[BRIGHT TONE]
[SWEEPING ORCHESTRATION]
[ARTILLERY FIRE]
[MEN SHOUTING]
[SOLDIERS GRUNTING]
♪ ♪
[ARTILLERY FIRE, MEN SHOUTING CONTINUES]
♪ ♪
This is the story of a boy and his dream.
But more than that,
it is the story of an American boy
and a dream that is truly American.
[SOLDIERS SHOUTING]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪ ♪
What's the matter? Where ya goin', Black boy?
Black boy, we're the welcoming committee.
You'd better get outta here.
- No, Daddy. - Go on.
It just makes it tougher having you here.
[EERIE MUSIC]
♪ ♪
[BATTLEFIELD SOUNDS FADE]
The year, 1928.
The time, spring.
If you were a young man,
your thoughts were undoubtedly turning to those of love.
But if you were a young boy,
your thoughts were of one thing...
baseball.
[SPEAKS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
[DRAMATIC MUSICAL STING]
[LOUD CRACKING]
[SNARLING, SCREECHING]
[CREATURE HOWLS]
[TRIUMPHANT MUSIC]
♪ ♪
I got ya, kid.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪ And hopin' we'll meet again ♪
♪ Oh, life would be a dream ♪
♪ If I could take you up in paradise ♪
Just going over another bridge
named after some dead slave owner.
Finally made it to the promised land.
Hallelujah. Amen.
Good riddance to old Jim Crow.
♪ If only all my precious plans would come true ♪
♪ If you would let me spend my whole life ♪
♪ Loving you ♪
SINGERS: ♪ Life could be a dream, sweetheart ♪
♪ Life could be a dream ♪
♪ If only all my precious plans would come true ♪
♪ If you let me spend... ♪ [CLATTERING]
[ENGINE STUTTERING] ♪ Life could be a dream ♪
♪ Dream, dream, dream, d-d-dream ♪
Damn.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER]
I heard a noise before...
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪ ♪
All right, folks, this is our ride
into the next town.
Let's get our luggage and load up.
♪ ♪
Okay, ma'am, just... here you go.
Very carefully, very carefully.
Thank you.
♪ ♪
Let me get those for you.
[CRICKETS CHIRPING]
Tell me.
What's that book you been readin' about?
- "A Princess of Mars"? - Mm-hmm.
It's about this man named John Carter...
who goes from being a captain in the army
of Northern Virginia to becoming a Martian warlord.
Huh.
Starts with him running from Apaches
and hiding in this magical cave,
which transports him to the Red Planet.
That's when it starts to get good.
Hold on.
You said the hero was a Confederate officer.
Ex-Confederate.
He fought for slavery.
You don't get to put an "ex" in front of that.
Stories are like people.
Loving them doesn't make them perfect.
You just try and cherish 'em,
overlook their flaws.
Yeah, but the flaws are still there.
Yeah, they are.
But I love pulp stories. [CHUCKLES]
I love that the heroes get to go on adventures
in other worlds,
defy insurmountable odds,
defeat the monster, save the day.
Little Negro boy from the southside of Chicago
don't notoriously to get to do that.
Unless they join the army.
- I didn't join for adventure. - Hmm.
I joined to get away from my father.
Which is the real funny part, 'cause he's also
now the reason I'm coming back home.
Is he sick?
He's gone missing.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪ ♪
[ETTA JAMES' "I JUST WANT TO MAKE LOVE TO YOU"]
♪ ♪
[KIDS SHOUTING PLAYFULLY]
♪ ♪
♪ I don't want you ♪
♪ To be no slave ♪
♪ I don't want you ♪
♪ To work all day ♪
♪ But I want you ♪
♪ To be true ♪
♪ And I just want to make love to you ♪
What are you looking at, George Freeman?
My wife.
And why you looking at your wife?
You waiting for her to fix you breakfast?
I'm leaving tomorrow on the guide trip.
I'm aware.
I'm looking at my wife because
I feel I've been spending too much time on the road
and not enough time in bed with her.
[BOTH LAUGHING]
Why, George Freeman, you got me blushing before God.
If he's watching, I think we should give him a show.
What has gotten into you?
You're only gonna be gone for a few days.
Used to be you couldn't wait to go on some grand adventure.
You know, I could go.
Make the trip instead of you.
You serious?
- Is that idea so crazy? - No, no.
- Is it? - No.
You know, I've written more than my share
of reviews for the guide.
Arguably, the best ones.
- The best ones. - Mm-hmm.
And all of them based on your notes.
- Oh. [CHUCKLES] - Now...
imagine how good they could get
if I could take notes on my own.
Hmm.
Mm-hmm.
You know the road is a dangerous place
for a woman traveling alone.
You know the shit I deal with out there.
It's dangerous out there, Hippolyta.
Where you going?
My party starts at noon,
and those pecans in the kitchen
are not gonna turn themselves into pies.
- Stay with me. - [SIGHS]
[MOANS]
What are you doing?
[MOANS]
You know Dee is up.
You know these walls are thin.
[MOANS]
I can't remember the last time
we made love in the light of day.
I want to see my wife.
[BOTH MOANING]
[RADIO CHATTER]
[PENCIL SCRIBBLING]
[SOFT MUSIC]
♪ ♪
[HIPPOLYTA MOANING]
Gross.
[SCREAMS]
Atticus! Diana!
[BOTH LAUGHING]
♪ ♪
What's going on?
- Get over here. - George, baby,
what's going on in there? Is that Dee?
She's fine. She just got surprised, is all.
Your nephew is back.
Oh, Tic's back!
I wasn't scared.
- I know you weren't. - You sounded scared to me.
Tic's back! Yes!
[HEARTWARMING MUSIC]
♪ ♪
Thank you for your business.
Heading through that part of the country
in a couple months.
I'll vet it then... Welcome home, Tic.
Oh, the tip is solid.
My cousin bought smokes from there just last week.
I believe, but I still have to triple-check.
A bad tip in the guidebook gets someone killed.
Okay, I got you.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
♪ ♪
Ahh. Getting reacquainted with old friends.
Something like that.
I'm surprised that one caught your interest.
Horror is usually my thing.
"On the Creation of Niggers."
Now that's one of Lovecraft's we don't hear mentioned often.
Pops made me memorize that poem
word for word after he caught me reading this.
Mm.
Thought it might turn me from the pulp trash
I borrow from here to respectable literature.
He's been missing about two weeks.
About? You're not sure.
You know how he can get on the sauce.
I... I didn't think anything of it
until his landlord dropped by when he didn't pay rent.
I don't know where he could've gone.
I might have an idea.
He wrote me.
About my mama.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
What, uh... wh... wh-what'd he say?
Said he found out where her family came from.
Wanted me to come home so I could go there with him.
He's still obsessing over her ancestry?
I thought he'd given all that up when she passed.
"I know that, like your mother,
"you think that you can forget the past.
"You can't.
"The past is a living thing.
"You own it... owe it.
"Now I have found something
"about your mother's forebearers.
"You have a sacred...
secret legacy, a birthright that's been kept from you."
That's strange; that doesn't really even
sound like your father.
I haven't even gotten to the strange part.
The place he wants me to go with him...
It's in Lovecraft Country.
Letter says Mom's ancestors
are from Arkham, Massachusetts.
Home of the corpse reanimator and...
And Herbert West.
Lovecraft based it on Salem, but that's not real.
You sure?
Let me see the letter.
That's a "D." It's not Arkham with a "K."
It's Ardham with a "D". That's a "D."
♪ ♪
You know, for someone who talked so much
about the importance of being educated,
you'd think Pop would learn how to write clearly.
I'm gonna look into this Ardham
and see if I can glean any clues as to what this
"secret legacy" Montrose is going on about.
I-I'm serious. [LAUGHS]
Don't delete that.
[TIERRA WHACK'S "CLONES"]
♪ Everybody talkin' like me now ♪
♪ Heard I'm who they wanna be now ♪
♪ Westbound, eastbound ♪
♪ Everybody walkin' like me now ♪
♪ Everybody talkin' like me now ♪
Come on! It won't stop.
♪ Westbound, eastbound ♪
♪ Everybody walkin' like me now ♪
♪ Everybody talkin' like me now ♪
An adventure.
An opportunity to see the world.
Just sign.
♪ Heard I'm who they wanna be now ♪
♪ Whack, whack, damn she killer ♪
We expect...
♪ I ain't never seen no ceilin' ♪
♪ Call me God, yeah, he kneelin' ♪
♪ Audio, I'm top billin' ♪
♪ All of my boys dope dealin' ♪
[TRAIN RUMBLING LOUDLY]
Hey, we closin' early for the block party.
I said we're closin' early for the block...
Holy shit. Tic, is that you?
Almost didn't recognize you without them damn
Coke bottle glasses on.
You remember me, Tree. Yeah, I remember.
Listen, the guy with the earrings, the owner...
He here?
Sammy. He out back.
[LAUGHS]
[MOANS]
Shit. Sorry.
Oh, shit.
You're Montrose's son, right?
I remember plenty of nights you dragging him
off one of my barstools.
He hasn't been perched on one in weeks.
When's the last time you saw him?
'Bout two weeks ago.
Left here with some white man.
- Was he a cop? - Doubt it.
Looked like one of Bill Haley's Comets.
Can't get the clothes he was wearing on a pig's salary.
My guess, he's a lawyer.
Would explain how he could afford the car.
You saw what he was driving?
Tree did.
Said it was a silver sedan. Something Ford.
Shot off so fast, it had to be expensive.
♪ I want a tall, skinny papa ♪
♪ That's all I'll ever need ♪
♪ ♪
♪ He's got to be all mine ♪
♪ Treat me fine, walk the chalk line ♪
♪ And stay on my mind ♪
♪ He's got to be all right ♪
♪ Fight all night ♪
♪ Mama will do the rest ♪
♪ Now how 'bout that, Miss? ♪
♪ He's got to do what he's told ♪
♪ And bring sweet mama that gold ♪
♪ To satisfy my soul ♪
♪ ♪
Oh, yeah!
Yes!
There you go!
♪ He's gotta be tall ♪ ALL: Tall!
- Tall! ALL: Tall!
- He's gotta be tall! ALL: Tall!
- Tall! ALL: Tall!
♪ I want a tall, skinny papa ♪
♪ That's all I'll ever need ♪
♪ ♪
Whoo!
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
Thank you, thank you.
All right, all right, I think I got time
for one more before Slick Willie
comes up with his guitar.
Now, what y'all want to hear? [OVERLAPPING CHATTER]
Come on, y'all don't really like that lily-white shit
they play on the radio now, do you?
♪ Life could be a dream ♪
Sh'boom, sh'bored.
Now, let me hear something that'll wake me up.
"Whole Lotta Shakin'"!
Is that Letitia?
Ruby, it's your sister.
Thank you, Floyd. I have eyes.
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
A little bit of blues it is, then.
Leti, get up there and sing with her.
ALL: Leti, Leti!
Now, now.
I'm sure my sister's tired
from traveling in from wherever it is
she just magically appeared from.
ALL: Leti, Leti, Leti, Leti!
[CROWD CHANTING]
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
Y'all are gonna have to bear with us.
We haven't sang together since our church days.
Sure is no secret that those days are long gone.
[LAUGHTER]
All right.
"Whole Lotta Shakin'."
♪ 21 drums and an old bass horn ♪
♪ And somebody beating on a ding-dong ♪
♪ ♪
Come on, now.
♪ ♪
♪ Come on over, baby,
♪ A whole lotta shakin' going on ♪
- Who's that? - [LAUGHS]
♪ Come on over, baby ♪
♪ Baby, you can't go wrong ♪
♪ Ain't nobody fakin' ♪
♪ Whole lotta shakin' going on ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Come on over, baby, hey! ♪
♪ A whole lotta kickin' in the barn ♪
♪ Come on over, baby ♪
♪ We got the bull by the horn ♪
♪ Everything is kickin' ♪
♪ Whole lotta shakin' going on ♪
[LAUGHS] All right, now.
♪ Bakin' and makin' it shake ♪
♪ Door and the floor and the gate ♪
BOTH: ♪ Bakin' it and makin' it shake ♪
♪ Cake and pie on the plate ♪
BOTH: ♪ Shakin' and shakin' and shakin' the place ♪
♪ Come on over, baby, come on ♪
♪ We done found that ding-dong ♪
[CROWD SHRIEKING HAPPILY]
♪ ♪
♪ Come on over, baby ♪
♪ Whole lotta shakin' going on ♪
♪ Come on over, baby ♪
♪ Baby, you can't go wrong ♪
♪ Ain't nobody fakin' ♪
♪ Whole lotta shakin' going on ♪
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
All right! All right, now!
Thanks, fellas.
That was fun.
Yeah! [LAUGHS]
♪ ♪
♪ We gonna ride, ride, ride all night long ♪
Dress that short,
should be wearing some stockings.
It's too hot for all that.
You can't even afford stockings?
Who said I can't afford 'em?
You don't need to say it; I know you only here
'cause you need money.
And don't think just 'cause you got up and sang with me
that you're getting any of these tips.
I don't need a handout, Ruby,
just a place to stay for a while.
There it is.
Who's that?
Who, Tic?
That's Tic?
Skinny, glasses kid who was too smart for his own good, Tic?
Yeah, he's grown up.
More than I can say for you.
I'm over at the boarding house on McCarthy.
Oh, that place is a shithole.
What happened to the room on Linden?
Mama's funeral happened.
- Ruby... - There's nothing to read
into me bringing it up.
It's just facts.
You can stay two nights.
And what job am I supposed to find in two days?
You can get a job up on the Northside.
- I'm not cleaning house. - So what then?
You think you're gonna go downtown get a job
in one of those department stores?
Yes, I do.
You think it's that easy, huh?
Yes, I do.
You know I've been applying for years.
Well, if I get the job,
it'll be enough money for both of us to move.
You know, I'm fine where I am.
We could have our own rooms for once.
Hell, our own house, maybe.
There's a lot of colored folks pioneering
into all-white neighborhoods these days.
Then maybe you should ask one them to put you up.
Or go to Marvin's.
Two nights, Leti.
That's it.
♪ ♪
Your knees still acting up?
It's a blessing they're doing anything at all
after two shattered kneecaps.
And now Hippolyta got this crazy idea
to go out on the road.
I can't imagine what would happen
if those crackers had caught her
outside of Anna instead of me.
That's why you publish the guidebook, right?
Keep us Negros safe.
[LAUGHS]
Dee do this?
Kid's got imagination like you.
Terrifying, ain't they?
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
Tell me where I can find Ardham.
Well, now, that's gonna be a little tricky.
The last mention of it in any census
that I can find is over two centuries ago...
which puts it somewhere around Devon County, Massachusetts.
Devon County.
You goin' after him.
I'm gonna need a car.
Woody still running?
Woody'll outlast us all.
That's the only thing I am sure of,
other than that I'm going with you.
Uncle George, with them knees...
I was heading out on a guide trip anyway.
Devon County will be a good addition.
You might not be so sure about that...
after you look at this.
Devon County?
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
♪ ♪
[TRAIN RUMBLING]
♪ ♪
[GEARS CLICKING]
[LIGHT WHIRRING]
[LOW BUZZING]
[JAZZ MUSIC]
♪ ♪
[TRAIN RUMBLING]
[TRAIN RATTLING]
[LINE TRILLING]
Where can I direct your call?
555-438...
520...
3093...
2915.
South Korea?
Yes.
[LINE TRILLING]
[SPEAKS KOREAN]
Tic?
Is that you?
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪ ♪
You went home.
♪ ♪
You shouldn't have.
[LETI GRUNTING]
You just gonna stand there, Tic, or you gonna help me?
- Leti Lewis. - [LAUGHS]
Now, only my friends get to call me that.
We still friends?
Well, considering you were the only female member
of the Southside Futurists Science Fiction Club.
I was. [LAUGHS] I was.
I heard you were down in Florida hiding out.
How was it?
Segregated.
- Mm. - And you, where you been?
Mm, I've been a little bit everywhere.
Doing?
Everything.
Y'all ready to go?
Wait, you coming with us?
Part way.
Marvin's working for
the Springfield African American these days.
He's gonna look into that mysterious town
of Ardham for us.
Why, thank you, baby. Are we checklist-ready?
Yep.
All right, mattress and blankets.
Check and check.
Spare tire and jack.
- Check. - Flares and first-aid kit.
- Double check. - Reading materials.
- I got that covered. - Very well.
I think the travel checklist is complete.
Anything we're forgetting?
Oh, no, I think that's everything.
I think there's something missing.
You don't have to do this every time.
Oh, that's right, Dee's travel comic.
That's what's missing
because I've been waiting patiently to see
what happens to Panther Man.
Mm-hmm.
Boop.
"Orithyia Blue"?
Oh, pumpkin, you decided to change it.
It's no big deal, Ma.
I will see you when you get back, Pop.
You will, baby. Mmm.
Oh, and the atlas is in Woody.
Yes.
Thank you, baby. Be safe.
Good evening.
[LAUGHTER]
I, um... I find myself not for the first time
in, um...
the position of a kind of Jeremiah.
For example, I don't disagree with Mr. Burford
that the, um...
The inequality suffered by the American Negro
population of the United States
has hindered the American dream.
Indeed, it has.
I quarrel with some other things he has to say.
The other, deeper element
of a certain awkwardness I feel
has to do with, um...
it has to one's point of view; I had to put it that way.
One's, uh, one's sense, one's system of reality.
It would seem to me the proposition
before the House, when I put it that way,
is the American dream
at the expense of the American Negro,
or the American dream is at the expense
of the American Negro...
is a question hideously loaded,
and that one's response to that question
or one's reaction to that question,
has to depend on, in effect,
on where you find yourself in the world,
what your sense of reality is,
what your system of reality is.
That is, it depends on assumptions
which we hold so deeply
as to be scarcely aware of them.
A white South African or a Mississippi sharecropper
or a Mississippi sheriff
or a Frenchman driven out of Algeria,
all have, at bottom,
a system of reality which compels them to, for example,
in the case of the French exile from Algeria,
to defend French reasons from having ruled Algeria.
The Mississippi or the Alabama sheriff,
who really does believe, when he's facing
a Negro boy or girl, that this woman, this man,
this child must be insane to attack the system
to which he owes his entire identity.
And on the other hand...
There's a diner called Lydia's
I got a tip on near here.
Won't take us too far off course
to have lunch there.
What do you say to a detour?
- Where is it? - Simmonsville.
You know what that area be populated by
on Diana's atlas?
- What? - Buncha trolls
who pick their teeth with unwary motorists.
Funny. I need to add some entries to the guide.
I'm on a deadline.
Aren't you the publisher?
Exactly, which is why I know
how much of a hard-ass I can be.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
Well, not that either of you asked my opinion,
but I could use a hot meal.
You heard the girl.
Since this girl's not allowed to drive,
I'm picking the radio station.
♪ Yes, you upsets me, baby ♪
♪ Yes, I'm telling you people ♪
♪ She's something fine that you really ought to see ♪
Let's take this next right.
What you doing, girl?
I'm turning up B.B.
♪ Man, she knocks me out the way... ♪
- What you know about B.B.? - That's my music.
- ♪ You upsets me, baby ♪ - Her music.
[LETI SINGING ALONG] ♪ Yes, you upsets me, baby ♪
[DOGS BARKING]
♪ Like being hit by a falling tree ♪
♪ Woman, woman, what you do to me ♪
[MUSIC SLOWS AND DISTORTS]
♪ ♪
[TRAIN BELL RINGING] ♪ You upsets me ♪
♪ Well, you upsets me, baby ♪
Now, we're looking for a red-brick building.
Should be on the left-hand side,
far end of town.
♪ What you do to me ♪
That must be it.
♪ ♪
All right.
Didn't you say it was called Lydia's?
It's in the right place.
Don't judge a book by its cover.
Book can't refuse you service.
Or spit in your water glass.
Good afternoon.
We were just driving by, thought we'd stop in
and have some lunch.
We'll seat ourselves, then.
[GRUNTS]
Yes, that's what we'll do. Thank you.
Menu, please?
What's good here? Uh... uh...
Why don't we just start with some coffees?
Looks like the Simmonsville Dinette isn't making the guide.
Yeah, okay, but we're here now.
Doesn't mean we have to stay.
Get back in the car, we're, what,
two, three hours from Marvin's?
We're here, damnit. We have every right to be.
We're citizens.
You're a veteran for God's sake.
Our money spends just as good as everyone else's.
[LOW OMINOUS NOTES]
I gotta visit the ladies' room.
Biscuits and gravy did smell pretty damn good.
Think I'll order that...
if the waiter ever comes back.
There's three of them.
Just sat down.
I swear I didn't serve them,
not after what you did to Ms. Lydia.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪ ♪
- Uncle George? - Hmm?
Remind me why the White House is white.
War of 1812.
British soldiers put the executive branch to torch,
and later, when the slaves rebuilt it,
they had to paint the walls white
to cover up the... BOTH: Burn marks.
[SIREN WAILING]
Get your ass up! We gotta get the fuck
outta here now!
Come on, come on, George. Come on!
Out. [TIRES SQUEALING]
[INTENSE MUSIC]
Let me drive.
Get your ass in the car!
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
[SIREN WAILING]
[GUNSHOT]
[BULLETS RICOCHETING]
[TIRES SCREECH]
[HORN BLARES]
[GUNSHOTS]
- Keep it steady! - We're being shot at!
How the hell am I supposed to keep it steady?
- [GROANS] - [YELLS]
♪ ♪
They're gaining on us!
Take this left up ahead.
Slow down, or Woody will spin out.
Oh, just shut up and let me drive.
[TIRES SCREECH]
Damnit, girl, you're gonna crash us.
My name's not "girl." It's Letitia fucking Lewis!
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪ ♪
Go, get on up there!
Get up on these sons of bitches!
[GLASS SHATTERS]
- Leti. - I see it.
- [YELLS] - Shit.
[ENGINE REVS]
Hit it!
♪ ♪
[SCREAMS]
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪ ♪
Go.
Go, Leti, go!
[LAUGHTER] Stop.
And the way those white boys went flying.
- It was surreal. - Reminds me of a scene
out of a Bradbury novel.
[LAUGHTER]
Wait, what actually happened that caused the crash?
Your sister's precision driving.
They couldn't keep up.
She did save the day.
Wait, wait, now, now, now. Say that again one more time.
Did I hear that right? Who saved your asses?
Letitia fucking Lewis.
[LAUGHS]
It's getting late, Marvin.
Why don't you tell us what you discovered about our next stop?
Well, I heard a few tales about Devon County before,
but once I started really digging in,
it just kept getting stranger and stranger.
You see, the county seat, Bideford,
is named after a town in England
where they had one of the last witch trials.
They hung a woman for fornicating with the devil
who appeared to her as a Negro man.
Y-you're saying that Bideford
was founded by witches?
No, the witch hunters,
and they don't like outsiders at all.
I found more than a few stories in our morgue
about travelers being attacked in the surrounding woods.
By what? Grizzles, wolves.
Who knows?
There's been a bunch of missing person stories, too,
some of which might be due to the current sheriff.
Eustice Hunt.
Ex-Marine.
This is his NAACP complaint file.
It's only a third of it.
Between the wild animals and this guy,
I don't know who I'd rather run into.
Hmm.
What about Ardham?
It was settled around the same time as Bideford.
Local histories don't say by who.
That's what you dug up?
Yeah, I even tried calling the county record of deeds
to get the property records.
No one answered.
But from what I could pull together...
Should be somewhere right around here.
That right there is the middle of nowhere
with no guide stops.
What do you want to do?
We need to go to the registry.
Maps of the property line should clearly delineate
a route in Ardham.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
Now, this is just the first issue,
but the plan is she'll be called to repair
faulty telescopes
or malfunctioning computers on different planets.
And guess what.
She zips from planet to planet in her trusted
Buick space wagon named Stoney.
[CHUCKLES]
Pop?
Pop, are you there? Ye... yes, I'm... yes.
It all sounds great,
but, honey, I gotta go.
I-I don't want to run up Mr. Baptiste's bill.
Now, put your mother back on the phone.
All right, Pop.
Mom.
I was just headed to the roof.
Such a clear night, I might finally
get to see Cassiopeia.
Mm-hmm.
Well, I-I don't want to keep you.
But, honey, I was...
I was thinking.
Maybe for the next guide trip,
what do you say you and I, we go together?
[HEARTFELT MUSIC]
♪ ♪
I'd like that.
Good night, George Freeman.
Good night.
♪ ♪
So how long is your little visit
supposed to last this time?
I'll be home in a few weeks. I'll pull my own weight.
Do some cooking, some cleaning...
What did you do with the money
that I sent to you in D.C. two months ago?
I saved it, Marvin.
It's what I used to get the bus to Ruby.
Not all of it, you didn't. I'm not stupid, Letitia.
Fine. All right, I used it
to bail some friends out of jail,
but it's not what you think.
It never is with you!
We were protesting the school...
It doesn't matter what you were doing!
The work I'm doing is saving lives, Marvin!
You told me you needed money
because you needed to come home.
And I thought I gave you the money
so you could come home for Mama's funeral.
How could you miss your own Mama's funeral, Letitia?
Hell. Y'all gonna continue to throw that in my face.
- Absolutely! It's our mama! - You and Ruby
want to act like she's a goddamn saint.
I'm sick and tired of it.
Now, you watch your mouth in my house
talking about our mama!
But you know what? I can understand
you wanting to think that about her
because you didn't have to live with her!
Hey, I went to Chicago every summer.
Oh, every summer! You got to come down here...
[SIGHS]
Ruby and I didn't have that option.
Well, you say that like it was my fault.
It's not sounding good.
Don't give me a fucking lecture about Mama.
I've heard worse.
[ARGUING CONTINUES]
Been a part of worse.
- We're impossible? - Yes.
Pops tell you what happened last time I was home?
No.
Reporter came by.
Wanted to interview me on what it was like
to be a Negro soldier.
Pops lost it.
Said it was bad enough I was throwing my life away
for a country that hates me.
Now, I was gonna go inspire others
to make the same stupid mistake.
I decided to give as good as I got for once.
Still see the cracks in the plaster
where we slammed into the wall.
Just because he didn't agree with the decision
doesn't mean he didn't care.
[SCOFFS] He never wrote me.
Not one letter till he needed help.
Your first year in Korea, he'd come by for dinner
almost every night.
Wouldn't ask about you,
but he'd wait for me to volunteer the information.
If I didn't, he wouldn't go home.
He'd stay till 10:00, 11:00, midnight,
if that's what it took, waiting for me
to bring up the subject of you.
Drove Hippolyta crazy.
Course it did.
Just another example of how hardheaded he was.
Montrose has done the best he can.
He didn't have it easy with our father.
Why are you always defending him?
You grew up in the same house. You came out just fine.
Your pops was...
Was what?
What?
He was younger.
He was smaller. He took the brunt of it.
I should've protected him more. I always regret that.
I was younger and smaller, too.
You ain't do shit to protect me.
You regret that?
[GLASS BREAKS]
God damn it! Look at what you made me do!
Atticus.
It's family business. Let go of my arm.
You're hurting me. It's not ours.
Go! I don't want you in my house another night!
[DOOR SLAMS]
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
[SIGHS]
[THUNDER BOOMING]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪ ♪
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
♪ ♪
We done passed this area ten times now.
Map at the registry said there's a bridge
over the river to Ardham...
- I know what it says. - It exists.
We just gotta find the road to it.
We've been driving these woods all day.
There's no damn road.
Letitia, you done seen something?
- Nah, I ain't seen... - Stop the car.
Stop the car. I'll get out and look.
So you can look for a road that none of us
has stopped all damn day?
Maybe it's grown over. You ever think of that?
Maybe that's why we missed it. Just pull over.
Shit. Shit!
What are you doing?
Helping you look.
Been thinking about what my brother said.
I don't think we want to be out here after dark.
I know.
[SIGHS]
Just we come all this way.
[SIGHS] This isn't giving up.
We're gonna find your father.
Just not today.
[BRANCHES RUSTLING]
What was that?
It's a shoggoth.
What?
It's a monster from one of Lovecraft's stories.
And what do they look like?
Massive bubble blob with hundreds of eyes.
Oh, well, that's not scary at all.
We can outrun a blob.
Uncle George can't. [BOTH LAUGHING]
He cannot.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪ ♪
You in the car, get out.
And everybody come round to the back of the vehicle.
It's all right.
Who are you?
George Freeman, sir. This here is my nephew Atticus
and his friend Letitia.
- Where y'all from? - Chicago, sir.
You're a long way from home.
Oh, we're just passing through,
taking a little bathroom break, sir, is all.
Any of you all know what a sundown town is?
Yes, sir. We do.
Well, this is a sundown county.
If I had found you pissing in my woods
like animals after dark,
it would've been my sworn duty
to hang every single one of you from them trees.
It's not sundown yet.
Sunset is at 7:09 today.
That's seven minutes from now.
Then we'll be out of the county in six.
Now, that's impossible heading south
on the road you're currently on,
unless you were to speed.
And if you were to speed, I'd have to pull you over.
Then we'll head north.
That might work.
Why don't you give it a try?
We will, sir.
Is it legal to make a U-turn here?
Aren't you a smart one?
Now, ordinarily, I would consider
a U-turn a violation.
But if you ask me real nice,
I might just let it go this time.
Please.
Oh, you can do better than that.
Say, "pretty please,
will you let this smart nigger make a U-turn here?"
Pretty please, will you let this smart nigger
make a U-turn here?
All right.
Just this one time, since you asked so nicely.
[ENGINE REVVING]
How far, Uncle George?
We got 2 1/2 kilometers to the county line.
- Can we make that? - Wait, wait, I...
Wait, I'm sorry... we...
[STAMMERS] 3. We gotta pass the train tracks.
What time is it?
It's, uh, it's 7... 7:05.
Can we make it in four minutes?
We have to.
[DARK, SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
- Here he comes! - Shit.
[ENGINE CHUGS]
♪ ♪
- Can you go faster? - No, we can't go faster.
He gonna pull us over.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪ ♪
[ENGINE REVVING]
- He's speedin' up. - What's he doin'?
I don't know!
[ENGINE REVVING]
- Crazy bastard! - Son of a bitch!
He's comin' again!
Hold on.
Leti, get the gun.
[GUN CLICKING]
We got a minute.
[DARK MUSIC]
♪ ♪
[MURMURING UNDER BREATH]
[DARK, SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
♪ ♪
There's the tracks!
Atticus, watch your speed!
How much time left?
30 seconds.
[ENGINE REVVING]
♪ ♪
10 seconds!
Come on! Come on!
♪ ♪
- Ah! - Hell.
Hell. Hell.
- Yeah. - Okay, Tic.
Ha ha!
We did it. Whoo!
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
Oh, shit.
♪ ♪
[RIFLES CLICK]
♪ ♪
I knew they'd strike again tonight.
You said they'd be Gypsies, Sheriff.
Oh, they're travelers, that's for sure.
Unless the car's stolen.
[LAUGHING] That's a fair point, Talbert.
How 'bout that? Hmm?
You really from Illinois?
This is a misunderstanding.
I don't know who you all were lyin' in wait for...
Get 'em on the ground!
Aah!
[GRUNTS]
Let me just finish the rest for you.
When I ask you about a burglary in Bideford last night
or two others in Bucks Mill last week,
you're gonna say to me, "What burglaries, Sheriff?
We're just passin' through."
[OFFICERS CHUCKLING]
Sheriff Hunt. [RIFLES COCKING]
My uncle's right.
This is just a misunderstanding.
We're not burglars or car thieves.
You're more than welcome to check the car
for stolen goods if you like.
Dalton, tell me I didn't just hear that.
Did this nigger give me permission to search his car?
I believe he did, Sheriff.
This one thinks he's smart.
Then tell me, if you're just passin' through,
why do you know my name?
[RIFLE COCKS]
- [YELLING] Answer me! - Answer, boy!
Please, please... [OVERLAPPING PLEADING]
[CHITTERING, RUSTLING]
What was that?
All right, keep your guns on 'em...
It's probably just wolves.
[SNARLING, CHITTERING]
That don't sound like fuckin' wolves, Sheriff.
[THUD]
[CHITTERING]
[RUSTLING, SHRIEKING]
[CRICKETS CHIRPING]
[ROARING] Aah!
Jesus...
[LOUD GIBBERING, GUNSHOTS]
Run!
[GIBBERING, GUNFIRE CONTINUE]
Aah!
Run!
Aah!
[GIBBERING, SNARLING CONTINUE]
Go! Run! Run! Go!
[CREATURE SHRIEKS]
There! We need to get out in the open!
Aah!
Get up!
I'm comin' down!
[SNARLING, GIBBERING CONTINUE]
[ROAR]
[GUNSHOT] Aah!
Go, go, go!
Wait! Where's Uncle George?
Get in here!
[THUDDING, GIBBERING CONTINUE]
It's coming to your right!
[GUNSHOT]
[DISTANT SHOUTING]
[GUNSHOT]
[GIBBERING, SHRIEKING]
[GUNSHOTS, VOICES GROW MORE DISTANT]
[WHIMPERING]
Aah!
[GUNSHOTS]
[LOUD SCREECH, CHITTERING]
Sheriff, come on! Come o... Open this fucking door!
[POUNDING ON DOOR]
Open this fucking door! Stay back!
[GUNSHOT BLAST] Aah!
Get back! Get back!
Close the fuckin' door.
Close the fucking door. [DOOR SLAMS]
- You... - What?
Get the fucking table!
[TENSE MUSIC]
[PANTING, GROANING]
♪ ♪
[SOFT GROWLING]
[BRANCH CRACKS, CHITTERING]
[DISTANT GIBBERING, SCREECHING]
He might be okay.
Hell, Tic, you can't...
I gotta go get him!
Hey! Wait!
Shit!
I'm not risking you leading those things back here,
you understand?
What, you gonna shoot me, hmm?
Gunshot'll bring them things right to ya.
[PANTING]
[TWIGS CRACK]
Sheriff, there's someone comin'.
There's someone comin'.
- Uncle George! - Open the door!
Come on!
Get this shit out the way!
What are you doing? No!
Uncle George?
Come on!
Quick! Close the door!
Are you all right?
Depends on your definition of all right.
I thought you were right behind us.
I got knocked down and stayed down till the coast was clear.
Aren't you a lucky nigger?
Those things got four of my men.
What are those things? They tore that man's head off!
- They're monsters! - Monsters don't fuckin' exist!
It doesn't matter what they are!
We need to fight 'em! All right? We need weapons!
[CLATTERING, THUDDING]
[ROARING, CHITTERING, SCREECHING]
Listen to 'em.
"Children of the night... what music they make."
What is he muttering on about?
It's a quote from "Dracula."
None of them attacked me,
and all I had is this flashlight.
You think those things are like vampires.
If I'm right, and the light hurts them,
it'll also explain why we been drivin' in the woods
all day and didn't encounter one until the sun went down.
So we just need to survive till sunup.
Yes.
And find more light till then.
- Yes. - And there's flares in Woody.
And the headlights would help too.
Where's the car from here? Where's the car from here!
A quarter mile through the woods behind the cabin.
I'll go. I'll make a run for it.
No! No, you don't.
You're too smart for your own good.
You might get the idea in your head
to leave us behind.
[PANTING] She goes.
Not a chance in hell. [COCKS SHOTGUN]
- Leti. - I am not asking.
- Fuck you! - No, I can... I can go!
I can go, I can do it. I can do it, Tic.
I was all-star track in high school, remember?
Plus, I know you say you don't need those glasses
to drive at night, but I really don't think
this is the time to test it!
All right.
You run as fast as you can. No lookin' back.
You hear gunshots, you don't come back.
You drive for help.
[MURMURING]
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
Leti. Leti, you hear me?
Yes, I fucking hear you. I'm terrified!
You don't even seem scared.
Where they teach you that... In the army?
I'm not scared 'cause fear's not gonna save us right now.
You are.
Come on. Come on.
Go, run, run, run!
[GIBBERING, SHRIEKING]
And I'll take that flashlight
just in case your theory is correct.
[TENSE MUSIC]
♪ ♪
[PANTING, GRUNTING]
[LOUD SNARLING]
[GRUNTS, COUGHING]
Where the fuck is she?
Atticus. Atticus.
[CONTINUES COUGHING, SNARLING]
Sheriff, you okay?
What happens when you get bitten by a vampire?
[CONTINUES GAGGING, SNARLING]
Aah!
[WHIMPERING, PANTING]
[LOUD SNARLING]
[SCREAMS]
[GALLOPING FOOTSTEPS] Come on, come on, come on!
[ENGINE STRUGGLES]
[SNARLING]
What the fuck?
You... you need to shoot him.
[LOUD SNARLING]
Shoot the motherfucker!
Come on, come on... [ENGINE STRUGGLING]
[CREATURE ROARS]
Aah!
[CREATURE SHRIEKS]
Oh! Oh!
Oh...
[EXHALES]
[THUD, ROAR]
Aah!
- I'll shoot him! - Shoot him!
Shut up!
Aah!
[SNARLS]
[SCREAMING]
[BULB POPS, CREATURE SHRIEKS]
[SNARLING]
Get the gun!
Shoot him!
[GUNSHOT]
[ROARS]
[CAR HORN HONKING]
[ROARING, SNARLING]
Whoa...
[EXHALES]
Uncle George? Uncle George?
Uncle George!
[DISTANT GIBBERING, ROARING]
They're coming!
Get him into the headlights!
[GIBBERING, SCREECHING GETS CLOSER]
Son of a bitch! Aah!
[SHRIEKING, GIBBERING]
- Oh, shit! - Come on.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
Oh, shit!
Yah!
[SHOUTS]
[SCREECHING, ROARING CONTINUE]
[INTENSE MUSICAL BUILDUP]
[PIERCING TONE SHRIEKING]
[MONSTER SOUNDS FADE]
[EERIE MUSIC]
♪ ♪
[INTENSE ORCHESTRATION]
♪ ♪
We've been expecting you, Mr. Freeman.
Welcome home.
♪ ♪
[NINA SIMONE'S "SINNERMAN"]
♪ ♪
♪ Oh, Sinnerman, where ya gonna run to ♪
♪ Sinnerman, where ya gonna run to ♪
♪ Sinnerman, where ya gonna run to all on that day ♪
♪ I run to the rock, please hide me ♪
♪ I run to the rock ♪
♪ Please hide me all on that day ♪
♪ The rock cried out, I can't hide you ♪
♪ The rock cried out ♪
♪ I can't hide you ♪
♪ The rock cried out, I ain't gonna hide you ♪
♪ All on that day ♪
♪ I said, rock, what's the matter with you ♪
♪ Rock, can't you see I need you ♪
♪ Rock, devil was waitin' all on that day ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Power ♪
♪ Power, I cried power ♪
♪ I cried power ♪
CHILDREN: Bad Robot.
[BRIGHT TONE]
Dinner will be served in 15 minutes.
Don't mind the others.
Just because they don't want you here,
doesn't mean you're not supposed to be.
♪ (INTENSE MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
The secret birthright Pop wrote about is real.
CHRISTINA BRAITHWHITE: Our destiny's not decided by our families.
You just have to seize it.
I thought the world was one way and I found out it isn't...
and it terrifies me.
(SCREAMS)
I thought I had everything I wanted...
only to discover power like I've never known before.
♪ You cannot escape it ♪
WOMAN: It's a rat race to the finish
and it's winner takes all.
LETITIA LEWIS: We gotta face this new world head on
and stake our claim in it.
It's our story.
This birthright belongs to our family.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪