Original subtitles

Fixed / Resync By Chuck

[groaning]

[dramatic music]

[yelling]

[dramatic music]

[gasping]

[dramatic music]

- There's always that day you're in no hurry to begin,

that day you think you're going to die.

So go back to bed.

Yeah?

So I can drown again?

What slaughter, to drown in your sleep or for real?

I can make it see, I can make it.

Like that kid.

What was his name?

Jimmy.

It's Jimmy Mills.

- Hey you going as far as Huntington Beach?

- Going as far as New York.

- My last ride turned off about 100 yards back,

give me a lift?

- Hop in.

- You'll be sorry.

- Ah, he's just a kid.

Oh boy.

[upbeat music]

- What's the matter, like you said, just a kid.

- [Buz] If we hadn't picked him up,

somebody else would have.

If it hadn't happened that day, it would have happened

some other day.

So I'm not doing it for him.

Maybe it started that way but it's past that now,

way past that.

Now it's for me.

- Grab yourself a seat in the sun,

I'll toss you the ears.

- Taken individually I recognize every word

but put them all together they don't spell mother.

- Remi talk.

- Remi talk?

- Yeah, whose ears?

- Hobs.

- [Buz] Hob who?

- King of the hot doggers.

- Oh, why didn't you say so in the first place.

- He thinks.

- But not you?

- Well I've been watching him.

I come all the way down from Malibu you know?

We heard about him up there

and I come down for about a month and I've been

surfing just down the line from him and you know

just cooling it and watching.

He can be had.

Just a tired old tuna.

- Just to bring Hob down huh?

- Did you ever feel that there was something

you had to do and you didn't even know why

you had to do it?

- Yeah.

- That's one of these things.

Pier's there and I got to shoot it.

- So must huh?

- Well when you're ready you go right?

- Right.

- Today I wipe him out.

Today I shoot the pier.

- I got lost some place, would you mind taking it

once more from the top?

- Drive down to the pier, get as close as you can.

He's the underdog.

He's about to challenge the king,

somebody he calls Hob.

- The king of what?

- This beach, the west coast,

Pacific Ocean, and maybe the south seas, how do I know?

- Well how do you know this much?

- When you were working out keeping us in beans,

after I got out of the hospital the doctor said,

lay around the beach while you heal.

I met some of those gremmies, beach kid,

like this one.

I also met the old timers, the surfers.

Guys that live out there in that world.

I messed around with it a little myself too.

- You were supposed to be resting.

- Can we drive down to the pier now?

- Yeah, well what happened to dinner

in San Francisco tonight?

- You know what shooting the pier is?

- You grab yourself a wave and you try to make it

through those pilings.

It's the cannon ball express and you're the cannon ball.

I haven't seen anybody try it but that's what they say.

[suspenseful music]

I only knew the kid for a few minutes,

but I guess what it was, what hooked me into

the whole action was something about him reaching me.

And then what happened, it was so fast,

there was no hint, no hint at all.

[dramatic music]

[cheering]

- Who's the gremmie out there Hob?

- Who knows?

- I heard him put you on out there Hob.

Free beer for everybody he says if he don't

take the old tired tuna.

[laughing] "Tired tuna ha-ha"

- Has he got any money?

- What difference does it make?

You can't set him up from a hospital.

- Hey that looks a hoe dad to me?

- Who are you hoe dad?

[dramatic music]

[yelling]

- Oh man did he wipe out.

[dramatic music]

What do you think?

[dramatic music]

- Forget it.

Forget it Buz.

He's got a broken neck.

[♪ dramatic music !! ♪]

- It was your idea kid, not mine.

- [Buz] If we hadn't picked him up,

somebody else would have.

If it hadn't happened that day, it would have happened

some other day.

So I'm not doing it for him.

Maybe it started that way but it's past that now,

way past that, now it's for me.

[upbeat music]

- What's it going to get you?

What good is it going to anybody to go busting

into that den of lost causes.

So I'll concede you have 50 knuckles on each hand,

sure, before they gang up on us and toss us out

we'll leave a few bruises here and there.

Is it going to change anything?

- Why is it Tod with you...

Everything's got to match up?

Sky blue.

Dark night.

Lollipops...

sweet.

- Frankie, let's dance.

So, who wants to dance?

- Blessed are the meek.

- Drink?

On the house.

If you can't call it hospitality, call it insurance.

This is my place and somebody's hard earned money

went into every stick of furniture.

So why break it up?

[jazz music]

- His name was Jimmy Mills and that's for the beer.

Just another gremmie huh from some other beach?

Just some kid that wiped out.

Some nowhere kid?

We waited at the morgue because we figured

when his folks showed up they'd like

to know how it was.

The police put out some calls and a photographer

from a paper took a picture and the radio talked it up.

If your son is missing hurry down

to your neighborhood morgue.

About an hour ago a customer shows up.

He looks at the kid, says yeah that's my kid.

And then we waited for him to cry maybe

or grab the kid's hand or ask us how all this happened,

but he just looked at the kid and said yeah,

that's my kid and he walked out.

And that's all it was.

But somebody's got to care right?

How about it, anybody here care?!

Hey king, don't hide behind your back on me

because it's not going to work.

I'm going to make you care.

I'm going to stick around here and make you care

if I have to turn your belly out.

I'm going to bring you down king.

- You okay?

- Yeah okay.

[dramatic music]

- Buz you can't open every door, you can't even

knock on some of them.

When you find a neighborhood like that

with all the shutters up you just drive straight through

and forget it.

- Well I say you stop.

I say you take it a block at a time

and a door at a time.

Every time you pass up a guy like Hob you can hear

the door shutting all over the place.

Shut.

- Where does it say everybody has to cry

as many tears as you cry?

- Well you cried at the morgue.

- Buz, don't you see when somebody comes after

your crown no matter how ridiculous that crown might be

to normal people, you fight for it.

Now that's all Hob did, that's all he's guilty of.

- Words, words.

I got to do what I feel and what I feel is

I can't walk away from this place, not now!

- We'll go back to the motel and sleep on it.

- I'm Debbie.

I like to think of myself as a seagull. (?)

I pick up things along the shore.

I like to catch them if they fall, it's more fun.

- Well Debbie, my friend and I, we don't fall very well.

We stay up there you know.

- Dig.

- Good night Debbie.

- There's only way you can bring Hob down.

What's your name?

- How?

- [giggling] That's the weirdest name I ever heard.

- His name is Buz and we're headed north.

- Wipe him out Buz.

That's the only way.

- He doesn't hit back.

- In the surf.

Sake you?

- You must be kidding.

- I'm your teach.

- You any good?

- Too good, that's why I'm cut out.

Guys don't like it.

So inherit the furs. (?)

It used to bug me but now I'm hooked.

They're the best kind.

You bring Hob down, I get him, see?

And if you don't,

well, that leaves you.

- When do we start?

- Tomorrow's wave is already forming.

Somewhere east of Sewers.

Watch the sun, I'll be under it.

- Two weeks, give me two weeks.

- So I can fish you out from under the pier?

[dramatic music]

[peaceful music]

- Walk it.

- What?

- Walk the board.

Forward speeds you up, back slows you down.

Walk it.

[dramatic music]

- Just 10 days and he stays with a curl better

than you do Bob.

- What's with that guy?

Night and day, he really thinks he's going

to show you up Hob.

- We belong to a species that can protect itself

against everything, except each other.

- Afternoon, anything good in the fifth?

- You ever watched a killer whale?

- And I was going to ask you to split a sandwich

but hate my buddy hate me, so how about some cake

and fruit juice?

- They kill for the sure lust of killing.

They get so carried away with the friends they have

the hunt that they forget why they attacked

in the first place.

You know something?

We were all happy before he came,

can't you stop him?

- Medrith I'm about all talked out on this thing.

- You don't understand.

This is a way of life for very special people.

- Okay, special people.

- Thank you.

You're a bit more understanding than your friend.

- Well Buz says those aren't waves they've got

their back to.

He says they're running from life and every wave

is just one more push on a long ride to nowhere.

- I used to watch Hob from my window.

One of those panoramic windows from the cliff.

It came to me one day that each wave

was an individual challenge, sort of a small chance

of a victory for a man who had nothing else.

- Well he could get a job.

- He doesn't have to, he's not collecting money.

Besides, who are you to talk?

Where were you going in your little sports car,

you and your little primitive friend?

- Not anyway from anything Medrith, toward.

- He has dignity.

He isn't dirtied by life, he isn't tied to a schedule

like my husband.

That's over now.

The house, the one up in the hill.

On a clear day you can see a for sale sign out front.

Nine rooms, 19 appliances, everything working

except us.

In a choice between a man's ambition and his wife,

the wife always comes out second.

And Hob he doesn't ask for anything just a high sun

and a breaking surf.

So what happens if your friend manages to bring him down,

to humiliate him at the one thing he can do?

- I'd say that's highly unlikely.

- No, it's likely.

It's like he's determined to destroy Hob.

Take him away from me.

Before I've even had him.

- Hey.

The pier.

- No, not yet.

[dramatic music]

[coughing]

[dramatic music]

[pensive music]

- Come on.

- Has he told you yet?

- Not a clue, just that he has a surprise for you

and wants to announce it in style.

The experience yesterday under the pier really

shook him up.

He didn't sleep last night, he just stood by

the window and watched the waves.

I'm hoping he's going to call off the vendetta.

That would be worth celebrating.

[piano music]

- Oh, let's have that for dessert.

Uh? Waiter?

- Yes sir.

- Cherry's jubilee all the way around?

- Yes sir.

- And would you mind?

- Right away sir.

[jazz music]

- Hello Hob.

None of the crowd seems to know where

you disappear to Saturday nights.

I suspect they think you're in some fancy place

living very high on all that loot that your uncle

left you, so I thought I'd clear up the mystery.

- Shut up.

- What is everybody so ashamed for the king?

Because he has to sneak out on Saturday nights

and actually work?

Is it such a square thing to do, work?

Oh that's right, surfers aren't supposed to do anything

but surf and look down their noses at all the slobs

that hold up the world from nine to five.

And surfers don't fight either, do they?

Might damage their hands.

- Hey king, did you ever ride the waves in Oklahoma?

They've got surfers in Oklahoma too.

Getting tanned under the pool room lights.

Like they got guys that hang around the drug stores

in Brooklyn and guys that watch the trucks

unload in Kansas City and guys that hide all day

in downtown movie houses.

Surfers, just like the bums on skid row.

All surfers, except they lie on asphalt instead

of beach.

- Excuse me.

- Waiter, cheque.

Congratulations.

- You look, you find.

- Your party.

[dramatic music]

- You sure brought him down.

[dramatic music]

- This wasn't my idea.

If you'd like to take him out in the alley

I'll be happy to hold your coat.

- So you're up there.

But what is that?

You're just another wave that I'm going to let pass.

Something the wind blew in.

Something that's going to break apart

and end up in foam.

You're all done pounding on me.

And what's it done for ya?

You can't get to me.

Nobody can.

I was strong enough to walk away from

the whole, gritty world, but you're locked in.

You need the pressure.

You've committed yourself way over your head.

So go drown.

[upbeat music]

- How many of you want to bet on tomorrow?

Hmm, it's even money.

Me against Hob.

What's the matter?

You saw me wipe out yesterday right?

Well come on, come on.

- Five bucks on Hob.

- Cover him Tod, put your money on the bar.

- I'll take a buck on Hob.

- Finished?

Okay pay off Tod.

There's no contest tomorrow, I pass.

The pier brought me down, that and one other thing,

this mark, its Hobs.

I made him feel, but he made me understand.

[uplifting tones]

Let's head north east tomorrow.

The in-land route.

I don't want to see any more waves.

The water was a cold fist, pounding me under.

It stopped pounding me for one minute,

I clawed to the surface, it was like...

Breathing through wet cotton. (Waterboarding)

I didn't even feel the barnacles cutting,

just that fist pounding me, driving me under again.

[suspenseful music]

There's always that day I hurried to begin.

The day you think you're going to die,

but you begin it anyway.

You do what you have to do.

You fight the fear, you win or you lose.

[upbeat music]

[alarm ringing]

- Good morning.

- No, just a friendly ship board drill.

Do you mind if I pack this as long as everything else

is already packed and on the car?

North and east.

- I feel weak, I'll be with you in a minute.

- Don't feel too bad Buz, what you said about fear

is true, everybody's afraid of something.

Things work out, like Hobs, someday he'll be able

to walk off the beach and someday you'll be able

to shoot the pier.

- You really think so?

- Yes, I really do.

- It's the second half that counts, right coach?

[knocking]

- Is Buz here?

- I'll be in the car.

- They say that last night at the beach pad

you made quite a speech.

- Well when something's got to get said,

it gets said one way or another.

- They said that I made you understand something,

but I don't know what.

How can that be?

Would you try to tell me?

- I don't know.

Everybody's got their own style you know?

Everybody makes his own move when he can,

how he can.

The guys that ride the waves in Oklahoma,

the ones that watch the trucks unload in Kansas City,

or the guys on skid row,

even that far down once you say they're people,

you have to say, maybe they're getting ready

to make their moves in their own ways.

But if they make it, when they make it,

how they make it, win or lose,

that's between a man and himself.

Something like that.

That's what you made me understand.

Stay in green water, huh?

- Yeah.

[peaceful music]

[upbeat music]

- They make a pretty good map for cars don't they?

But what do they make for guys like me

who turn left instead of right?

- Well you have to know we're lost before

we can find ourselves Buz.

That sort of map you make up as you go along.

[upbeat music]

Fixed / Resync By Chuck

[jazz route 66 theme]

- [Announcer] This has been a Screen Gems film presentation,

Herbert V. Leonard, Executive Producer.