Andy is reclined in the chair, transported, arms fluidly conducting the music. Ecstasy and rapture. Shawshank no longer exists. It has been banished from the mind of men.

EXT -- EXERCISE YARD -- DAY (1955)

CAMERA TRACKS along groups of men, all riveted.

RED (V.O.)

I have no idea to this day what them two Italian ladies were singin' about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I like to think they were singin' about something so beautiful it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it.

CAMERA brings us to Red.

RED (V.O.)

I tell you, those voices soared. Higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away…and for the briefest of moments -- every last man at Shawshank felt free.

INT -- PRISON CORRIDOR -- DAY (1955)

FAST DOLLY with Norton striding up the hallway with Hadley.

RED (V.O.)

It pissed the warden off something terrible.

INT -- GUARD STATION/OUTER OFFICE -- DAY (1955)

Norton and Hadley break the door in. Andy looks up with a sublime smile. We hear Wiley POUNDING on the bathroom door:

WILEY (O.S.)

LET ME OUUUUT!

INT -- SOLITARY WING -- DAY (1955)

LOW ANGLE SLOW PUSH IN on the massive, rust-streaked steel door. God, this is a terrible place to be.

RED (V.O.)

Andy got two weeks in the hole for that little stunt.

INT -- SOLITARY CONFINEMENT -- DAY (1955)

Andy doesn't seem to mind. His arms sweep to the music still playing in his head. We hear a FAINT ECHO of the soaring duet.

INT -- MESS HALL -- DAY (1955)

HEYWOOD

Couldn't play somethin' good, huh? Hank Williams?

ANDY

They broke the door down before I could take requests.

FLOYD

Was it worth two weeks in the hole?

ANDY

Easiest time I ever did.

HEYWOOD

Shit. No such thing as easy time in the hole. A week seems like a year.

ANDY

I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company. Hardly felt the time at all.

RED

Oh, they let you tote that record player down there, huh? I could'a swore they confiscated that stuff.

ANDY

(taps his heart, his head)

The music was here…and here. That's the one thing they can't confiscate, not ever. That's the beauty of it. Haven't you ever felt that way about music, Red?

RED

Played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost my taste for it. Didn't make much sense on the inside.

ANDY

Here's where it makes most sense. We need it so we don't forget.

RED

Forget?

ANDY

That there are things in this world not carved out of gray stone. That there's a small place inside of us they can never lock away, and that place is called hope.

RED

Hope is a dangerous thing. Drive a man insane. It's got no place here. Better get used to the idea.