The Stand, Part IV: The Stand

Lloyd Henreid:
And remember what I told you - don't mark him!

Dave Roberts:
Right! I mean, copy!

. . .

Lloyd Henreid:
[to himself] If black powder were brains, that guy couldn't blow his nose.

[Dayna, her cover blown, gets an undesired audience with Flagg.]

Dayna Jurgens:
What happened to the chairs?

Randall Flagg:
Oh, I had them taken out. [laughs] Liars sit in chairs, you know? Truth tellers just sort of… hunker down.

. . .

[Flagg tells Dayna about his problems psychically seeing who the third spy is.]

Randall Flagg:
But every time I try to see this third spy… all I can see… is the Moon. "M-O-O-N, that spells moon."

. . .

[Flagg mentions Mother Abagail's death in passing.]

Dayna Jurgens:
Mother Abagail is not dead.

Randall Flagg:
Oh… I'm afraid she is.

Dayna Jurgens:
I don't believe it.

Randall Flagg:
She died in a coma… without saying a word.

[Tom, still safely undercover, spies the full moon at night.]

Tom Cullen:
When the Moon is full. M-O-O-N… spells "moon".

[After Stu realizes that Harold is dead…]

Stu Redman:
May God have mercy on his poor excuse for a soul.

[Nadine finally meets Flagg, physically, in the desert.]

Nadine Cross:
I waited so long.

Randall Flagg:
The waiting's over.

Glen Bateman:
Yeah, there's a perfectly good reason for this little stroll, you know. And Mother Abagail knew it when she sent us out the way she did, with just the clothes on our backs. Our bellies are empty, and, more importantly, our heads are empty.

Ralph Brentner:
Hell - mine was pretty empty to begin with.

[They all laugh.]

Glen Bateman:
Yeah, well, I'm serious. We're out here in the middle of the Great American Nowhere, minus all the baggage we used to carry every place we went. She wanted us cleaned out. Empty. Ready to be filled up again by some new thing. Maybe a great thing. Almost certainly the last thing.

[Briefly coming out of her silent stupor, Nadine grins at Lloyd and company.]

Nadine Cross:
We… are… dead… and… this… is… Hell!

[Lloyd finally informs Flagg about spy Tom Cullen, only to find himself being throttled against the wall.]

Randall Flagg:
You let me go upstairs without telling me?! I could pop your neck like a tick!

[Nadine slowly edges up onto the balcony ledge as she tells Flagg how his plans are coming apart.]

Nadine Cross:
They're coming for you, you know. The old woman sent them before she died.

Randall Flagg:
Get your ass back in here.

Nadine Cross:
Everything you've made here is falling apart. They're saying a simple retarded boy outwitted Randall Flagg. They're saying Judge Farris got away from your man in Idaho.

Randall Flagg:
He's as dead as Judas Iscariot.

Nadine Cross:
They're asking questions about Dayna, too. It's all slipping through your fingers. And they're whispering, Randy. I can see them, leaving their posts in the dead of night, and your eye can't see them. And when they come here - Stu… and Ralph… and Glen… and La- when they get here, your time will end, and I'll be watching. I'll be watching from Hell, with your baby in my arms!

[Larry objects to leaving Stu behind.]

Larry Underwood:
This is no game, Stu.

Glen Bateman:
Stu's right, Larry. Mother Abagail said one of us would fall by the way.

Larry Underwood:
W-what does that mean? Huh? What are you saying? You're a college professor, for god sakes!

Glen Bateman:
Not anymore. In case you hadn't noticed, Larry, school is out.

Larry Underwood:
Look, I thought he was your friend!

Glen Bateman:
Of course he's my friend. But that doesn't matter now.

Ralph Brentner:
It's God's plan-

Larry Underwood:
Shut up about God! I'm sick of hearing about God!

Stu Redman:
This whole trip was based on the idea that Mother Abagail knew what she was talkin' about.

Ralph Brentner:
That's right.

Larry Underwood:
It's not right. It's not right! This isn't God's will, or God's plan! It's a washout! And you got a broken leg, Stu, and I'm not gonna leave you here!

. . .

Stu Redman:
When we came on this trip, we put our lives in the hands of Mother Abagail's God. Now, that hasn't changed. If he wants me to eat, he'll send food. If he wants me to drink… he'll send rain. It's his business. Yours… is to go against Flagg! Now, you've got to do that, and you've got to go without me!

Larry Underwood:
[choking back tears] Man… do you know how crazy that sounds? Do you know how totally damn crazy that sounds?!

[Glen hands Stu his pain pills.]

Glen Bateman:
More than three or four would probably be fatal. Do you know that?

Stu Redman:
Yeah, I suppose so.

[Barry Dorgan, his clipboard-wielding deputy Burlson, and a pack of armed guards stop the Boulder trio on the road.]

Barry Dorgan:
By virtue of the power vested in me, smartass, you're under arrest.

Ralph Brentner:
In whose name?

Barry Dorgan:
You know who I speak for.

Ralph Brentner:
Then why don't you say it?

[Dead silence.]

Ralph Brentner:
Well, I'll say it for ya. Calls himself Randall Flagg, but who he really is, is an apostate of Hell. Now, you got that in your little clipboard there, Mr. Burlson?

Paul Burlson:
I wonder if you men might give me your Social Security numbers?

[Larry, Ralph, and Glen look at each other and burst out laughing.]

. . .

[Larry holds up his hands when the thugs start waving their guns.]

Larry Underwood:
Relax! You don't need those. That's why we came here. We got a message for your little tin god.

Barry Dorgan:
Tin god? Tin god. Man, that's funny. I spent 22 years on the Santa Monica P.D., and I know what happens when guys like you end up runnin' the show. We haven't got a single addict in Vegas. Can your people say the same?

Glen Bateman:
Mr. Dorgan, even a man of your apparently limited intelligence should be able to see that your experiences with a few battered babies and drug abusers doesn't justify your embrace of a monster!

[Dorgan smacks Glen across the face, knocking him down.]

Larry Underwood:
Oh, that's great. Very good! You get the Rodney King Humanitarian Award for the day, pal.

[One of the thugs jams a rifle butt into Larry's stomach.]

Glen Bateman:
It's almost over for them now, Larry. Can you feel it?

[In his cell in Las Vegas, Glen muses on a cockroach skittering around the prison floor.]

Glen Bateman:
You're quite a piece of work, Mr. Cockroach. We could take a lesson from you, especially in light of recent events. I have an idea that… I'll be gone, come this time tomorrow. But you'll still be trucking, won't you? Running your little roach errands.

[Suddenly a boot stomps on the roach. Pan up to reveal a grinning Flagg.]

Randall Flagg:
That's a wrap on the roach.

. . .

Randall Flagg:
Actually, uh… I've decided to let you go.

Glen Bateman:
Really? Marvelous. Of course, I couldn't go without my friends.

Randall Flagg:
Oh, of course not! No, you'll all go together. Tomorrow morning. Tonight, if you prefer. And, uh… once again, all you have to do is ask. Only… for a favor of this magnitude… I really think you ought to do it on your knees.

[Bateman bursts out in tremendous laughter.]

Randall Flagg:
Stop it. Stop laughing at me!

Glen Bateman:
Sorry! It's just that… it's just that we made such… such a business of you, and it turns out you're nothing more than another cockroach, scurrying around, running little roach errands! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Randall Flagg:
Shoot him.

Lloyd Henreid:
What?

Randall Flagg:
You heard me!

[Lloyd pulls out his gun, then looks back at Flagg.]

Randall Flagg:
SHOOT HIM, YOU IDIOT! SHOOT HIM!

Lloyd Henreid:
He's an old man.

[Flagg starts to move toward Lloyd, who casually fires into the bars without effect.]

Randall Flagg:
Can't you do anything RIGHT? HE'S STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT O' YA!

Glen Bateman:
If you really feel you must shoot somebody, Mr. Henreid, I suggest Flagg. His world is crumbling, and we both know it. I think we also both know he can do a lot of damage on his way down. You could change that.

Randall Flagg:
Well, shoot one of us, anyway.

. . .

[Lloyd finally puts several shots into Glen, point-blank. Glen falls, then turns back toward Lloyd.]

Glen Bateman:
It's all right, Mr. Henreid. You don't know any better.

[As Dorgan oversees the chaining of Ralph and Larry to crossed metal bars…]

Larry Underwood:
Tell me something, chief! They teach you this one in Santa Monica P.D.?

[As Lloyd tries to deal with Trashcan Man and his nuclear missile, Flagg's energy bolt suddenly rises from the two bodies and begins to transform.]

Mother Abagail:
[voiceover] The promise has been kept as God has willed it. Amen.

Ralph Brentner:
Larry! Do you see it?

Larry Underwood:
The Hand of God!

. . .

[As the Hand wraps itself around the missile…]

Mother Abagail:
[voiceover] You done good, boys. Come on home.

[From their vantage point above the washout, Stu and Tom see the nuclear explosion on the horizon.]

Stu Redman:
"I saw a pale horse, and a pale rider upon it. The name of the horse was Pestilence. The name of the rider was Death."

Tom Cullen:
What was it, Stu?

Stu Redman:
It's the end of Las Vegas, Tommy. And the end of Randall Flagg… if God is good.

[Tom is trying to nurse Stu back to health.]

Tom Cullen:
This'll make you feel better, Stu! It's peanut butter and jelly! M-O-O-N, that spells "peanut butter and jelly"!

[After seeing Frannie's baby, Stu turns to Larry's widow, Lucy.]

Stu Redman:
Lucy… Larry-

Lucy Swan:
N-no, I know. I know what happened. I'm… sure that when the end came, they, um… met it on their feet. And that's what they were sent out there to do, wasn't it? To stand?

Stu Redman:
I reckon it was.

Lucy Swan:
He's gone… but I'll have his baby. Maybe… it's not all I wanted, or all I dreamed of having… but it'll have to be enough.

[Briefly coming out of her silent stupor, Nadine grins at Lloyd and company.]

Nadine Cross:
We… are… dead… and… this… is… Hell!