La Cucaracha (1998) - full transcript
Walter has problems. He's an American who's recently moved to a small Mexican village where he wants to live and write, but he barely knows the language and has no money. He wants to write but has no idea how to do this and he has nothing in the US to go back to. He spends his nights in a broke down abandoned shed by the lake trying to write and he spends his days in a local tavern drinking local beer he can't afford and receiving some food on the account of the barkeeper's pity. He's truly a lost man waiting for something to happen and save him. That's when a shady man who writes epitaphs for the recently departed introduces himself. He wants Walter to do a job for him. A powerful local man committed a grave crime against his boss, a powerful shady local businessman, and he needs to die. Walter is offered 100 000 US dollars to be the triggerman. After some consideration, Walter accepts the offer, since they'll kill him if he doesn't, now that he knows their illegal plan. Besides, this money could allow him to finally ask the local girl he's been secretly in love with, but never had the gall to introduce himself to, to elope with him. The assassination attempt ends in an unexpected way, and Walter gets shot in the back by his employers who never intended to let him live with his knowledge of the assassination. However, Walter survives. Now a cripple, he plans to take vengeance. He has finally found his true purpose in life. However, fate has one more cynical and ironic twist in store for him.
♪
[theme song
"South of the Border"]
[buzzing sound]
[truck horn]
Walter Pool: Oh, man!
Oh, no!
Speaker 2:
[Spanish] Oye, burrito.
No saludas.
A donde vas, burrochito.
[street sounds]
Walter Pool: Cervesas.
Manuel: Si, every
day, mas cervesas.
Walter Pool: Yeah,
what do you want?
Too cold.
Too cold.
Yeah.
Cervesas.
Manuel: [Spanish] Senor, Guerra.
Jose Guerra:
[Spanish] Jose.
Solomente Jose.
No mas, no menos.
Manuel: [Spanish]
Muchas gracias por el honor de
su presencia en
estas últimas semanas.
Espero que mi cantina pueda
aliviar el dolor de tu tragedia.
No sé cómo eres
capaz de soportar tanto.
Fue una tragedia terrible.
Jose Guerra:
[Spanish] Lo sé.
Pero es una tragedia
lo que nos enoble.
Y yo tengo continuar a vivir.
Bueno, pues, sentimonos.
Manuel: Senor, come on, come on.
Hey, time to go home.
Two o'clock in the morning.
Time to go away.
[Spanish] Ah, Dios mio.
Walter Pool: I am so hungry.
Can I-
Manuel: Maritza, un
platillo, rapido, rapido.
Walter Pool: I'll work for it.
Just scraps.
I'll work for the cervesas too.
Manuel: These gringos are the
laziest people on the earth.
Walter Pool: Miss
Lucy Goldwasser,
355 Huron Drive,
Paramus, New Jersey.
Dear Lucy, I hope
you're doing better,
starting to move on and
leaving memories of me behind.
I know you'd hate to see what
I've become but it would make me
feel better if you got some
kind of pleasure out of it.
You see, my second week
here stumbling around drunk,
a walking cliché in a white
guayabera shirt and Panama hat,
I got the shit kicked
out of me and robbed.
Stupid me, I was carrying
almost every dime I had.
Hell, I wasn't going
to be no tourist and
carry American Express.
I'm not writing my novel yet.
I know, I know, how can a guy
who read nothing but Cliff Notes
in school fancy
himself a writer,
but, it's what I want to do,
and Cliff Notes can be very
inspiring in their way.
Still, you must
find me pathetic.
Well, maybe not, because, you'll
never know what I've become.
You'll never get
this letter because,
just like the novel,
there is no letter.
It wasn't really
you I was leaving, Lucy.
It's beautiful here at night.
Except for the stars I
can't see a damn thing.
[buzzing]
Male: [Spanish]
Louis Graves: Always can tell
when someone's watching, huh?
Walter Pool: Who are you?
Louis Graves: Louis Graves.
Great to meet you.
Walter Pool: Yeah,
but, what do you want?
Louis Graves: Well, this
isn't exactly a tourist town.
Walter Pool: That's why I came.
Louis Graves: You're the first
American I've seen in weeks.
You know, I like to
exercise my English,
plus despite the fact you
could use a Clorox bath,
you seem like a
pretty swell guy.
Walter Pool: Ah,
look, don't get offended,
but I'm not that
chatty nowadays.
Louis Graves: Let
me the chatty one.
Think of me as the
evening's entertainment,
like you've gone to your
local playhouse to see Pippin.
Hey, believe it or
not, I understand.
I used to be right
smack where you are now,
two years straight.
All I needed was a break.
I got it, now look at me.
Walter Pool: A
regular people person.
Louis Graves: Yes, exactly.
A people person.
Thank you.
Understand I'm
chatty because I listen.
A man who does not listen
is man with nothing to say.
You like that?
It's an epigram.
I wrote it.
I mean that's what I do.
I'm an epigram writer.
Walter Pool: For a living?
Louis Graves:
Yeah, well, I wish.
You know, I send them into
Reader's Digest every now and
then but they won't publish me
because I don't have the juice
behind me, you know?
I mean you gotta be a name
like Ben Franklin or Euripides.
Walter Pool: Louis?
Louis Graves: Yeah?
Walter Pool: Go away.
You don't want to talk to me.
I'm what these
Mexicans call a pendejo.
Louis Graves: No.
Walter Pool: Yes.
Louis Graves: No.
Walter Pool: Yes.
Louis Graves: No man is
a pendejo if he has but
even one he can call amigo.
Are you hungry, amigo?
Walter Pool: I'm always hungry.
Louis Graves: Manuel?
[Spanish] and I
don't even know his name...
Walter Pool: Walter Pool.
Louis Graves: [Spanish]
Senor Walter Pool.
Manuel: [Spanish] Senor.
Louis Graves: I
mean, I don't do drugs.
Only a handful of people
that I know down here do drugs,
but everybody in the
States does drugs.
Do you know Walter, that
Americans spent four billion
dollars last year to
keep drugs out of their
fucking precious fortress?
Walter
Pool: Lot of money.
Louis Graves: Yeah.
I mean you reduce
the demand and you don't
have to worry about the supply.
Walter Pool:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Louis Graves: But
Americans aren't very
inward looking, Walter.
I mean, not when they can just
point the finger at the poor
brown folk down south, you know,
who are just trying to feed
themselves any way they can.
Listen to me, I mean, I say I
am a listener and not just a
talker, but all I've
been doing is talking.
Walter Pool:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Louis Graves: So Walter.
Walter Pool: Hmm?
Louis Graves: Tell me,
what brings you to Santiago?
Walter Pool: I'm hiding.
Louis Graves: Really?
Walter Pool:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Louis Graves: Why?
Walter Pool: I killed a man.
Louis Graves: Really?
Walter Pool:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Louis Graves: And,
uh, how did that feel?
Walter Pool: Good.
Good.
I killed a man.
"So, how did that feel?"
Felt good, yeah, felt good.
What an idiot.
Louis Graves: She's perfect.
A woman where you need a woman,
and a girl where
you need a girl.
The kind who will take of you
even while she's letting think
you're taking care of her.
Walter Pool: Are
you following me?
Louis Graves: Yeah.
It's not the first time either.
I know you've stood
here many nights.
Walter Pool: You know one day
I'm going to go up to her and
well, say something.
Louis Graves: What will it be?
Walter Pool: I don't know.
Whatever it is it's
going to be perfect.
Louis Graves: Don't you worry
that she might see you in the
street looking the way you do?
First impression goes astray,
she may not look another day.
Walter Pool: No.
When I approach her she won't
even know it's the same guy.
She's not going to see
this bum but the real me,
and she's going to
love me for just that.
Louis Graves:
What if she doesn't?
Walter Pool: I'll
blind her with my wealth.
I don't like being followed.
Why do you do it?
Louis Graves: I'll tell you, but
before I do please understand
that what I have to say does not
mean I was playing games before.
I do think of you as my amigo.
Walter Pool: Thanks.
Christ, I was worried.
Louis Graves: You
say you killed a man.
Walter Pool: Uh-huh.
Louis Graves: You
say it felt good.
Walter Pool: Uh-huh.
Louis Graves: Then
perhaps you might kill another.
Even before I spoke to you I
knew you were a man with a
killer inside him.
Walter Pool: Really?
Louis Graves: Yeah.
It's in the eyes.
Walter Pool: Really?
Louis Graves: Let's
get down to business, Walter.
I'm talking about a job, the
kind that pays 1,000 clean
and crisp 100 dollar bills.
This is your break, Walter,
the chance to be the man
you always wanted to be.
The man she wants you to be.
So please, amigo, follow me.
Please forgive the Uzi's Walter.
They are the vilest of guns, but
when you're dealing with this
kind of money in a
very poor country...
Walter Pool: Sure, I understand.
Louis Graves: You
may ask questions, of course.
Walter Pool: Who
you want me to kill?
Louis Graves: A bad man.
Walter Pool: How bad?
Louis Graves: Very, bad.
Walter Pool: Good, because I
only kill men if they're bad.
I mean very bad.
Louis Graves: Three months
ago he raped and murdered
a 16 year old boy.
Walter Pool: The
son of Jose Guerra.
Louis Graves: A
very brilliant, fun, energetic,
popular, and kind, most
importantly kind, boy.
But naïve, lured
in my a monster.
Walter Pool: Hmm.
Who?
Louis Graves: Herberto
Ortega, the only man in
town richer than Senor Guerra.
Walter Pool: Are you
sure this man is guilty?
Louis Graves: The night of the
murder several witnesses saw him
with the boy at the
crime scene only minutes
before the body was found.
Ortega did not know
he had been observed.
Everyone knows he's committed
several similar crimes in other
cities, other poor countries,
but he's officially clear.
I mean, his money and the right
friends make him very popular
with the courts and police
but detested by all others.
Walter Pool: Okay.
Why me?
Louis Graves:
You're an outsider.
You know what it is to kill.
Walter Pool: Mm.
In other words they
won't connect me to Guerra.
I don't know.
Louis Graves: What is it, amigo?
Walter Pool: Shit.
Is Guerra the guy who
always wears those Armani suits?
Louis Graves: He is building a
new cathedral for this town.
Walter Pool: Uh-huh.
Louis Graves: More importantly
he built a hospital and paid
doctors to leave their practices
in Mexico City and come here.
He made possible a
park for the children.
He supports the
poorest families,
and this is only a
smidgen of what he has done.
And as for the Armani suits,
I have seen Senor Guerra weep
because he feels without
them he is not enough of a man.
He once told me "If only
I could wear rags and still
hold my head just as high."
And I said to
him "It is not the clothes,
but the tears one
wears which make the man."
A plaque of those words
now hangs over his closet.
Walter Pool: Mm.
I don't know.
Louis Graves: A
rare opportunity, Walter.
A chance to make
a lot of money and
make the world a better place.
You must decide.
Walter Pool: Okay.
Okay, look.
If Jose Guerra
wants me to kill a man
he's got to ask me himself.
I'm that easily bought, amigo.
I don't care what he pays.
You got to make
Guerra understand,
I'd be doing him a big favor,
because I'm taking a big risk.
Louis Graves: You
have your pride,
the sort of guy
Senor Guerra admires,
but maybe too much for
what he asks of you.
You'd have to meet secretly.
You can't be seen together.
Walter Pool: As long as
we're eyeball to eyeball.
Louis Graves: I will
talk to Senor Guerra.
If he says yes I will find
you in the cantina tomorrow.
If he says no
best of luck, amigo.
[Spanish].
Walter Pool: Shit.
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
Shit.
My glasses?
Dear Lucy, I probably blew
100,000 dollars today.
I lied you see, and
now I got to decide.
If he comes tomorrow, that is.
I hope he doesn't
but if he does,
I hope he does.
[inaudible] - Oh, shit.
Ohhh, shit.
Uhh.
Louis Graves: Follow me.
♪
It's my job.
Walter Pool: You got to
do what you got to do.
Louis Graves: All right.
Senor Guerra will
make his decision,
and then so will you.
Good luck amigo.
Jose Guerra: Those are
bloodstains on your shirt.
Walter Pool:
Cleanest one I have.
Jose Guerra: Yes.
I see your point.
Looking at you Senor Pool, I
take it you never had a son.
You do not have the
look of a father,
at least one who has devoted
himself heart and soul to...
No, I must not take
it upon myself to judge
or disparage your character.
How could I do so when I
consider using your very
character for my own ends?
Really, we are more
the same than different.
It's only a matter of
degrees and appearances.
However, where I am one to
cling to those degrees and
appearances, you
seem to spite them,
to say they do not matter.
We both take such stances
to sustain identities for
ourselves, and in doing so, we
are both essentially dishonest.
Walter Pool: I don't know
about any of that stuff.
I don't think, I just kill.
Jose Guerra: Very
good answer Senor Pool,
for it is the answer which
brings you closer to acquiring
100,000 American dollars and
the life you believe you seek.
Walter Pool: I don't
think I understand you.
Jose Guerra: Oh, yes you do.
You see, I've been, my
compadres I should say,
have been watching you for the
past few weeks and they've been
reporting back to me.
We determined that
you were desperate,
so much so that it
was almost animal.
You were a stranger, spoke
to no one in the entire town.
Walter Pool: I'm a
very private guy.
Jose Guerra: Exactly.
You seem to be the perfect
candidate for my purposes,
and when you told Louis
that you had already killed,
and you liked it, well,
you see, I had prayed for a
man like you to cross my path.
You can imagine the kind of
anticipation your presence
created in me, but then last
night Louis tells me that you
are too proud to
just take the money.
You wanted to speak
to me personally,
and your whole body shook.
Walter Pool: Yeah,
well, I get excited.
Jose Guerra: Nonsense.
So now I meet you as you
requested to decide if you are
capable of the job.
A true mercenary who
can kill efficiently,
take the money without
remorse, keep forever silent.
So to find this out,
I intend to penetrate
to the core of who you are.
Walter Pool: There's
no penetrating me, Guerra.
Jose Guerra: Do you mean to
say that you are impenetrable,
or that there is
nothing to penetrate?
Walter Pool: There's
nothing to penetrate here, pal.
Jose Guerra: That's
your first mistake, Senor Pool.
A man who is a simple
honest killer is I believe,
an essentially shallow creature
with little or nothing to
penetrate, just what
you claim you are.
But the right answer was
to say "I'm impenetrable.",
because no person with
the strength of pride you
demonstrated to Louis last night
would ever think of himself of
having little or
nothing to penetrate.
So, by answering in
such a way as you did,
you revealed yourself to be
a man of some perception and
depth, who is conscious of
wanting to be seen as a shallow
and merciless killer, so
much so that he quite obviously
contradicts his true nature
which he has already clearly and
impulsively demonstrated.
Therefore, you cannot in my
opinion be truly mercenary.
It's been a pleasure
meeting you though.
I feel sorry for you
that you did not work out.
Walter Pool: Wait!
What do you mean by that?
Jose Guerra: By what?
Walter Pool: By
being sorry for me?
Jose Guerra: I
meant it's a shame.
Walter Pool: A shame?
Wait, look, look, look, look.
Look, I know about your
plan to kill Herberto Ortega.
Now to keep me quiet
you're going to have to
send someone after me, too.
You can't let me live.
All of a sudden I got to beg for
my own goddamn life, don't I?
Don't I?
Jose Guerra: If you knew what
it is to lose your only son,
defiled in such a manner,
and then to watch Maria,
my beloved wife, who I
knew since childhood,
watch her die within only months
after of nothing but grief...
Walter Pool: I'm sorry.
Jose Guerra: If you
could know what I feel,
you would forgive me.
Walter Pool: Oh, I forgive you.
Jose Guerra: I'm
sorry Senor Pool,
it's only an
unfortunate circumstance that
it did not work out.
Walter Pool: Look,
just hear me out.
If it's a matter of life or
death how could you expect me
not to kill Herberto Ortega?
Don't you see?
Now I got to kill him.
See, once I've got blood
on my hands I won't talk.
Don't you see?
Jose Guerra: I
cannot be certain.
Walter Pool: My own
survival instinct guarantees it.
I mean, just look at me.
If I didn't have a hell of a
survival instinct I would have
killed myself
probably a long time ago.
Jose Guerra: Let us
test that instinct.
And to think that you
came in here pretending to
be on equal footing with me.
Walter Pool: What?
Jose Guerra: Take your hands
off me and get on your hands and
knees, my gringo cucaracha.
Do it, or I'll
walk out the door.
Put you face on the floor.
Walter Pool: I'm not doing that.
Jose Guerra: I will
not say it again.
Now, Louis says
that you told him that
you were doing ME a favor.
Not only do I offer you
an immense amount of money,
but now I also spare your life.
So tell me, my cucaracha,
who is doing who a favor?
Walter Pool: You are.
Jose Guerra: What?
Walter Pool: You are.
Jose Guerra: You may live.
You know, when I think of my
son's confirmation into the
church, the pride and
hopefulness in his eyes,
and then an instant later, I
cannot help but remember how he
was, uh... I cannot stand to
see a man lose his dignity.
It makes me sick!
Yes, you've convinced me of
giving you the job and you shall
live, but my
estimation of you is little.
Louis will give you the details.
[inaudible]:
My prayers are with you.
Walter Pool: Fuck your prayers.
Jose Guerra: Very
good, Senor Pool.
Already you are coming
back among the living.
I am pleased.
Louis Graves: Once
the job is finished
there's no need to contact us.
We will know.
I will meet you in the cave
shortly after midnight tomorrow.
You'll be paid all your money
and then you must make yourself
disappear very
far from Santiago.
Ortega lives in the
hills just outside of town.
Walter Pool: Jesus, Walter.
Louis Graves: You
can't do that Walter.
Walter Pool: I didn't mean to.
Louis Graves: All alone.
No servants, not
even body guards.
This we do not understand.
♪
Herberto Ortega:
[Spanish]
Walter Pool: I'm lost.
I was exploring the woods.
Uh, sorry if I bothered you.
Herberto Ortega: Who are you?
Walter Pool: Name's... just Joe.
I'm from New Jersey.
Uh, it's my first
time visiting Mexico.
Herberto Ortega:
Have a seat, Joe.
Enjoy the fire.
My name is Herberto Ortega.
Please, I've been up here
alone for many days now.
I welcome the company.
Walter Pool: Okay.
Uh, thank you.
[inaudible]: I mean, uh, sure.
Ooo, that is a nice fire.
So you like 'em?
Herberto Ortega: What?
Walter Pool: Fires?
Herberto Ortega: Yes, very much.
If you were worth the
money they paid you,
I would have been
dead minutes ago.
Walter Pool: What?
Herberto Ortega: Please.
I am unarmed, my
hands are visible.
Please do what you came for.
Walter Pool: You shouldn't have
done what you did to that kid.
Herberto Ortega: You
mean Jose Guerra Junior?
Walter Pool: Ah,
so you admit it.
Herberto Ortega:
I admit nothing,
but please don't let that keep
you from pulling the trigger.
Walter Pool: What do you
mean, you admit nothing?
Herberto Ortega: I
mean I neither murdered nor
raped Jose Guerra Junior.
Walter Pool: Yeah, well with the
people I talked to there seems
to be no question about it.
There's a witness who
saw you with the kid,
and I hear you've done
this before, like other places.
Herberto Ortega: They're liars.
Walter Pool: Uh-huh.
Well you're the guy
with the gun in your face.
I think you have a
little more reason to lie,
so put your hands in the air.
Fact is, I don't care
who killed the kid,
so just close your eyes,
and we'll get this over with.
Come on, close your eyes.
Herberto Ortega: If I
wait for you to shoot I'm
more likely to starve to death.
What nonsense.
What did they pay
you to do this, two pesos?
Walter Pool: Shut up.
Herberto Ortega: You want
to know who killed the boy?
Walter Pool: No.
Shut up.
Herberto Ortega: The
man who hired you.
Walter Pool: That's bullshit.
I mean, I don't like
the guy, but I could
tell he loved his son.
Herberto Ortega: He loved what
he dreamed his son would be,
however he ended up grieving
the boy before he was even dead.
Walter Pool: Don't
expect me to buy any of that.
Herberto Ortega:
Poor Senor Guerra.
He had the horrifying discovery
that his only son was a maricon.
Walter Pool: A what?
Herberto Ortega: A faggot.
Walter Pool: A faggot?
So that's why you raped him?
Herberto Ortega: I
would not call it a rape.
The night it happened a friend
of Guerra's said he saw the boy
and I in a very
compromising position.
I left the boy, and soon
after Guerra arrived and said
he found his son strangled.
When I left minutes before,
young Jose was very much alive.
I believe Guerra
was watching us.
It was then that his suspicions
about his son were confirmed.
Walter Pool: You disgust me.
That kid was 16
years old and you-
Herberto Ortega: And if it
was a 16 year old girl,
you and most of your kind would
be slapping me on the back.
Walter Pool: So
then why'd you buy off
the courts and the police, huh?
Herberto Ortega: To get
a fair investigation.
In this country you need
money for such a thing.
Walter Pool: I don't
believe a word you're saying.
Herberto Ortega: I suppose my
various passions have led me
down immoral paths but somehow
I do not feel I did wrong.
Perhaps Guerra doesn't
feel he did wrong either.
He loved his son too much,
really himself too much,
to believe that his
son was truly a maricon.
The boy was better
saved in death than to be
disgraced and destroyed in life.
The poor man.
The pride of watching his
son follow in his footsteps
was his whole raison d'etre.
Walter Pool: His what?
Herberto Ortega: Reason to be.
Most never find it though.
Their attempts at
alchemy, ultimately fail.
They yearn for something simple
and certain that they can cling
to, yet their lives are grey and
ambiguous and just unravel and
unravel until they cannot
control how or do not even
notice it happening
until it is too late.
Then they are
filled with regret,
for something, they do
not even know what...
I have tried many things, Joe.
Tried to remain open to all
the possibilities of my nature.
Hoping for gold, but
finding mostly empty indulgence.
I thought I had found it,
but now I do not think so.
Perhaps the boy, who I led away
from his fear...
and to his death.
I should have known.
But you, Joe.
Walter Pool: Uh, Walter.
Herberto Ortega: Walter?
Tell me, Walter, what is yours?
Walter Pool: My raison blech?
Herberto Ortega: Yes.
Walter Pool: I don't know.
I just sort of ran away.
Herberto Ortega: From what?
Walter Pool: A regular life.
Herberto Ortega: Oh.
Are you like so many?
You run away from a regular
life and then yearn for it?
Yearn for what they do not want.
Walter Pool: Yearn
for what I do not want.
Yeah.
I just had to get away.
Maybe write.
I don't know.
It's kind of vague I guess, huh?
I just wanted to test myself.
Herberto Ortega: By killing?
Walter Pool: Look,
Herberto, if I don't kill you
I'm most likely a dead man.
Herberto Ortega: So
you want to write?
Walter Pool: Did you
hear what I just said?
Herberto Ortega:
Yes, I hear you.
So you want to write?
Walter Pool: Yes.
Herberto Ortega: Novels?
Walter Pool: Yeah.
Herberto Ortega: Why
come here to do that?
Walter Pool: I don't know.
The romantic thing, I guess.
You know, Hemingway,
Malcolm Lowry, Graham Greene.
Herberto Ortega: Graham Greene?
Walter Pool: Yeah,
you like his stuff?
Herberto Ortega: I knew him.
Walter Pool: No.
Herberto Ortega: He used to
play poker with my father.
Walter Pool: You
knew Graham Greene?
Herberto Ortega:
Yeah, quite well.
He would come here and we
would play cards and talk-
Walter Pool: Ah!
Ho!
Herberto Ortega: I did
not know Graham Greene, Walter.
Walter Pool: Ho.
Herberto Ortega: Get up.
Walter Pool: Don't, don't,
don't, don't shoot me.
I would never have killed you.
I'm just a claims
adjuster from New Jersey, man.
Herberto Ortega: Silencio.
Now, if I may please
have you turn away so I can
have these moments to myself.
There are many
reasons for this Walter,
more than you could know.
But I am tired of waiting.
[gun shot]
Walter Pool: Oh, man.
Why is everybody so nuts?
[inaudible]:
(whispering to himself)
Louis Graves: Walter!
Walter Pool: Over here!
Now listen up.
I want you to walk
no more than 30 feet,
and throw that case of money
in the direction of my voice,
then walk away.
Then when I've
verified it's all there,
you guys drive away.
Any deviation from that
plan, and I start shooting.
Louis Graves: Come on Walter.
This is no way to
treat your amigo.
Walter Pool: Amigo my ass.
You just do what I say.
Louis Graves: Okay.
I'll do what you ask.
Walter Pool: Okay, you can go.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wow!
Louis Graves: Even if
we made Ortega look like
an accident or a suicide-
Walter Pool: It was a suicide!
Louis Graves: Even so, there
are people, powerful people,
who would ask what really
happened to Herberto?
But there's no one to ask
what really happened to Walter?
Or even where is Walter?
Walter Pool: Mm-mmm (negative).
Louis Graves: I know I
said I was your amigo,
and now you know
I shouldn't have.
But I do feel shame Walter.
I could have one of
these guys pull the trigger,
but I'm going to do it myself so
you can look in my eyes and see
that it is done
with a sad heart.
It's a first time
for both of us.
Mine to kill, and more
significantly, yours to die.
So please, Walter,
spit in my face.
I lied to you and
said I was your friend,
now please, spit in my face.
Then that is how it is.
Walter Pool: Louis,
Louis please listen.
Louis, I did not kill
Ortega, he shot himself.
I swear.
Louis Graves: If it's any
consolation,
this money will instead be
used to build a pediatric
ward at Santiago Hospital.
Now, I ask you, Walter, how
is that money better spent?
On little ones who've not been
given even one chance in life,
or on a tired killer,
who's been given many?
Walter Pool: Well.
Louis Graves: Though I
just met you, I will miss you.
I have an epigram
for the occasion.
I know you'd probably rather not
hear it considering I wrote it
but, it could be some comfort.
"Where there is no
ground, there is no bottom."
You understand that?
Walter Pool: Yeah.
It's stupid.
Louis Graves:
Hopefully in death,
you'll never have
to hit bottom again.
Walter Pool: Oh, no.
[2 gun shots]
[wind chimes]
[radio playing]
Walter Pool: Por favor.
Por favor.
Cervesa, por favor.
Male: [Spanish]
No, no tenemos cerveza.
No somos cantina.
Walter Pool: Agua.
Male: Agua [Spanish]: Si
tenemos.
Walter Pool: Por favor.
Male: [Spanish]
Muy chistoso por un gringo, eh?
Walter Pool: Por favor
[Spanish]: Donde esta yo?
Male: En el hospital.
Walter Pool: Por
favor, por favor doctor.
Male: [Spanish]:
El doctor esta ocupado.
Tu no eres el
unico patiente aqui, eh?
Walter Pool: [Spanish] Que pasa?
No comprendo.
Que pasa?
Male: [Spanish]:
Alguien te pego con uno balazo.
Walter Pool:
[Spanish]: Que?
Male: [Spanish]: La
pistola, umm.
El, el balazo.
Bang!
Walter Pool: I'm not dead.
Male: [Spanish]: Como?
Walter Pool: [Spanish]: Um, you
no muerto.
Male: [Spanish]: No, no estas
muerto.
Pero pues, no puedes caminar.
Walter Pool:
[Spanish]: Que?
Male: [Spanish]: Tus piernas.
Un balazo te pego en la espina.
Y lo quebro.
Estas paralizado.
Las piernas... ya no trabaja.
Female: [Spanish]: Pobre cito,
pobre cito, pobre cito...
[buzzing noise]
Walter Pool: No, no, no, no...
Mmm.
Fucking cockroach.
Fucking most vile,
useless creature on the
face of the fucking planet.
But that's okay.
That's okay, because
you're older than every
fucking living everything.
Goddamn dinosaurs
had nothing on you.
You're so harmless
too, but, still people
hate you and stomp on you.
But we're not exactly
the same me and you,
cause you got legs.
Lots of 'em.
But what are they good for
but a lifetime of crawling?
Fuck.
Who needs legs?
Who needs 'em?
I got hands, I got
arms, I got eyes and finally
I got a goddamn raison blech.
Fuck, I know.
I got it.
My faith, my religion, Guerra.
Hell, I ate your poison
and it made me stronger.
Male: [inaudible]:
Como estas, Walter.
Walter Pool: How much longer
till I've paid off my Porsche?
Male: [Spanish] Como?
Walter Pool: [Spanish] Uh,
cuantos mas semanas?
Male: [Spanish]: Doce.
Doce semanas.
Patiente, Walter.
Tu tiempo voy llegar, ok?
Male: Hey, [Spanish]:
Sabes quien te hizo esto?
Walter Pool: Como.
Do you know who did this to you
Walter Pool: Banditos.
I never saw their faces.
Male: Okay.
Male: Tu tiempo llego, Walter.
Walter Pool: Un momento.
Donde esto Santiago?
Male: Santiago?
Walter Pool: Si, donde esta?
Male: Cincuenta kilometers.
De aqui.
Mas o menos.
Walter Pool: Que direction?
Male: Por alla.
Walter Pool: Gracias.
♪
Hey!
Come on, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa now!
Look out!
Hey, hey!
Hey, stop, stop!
Stop the truccccccck!!!!
AHHHHH!!!!
Walter Pool: Gracias.
♪
FIESTA MAN IN MASK:
(Spanish): Oye, gringo!
Como te gusta la fiesta, eh?!
Lous Graves: [Spanish] Para ti.
amigo.
Walter: (Spanish): Para ti,
amigo.
Male: [Spanish]
Female: [Spanish]
Treinta pesos.
Walter Pool: Oh, no,
this is the first floor.
Primora.
Female: [Spanish]
Walter Pool: No
bueno Tres, por favor.
Female: No, senor.
Walter Pool: No, yes, Senorita,
I want the third floor.
Female: [Spanish]
Walter Pool: No,
no, I want the...
Look, look,
[crosstalk].
I want to be up
high where I can see,
is-
Female: [Spanish]
Walter Pool: You know, I
know, yeah, call the police.
Call the police.
Aw, man.
Female: Gringo, loco!
[Spanish]
[banging on wall]
Walter Pool: You like to
bang on walls, huh?
Toro mother fucker!
[screams]
♪
Walter Pool: Dinero.
Dinero.
Louis Graves: Si,
dinero, dinero.
Louis Graves: Por Favor!
Walter Pool: Shut up!
Shut up!
Louis Graves:
Please, don't hurt me.
I'll give you anything.
Walter Pool: Your words aren't
good for anything... Amigo.
Louis Graves: Walter?
[screams]
Male: [Spanish]
LOUIS'S WIFE: Louis!!!
Noooo, Louis!!!
♪
[splash]
♪
Walter Pool: Hi.
Lourdes: You are
feeling more better?
Walter Pool: It's you.
Lourdes: Si, but you
are feeling more better?
Walter Pool: Yeah, sure,
just keep looking at me.
Lourdes: I get you food?
Walter Pool: Food?
Lourdes: You are hungry?
Walter Pool: Where am I?
Lourdes: In the house.
Walter Pool: It
doesn't seem like a dream,
I'm questioning things too much.
If it was a dream
I'd just accept it.
I know you.
I've seen you
before on the streets,
and in your apartment.
Lourdes: In my apartment?
Walter Pool: Yes.
Lourdes: But I don't see you.
Walter Pool: No, I
made sure of that.
What's your name?
Lourdes: Lourdes.
I get you food.
Walter Pool: Okay.
Lourdes: Gracias, Juanita.
Walter Pool: How did I get here?
Lourdes: You eat and I tell you.
I found in the
water, in the morning,
and I took you out of the water,
and I put you in your... this-
Walter Pool: Wheelchair.
Lourdes: Wheelchair?
Walter Pool:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lourdes: I put you in your
wheelchair and I bring you back
to the house and you can stay
here until you feel more better.
Walter Pool: It was
destiny you saved me.
Lourdes: What that means?
Walter Pool: It means
like, it was meant to be or
God made it happen.
Lourdes: Ah, si, that God
wants you to be living.
Walter Pool: Mm, for a reason.
Thanks for saving me.
Who knows I'm here?
Lourdes: What do you mean?
Walter Pool: I mean did you
tell anybody about me or did
anybody see you bring me here?
Lourdes: No, only my mother.
You opened your eyes
before I am to call the doctor.
Walter Pool: Good.
I don't need a doctor.
I'm fine, I just need to eat.
It's really good.
You know, I don't need
to eat, I need to talk.
Let me see, uh,
yo trabajar en la,
uh, oficina, uh y musica-
Lourdes: My English is good.
I understand.
Walter Pool: Okay.
Well you see, I used
to work in this office
where I had a cubicle.
That's like part of the office
and they used to pump in this
muzak and that's like...
What's that like?
It's like elevator
music, comprende?
That's like where they take a
good song or a bad song
and they make it worse.
Anyway, I never complained
because it was all part of the
job, you know, but I wanted
more so I thought, well maybe
a hobby, like every other idiot
who's bored with his life.
So I tried the internet, hoping
to meet more people but the only
person on the internet with
anything interesting to say
was this fat girl from Iceland.
I mean, I don't
know if she was fat,
she didn't say she was fat, but
when I asked her what she looked
like she wouldn't tell me.
In Iceland it's cold, you
know, they eat and drink a lot.
Anyway I wanted
real human contact,
you know, not just some computer
screen spewing out EMF's,
that's electromagnetic
fields, and like I said,
I'm on the computer all day so I
can't concentrate enough to read
and I hate fucking TV, except
for the Discovery Channel.
Shit I'm sorry.
I hope my language
doesn't upset you.
Anyway what I
wanted to do was write.
Write, write, write,
so I thought well,
I'll do the drudge work by day,
and I'll write by
night, like Kafka.
And like I said, I'm on
the computer all day,
so my fingers hurt and I
became exhausted and...
You know to be
honest, I never wrote a word
except the claims reports.
And the job, the job just
wore me out so I tried vitamins,
I took garlic pills and I
worked out for about a week,
and then of
course there was Lucy.
She worked in the office with me
and we were engaged and she was
very nice, and I
guess I loved her,
but you know, I tried to
explain to her I was in hell,
and I know she
tried to understand.
But then one day I actually... I
actually heard her humming along
with the muzak, some beautiful
butchered Beatles tune and I
realized she actually liked it,
and that's when I knew I had to
go, and I don't mean just like
get out of town or change jobs,
break off the relationship or go
back to school or get therapy.
But I mean I had to
get the fuck out.
Because you know, deep
down inside myself...
I mean, I thought... if I
was going to be miserable,
it would have to
be on my own terms,
by myself but even that,
you know, even that...
What a crybaby.
The shit I talk.
I mean, you don't understand
half of what I'm saying and
there you were all poor, maybe
you hadn't eaten in a week and
I'm talking about muzak.
Well at least now
I've got real problems to
match the way that I feel.
Lourdes: I understand.
Walter Pool: I know you do.
I feel I've known
you, I mean really known
you for a long time now.
Lourdes: Other men
say that to me also.
Walter Pool: Oh, but,
I'm not one of them,
I'm not like them.
I left all that
behind, I am not one of 'em.
Lourdes: Please move your hand.
Walter Pool: I'm sorry.
I just felt I could do
that and it would be okay.
Lourdes: You eat the food.
Walter Pool: Who
owns this place?
Lourdes: The man
that I will marry.
Walter Pool: Who is he?
I mean, who could
be rich enough...
Never mind.
I don't want to know.
Lourdes: So you
eat and I will go,
and you can ask Juanita if
you need for her to help you.
She's the maid.
I'll come back
tomorrow and you can stay here
until you get more better.
Maybe some days, is okay.
Walter Pool: You're doing it
for the money, aren't you?
Lourdes: What?
Walter Pool: Marrying this guy.
Lourdes: You don't know
me and you say this to me?
Walter Pool: I'm sorry.
Lourdes: I don't
marry any man for money.
Walter Pool: Bullshit.
♪
Jose Guerra:
[Spanish] Quien eres?
Oh, you are the American guest.
Don't I know you?
Walter Pool: Not a sound.
Jose Guerra: Who are you?
Walter Pool: An avenging angel.
They can't see you in the dark.
Jose Guerra: Senor Pool?
Walter Pool:
That's right Guerra.
You remembered.
I'm flattered.
Jose Guerra: I would have
remembered you immediately-
Walter Pool: Except
you thought I was dead.
I told you I have a hell
of a survival instinct.
Now tell me, what
didn't you tell her tonight?
Jose Guerra: Who?
Walter Pool: Lourdes.
When you were naked.
Jose Guerra: You saw?
Walter Pool: Yeah.
Were you going to tell
her you killed your son?
Nobody else knows, huh?
Just me.
Jose Guerra:
Yes, please, see that
I'm in hell for what I've done.
Let me live, let me live so that
I can suffer and confront it.
Walter Pool: You're
confronting it right now.
Understand, I'm not
buying this "let me live
and I shall suffer" bullshit.
Jose Guerra: Of course not.
You know that I'm a
dishonest man, one that is even
more inclined to lie under
the present circumstance.
Walter Pool: There you have it!
You deserve to die.
Jose Guerra: Ahhhh...
Walter Pool: Okay.
You have a choice.
You can probably save
your life if you bolt now,
and you'll look
great with an eye patch.
Jose Guerra: Today, you may
find life impossible unless
you have your vengeance,
but tomorrow, you might
be glad to live without it.
Walter Pool: I'll live
happily ever after with it.
Jose Guerra: Perhaps, except
that you shall not live at all.
It's four o'clock
in the morning.
In one hour the sun shall rise
and my body guards shall see my
corpse and they
shall hunt you down.
How far do you
expect you can go?
Walter Pool: God,
I hate the sun.
Jose Guerra: The wisest
course would be to let me go.
Take the chance that I
shall honor my word when
I say I shall not retaliate.
Walter Pool: I'm
calling the shots now.
I have the power, not you.
Jose Guerra: The kind of
power that's motivated
only by the lack of power.
Walter Pool: That
was stupid, Guerra.
That's a small but
critical vein I'm touching now.
Jose Guerra: I'm
only speaking honestly,
so that you will know that you
can believe me when I say that
if you allow me to live, I
shall do the same for you.
What does causing your
own annihilation solve?
Walter Pool: It solves life.
Jose Guerra: You don't want die.
You'd rather live in
your own misery than die.
In that we are the same.
Do not harm her.
Because of her I
can change, Walter.
Only a month ago I
found myself at the church,
ready to confess all my crimes
to the padre, but I did not.
I looked at this man I
ruled with my altruism,
and I did not know
him, or trust him.
I escaped from my body guards
and I went to the plaza and I
sat on the bench, feeling
more alone than I've ever felt.
I don't know how
long I sat there,
but suddenly I felt
compelled to look up and I saw
those two eyes looking at me.
A stranger's eyes, but
yet they understood,
felt everything that I was
feeling and I realized this was
no stranger, though I'd never
seen her before that moment.
Walter Pool: Yeah, but
you're afraid of her.
If you told her all you've
done you could lose her.
Jose Guerra: Yes.
Walter Pool: So call her over.
Jose Guerra: Why?
Walter Pool: Do it.
Jose Guerra: Lourdes.
Vente.
Lourdes: Jose?
Jose Guerra: Si, vente.
What are you going to do?
Not me, you.
You're going to get
it all off your chest.
All your crimes.
Jose Guerra: Please I cannot.
Walter Pool: It's
your only choice.
You tell her in
English so I can understand.
One sound and he dies.
I'm sorry, but
you'll understand once you
hear what he has to say.
Get down, put your
ear against his mouth.
I promise I won't hurt you.
Jose Guerra: I killed my son.
Lourdes: Que?
Jose Guerra: I killed my son.
I killed him with my own hands.
Walter Pool: Everything!
Jose Guerra: This
man, on my orders, was shot,
so now he cannot walk.
Walter Pool: You're
carrying his second child.
Think he won't do it again?
It's up to you.
Do I let him go,
or do I kill him?
Lourdes: Let him go.
Jose Guerra: You love me.
Walter, you are an angel,
but not an avenging one.
Walter Pool: I don't
believe this shit.
Lourdes: No!
Jose Guerra: Si, goddamn it, si!
Lourdes: No.
♪
Walter Pool: Dear Lucy, Lucy,
shit whatever happened to you?
You seem so long ago.
Guess what?
I'm not writing my novel yet.
You know, I don't think I
want to be a writer after all.
All I know is the
asshole was right.
I want to live no matter what.
If you ever see me
again, Lucy, you'll probably
feel sorry for me, but don't.
I'm going to be okay.
Till then, Walter.
♪