Those of you who have seen Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid will immediately recognize the scene where Butch and Sundance jump off a cliff to escape the “superposse.” I’ve written this as a past-tense narrative, rather than as a screenplay. I had to add in some description where I thought it was appropriate. (You have to add or remove things sometimes when transferring a story from one medium to another.)
The Butch and Sundance movie is one of my favorites, and it’s a story I know well. And while I’ve watched the two characters on the screen, it was quite another experience to write them. I had to put myself in their boots a little bit to find out what they might be thinking about or looking at.
Here it is. Very rough, very unedited:
Butch and Sundance scrambled over the top of the ridge. Behind them, the superposse drew steadily closer. The two outlaws hit a sloping patch of loose dirt and fell. They rolled down the slope, loosing their hats in the process. As the ground levelled out, they managed to gain their footing again, but found themselves cornered by a cliff.
“Damn it,” said Sundance, who immediately jerked his head around, hoping to catch sight of their pursuers.
Butch approached the edge of the cliff cautiously and looked over the side. 300 feet below them, a foaming white river roared back up at them.
The two of them scrambled away from the edge and took cover behind a boulder. Butch squinted his eyes back at the rocky hill over which they had come.
“Well, the way I figure, we can either fight or give,” said Butch. “If we give, we go to jail.”
“I’ve been there already,” said Sundance.
“If we fight, they could stay just where they are and starve us out.” Above them in the rocks, Butch could see the man in the white skipper and several other figures coming around the top of the hill. If it was LaFours, Butch though, he was probably grinning at them, his toothy smile as white as his white straw hat. “Or they could go for position and shoot us. They might even get a rock slide started and get us that way. What else can they do?”
“They could surrender to us,” said Sundance, “but I wouldn’t count on that.”
The figures above them were now picking their way carefully among the rocks, some moving to the left, and others to the right. On the peak of the hill, watching them, directing them, stood the man in the white hat.
“They’re going for position alright,” said Sundance. He drew his gun and checked the cyllendar. “Better get ready.” He pressed his back up against the rock they were using for cover. Butch sat down next to him, a thoughtful look on his face.
“Kid,” said Butch, “next time I say ‘let’s go some place like Bolivia,’ let’s go someplace like Bolivia.”
“Next time,” retorted Sundance. “Ready?” His gun was out, and he was perched on the edge of his toes, ready to spring out from behind the rock and start shooting.
Suddenly Butch raised his head as if he had suddenly been struck by a great revelation. “No, we’ll jump.”
Sundance looked back at his friend and then peered over the side of the cliff at the raging waters below.
“Like hell we will.”
“No, it’ll be okay,” said Butch, who began taking off his coat. “If the water’s deep enough and we don’t get squished to death. They’ll never follow us.”
“How do you know?” said Sundance, sharp as any pistol shot.
“Would you make a jump like that if you didn’t have to?”
“I have to and I’m not gonna.”
“Well, we’ve got to otherwise we’re dead. They’re just gonna have to go back down the same way they come. Come on.”
“Just one clear shot, that’s all I want.”
“We got to.”
“Nope. Get away from me.”
“Why?”
“I wanna fight ‘em.”
“They’ll kill us!”
“Maybe.”
“Do you wanna die?”
“Do you?” Sundance waved his gun at the edge of the cliff.
“Alright,” said Butch as he took off his gunbelt, “I’ll go first.”
“Nope.”
“Well then you jump first.”
“No I said.”
“What’s the matter with you?”
“I can’t swim!”
Butch stared at his friend in half disbelief. Sundance just shrugged his shoulders. The Butch closed his eyes, threw back his head, and let out a bellowing laugh that echoed accross the ravine. “Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you.”
Sundance looked at the cliff, and then back around the rock at the aproaching figures. His gun was still drawn, cocked, and ready for action. Butch handed him one end of his gunbelt. With a shake of his head and a single burst of bravery, desparation and stupidity, Sundance grabbed it and let out a cry and a curse that seemed to come directly from the bottom of his boots. Charging out from behind the rock, both he and Butch leapt off the edge of the cliff.
With a great splash they struck the water. Above them in the rocks, the miniature and deadly figures of the superposse could only watch as Butch and Sundance, still very much alive, were swept away down the rapidly flowing river, arguing and cursing all the way.
