RORY

Oh God, that's what it is, it's shit. oh my God it's shit. pull me out 'fore I blow my groceries, oh shit it's shit, oh my Gawwwwwwd!

INT -- ANDY'S CELL -- DAY (1966)

Red and others listen to violent barfing from below.

RED (V.O.)

And then came the unmistakable sound of Rory Tremont losing his last few meals. The whole cellblock heard it. I mean, it echoed.

That's it for Red. He starts laughing. Laughing, hell, he's bellowing laughter, laughing so hard he has to hold himself, laughing so hard tears are pouring down his cheeks. The look of rage on Norton's face makes him laugh all the harder.

INT -- SOLITARY WING -- NIGHT (1966)

Abrupt silence. LOW ANGLE on steel door.

RED (V.O.)

I laughed myself right into solitary. Two week stretch.

INT -- SOLITARY -- NIGHT (1966)

RED

It's shit, it's shit, oh my God it's shit…

He starts laughing all over again, fit to split.

RED (V.O.)

Andy once talked about doing easy time in the hole. Now I knew what he meant.

EXT -- SHAWSHANK PRISON -- WIDE SHOT -- DAY (1966)

Virgin landscape. Charming rural road. Suddenly, State Police cruisers rocket up the road with SIRENS AND LIGHTS.

RED (V.O.)

In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank Prison.

EXT -- FIELD -- DAY (1966)

Shawshank is half a mile distant. WE TRACK ALONG a muddy creel as STATE TROOPERS and PRISON GUARDS scour the brush. A TROOPEE fishes a prison uniform out of the creek with a long stick.

RED (V.O.)

All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock-hammer damn near worn down to the nub.

TROOPER g2 pulls the rock-hammer from the weeds. SWISH PAN to a POLICE PHOTOGRAPHER. His FLASHBULB GLARE produces:

A BLACK AND WHITE STILL PHOTO

of the hapless cops posing with Andy's reeking uniform and the worn rock-hammer. PUSH IN on the hammer.

RED (V.O.)

I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Andy did it in less than twenty.

INT -- ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHT (1949)

Once again, we see Andy using the rock-hammer to scratch his name into the cement. Suddenly, a palm-sized chunk of cement pops free and hits the floor. He stares down at it.

INT -- ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHT (1949)

Andy lies in the dark, studying the chunk of concrete in his hands. Considering the possibilities. Wrestling with hope.

RED (V.O.)

Andy loved geology. I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, a million years of mountain-building there, plates of bedrock grinding against each other over a span of millennia…

INT -- ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHT (1949)

Andy stands peering at the small hole left by the fallen chunk. Carefully runs his fingertip over it.

RED (V.O.)

Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes, really. Pressure and time.

INT -- ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHT (1951)