can do is learn from the past and make peace with it.

Inman:
You are all that keeps me from sliding into some dark place.

Ada:
But how did I keep you? We barely knew each other. A few moments.

Inman:
A thousand moments. They're like a bag of tiny diamonds glittering in a black heart. Don't matter if they're real or things I made up. The shape of your neck, that's real. You were always carrying a tray.

Ada:
You wouldn't come inside.

Inman:
I wouldn't come inside.

Ada:
I had to carry a tray to come out and see you.

Inman:
The way you felt when I pulled you to me. That kiss- which I kissed again everyday of my walking.

Ada:
Everyday of my waiting...

Ada:
I will not leave Cold Mountain. My last thread of courage is to wait... for you.

Inman:
I ain't getting shot again for some cause I don't believe in.

Ruby:
Old lady Swanger says you need help. Here I am.

Ada:
If you are fighting, stop fighting. If you are marching, stop marching. Come back to me. Come back to me is my request.

Ada:
I brought you this book... and this photo. I'm not smiling in it. I don't know how to do that... hold a smile.

Rev. Monroe:
I lost your mother after twenty-two months of marriage. It was enough for a lifetime.

Ada:
I can talk about farming in Latin. I can read French. I can lace up a corset, God knows. I can name the principal rivers in Europe, just don't ask me to name one stream in this county! I can embroider but I can't darn! I can arrange cut flowers but I can't grow them!

Ada:
When this war is over, there will be a reckoning.

Inman:
But I'm a deserter. If they find me here things could get bad for you.

Maddy:
What are they gonna do? Cut short me young life?

Ruby:
I despise a floggin' rooster.

Inman:
I fear this war; this awful war will have changed us beyond all reckoning.

Oakley:
Play me something sweet... like a girl's waiting for me.

Ada:
Inman. It is three years and I remember your name.

Ada:
I would have followed you anywhere... to Mongolia.

Teague:
He ain't coming back. You must know that in your heart. Look at me. I'm not nothing.

Ada:
Yesterday I saw you walking back to me.

Ruby:
Let's put him in a pot.

Veasey:
Thank you. I was going to do a grievous wrong.

Esco Swanger:
What exactly do you think you're going to be fighting for?

Acton Swanger:
The South!

Esco Swanger:
Last I checked, "the South" was a direction.

Ada:
I count the number of words that have passed between us, Inman and me - not very many. But I think about it.

Ada:
Ruby, this fence may be the first thing I ever did that might produce an actual result.

Inman:
She's the place I'm heading. But I hardly know her. I just can't seem to get back to her.

Ada:
My love where are you? With no hope of reaching you I write to you... as I have always done.

Inman:
Ada, I wanna marry you. If you'll have me.

Ada:
Isn't there some religion where you just say I marry you, three times, and then you're man and wife.

Inman:
I marry you, I marry you, I marry you.

Inman:
Why is that funny?

Ada:
No, I think it's I divorce you three times and then you're not married anymore.

Teague:
A reckoning is for your world not mine.

Inman:
This doesn't come out right. If it were enough to stand, without the words.

Ada:
It is, it is.

Inman:
Look at the sky now. What color is it? Or the way a hawk flies. Or you wake up and your ribs are bruised thinking so hard on somebody. What do you call that?

Bosie:
By order of Zebulon Vance, Governor of this great state of North Carolina: any soldier turned deserter is guilty of treason and shall be hunted down like a dog. Any man takes in a deserter is likewise guilty of treason.

Bosie:
King of Kings!

Inman:
Come out of there.

Bosie:
No, sir. Here's fine.

Inman:
I'll just have to shoot the horse from under you.

Bosie:
Shoot her. She's not mine. You riding Mr. Teague's mare?

Inman:
I am.

Bosie:
He dead?

Inman:
I hope so. Look, how old are you? Give me your gun and ride home, I'm done fighting. I'm sick of it.

Bosie:
I give you my gun and you'll shoot me dead.

Inman:
I will not shoot you, but nor am I walking down that mountain looking over my shoulder for you.

Bosie:
That's what you call a conundrum. I tell you what I've got on my side.

Inman:
What have you got on your side?

Bosie:
The confidence of youth.

Veasey:
Oh God of my God! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Junior:
What's up?

Veasey:
The Israelites! The tribes of Israel are about to flee from the banks of Egypt! Hallelujah!

Inman:
He's got a sh*t coming on. It's overdue.

Stobrod:
I wrote several tunes with you in mind - Ruby this, Ruby that, Ruby with the eyes that sparkle.

Ruby:
Hey, let's agree. You beat me, you abandoned me, you ignored me, and yet you beat me some more. And all that's better than Ruby with eyes that sparkle.

Inman:
I imagine God is weary of being called down on both sides of an argument.

Inman:
I came back for you.

Inman:
I'm wetter than a fish.

Ruby:
Ain't no man better than me. On account of there's no man around here that ain't old, or full o' mischief.

Ruby:
If I cry one tear for my daddy I stole it off a crocodile.

Rev.Monroe:
My congregation is still disputing the size of the windows.

Ruby:
My daddy - he'd walk forty miles for liquor but not forty inches for kindness.

Maddy:
Is she waiting for you?

Ada:
Are you alive? I pray to god you are.

Ada:
If you saw us this Easter... you would know that every step of your journey is worth it.

Ada:
Come back to me. Come back to Cold Mountain.

Ada:
Did you get a picture made?

Inman:
Say again?

Ada:
A tintype, with your gun and courage on display.

Inman:
You're laughing at me.

Ada:
I don't know you.

Inman:
You're always carrying a tray.

Veasey:
Hey! Look at this! This is a good saw.

Inman:
It's not yours. You take it, you make us another enemy. You are a Christian- don't you know your commandments?

Veasey:
You'll find the good Lord very flexible on the subject of property. We could do a lot with this saw...

Ada:
I have to eat something.

Ruby:
Then you have to wake up earlier. What's that?

Ada:
A novel.

Ruby:
You want to carry a book, carry one you can write in.

Veasey:
Used to be as regular as morning prayers. Matter of fact I could set my watch by my bowels. That beeswax you fed me, day before yesterday, it stops a man up. Open my gut now they'd find turds stacked up like little black twigs.

Inman:
I've had to put myself in the way of people's kindness.

Sara:
I'm alone here, as you can see, with my baby. I need to believe you mean no harm.

Inman:
No, I mean to give it to you.

Sara:
I don't want it. If I had my way they'd take metal altogether out of this world. Every blade, every gun.

Ruby:
What kind of name's Georgia?

Ada:
It's where he's from, it's not his name.

Ruby:
I know that's meant to be the ugliest state under the heavens.

Ada:
What do you care what his name is?

Georgia:
What d'you reckon? Think we could eat this?

Stobrod:
You cook something long enough you can eat anything.

Pangle:
It's frozen. How long it been there for?

Stobrod:
You hungry?

Pangle:
Yeah.

Stobrod:
Not very long.

Ruby:
I hope that Georgia boy's been seeing to the animals.

Ada:
I thought you were thinking on him!

Ruby:
I was not. I was thinking on swollen udders- and before you say same difference.

Ada:
I'm not saying nothing!

Ruby:
Miss lovey-dovey!

Inman:
Move away from the baby!

Bardolph:
Don't shoot.

Inman:
Take off your boots. Take off your pants and your shirt.

Bardolph:
Don't shoot me, please. We're starving. We haven't eaten.

Inman:
You'd better get running before you catch your death of cold.

Bardolph:
Thanks, thank you. I will.

Ruby:
Have you been shot?

Inman:
Not lately.

Maddy:
See, I think there's a plan. There's a design for each and every one of us. You look at nature. Bird flies somewhere, picks up a seed, shits the seed out, plant grows. Bird's got a job, sh*t's got a job, seed's got a job. And you've got a job.

Ruby:
Unbelieveable. Stobrod Thewes!

Stobrod:
Ruby?

Ruby:
That's my daddy!

Ruby:
Number one - shut this door, it's freezing. Number two - shut that door, it's freezing. I'm laying on my back, with my fingers poked in my ears trying to shut out who's got a bag of diamonds and who's carrying a tray. If you want to get three feet up a bull's ass, listen to what sweethearts whisper to each other. Now, if you're going to wimble wimble all night, I'm going to sleep in with him.

Ada:
All this while I've been packing ice around my heart. How do I make it melt?

Ada:
Did you get my letters?

Inman:
I got three letters. Carried them in the book you gave me, the Bartram.

Ada:
I probably sent 103. Did you write to me?

Inman:
Whenever I could. If you never got them I can summarize.

Ada:
No, it's --

Inman:
I pray you're well. I pray I'm in your thoughts. You are all that keeps me from sliding into some dark place.

Ada:
But how did I keep you? We barely knew each other. A few moments --

Inman:
A thousand moments! They're like a bag of tiny diamonds glittering in a black heart. Don't matter if they're real or things I made up. The shape of your neck. The way you felt under my hands when I pulled you to me.

Inman:
Come down from there!

Bosie:
No sir- here's just fine.

Inman:
I'll just shoot the horse out from under you.

Bosie:
You ridin' Captain Teague's animal?

Inman:
I am.

Bosie:
He dead?

Inman:
I hope so. (pause, both their horses walk along the mountainside) Well, gimme your gun and ride on home! I'm done fightin'- I'm sick of it!

Bosie:
I give you my gun, you gonna shoot me dead!

Inman:
I will not shoot you- but nor am I goin' down this mountain lookin' over my shoulder for you.

Bosie:
That's what they call a conundrum. (pause) I tell you what I got on my side.

Inman:
What you got on your side? (they both stop their horses)

Bosie:
... The confidence of youth. (he draws his gun, he and Inman shoot each other)

Ada Monroe:
To have traveled so far... From east to west, a thousand terrible miles; my feet treading all God's surface - his Ocean, his swamps, his slopes and ridges - to find myself at last a mark in the aching snow from whence I beheld through a blue haze a world of mountains piled upon mountains.

Ada Monroe:
[reading from Wuthering Heights: My love for Linton is like the foliage in the wood. Time will change it I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath, a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nellie, I AM Heathcliff! He's always, always on my mind. Not as a pleasure any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as part of my own being.

Inman:
I could be at killing for days, my feet against the feet of my enemy. And I always killed him. He never killed me.

Inman:
Maybe you can't see my face, but if you could see my inside, my whatever you want to call it, my spirit, that's the fear I have deeper than any gash on my neck. I think I'm ruined. They kept trying to put me in the ground, but I wasn't ready. But if I had goodness, I lost it. If I had anything tender in me I shot it dead.

Inman:
She gave me a book. Ada Monroe. Man by the name of Bartram. Wrote about his travels. Sometimes just reading the name of a place near home - Sorell Cove, Bishop's Creek. Those places belonged to people before us, to the Cherokee - What did he call Cold Mountain? How can a name, not even a real name, break your heart? It's her...She's the place I'm heading. And I hardly know her. I hardly know her!

Ruby Thewes:
This war won't stand long. God won't let it stand this way long.