Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Read online

  THREE BILLBOARDS

  OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

  Martin McDonagh

  Contents

  Title Page

  Main Cast and Crew

  Screenplay

  Also by the Author

  Copyright

  MAIN CAST AND CREW

  FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES AND FILM4

  present

  A BLUEPRINT PICTURES PRODUCTION

  A MARTIN MCDONAGH FILM

  MILDRED Frances McDormand

  WILLOUGHBY Woody Harrelson

  DIXON Sam Rockwell

  ANNE Abbie Cornish

  ROBBIE Lucas Hedges

  DESK SERGEANT Željko Ivanek

  RED WELBY Caleb Landry Jones

  ABERCROMBIE Clarke Peters

  PENELOPE Samara Weaving

  with

  John Hawkes as CHARLIE

  and

  Peter Dinklage as JAMES

  Written and Directed by Martin McDonagh

  Produced by Graham Broadbent

  Pete Czernin

  Martin McDonagh

  Executive Producers Bergen Swanson

  Diarmuid McKeown

  Rose Garnett

  David Kosse

  Daniel Battsek

  Director of Photography Ben Davis, BSC

  Production Designer Inbal Weinberg

  Film Editor Jon Gregory, ACE

  Costume Designer Melissa Toth

  Music by Carter Burwell

  Co-Produce Ben Knight

  Casting by Sarah Halley Finn, CSA

  Three Billboards

  Outside Ebbing, Missouri

  EXT. BILLBOARD ROAD – DAY

  Mildred Hayes, a woman in her early fifties, driving along a country road, passes an old billboard, roadside. Whatever advert was on it is long since faded and torn. Mildred drives on, to a second billboard a few hundred feet along the road.

  She notices this one a little more, though its old adverts are equally ramshackle. She slows to a stop.

  After looking up at the billboard a while, she slowly reverses and stops at the first, then looks at all three, stretching away to the quiet horizon.

  Makes a mental note of EBBING BILLBOARD ADVERTISING, then drives on again, leaving the three old billboards alone like tombstones on the dusty road.

  INT. WELBY’S OFFICE, EBBING ADVERTISING – DAY

  Red Welby’s office, window looking on to Main Street and the town’s police station. Red, a cool-looking young guy, pretends to read a Penguin Classic as he observes the office hottie, Pamela, pass in a cute dress. Mildred strides on in.

  MILDRED

  You Red Welby?

  RED

  Yes, ma’am. How may I …?

  MILDRED

  They said those three billboards out on Drinkwater Road, you’re in charge of renting them out, that right?

  RED

  I didn’t know we had any billboards out on … Where is Drinkwater Road?

  MILDRED

  Road out past the Sizemore turn-off no one uses since the highway got put in.

  Red checks a file. Mildred observes a beetle on its back on the windowsill, trying to right itself.

  RED

  You’re right. Got three billboards out there. Nobody’s put nothing up out there since …… 1986. That was ‘Huggies’.

  MILDRED

  How much to rent out all three of ’em the year?

  RED

  The year? You wanna pay for three billboards on a road no one goes down unless they got lost or they’re retards, for a year?

  MILDRED

  Quick, ain’t ya, Welby?

  RED

  Well … since what I say goes these days down at the Ebbing Advertising Desk, I’m gonna strike you a real good deal on those billboards, now, what was it you said your name was, Mrs …?

  MILDRED

  What’s the law on what ya can and can’t say on a billboard? I assume it’s ya can’t say nothing defamatory, and ya can’t say, ‘fuck’, ‘piss’ or ‘cunt’. That right?

  RED

  (taken aback)

  Or … ‘anus’.

  MILDRED

  Well, I think I’ll be alright then. Here’s five thousand for the first month. I assume that’ll cover it.

  She plonks down five thousand dollars cash.

  And here’s what the billboards oughta say.

  She hands him three index cards, then moves to the window. He reads the first, the second, the third. Stunned.

  MILDRED

  Why don’t ya draw up a little contract betwixt us while you’re at it, make sure no one rents them billboards out from under me?

  Welby looks up at her sadly.

  RED

  I guess you’re Angela Hayes’ mother.

  MILDRED

  That’s right, I’m Angela Hayes’ mother.

  Mildred, at window, gently sets the beetle back upright. It waddles off happily. Behind it, the US flag flutters above the police station, as a couple of laughing cops enter it.

  MILDRED

  Name’s Mildred. How long before you’ve got ’em put up?

  RED

  (checking calendar)

  Oh, shall we say by … Easter Sunday?

  Mildred stares out at the police station.

  MILDRED

  That’d be perfect.

  EXT. COP CAR DRIVING ON BILLBOARD ROAD – NIGHT

  Officer Dixon, thirty-five, drives up the billboard road and approaches, from behind, the third billboard. Two Latino workmen work on it, buckets and squeegees. As he passes he looks up at the posters on it, double-takes, screeches to a halt.

  The billboard reads, in large, stark letters HOW COME, CHIEF WILLOUGHBY?

  DIXON

  Hey! What the hell’s this?!

  LATINO

  Que?

  DIXON

  ‘How come, Chief Willoughby?’ what?

  LATINO

  What?

  DIXON

  Yeah!

  LATINO

  Huh?

  DIXON

  How come what?

  LATINO

  What?!

  DIXON

  Listen, I better start getting some straight answers outta you Mexican sons of bitches …

  The second Latino has pointed to the distant second billboard, making an odd little gesture, and Dixon looks over …

  Dixon’s point-of-view: the back of the second billboard, and the black guy finishing up with the posters there. End point-of-view.

  Dixon sighs, drives off towards it.

  EXT. BILLBOARD ROAD, SECOND BILLBOARD – CONTINUOUS

  Dixon swings his car around to the front of the billboard. It reads AND STILL NO ARRESTS? The black guy, Jerome, is emptying out his buckets.

  DIXON

  (to himself)

  What the Hell is this? (To Jerome.) Hey you? What the fuck is this?

  JEROME

  What the fuck is what?

  DIXON

  This! This!

  Jerome turns around and reads, as if for the first time.

  JEROME

  Advertising, I guess.

  DIXON

  Advertising what?

  Jerome reads it again.

  JEROME

  Something obscure?

  DIXON

  I’ll say!

  JEROME

  Don’t I know your face from some place?

  DIXON

  I dunno, do ya?

  JEROME

  Yeah. Yeah, I do.

  Jerome spits on the ground, looks at him with disdain. Dixon stares back; a vicious edge between them.

  DIXON

  I could arrest yo
u right now, if I wanted to.

  JEROME

  For what?

  DIXON

  For … emptying out your bucket there. It’s against the … being-bad-against-the-environment laws.

  JEROME

  Well, before you do that, Officer Dixon, why don’t you go have yourself a look at that first billboard over there, and then we can have ourself a talk about the motherfucking environment. How about that?

  Dixon looks at the distant first billboard, standing all alone, back to us, the dark sky behind it. Dixon sighs, starts his car, pulls away.

  We go with him, staying on his face, as he comes to the first billboard and slowly stops in front of it. His face falls.

  DIXON

  Fuck me.

  He takes out his cellphone, and presses ‘Willoughby (home)’.

  INT. WILLOUGHBY HOUSE – CONTINUOUS

  Chief of Police BillWilloughby, fifty, having dinner with his young wife, Anne, mid-thirties, and his two daughters, Polly, five, and Jane, seven. The telephone rings.

  ANNE

  Don’t, William …

  Willoughby, sheepish, answers it.

  WILLOUGHBY

  Dixon, you goddam asshole, I’m in the middle of my goddam Easter dinner …

  EXT. BILLBOARD ROAD, THIRD BILLBOARD – CONTINUOUS

  Dixon is out of the car now, pacing.

  DIXON

  I know, Chief, and I’m sorry for calling ya at home and all, but uh, I think we’ve got kind of a problem …

  As Dixon passes out of frame, the first billboard is revealed. It reads RAPED WHILE DYING.

  Wide shot of the three billboards stretching away to the distance.

  EXT. BILLBOARD ROAD – DAY

  Mildred drives Robbie, her seventeen-year-old son, past the billboards – checking his reaction. He sees them but gives nothing away.

  EXT. SCHOOL – DAY

  She drops him at school. He heads off without a goodbye.

  EXT. MAIN STREET – DAY

  She drives up Main Street. Sees activity outside the police station – Willoughby with his Desk Sergeant, forcibly telling Dixon to stay behind, then crossing street to Red’s place.

  EXT. GIFT SHOP – DAY

  She continues to the other end of town, a gift shop she works at. Mildred’s co-worker, Denise, black, twenty-eight, smokes outside.

  MILDRED

  Sorry I’m late, Denise.

  DENISE

  Did you put up those billboards to fuck with the cops yet?

  MILDRED

  They’re up.

  DENISE

  You go, girl! You go fuck those cops up!

  She pats Mildred on the back, tosses her cigarette away, and they go inside.

  INT. WELBY’S OFFICE – DAY

  Quick-fire dialogue, Red at desk, Desk Sergeant and Willoughby standing.

  DESK SERGEANT

  What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Welby? Buncha billboards like that, you didn’t think there’d be some kinda ramifications? Legally?

  RED

  What’s the legal ramifications, Cedric?

  DESK SERGEANT

  You want me to explain the legal ramifications, a little punk like you? And don’t call me Cedric.

  RED

  Ain’t contravening no laws on propriety, ain’t contravening no laws on any fucking thing. I checked all this up.

  DESK SERGEANT

  Oh yeah, where’d you check all this up?

  RED

  In a … book.

  DESK SERGEANT

  Which book, genius?

  RED

  Book called ‘Suck my ass, it’s none o’ your business’.

  Willoughby gives him a long cold stare.

  WILLOUGHBY

  How long has this person, or persons, rented these billboards out for?

  RED

  Oh, the year.

  WILLOUGHBY

  And how long she actually paid for?

  RED

  The year.

  WILLOUGHBY

  So it’s a ‘she’, is it?

  RED

  (pause)

  Ain’t at liberty to divulge that kinda information, Chief.

  WILLOUGHBY

  Mildred Hayes, perhaps?

  RED

  Ain’t at liberty to divulge that kinda information, Chief.

  WILLOUGHBY

  Do you really wanna fuck with the Ebbing Police

  Department, Red? Do ya?

  RED

  I guess.

  INT. POLICE STATION, WILLOUGHBY’S OFFICE – DAY

  Willoughby, Desk Sergeant and Dixon.

  DIXON

  He said what?! To your face?!

  DESK SERGEANT

  No crime has been committed here.

  DIXON

  Defamation of character ain’t a crime?

  DESK SERGEANT

  It isn’t defamation if she’s simply asking a question.

  DIXON

  What are you, an idiot?

  DESK SERGEANT

  Don’t call me an idiot, Dixon.

  DIXON

  I didn’t call you an idiot. I asked if you was an idiot. It was a question.

  WILLOUGHBY

  (smiling)

  He got ya there, Cedric!

  DIXON

  Well, I’m gonna do something about it if yous two ain’t.

  WILLOUGHBY

  Where you going? Don’t fly off the handle!

  But Dixon has already stormed out.

  DESK SERGEANT

  Why in hell you keep that man on, Bill?

  WILLOUGHBY

  He’s a good man. At heart.

  DESK SERGEANT

  He tortured a guy in custody, Bill.

  WILLOUGHBY

  There was no … real evidence to support that.

  As Welby is coming out of his building, Dixon crosses the road towards him.

  DIXON

  Take ’em down.

  RED

  Hah?

  DIXON

  Take ’em down.

  RED

  Take what down?

  DIXON

  You think I wouldn’t take you out, right here on Main Street, Red?

  RED

  Thought you only take out black dudes, Dixon …

  Dixon goes to punch him, but Willoughby is suddenly there, grabs his punching arm and shoves him towards the station. People on the street are staring, especially the blacks.

  DIXON

  (to Welby)

  Ain’t nobody never goes down that road, anyways. Unless they got lost, or they’re retards.

  EXT. BILLBOARD ROAD – DAY

  Mildred interviewed by Gabriella, cameraman filming, all three billboards in the background.

  GABRIELLA

  This your first time on TV?

  MILDRED

  Uh-huh.

  GABRIELLA

  Well, don’t be nervous, is the main thing, and it’ll be fine. Just don’t look into the camera, obviously.

  Mildred just stares at her.

  In three, two, one. So, Mildred Hayes, why did you put up these billboards?

  MILDRED

  Well, my daughter, Angela, she got abducted, raped and murdered seven months ago, on this self-same stretch o’ road here, and, to me, it seems like the local police department is too busy goin’ round torturing black folks to be bothered doing anything about solving actual crime, so I kinda thought these here billboards might concentrate their minds some.

  INT. DIXON’S HOUSE – NIGHT

  Dixon sits beside his momma on the couch and is just to bite into a sandwich …

  DIXON

  Whatcha watching, Momma? The stupid news?

  … when he’s stopped by Mildred’s appearance on TV.

  MILDRED

  (on TV)

  Seems like the local police department is too busy goin’ round torturing black folks to be bothered doing anything about solving actual crime …

  Dixon’s momma look
s at him.

  DIXON

  (mouthing)

  Fuck.

  INT. WILLOUGHBY HOUSE – NIGHT

  Willoughby and Anne watching the end of the interview.

  MILDRED

  (on TV)

  I don’t know what these policemen are doing, to be honest with you. I just know my daughter’s burnt body’s lying six feet under the ground while they’re eating Krispy Kremes and busting eight-year-olds for skateboarding in parking lots.

  GABRIELLA

  (on TV)

  And what has Chief Willoughby to do with all this, why single him out?

  MILDRED

  (on TV)

  Well, he’s the head of ’em, ain’t he? The buck’s gotta stop at somebody, don’t it?

  GABRIELLA

  (on TV)

  And the buck stops at Willoughby?

  MILDRED

  (on TV)

  Yeah, the buck stops at Willoughby. Dead right it does.

  He clicks it off, gets up, goes out of the house without a word.

  EXT. WILLOUGHBY’S STABLE – NIGHT

  Willoughby moodily tending the horses in the stable just outside the house. Anne comes up.

  ANNE

  You alright there, fella?

  WILLOUGHBY

  Looks like we got a war on our hands.

  EXT. MILDRED’S HOUSE – DAWN

  Willoughby pulls up outside Mildred’s poor, clapboard house. From here we can see that the billboards puncturing the dusty horizon are only a mile away. Mildred sees Willoughby from the kitchen window, as he knocks. She opens the door.

  WILLOUGHBY

  Can we talk?

  EXT. MILDRED’S GARDEN – DAY

  Mildred sitting on a creaky swing-set, Willoughby with hat in hand.

  WILLOUGHBY

  I’d do anything to catch the guy who did it, Mrs Hayes. But when the DNA don’t match no one who’s ever been arrested, and when the DNA don’t match any other crime nationwide, and when there wasn’t a single eyewitness from the time she left your house to the time we found her, well, right now there ain’t too much more that we can do, except …

  MILDRED

  Could pull blood from every man and boy in this town, over the age of eight.