Brokeback Mountain
written by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana, from the short story by Annie Proulx
Jack: I guess I'll head up to Lightning Flat. See the folks for a day or two.
Ennis: There's somethin' I've been meaning to tell ya, bud. ... It's likely November before I can come out here again. After we shift stock and before winter feeding starts again...
(Ennis bites his fingernails, peering at Jack guiltily from over his hand)
Jack: November. Well, what the hell ever happened to August? ... Christ, Ennis. You know, you had a fucking week to say some other word about this. ... Why is it that we're always in the friggin' cold? We oughta go south where it's warm, y'know, we oughta go to Mexico!
(Jack stands on the edge of the lake, his back to Ennis.)
Ennis: Mexico? Hell, Jack, you know me, about all the traveling I ever done is around a coffee pot looking for the handle. C'mon, Jack, lighten up on me. We can hunt in November. Kill us a nice elk. Try if I can get Don Rose's cabin again, we had a good time that year, didn't we?
Jack: There's never enough time, never enough. (he turns around) You know, friend -- this is a bitch of an unsatisfactory situation. You used to come away easy, now it's like seeing the Pope.
Ennis: Jack, I gotta work, huh? I mean, in those earlier days, I'd just quit the job. You--you forget what it's like being broke all the time. You ever hear of child support? I'll tell you this, I can't quit this one and I can't get the time off. It was hard enough getting this time. The trade-off was August. You got a better idea?
Jack: I did once.
Ennis: You did once. You been to Mexico, Jack Twist? Hm? 'Cause I hear what they got in Mexico for boys like you.
Jack: Hell yes I've been to Mexico, is that a fucking problem?
(They stare each other down.)
Ennis: I'm gonna tell you this one time, Jack fuckin' Twist, an' I ain't foolin'. What I don't know - all them things that I don't know - could get you killed if I come to know them. I ain't joking. Jack: Yeah well try this one, and I'll say it just once!
Ennis: Go ahead!
Jack: Tell you what, we coulda had a good life together! Fuckin' real good life! Had us a place of our own. But you didn't want it, Ennis! So what we got now is Brokeback Mountain! Everything's built on that! That's all we got, boy, fuckin' all! So I hope you know that, if you never know the rest! You count the damn few times we have been together in nearly twenty years and you measure the short fucking leash you keep me on - and then you ask me about Mexico and tell me you'll kill me for needing somethin' I don't hardly never get! You have no idea how bad it gets! I'm not you, I can't make it on a coupla high-altitude fucks once or twice a year! You are too much for me Ennis, you sonofawhoreson bitch! I wish I knew how to quit you.
(Ennis is trying not to cry.)
Ennis: Well, why don't you? Why don't you just let me be, huh? It's because of you, Jack, that I'm like this! I ain't nothing... I ain't nowhere... (Jack tries to embrace him, Ennis pushes him away) Get the fuck off of me! (Jack tries again, they kneel down together embracing)
Jack: It's alright. It's alright. ... Damn you Ennis.
Ennis: I can't stand this anymore, Jack.