BLACK SCREEN

0: EXT. TOULON PORT - DAY
RISE UP out of the iron-grey surface of the ocean, seething in the wind, towards the shore. Winter rain slices the air. Ahead, the port of Toulon, home of the French navy. A forest of tall masted warships.
The great ships heave at anchor, the wind whipping their rigging.
Through the sea spray we see the great ribs of warships under construction, and warships being refitted.

1: EXT. TOULON DOCK - DAY
Storm-lashed sea and driving rain. A great wave rises up and hammers down. As it recedes we see the figures of men heaving on great ropes, the sea water streaming down over their faces. The harsh storm light catches glints of metal: these men are CONVICTS, chained by manacles, heads shaved, wearing red shirts with prison numbers crudely stitched onto them.
Now we see that the ropes run up to a ship that is being hauled ashore - a storm-damaged man-of-war, its masts broken, rising and falling on the surge.
As yet another great wave rolls over the convicts, we follow the straining ropes down into the base of the slipway, and find the convict JEAN VALJEAN, up to his waist in water, chained by two sets of manacles, as the rain and spray and wind scream round him. A great brute of a man, he seems to feel nothing.
The convicts sing in time with the rhythmic pulls on the rope -
The camera RISES UP to find JAVERT, the officer in charge of the convict workforce, looking on, his face rain-lashed and expressionless. He stands above the men on the top of the dock, as lines of convicts labour beneath him on the steep steps of the dock wall.
Behind Javert, through the storm rain we glimpse a forest of half-built ships, their ribbed frames like great skeletons in the mist.
FOREGROUND convicts are at work on another ship that is almost completed, labouring in the crashing spray.
With a last great heave the lines of convicts haul the damaged ship onto the slipway.
CRACK! The stern flagpole of the ship snaps in a vicious gust of wind and crashes down into the shallow water near Valjean. Javert sees and points his stick at Valjean in silent command. Valjean stares back for a beat, defying him. Then he drops down into the seething water and re-emerges with the great mast in his hands, held over his head. His head breaks water with his bitter gaze still on Javert, as he throws the mast ashore in a deliberate display of strength.
Javert nods to the guards, and they begin to form the chained men into lines to return to their prison. The storm is passing now, blown by the driving wind.
Javert approaches Jean Valjean.
He hands Valjean a folded yellow paper.
He strides away to command the lines of convicts as they're marched away. Valjean walks away, hardly able to take in that he is free at last.
The convicts sing as he goes.

2: EXT. ROAD OUT OF TOULON - DAWN
Valjean makes his way up a rising track, a worn knapsack on his back. He comes to a stop at the top of the hill, and there before him, lit by the rising sun, spreads a wide vista of fields and towns and villages, stretching into the distance, with the snow capped Alps beyond. Behind and below him lies Toulon at the sea's edge. As we hear the musical theme ('Freedom is Mine'), we see for the first time the darkness in his face give way to a new hope.

3: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY
Valjean strides down the long rising road, pulling his thin coat close round him against the cold winter wind.
He passes a long line of labourers working. He approaches the OVERSEER.
The overseer notices shaved hair showing under his cap.
Valjean takes his hat off, revealing his shaved and scarred head.
The overseer scans the yellow paper, and hands it back.

4: EXT. MOUNTAIN ROAD - END OF DAY
Valjean slogs on up the rising track into the mountains. Snow on the ground here, and darkness falling.
He looks up and sees ahead a village built on a rock cliff, its lights twinkling, the snowy mountains rising behind. The tower of its handsome church rises up like a promise of refuge. This is Digne.

5: EXT. DIGNE - DUSK
Valjean enters Digne. As he drinks from the fountain, he sees a guard standing outside the Mairie.

6: INT. MAIRIE, DIGNE - DUSK
Valjean stands waiting. The officer fastidiously writes down the name of Valjean in his huge ledger and the name of the town in his passport. The officer signs and stamps the passport.
The officer hands back the passport. Valjean leaves.

7: EXT. DIGNE - DUSK
Valjean walks down the high street, spies the warm glow of an inn and enters.

8: INT. COUNTRY INN, DIGNE - DUSK
Valjean sits in the corner, his hat low over his head. He eyes hungrily a group of cart drivers tucking into a roast meal by a roaring fire place. The innkeeper serves him a beer. As he reaches for it his coat sleeve rides up to reveal his wrist, calloused and scarred by manacles. The innkeeper eyes him warily. He discusses Valjean with two other men, then asks for his paper. Sees the phrase "Extremely Dangerous".
VALJEAN'S POV - From the yellow paper in the innkeeper's hands up to the innkeeper's face. A blank stare, a shrug of refusal.

9: EXT. DIGNE - NIGHT
Valjean moves off wearily through the village. As he passes down the narrow street, faces peer at him from doorways, but the doors close when he goes by. A shadowy figure follows him. Word has spread that he's a `dangerous man'.
Passing the uncurtained window of a cottage, he comes to a stop. Through the window he sees a scene that breaks his heart: a father at a table by lamplight, his young wife before him, his children on either side. Nothing special, and yet everything he's never had.

10: EXT. PRISON, DIGNE - NIGHT
He stops at the local jail. An iron chain attached to a bell hangs from the prison door. He rings. A grate slides open.
The grate slides shut. As Jean Valjean walks away, some children who have been following begin throwing stones at him. He threatens them with his stick and they scatter.

11: EXT. DIGNE - NIGHT
He sees over a garden wall a low doorway in a stone turret. Valjean stoops through the doorway and lies down on some straw. He hears a ferocious growl and sees the head of an enormous mastiff. It is a dog kennel.

12: EXT. DIGNE - NIGHT
Snow falling as Valjean makes his way down the road, hungry, weary, moving slowly, his trousers ripped and bloody from where the dog has bitten him.
At the end of a road, the snow-covered church; beside it, a dark churchyard.

13: EXT. CHURCH YARD, DIGNE - NIGHT
Snow-covered gravestones in moonlight. Exhausted, Valjean collapses to the ground and huddles himself into the shelter of a doorway.
A lantern glows in the dark. The lantern approaches, throwing shadows. Its little circle of light comes to rest on the crumpled figure of Valjean.
He stirs and opens his eyes.
VALJEAN'S POV - The glow of the lantern in the darkness. Beyond it, the half-seen features of a kind old man. The BISHOP.
Bewildered, fearful, suspicious, Valjean gets up and goes with the Bishop into the house by the church.

14: INT. BISHOP'S HOUSE - NIGHT
A simple table on which is laid out bread and wine, with silver cutlery. Two silver candlesticks light the room, illuminating walls painted with religious scenes. The Bishop ushers the bewildered Valjean into the room. The bishop's sister Madame Baptistine stands. Valjean hesitates.
The Bishop gestures to the housekeeper Madame Magloire.
The Bishop gently takes his arm and draws him into a chair.
Valjean sits, and the Housekeeper lays food before him. Famished, Valjean eats like an animal. The Bishop says a short grace.

15: INT. BEDROOM, BISHOP'S HOUSE - NIGHT
The Bishop leads Valjean to a bedroom where the walls are also painted with religious imagery. Across the passage, Valjean sees the open door to the Bishop's own bedroom. There the Housekeeper is putting the table silver away in a cupboard.
He turns to see a bed made up with clean white linen waiting for him. He hasn't slept in such a bed ever in his life. But the Bishop is smiling, offering it to him.
The Bishop turns away to go to sleep.
Valjean laughs a strange laugh.
LATER THAT NIGHT -
Valjean lies on the bed, fully dressed, deeply asleep.
Outside a dog barks.
Valjean's eyes snap open. The first thing he sees by the light of the moon is an image of God the Father gazing down on him from the painted ceiling. In panic, fearing judgement, he sits bolt upright. Then he looks round, and remembers. He gets out of bed, and opens the door.
There, across the narrow passage, the door stands open to the Bishop's bedroom. In the moonlight, he sees the Bishop lying asleep. Above his bed, the cupboard where the silver is kept.
Valjean moves silently into the Bishop's room, holding a metal miner's spike which he pulls from his bag. The floor boards creak. He looks down at the old man, holding his breath, but the bishop is peacefully and innocently asleep. He reaches up to the cupboard. It is unlocked. The cupboard door opens with a sharp cracking sound. The Bishop, disturbed in his sleep, moves a little. At once Valjean is over him, like a wild animal, spike raised to strike should he wake. The Bishop sleeps on. The moon comes out and lights up his beautific, smiling face. Valjean is thrown. He turns back and opens the cupboard door fully: there is the silver.
Carefully he picks it out, fearful of every clink. One last look at the sleeping old man, and he makes a run for the door.

16: EXT. CHURCHYARD - NIGHT
Valjean rushes out of the back door of the house. He crosses the graveyard, scrambles over a back wall, and he's gone.

17: INT. BISHOP'S HOUSE - DAY
The Bishop is coming in from morning Mass in his vestments when the door bursts open and two policemen drag Valjean before him. Valjean hangs his head, unable to meet the Bishop's eyes.
He upends Valjean's kitbag, and the silver tumbles out.
The Bishop looks from the silver to Valjean.
Amazed, Valjean looks up.
The old Bishop is holding out the two silver candlesticks.
Silenced by the Bishop's gentle tones, the policemen turn and leave.
Valjean, utterly bewildered, takes the silver candlesticks.

18: INT. CHURCH, DIGNE - DAY
Valjean kneels in the church.
He takes out his yellow passport and stares at it.
He turns towards the altar, and the crucifix above it.
Slowly, he examines the yellow passport and raises it high, as if to the altar.
Valjean stands and turns, walking fast to the door of the church.

19: EXT. CHURCH, DIGNE - DAY
Valjean comes out of the church into the graveyard and reaches a bell set on the edge of a promontory. Below lies the steep drop down the mountainside to the dark valley below.
He rips the yellow paper into pieces and throws the pieces out over the valley. The scraps flutter in the wind.
FOLLOW the scraps of yellow paper as they dance in the wind then fall away into the void below. One scrap of paper dances upwards in the sunlight. We follow this and accelerate upwards leaving Valjean and the town of Digne far below, towards the sun gloriously breaking through the heavens with the alps beyond. The camera then starts to tumble back down through mist and cloud below - through time and space - down to discover -

20: EXT. ROAD TO MONTREUIL - DAY
The camera hurtling towards three horses riding down a long muddy road on a flat plain towards the walled town of Montreuil-sur-Mer. Montreuil sits on an estuary leading out to the sea. We see ships sitting in low tide on the mud of the estuary along the dockside of the town, and red brick factory buildings.
The camera closes in to ground level to reveal the horseriders:
Javert, flanked by two policemen.

21: EXT. GATES TO MONTREUIL - DAY
As the riders enter the walled town we see the poor clustered around the gates - destitute and sick people clammering to get in.
Javert sees the destitution of the people. Expressionless as ever.
TRACK PAST a plague victim, wrapped in a shroud, being thrown onto a cart.
The police enter the harbour.

22: EXT. HARBOUR - MONTREUIL - DAY
The beggars are pushed back as the gates open and close for the police.
Javert looks round at the factory buildings, the boats in the harbour, the poor clamouring behind him, and rides on.

23: EXT. FACTORY YARD, MONTREUIL - DAY
Heavy carts wait to be loaded with wooden crates of goods. Workmen carry the crates out of the factory as the FOREMAN strides in through the doors, gesturing to a cart driver, FAUCHELEVENT, who's taking a quick rest on a crate.

24: INT. FACTORY, MONTREUIL - MEN'S SECTION - DAY
The foreman passes men packing boxes on tables and loading boxes onto crates. He passes through a door under a first floor office.

25: INT. FACTORY, MONTREUIL - WOMEN'S SECTION - DAY
The long work space is full of tables at which conservatively dressed women are working, making jewelry out of shellac, a black resin which looks like jet. An impressive sight: obviously a very successful business. A wooden staircase climbs one wall to a glass-windowed business office. The figure of a man within.
The Foreman has stopped beside FANTINE, a pretty young woman. As he leans over to whisper in her ear Fantine, surprised, pricks her finger with her needle.
The Foreman continues his rounds, encouraging the women to speed up their work.
They get on with their tasks, all glancing up at the boss in the office above.
The Foreman returns to Fantine, trying to help her.
The Foreman rings a bell, announcing the end of the work day.
The women start to take off their overalls and pack up their tools for the day.
The women queue up to be paid by the Foreman at the door.
Fantine has taken out a letter. The main factory woman snatches the letter away from Fantine.
The letter is passed surreptitiously down the line of women workers.
The main factory woman starts to take Fantine's letter over to the Foreman.
Fantine tries to get the letter back. The women scuffle.
The owner enters the factory floor. We see him only from behind: a well-dressed prosperous man.
As he sings, the CAMERA MOVES ROUND to discover him. Clean- shaven, well-fed, transformed: it's Valjean.
Suddenly Valjean sees Javert appear on the first floor balcony of his office. His world drops away.
He walks back to the stairs up to his office.
On the factory floor -
The factory women all turn on Fantine.
Fantine continues to defend herself to the Foreman, as the women sing -
The Foreman pulls Fantine away.
Below, Fantine turns and calls to Valjean in his office above with a pitiful cry.
Valjean hears the cry, but he has other concerns. He turns round to face Javert.
Javert stares at him.
On the factory floor below, the Foreman hustles Fantine out, as she struggles against him.

26: INT. FACTORY OFFICE - DAY
Javert bows.
Javert turns to look through the high window onto the men's factory floor below. The last men are leaving for the day.
Valjean shows some demonstration samples of their work.
Javert is puzzled. He's sure he recognises Valjean, but from where?
Valjean throws him a sharp glance.
A CRASH from outside in the yard - shouts -

27: EXT. TRACK LEADING TO FACTORY, MONTREUIL - DAY
Valjean and Javert hurry out across the factory yard and down the muddy track beyond to discover -
A heavily laden cart has toppled onto the cart driver - Fauchelevent, the worker seen before taking a rest on a crate.
The   cart driver and the Foreman are trying to lift the cart off   the crushed man, but it's too heavy, and the ground is too   soft. Fauchelevent screams as the cart slowly sinks in the   mud.
Valjean, Javert and Javert's assistant all hurry to help, but they can't get a proper purchase in the spongy ground. All the time the cart is sinking further, pushing Fauchelevent deeper into the mud that will soon bury him. Then Valjean sees a way. At one end the wheels of the cart have stopped sinking - the ground is harder here. He throws himself under the cart at this higher end, and braces himself to lift it from beneath.
Javert stands back and looks on. As he looks, we see a memory stirring in him.
JAVERT'S POV - Valjean's posture beneath the cart is exactly the same as the convict beneath the fallen mast. The same crouching power. The same almost-suicidal determination.
Valjean sees Javert looking at him, and knows exactly what he's thinking. For a moment he hesitates. Then he hears Fauchelevent's choking scream as the mud gags his mouth. Valjean strains every muscle, and slowly one end of the cart begins to rise. As soon as it clears the crushed and gasping man, the others pull him clear.
Valjean lets the cart down again, and climbs out. As he brushes himself down he finds Javert staring at him.
He shakes his head, realising how absurd his suspicions are.
Valjean holds Javert's gaze, challenging him to say more. Javert is not yet confident enough to continue.
Valjean goes to help Fauchelevent.
Fauchelevent groans as he rises.
Javert stares. He can't rid himself of his suspicion.
He draws himself up and gives a bow. As he walks away, he discusses something with his assistant.

28: EXT. HARBOUR, MONTREUIL - NIGHT
Fantine makes her way to the harbour wall. Beggars shelter in the tunnels under the red brick buildings.

29: EXT. RED LIGHT DISTRICT, MONTREUIL - NIGHT
Fantine makes her way down   wet slimy steps. This leads to an alleyway that runs down to   the harbour and three ships lying on the mud at low tide. At   the far end, the largest is the rotting hulk of a vast old   warship. A single whore sits in a doorway.
Drunken sailors spill out into the alleyway below. The first sailor is trying to find the whorehouse.
They spot Fantine, mistaking her for a whore. Fantine presses on down the steps, trying to ignore the sailors.
The sailors then see whores start to appear from the shadows of warehouse doorways.
A man with no legs, reacting to the sailors, cranks up an organ-grinder and from doorways and overhead windows harbour whores appear and tout for business.
A man selling dentures stands by his cart and we hear fragments of his sales pitch.
During the above chorus, Fantine sells a locket containing a cutting of Cosette's hair to the pawnbroker.
The pawnbroker goes back in his shop and Fantine watches the whores.
The pawnbroker takes the locket in exchange for the money.
An old woman leers at Fantine from the shadows, beckoning. She approaches Fantine, reaching out to stroke her hair.
The hair crone leads Fantine down to her shop at the base of the stairs.
Fantine is sat on a low stool. She bows her head before the hair crone, who at once whips out a razor blade and cuts off her hair at the roots.

30: EXT. RED LIGHT DISTRICT MONTREUIL - END OF DAY
Fantine walks down the steps with short hair, mocked by the voices of the whores on either side.
A PIMP and the HEAD WHORE watch her progress as the organ- grinder grinds out the music.
Whores sing from the warehouse doorways, from on top of the spars of the ships, writhing around figureheads and from the rotting ship.
The few men in the street choose their whores and disappear by the end of the chorus.
Fantine reaches the hair crone.
The hair crone points at the head whore and the tooth man.
Fantine looks towards the tooth man and the head whore.
Fantine heads to the tooth man.
She grabs Fantine's cheeks and forces open her mouth to inspect her teeth.
The pimp pushes her down.
She opens her mouth, and the pincers go in, as everyone gathers round to watch. Fantine screams as the first tooth is removed.

31: EXT. RED LIGHT DISTRICT MONTREUIL - NIGHT
The pimp is passing among the whores, checking that they're all fit for business.
The pimp gestures at Fantine, now slumped in a doorway, her cropped head in her hands.
A shy captain watches Fantine. The pimp notices.
He moves in on Fantine.
Fantine looks up, a trickle of blood in one corner of her mouth. The whores cluster round her, hands reaching out to draw her in to their world. On the rotting warship, more whores appear out of the gaps of the hull to sing the chorus.
Whore 3 bites her fingertip and applies her blood to rouge Fantine's cheeks.
The whores perform for the benefit of Fantine on the orders of the head whore, as the head whore leads her towards the hulk.
The pimp leads the captain down the middle of the whores to Fantine who wears a filthy white dress. The pimp joins the captain and Fantine's hands as the head whore officiates - like a twisted wedding ceremony.
Fantine puts on a show of courage as she leads the captain into the ship's hulk, which is a brothel.

32: INT. ROTTING SHIP'S HULK, MONTREUIL - NIGHT
Fantine, pale and frail, her bodice loosened, leads the captain down to the damp dregs of the ship.
We see the rotting straw mattress within as they enter, then Fantine lays down.

33: INT. ROTTING SHIP'S HULK, MONTREUIL - NIGHT
CLOSE ON a man's hand leaving money. We hear him exit. MOVE TO FIND Fantine lying alone on the mattress.
She pulls herself into a sitting position against the head of the mattress. She draws her legs up and wraps her arms round her knees, huddling against the misery of the world.
As she ends her song, her next customer is waiting. The head whore beyond.

34: EXT. RED LIGHT DISTRICT, MONTREUIL - NIGHT
Fantine is out on the snow and ice-covered quayside, shivering, waiting for trade. She looks pale and sickly, but still attempts an alluring smile.
She moves past the anchored ships, beneath the bowsprits, trying pathetically to attract custom. Then she comes to a stop, staring. She has seen and recognised Valjean, some way off. He's out in the harbour district. He is talking to a beggar. Before he moves on, he hands over some money.
As Fantine watches Valjean on his mission of mercy, a well- dressed young man, BAMATABOIS, comes up to her. He arrives with two friends and a valet.
He pulls her clothing open and laughingly stuffs snow down her cleavage. Fantine reacts with fury. They fall over in the snow and Bamatabois laughs.
Fantine scratches Bamatabois across the face. Bamatabois touches his face and sees the blood on his fingers. His friends drag Fantine against the harbour wall.
Bamatabois suddenly sees that police have arrived.
Bamatabois' friend drags Fantine towards the police. It's Javert.
He shows the blood. Javert turns to Fantine.
Fantine is almost fainting with fear, still racked with occasional spasms of coughing. Unseen by her, Valjean is approaching from behind. Javert's assistants pick Fantine up. Javert covers his mouth with a handkerchief as he approaches Fantine.
Javert indicates to the two policemen to drag Fantine away.
Valjean steps out of the shadows.
Javert looks on, containing his anger, as Valjean reaches out a hand to Fantine. To Fantine, it's as if he's come to her in a dream -
He holds Fantine's hands, looking into her face.
Valjean picks Fantine up in his arms.
Javert is quietly coldly furious.
As Valjean and Fantine move away, Javert stares after them, then turns and quietly instructs his assistant to follow after them.

35: EXT. POLICE STATION, MONTREUIL - DAY
As Javert walks up the steps to his police station his assistant stops him with an urgent letter.
Javert seizes it, opens it, and reads. As he reads, his expression changes. Appalled, he realizes he's made a terrible mistake.

36: INT. FACTORY, MONTREUIL - NIGHT
Valjean is at his desk in his office, going through his papers once everyone else has gone, when Javert enters and stands before him. He looks up.
Valjean conceals his shock.
Javert is about to protest again, but Valjean raises one commanding hand, to indicate his decision is made. Javert gives an abrupt bow, and departs.
Left alone, Valjean paces his office, deeply disturbed.
He goes out onto the balcony that looks down on the empty factory.

37: INT. VALJEAN'S HOUSE, MONTREUIL - NIGHT
Valjean is sitting staring at the Bishop's candlesticks.

38: INT. VALJEAN'S HOUSE, MONTREUIL - NIGHT
Valjean is furiously packing stuff up.

39: EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - NIGHT.
Close on two horses panting. A stopped carriage in a wide night landscape. The driver is Valjean, hesitating.

40: INT/EXT. COURTROOM - NIGHT
Valjean hesitates outside the courtroom and in the lobby of the courtroom, pacing back and forth.
Valjean pushes through the crowds at the back of the courtroom.

41: INT. COURTROOM - NIGHT
The man accused of being Jean Valjean, a wretched down-and- out, stands before the JUDGE. He looks uncannily like the real Valjean. Before the judge has a chance to speak, the doors open and Valjean bursts in. Sensation in the court.
The judge is too stunned to respond. The others in the court can't believe what they've just heard. The Mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer, a convict!
The judge goes over to Valjean and gently leads him out.

42: INT. HOSPITAL, MONTREUIL - NIGHT
The hospital is in the long attic of Valjean's factory.
Valjean hurries into the hospital, breathless. He sees a nursing sister outside Fantine's room.
She gives Valjean a note. He reads it with mounting anger.

43: INT. HOSPITAL, MONTREUIL - NIGHT
Fantine lies in bed, delirious. She is dressed in pure white. Her eyes are closed.
Fantine's eyes open and she sees Cosette, playing in the room. She looks healthy and is dressed prettily.
Valjean enters, and sees at once that Fantine is close to the end. He drops to his knees by her bed.
She pushes into his hand a scrap of paper on which she's written her wishes.
Fantine has stopped looking towards the window. All her fading strength is now directed towards Valjean. She tries to reach up to him.
He wraps her in his arms.
Fantine starts to spasm. She sees something over Valjean's shoulder. Valjean doesn't realise. Her eyes go glassy as she passes away. Valjean then hears the unforgettable voice of Javert behind him.
Valjean stands to face Javert.
Javert draws his sword and aims it at Valjean.
Valjean breaks a section of timber beam from the roof.
The men start to circle each other.
They sing at the same time, duelling in song.
The two men fight.
Javert disarms Valjean and drives him backwards towards an attic door.
Valjean is pushed through the doors out onto a wooden loading platform beneath a hoist. Below, the walls of the factory lead straight down to the black sea at high tide. Javert is triumphant.
Valjean glances down and pushes back, dropping into the darkness of the ocean.
Javert goes to jump after him and cannot bring himself to do it.
Javert stares into the black sea - there is no sign of Valjean.

44: EXT. HARBOUR, MONTREUIL - NIGHT
Javert and various police search the harbourside with lanterns.
Valjean, dripping wet, watches from a tunnel under a factory, as Fantine's body wrapped in a shroud is dumped on a cart.
They sing to themselves, continuing their duet without knowing.

45: EXT. MONTFERMEIL - DUSK
The village street is bright with booths set up for a Frost Fair. Families and visitors are out buying baubles, or laughing at the antics of travelling players. Small girls cluster round a stall that displays prettily-dressed dolls. Amongst them is a prettily-dressed girl of 8 or 9 years: EPONINE.
Across the road from this stall stands a shabby inn. A sign lashed to an old cart swinging in the wind reveals the inn to be `The Sergeant of Waterloo'. The inn is still closed despite the small crowd at the fair.
MOVE IN on the frosted window of the inn, through which we see a little girl, COSETTE, gazing out at the display of dolls.

46: INT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - END OF DAY
Cosette is in the process of sweeping the floor. She's come to a stop, gazing out of the window, mesmerized by the sight of the most beautiful doll in the display, and jealous that Eponine can see it and touch it up close.
Cosette gets out from a hiding place in the wall a knotted grimy rag - this is her "doll", the knot is the doll's head.
Madame Thenardier comes bustling down the stairs in a bad mood. She glowers at little Cosette and changes the closed sign from "closed" to "open".
Cosette goes to put the broom away.
Eponine comes in from outside.
Madame Thenardier sees that Cosette far from going is hiding behind the far wall. We see Cosette's frightened eyes peering out from a tiny gap in this wall.
Madame Thenardier imitates Cosette as she sings.
The innkeeper's gang posing as customers who have been loitering outside come in, explaining to a fifth man who is a newer recruit a story from Monsieur Thenardier's past. Madame Thenardier goes outside to open up the rather pathetic frost fair stall on the porch of the inn.
We suddenly hear the voice of the landlord, Thenardier. He has been there all the time, asleep on a bench. He wakes from his drunken slumbers and roars out:

47: EXT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - DUSK
Madame Thenardier is trying to sell something unappealing from her stall to a portly looking man when slushy snow from the stall's roof falls on the man's head. Madame Thenardier ushers him inside.

48: INT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - DUSK
Madame Thenardier pretends to accidentally drop a comb from her hair and the customer helpfully picks it up, allowing Madame Thenardier to pick his wallet from a back pocket as he stands up. Monsieur Thenardier takes his coat which allows the couple to see the customer transfer a pocket watch from coat to jacket pocket.
He pours a strong drink for the new customer -
Thenardier has thieved the pocket watch using his handshake as a distraction. He passes this off to Madame Thenardier.

49: INT. KITCHEN, INN, MONTFERMEIL - FLASHBACK - DAY
Thenardier is pissing into the very wine bottle he's using to serve the customer.

50: INT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - DUSK

51: EXT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - DUSK
At Madame Thenardier's stall, a frost fair customer is covered by snow, only this time we realise Madame Thenardier is responsible for pushing the snow off the awning with a stick.
Madame Thenardier ushers the customer inside.

52: INT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - DUSK
Again Madame Thenardier drops her comb in front of the new customer but this time the thieving is foiled by little Cosette who helpfully picks it up. Over the chorus she shouts at little Cosette to get out.
A FAMILY enters the inn. Thenardier fusses over them.
He's got the father's purse out, and is removing notes.

53: INT. KITCHEN, INN, MONTFERMEIL - FLASHBACK - DAY
Thenardier shows off the secrets of the squalid kitchen - every possible animal being used to make mince meat.

54: INT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - DUSK
Thenardier serves the disgusting food that we've seen him create in the flashback to the family.

55: INT. BRIDAL SUITE - FLASHBACK - NIGHT
A groom and bride consummate their union.
Thenardier is going through the groom's trousers.

56: INT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - NIGHT

57: EXT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - NIGHT
Thenardier comes out of the inn, backed by a posse of his gang of loyal customers, and takes control of a brass band to sing to the Frost Fair.
Further down the street, carrying her empty buckets, Cosette turns to look sadly back at the cheery sight.
The Portly Customer has discovered he's been robbed. He comes out to protest, holding out his emptied wallet. At once two of Thenardier's thugs grab him and hustle him off.

58: INT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - NIGHT
Madame Thenardier approaches a handsome soldier who is drinking at a table by the fire in the inn. She sits on his lap and gets him to look back at Thenardier, so allowing her to see inside his coat and spot his wallet.
As Madame Thenardier reaches for the man's groin, she lifts his wallet skillfully and hands it off to Monsieur Thenardier.
She pulls the young man into a dance, enabling her to steal everything else of value he has. Father Christmas has also been lured from the frost fair and the Thenardiers slit his presents sack and exchange it for a sack containing snow.

59: EXT. WOOD BY THE INN - NIGHT
Cosette has filled her buckets at the well in the wood, and is now heading back. Through the dark trees ahead we glimpse the cheerful lights of the Frost Fair and the distant inn. She goes slowly, because the buckets are heavy. She hums to herself to keep her spirits up, a wordless verse of `Castle on a Cloud'.
After a few steps she pauses to rest the weight of the buckets.
Strong arms reach for the buckets and lift them out of her hands. She looks up, amazed. There's Valjean.
She gazes up at him. Hardly knowing why, the little girl trusts this stranger. Valjean picks up the heavy buckets, and they head back towards the inn. As they go, they hum `Castle on a Cloud' together.

60: INT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - NIGHT
Valjean enters with Cosette. Madame Thenardier hurries over. Madame and Monsieur Thenardier try to thieve from Valjean using the same tricks established earlier, but he evades every attempt. Eponine watches silently from a corner.
Thenardier turns to his wife.
He gives Thenardier money.
Valjean gives more money.
Valjean hands over more money.
He leads Cosette to the door.

61: EXT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - NIGHT
Valjean lifts Cosette into the waiting cab.
The cab sets off down the road.

62: INT. INN, MONTFERMEIL - NIGHT
Madame Thenardier takes the bunch of notes from her husband's hand and inspects them.
Through the open door Thenardier sees a man on horseback rattling up to the inn.
Javert strides into the inn.
Both Thenardiers shake their heads.
Javert stares once, contemptuously, round the seedy inn, and departs without a further word. Thenardier goes to the doorway to watch him leave.

63: EXT. OUTSKIRTS OF PARIS - NIGHT
Valjean's cab, moving fast, passes down the road into the city.
IN CAB - Valjean has one arm round Cosette to protect her from the jolting of the cab. He gazes at her as she slips into a fitful sleep.
He brushes the hair from her face, and satisfies himself that she's comfortable. Then he puts his head out of the window. At the gate into Paris, soldiers are checking documents of occupants of carriages.
Valjean slips out of the carriage with Cosette and makes his way along the wall, away from the gate.

64: EXT. PARIS BROKEN WALL - NIGHT
Valjean finds a section of tumble down wall and climbs over.

65: EXT. PARIS SLUM STREET - NIGHT
Valjean and Cosette make their way down a darkened street.

66: EXT. PARIS - RIVER SEINE - NIGHT
Valjean and Cosette turn down a narrow street, no longer hurrying.
The narrow street turns, and opens out onto the river. Valjean stops. There, on the other side of the river, in the light of a lamp, stands Javert.

67: EXT. MAZE OF OLD STREETS - NIGHT
Now Valjean and Cosette are running - down narrow alleys, into small dark courtyards, not knowing which way to turn. Whenever Valjean thinks they've thrown their pursuer, there he is, not far behind. And he's no longer alone. With him are a detachment of soldiers.
Javert and his team never seem to run. But he's always there.

68: EXT. DEAD END - NIGHT
Valjean and Cosette turn into a street that is walled in by high windowless houses. They follow it round a corner to find - a dead end. A high wall before them. They're trapped.
Valjean looks round. No way out. Then he sees a nearby lamp bracket. Hanging from it is the rope that is used to lower the oil lamp for lighting. He tears off the rope and ties one end round Cosette, beneath her armpits. Then holding the other end, he scales the wall, using the corner to brace himself as he rises. Once on the top, he hauls Cosette up by the rope. Only then does he turn to look down onto the other side.
A cloister. A building in the middle, windows glowing. Grave stones black against the white snow. The sound of women's voices, singing a psalm.
Valjean lowers Cosette down into the garden, and drops down after her.
Javert and his men enter the dead end to find them gone.

69: INT. CONVENT CLOISTER - NIGHT
Valjean crouched low, with Cosette in his arms, holding her still and quiet until Javert is gone.
Then he straightens up and looks round. He takes in the sound of singing.
He goes closer to the windows of the building. Through the blurry glass he can make out a chapel, and a line of nuns singing.
Valjean continues and sees a man filling in a new grave. The man starts as he sees Valjean.
Valjean jumps, takes Cosette protectively into his arms. Turns to answer.
It's Fauchelevent, now a gardener, still limping from his injury.
Valjean gazes at him, and remembers.
Valjean and Cosette follow him to the convent.
Valjean looks to the heavens. The camera soars into the air and heads east as dawn breaks over Paris. We rush low over Paris as the sun comes up, towards the Place de la Bastille.

70: EXT. PLACE DE LA BASTILLE, PARIS - DAY
The dawn light glows on a massive ELEPHANT. The monument, made of wood and plaster, now ruined and crumbling, stands on a plinth on one side of the wide open square. On the far side, the remains of the great fortress that was the Bastille. In the middle, scaffolding surrounds a half-built triumphal column, which is being erected to celebrate the new regime.
The streets that run from the square lead in one direction to the Paris of power and wealth; in the other direction into the slums.
The camera sweeps in and down to meet the elephant.
A head pops out of one of the elephant's many holes - GAVROCHE, a street urchin. He gives a shrill whistle. At once a dozen more street urchins show themselves, from every crack in the monument's skin. Agile as a monkey, Gavroche drops to the ground, followed by his band.

71: EXT. PARIS BOULEVARD - DAY
FOLLOW GAVROCHE in as he races down a grand boulevard, dodging the crowds of strolling bourgeoisie and beggars, weaving in and out of the lines of carriages attempting to make their way in either direction. These are the conveyances of the rich, fine gilded coaches with matched horses and footmen on the back. Virtually at a standstill, they lend Gavroche a platform as he leaps from coach to coach, a street urchin dancing on the heads of the elite.
As he goes, the poor on the pavements sing to the stony- faced rich in their golden high-sprung glory -
The fine ladies and grand gentlemen in the carriages avert their eyes, or raise the blinds of their carriage windows to shut out the sight of the losers of their world.
Gavroche, bounding over their heads, evading the swipes of liveried footmen, lands on the running board of one particularly grand carriage and begs/taunts the RICH OCCUPANT.
STILL RUNNING WITH Gavroche as he hops onto the back of another very grand carriage, the traffic now moving at last, hitching a ride on the back - one or two of his gang hop on back of carriage with him, the others run panting after to hear his political lecture.

72: EXT. LAMARQUE'S HOUSE, PARIS - DAY
The carriage has reached an arch into a courtyard where a crowd of a couple of hundred is gathered outside a house of sickness. The carriage stops as its occupant wants to watch what is going on. The street is padded with straw. Many eyes gaze up at the draped windows. People cross themselves. A priest is seen hurrying into the house, accompanied by two altar boys.
Gavroche jumps off as the carriage stops and joins the crowd. The crowd is made up of citizens of Paris, student revolutionaries, the poor and beggars. The students hand out printed leaflets and try to excite the crowd.
A student, ENJOLRAS, stands on a raised step, making an impassioned speech with fellow student MARIUS. The occupant of the stopped carriage is MONSIEUR GILLENORMAND, Marius' Grandfather. He is clearly deeply unhappy to see his grandson engaged in such an activity.
In the crowd a young street girl, EPONINE, has her eyes fixed longingly on the handsome Marius.
Marius looks towards Lamarque's house behind him.
Mounted Police ride in to break up the crowd.
The crowd breaks up. The students shout to the crowd:
Marius turns to see his Grandfather staring him down, furious.
Gillenormand spies a gun poking out of his jacket.
Gillenormand turns to get back in his carriage.

73: INT. GORBEAU TENEMENT
Through a crack in a door, we see Marius sitting on a tatty mattress in a tiny hovel of a room. He is taking out a hunting rifle from under the mattress, wrapped in a rag. His eye is caught by the ring on his finger.
CLOSE ON a signet ring, a family crest.
Marius stares at the ring then takes it off his finger.
We reveal EPONINE staring at him through the door.
Marius rushes down the stairs of the slum, Eponine following. We see glimpses of misery off the stairwell.
Eponine comes to a stop, looking wistfully after Marius.

74: EXT. RUE DE LA CHANVRERIE - END OF DAY
Marius is stopped as he exits the front door of the Gorbeau Tenement by a passing carriage. Once it passes Marius sees two people in the street outside. One is an old gentleman, Valjean. The other is a beautiful young girl, Cosette. The two are giving alms to beggars as they walk back from evening church service.
Marius can't take his eyes off Cosette. He's never seen anyone so lovely in his life. We hear the instrumental foreshadowing of `A Heart Full of Love'.
As if drawn by Marius's gaze, Cosette looks up and meets his eyes. She too is amazed: he's looking at her as if he already knows her. A second carriage breaks their held gaze.
Marius continues on down the street and when he looks back, at that precise moment Cosette looks at him again.
Valjean instinctively puts his arm round her, guarding her jealously from this distant boy's gaze.
We cut further down the street to an alleyway where the Thenardiers, heavily disguised, are waiting for Valjean's approach with their gang of crooks, Babet, Brujon, Clacquesous, Montparnasse.
Thenardier approaches Valjean and lures him into the mouth of the alleyway where Madame Thenardier is sat on the ground holding the crying infant. Cosette is a few steps behind, still entranced by the sight of Marius.
As Valjean bends down to look at Madame Thenardier she recognizes him.
Thenardier pulls off his disguise. Valjean recognises him.
He signals to his gang. A door opens in the alleyway revealing the huge Brujon. The gang move in on Valjean menacingly.
The gang spill out into the street to find themselves confronted by Javert now with his men. Marius watches, as does Gavroche, drawn by the rumpus.
He sees man with his arm protectively round a girl but does not recognize Valjean as Valjean has averted his face.
He turns back on the Thenardier gang in the passage.
He turns back to find Valjean and Cosette gone.
Marius, equally baffled, goes off in search of them.
Thenardier, listening, hears this all with great interest. So Valjean is a crook like him.
Gavroche is sitting on a horse trough and falls back into it when Javert surprises him.
He is furious. He sings to Javert's departing back, and to Marius who is close by.
She turns back to find Marius gazing down the street.

75: EXT. PARIS POLICE HQ - NIGHT
WIDE of the Police Headquarters on the Isle de la Cite: a huge bureaucracy. The camera finds Javert standing inside looking out of a door leading onto the roof. As he sings he walks out onto the roof and stands by the symbol of the HQ, a monumental stone eagle. He looks down at the lights reflected in the river below. Then up at the great city. Javert too has a God, and this is his prayer.
Javert stands silhouetted against the stars, his arms raised up to the night sky.

76: EXT. RUE DE LA CHANVRERIE - NIGHT
Marius comes down the street, his mind full of thoughts of Cosette.

77: INT. CAF� MUSAIN - NIGHT
Marius arrives at the first floor front room. Here a group of students are cleaning rifles and sharing their excitement at the coming revolution: ENJOLRAS, COMBEFERRE, COURFEYRAC, JOLY, GRANTAIRE, FEUILLY, PROUVAIRE and others.
Joly turns goes over to Marius at the back, a faraway look on his face.
They sit.
They burst into laughter. But Enjolras isn't smiling.
A scuffle at the door - Gavroche struggling with the barman. Courfeyrac lets him through.
Enjolras turns to his companions.
As the students sing, Eponine enters wanting to talk to Marius. Marius sees her.

78: INT. VALJEAN'S HOUSE, RUE PLUMET - NIGHT
Cosette is pacing in her bedroom. It's a pretty room, the best room in this small summer house. Her shutters are open, giving a view of a wild unkempt garden. She looks at herself in a mirror, aware of her looks perhaps for the first time.
Valjean knocks and opens her door. He closes her shutters.
Valjean leaves and goes into his own bedroom. A simple wooden shack at the back of the summerhouse, Valjean himself lives with spartan simplicity - he has given the best room to Cosette.
Cosette follows. Valjean sits on his bed, his back to Cosette.

79: EXT. RUE PLUMET - NIGHT
Marius rushes down the street, Eponine following. At the far end is the walled garden behind which lies Valjean's house.
Cosette sees Marius. She comes up the garden path towards him. She sees Eponine by Marius's side.
Cosette holds the wrought-ironwork of the gate with both hands, eyes on Marius. Eponine looks on and suffers. Marius wraps his hands round Cosette's.
Valjean comes to the door.
Cosette turns and runs in to the house.
Valjean walks down the overgrown garden path to the gate.
Marius moves quickly away, instinctively nervous of discovery, and hides behind the wall.
Valjean peers into the shadows. He senses that perhaps Cosette has been talking to someone. He looks pensive.
Valjean returns inside.
Cosette has dropped a keepsake through the gate. Marius picks it up.
Marius makes his way back down the street, filled with thoughts of his love. Completely forgetting Eponine is there.
Shadows move up the street from the other direction. It's Thenardier and his gang. They gather at the wrought-iron gate.
Brujon starts working on the gate lock. He finds Eponine lurking in the shadows.
They huddle round the garden gate, which is now broken open.
He goes to the gate and opens it.
Eponine screams.

80: INT. RUE PLUMET, PARIS - NIGHT
Valjean, now in his own bedroom, hears the scream and turns to the window.

81: EXT. RUE PLUMET - NIGHT
Thenardier and his gang shrink into the shadows, as Eponine's scream ends at last.
He turns on Eponine and slaps her hard across the face.
His men have levered up a grating, and now Thenardier and the gang disappear down into the sewers.

82: INT. VALJEAN'S HOUSE - RUE PLUMET, PARIS - NIGHT
Valjean comes running into Cosette's room. Valjean takes her in his arms.
He moves away to his own bedroom.
He comes back to Cosette.
Valjean leaves to start packing.
Feverishly, Cosette scribbles a letter.

83: EXT. GARDEN, RUE PLUMET - NIGHT
Cosette hurries down the   garden to the gate, and goes to put the folded letter in   the grill where her and Marius' hands entwined. Then she   sees Eponine. Eponine steps forward. She thrusts her   letter into her hand.
She runs back inside.

84: EXT. RUE PLUMET/BRIDGE/RUE DE LA CHANVRERIE - NIGHT
Eponine crumples up the letter.
She walks sadly away down the street.
Rain is just starting to fall.
She crosses a bridge over the river.
Her solitary journey has brought her to the Gorbeau slum. She goes inside.

85: INT. GORBEAU TENEMENT - NIGHT
Eponine stands outside Marius' door. She opens the letter, reads it, then hides it in her pocket. She pushes open Marius' door. Marius looks up.
Marius sets off at a run towards the Rue Plumet.

86: EXT. RUE PLUMET - NIGHT
Marius finds the gate broken open, sees the house beyond dark and deserted. He pushes in to the garden, up to the house windows, sees the rooms empty within. He stands staring, in shock.
Eponine has followed him, and watches him in silence.

87: INT. CARRIAGE - NIGHT.
Valjean and Cosette sit on either side of the carriage, apart, staring out of their respective windows. A stark contrast to the carriage scene when Valjean sang to Cosette as a little girl.

88: EXT. RUE PLUMET - NIGHT
Marius by the empty house.

89: INT. CARRIAGE - NIGHT

90: EXT/INT. RUE PLUMET/CARRIAGE - NIGHT
INTERCUT between Eponine at the gate, Cosette and Valjean in the carriage, and Marius in the dark garden.

91: INT. CAF� MUSAIN GROUND & 1ST FLOOR/EXT. RUE DE LA CHANVRERIE - NIGHT
Enjolras and the students have a production line under way for making bullets. The rifles are now stacked and ready for the uprising. Grantaire is downstairs flirting with a BARMAID. MADAME HUCHELOUP the proprietress of the Cafe Musain is sewing a red revolutionary flag to help the students.
INTERCUT WITH Marius walking back sadly through the Rue de la Chanvrerie. Eponine follows him at a distance.
Grantaire rather reluctantly goes upstairs.

92: INT. PARIS POLICE HQ - NIGHT
Javert is briefing a hundred uniformed police about the coming day in a grand ornate old room at Police Headquarters.

93: INT. CARRIAGE - NIGHT

94: INT. CAF� MUSAIN - GROUND & 1ST FLOOR - NIGHT
Monsieur and Madame Thenardier are in the ground-floor bar, slyly watching a student smuggling some rifles up the stairs disguised in a piece of cloth.
Joly takes a tray and collects empty tankards. As he ascends the stairs, Madame Hucheloup tries to get him to give the tankards back.
The drinkers in the bar raise their glasses to the students with their rifles. The students appeal to them. Grantaire is drunk already. Joly starts to melt the tankards in a pot to make more bullets. Marius enters the ground floor and takes the red flag from Madame Hucheloup that she has just finished. The citizens on the ground floor join the students.
Marius enters the first floor to join them at last.

95: INT/EXT. RUE DE L'HOMME ARMEE/RUE DE LA CHANVRERIE/CAF� MUSAIN GROUND & 1ST FLOOR/POLICE STATION - NIGHT
Valjean and Cosette arrive at their new hideout -
Marius ties the red flag onto a flagpole -
Eponine outside the caf�, gazing longingly towards Marius -
Javert in the police station to his men -
We pull back from Enjolras and Marius holding their flag at the first floor window with the students beyond them to see that citizens have spilled out of the Cafe Musain into the street and have all joined in the final chorus.

96: EXT. PARIS STREETS - DAY
All is still. Then comes the soft beating of draped drums. The tramp of feet.
All down the streets, waiting, the silent faces of the poor. Among them we see Enjolras, Marius, and the radical students.
Police and national guardsmen control the growing crowds.
Now into view come the leaders of a great FUNERAL PROCESSION. An entire battalion of infantry, marching with weapons reversed. A column of black-suited dignitaries carrying branches of laurel. A division of Cavalry rides in front, behind a section of military drummers who drum a military tatoo.
INTO FRAME comes a team of black horses stepping slowly, black plumes nodding, drawing behind them a gun carriage draped in the tricolour flag. On the carriage stands a COFFIN.
Softly, in time with the drums, the watching people begin to sing.
The police and guardsmen look round to see who is singing so subversively, but they can't be sure where it's coming from. The singing grows stronger.
The dignitaries become aware of the singing, and glance uneasily from side to side.
As the coffin on its carriage draws level with the students, Enjolras suddenly steps out in front of the horses drawing the carriage and waves the red flag, stopping the horses and the procession.
The students break the ranks of the crowd and surround the coffin carriage.
Enjolras, Marius and Courfeyrac and other students climb onto the top of the carriage as the horses and led by Combeferre.
The crowd supports them and surround the coffin carriage, blocking the attempts of the police to intervene, singing with passion.
Enjolras, the students, and the impassioned crowd have now become the procession. They turn off the main street away from the expected course of the funeral procession. Gavroche's elephant looms over this side street. Gavroche and his gang jump down from the elephant to join in.
As the procession turns off, the calvary division gallop ahead and disappear round a corner.
The students and crowd come face to face with the calvary. On one side, muskets of the infantry poke through the broken down fence surrounding the elephant. Other infantry have taken up position in a cafe opposite, upending tables to provide cover.
There is a tense, prolonged silence. Then suddenly one nervous SOLDIER lets off a round. It hits a middle aged kindly looking WOMAN CITIZEN in the crowd around the coffin carriage. The crowd is furious. Students charge the soldier, grab his musket and knock him down with the hilt of the gun.
More shots ring out. The cavalry charges. The funeral explodes into a riot. The people of Paris turn on the dragoons, the National Guards, the police. More squadrons of dragoons charge into the crowd, sabres unsheathed. Women run screaming in terror.
Some students fire weapons into the air, some into the cavalry and at the infantry. Enjolras knocks a calvary officer off his horse and Marius jumps on the horse.
The students break away and race off through the cafe into a side street where citizens begin to erect a barricade. A cavalry rider gives chase and is shot by one of the students and falls through the window of an upended carriage. The students, with Marius on horseback, race to the slums.

97: EXT. RUE DE LA CHANVRERIE/INT. CAFE MUSAIN - DAY
FOLLOW the students as they burst into their home street. They have been joined by a motley collection of citizens including burghers and an old eccentric man FATHER MABEUF who works as hard as anyone. They raid a fencing shop and a gun shop for weapons, they force wives to give up their husbands' muskets and chalk up the debt to the revolution on their front doors, they encourage homeowners to contribute furniture sometimes appearing at high windows to help overcome any reluctance. Soon the street is raining tables, chairs, mattresses, sofas. They smash streetlamps. They set to work to build their barricade. Students commandeer an omnibus which is overturned to form the barricade's heart. Three students arrive in the street hauling an uprooted tree.
They pull up paving stones, rip boards, timbers and front doors from house and shop-fronts, pull down buttresses, and raid the Cafe Musain, systematically stripping it of every item of furniture despite the lamentations and protestations of Madame Hucheloup and her barmaid.
As the barricade rises they bring down from the first floor of the cafe the rifles and ammunition they've gathered, to prepare to defend their chosen ground. A student stands on a stone post distributing weapons. They line the first and second floor front rooms with paving stones to create protected shooting positions. The inside of the barricade is built neatly with steps up made from paving stones. The outside is a crazy knarled mess.
A man in worker's clothing is helping build the growing barricade,. He wears the insignia of the rebels, and keeps his head down.
The man who's just arrived looks up. It's Javert.
He slips away through the barricade, which is still rising.

98: EXT. BARRICADE - DUSK
The barricade is now complete: an impressive wall up to twelve feet high, with one heavily guarded section that can be wheeled open to allow access. Two smaller barricades protect the left and right side of the cafe. Enjolras climbs halfway up the main barricade and turns to his little army. Grantaire prises the final piece of Madame Hucheloup's furniture from her arms - her favourite sewing armchair - and adds it to the barricade. As the men sing she steals it back defiantly.

99: EXT. BARRICADE - NIGHT
It is night. The students have been waiting for hours.
A single flaming torch atop the barricade caged in by cobbles underlights a fluttering red flag.
There is no sign yet of any opposition.
A boy climbs down from sentry duty on the barricade. Marius realizes its Eponine. She sits down with her back to him.
Joly, sentry on the main barricade, sees a figure approach.
Javert, still in his disguise as a rebel, is let back through the guarded `gate' into the barricaded street.
They all look up. There's Gavroche, on the top of the barricade.
Guns swing round to aim at Javert. He stares back in defiance.
Gavroche comes dancing down the barricade to Courfeyrac's delighted embrace.
Gavroche grabs Grantaire's red cap and puts it on his own head, mimicking the students.
Enjolras faces Javert.
Javert is led into the cafe. As they pass through the front door only one student is holding Javert. Seizing his opportunity, Javert breaks free and the students have to subdue him by force. Javert is on his knees and is being tied to the staircase.
Silence.
Suddenly, out of the darkness, the students and citizens at the barricade here an ominous distant sound. The sound of marching feet, hundreds of men, marching in unison. First soft, then building louder and louder, closer and closer. Boots on cobbles. The sound comes right into the end of the street.
Enjolras and all the students man the main barricade.
Silence.
They peer over the barricade. In the pitch blackness, all they can make out is hundreds of gossamer thin slivers. These are bayonets and musket barrels dimly lit by the reflection from the torch.
A voice shouts out from the darkness.
At the same time we hear the clatter of guns being levelled.
A flash turns all the facades of the street bright crimson as though the door of a furnace has suddenly open and shut.
A dreadful explosion bursts over the barricade. The red flag falls, the pole sliced through. Bullets richochet off the cornices of the houses, bore into the barricade and wound several men.
In the darkness, the clang of ramrods in muskets - the troop reloading weapons.
Enjolras picks up the fallen flag and is about to take it up when the old man Father Mabeuf who has seen many insurrections before this takes the flag and runs up onto the top of the barricade.
A second volley.
Father Mabeuf falls down dead. While everyone is reacting to the dead old man and the wounded, the men are distracted from noticing that some French soldiers have used the cover of darkness to creep down the street.
All at once the FIRST FULL ATTACK begins. Shouts and the rattle of gunfire as SOLDIERS throw themselves up and over the barricade. The students run for their guns and return fire. They are taken by surprise. All could be lost in the first instant. Some soldiers make it up to the top of the barricade, where they're driven back by the fierce resistance of the defenders. Eponine sees one soldier aiming his rifle at Marius - she throws herself in front of Marius just as the rifle fires - and Marius is safe.
They are being   overrun. Panic ensues. The gun battle is fierce. Marius   in a flash of inspiration realises all is lost unless they do   something. He drags a barrel of gunpowder to the top of the   barricade, grabs the torch and with a face of deadly resolve   he tips the torch towards the barrel.
Everyone freezes.
Marius brings the torch closer to the powder keg.
But already the soldiers have cleared out.
Marius comes down from the barricade.
As everyone surrounds Marius in amazement he spots Eponine lying propped against the barricade.
He kneels by her side. Eponine is dying.
With a struggle she pulls the letter out of her pocket, and pushes it into his hand.
Marius is shocked to find blood pouring from her wound.
Rain begins to fall.
Marius tries to comfort Eponine in his arms.
Eponine dies in Marius's arms.
Marius looks up at the others, his eyes full of tears.
They pick up Eponine's body and carry her into the tavern.

100: EXT. BARRICADE - NIGHT
Marius reads the letter Eponine has given him. He takes out pencil and paper and writes a note. Looking round, he sees Gavroche.
He holds out his note.

101: INT. INN, RUE DE L'HOMME ARMEE, PARIS - NIGHT
The LANDLADY climbs the stairs, followed by Gavroche. The landlady indicates the door, and Gavroche knocks boldly. The door opens a crack to reveal a cautious Valjean.
Gavroche holds out the letter with one hand, not quite giving it, the other hand open for a tip.
Valjean gives him a coin, which he pockets as he hands over the letter.

102: INT. VALJEAN'S ROOM, LODGING HOUSE - NIGHT
ON VALJEAN - As he reads the note.
He looks up, deeply distressed. He can't bear the thought of losing Cosette.

103: EXT. PARIS STREETS - NIGHT
Valjean walks the streets, not caring where he goes, struggling with his tormented thoughts. He sees a barricade being dismantled. And bodies.
Suddenly he knows what he's going to do. He sees a dead soldier. He takes his jacket and swiftly pulls it on.
He continues on his way in the dark.
Looking up he sees that he's been walking all the time towards the very barricade where Marius waits.
Now looking like a soldier, he passes unchallenged through their lines, and into the shadows.
As he passes, he notices two soldiers climbing up onto the rooftops.

104: EXT. BARRICADE - NIGHT
Glimpses through the barricade of a lone figure approaching from the far end of the narrow street.
The figure comes into lamp light. It's Valjean, in the soldier's jacket. The student sentries level their guns. Gavroche jumps up.
The student sentries open the slot in the barricade to let Valjean enter.
He points to Javert, in a dark corner, his hands tied.
Javert looks up and meets Valjean's eyes. A steady shared look.
Suddenly Valjean spots a couple of snipers creeping over the roofs to gain an angle of attack on them. They are aiming at Enjolras. Swiftly Valjean grabs a gun and shoots up at them sending them scattering. Quickly other students join in and the snipers are driven back.
There is a burst of gunfire from both ends of the street as a brief fire fight ensues.
The snipers have disappeared.
Enjolras turns to Valjean.
Javert hears this with grim satisfaction.
He turns to his little army.
Valjean takes Javert out the back of the Cafe Musain. He carries a knife.
Valjean uses the knife to cut Javert free.
He raises his gun and points it at Javert.
As Javert goes, he raises the gun barrel and fires a single shot into the air.
Marius is manically working to raise the height of one of the smaller barricades.
Grantaire drunkenly starts singing a drinking song and it is taken up more seriously by Feuilly. Bottles are passed round.
Grantaire glares at Enjolras and enters the cafe.
Valjean is moving through the cafe when he hears Marius through a window. He moves to the window. Marius sits beneath it.
Valjean listens to Marius's song, and he's moved.

105: EXT. BARRICADE/ INT. CAFE MUSAIN - NIGHT
Look-outs keep watch at either end of the barricaded street. Many of the rest of the rebels are sleeping.
Valjean paces, unable to sleep, inside the cafe. Dead bodies are lined up on the ground floor. He comes to a stop, and gazes on Marius as he sleeps through the window.
Valjean is now kneeling next to the sleeping Marius.
CRANE UP AND UP - Seeing the little world of the barricaded street now surrounded by waiting soldiers - and the streets round them packed with soldiers in their thousands, so many that we know the little band can never win.
CRANE UP AND UP until the barricade and the army that entraps it has become a small pool of darkness in the centre of the bright lights of Paris.

106: EXT. PARIS - DAWN
The sun still below the rooftops. Every house is tightly shuttered.

107: INT. CAFE MUSAIN - DAWN
Grantaire is fast asleep in the upstairs room, dead drunk.

108: EXT. BARRICADE - DAWN
Enjolras re-enters the barricade through the secret gate. He has been on a reconnaissance. He looks at the street. No one is stirring, but for a single shutter which opens a crack - a face peeps - and it closes again. Below him the students are up and getting ready.
There is silence. Uncertainty. Yet no one moves to go.
Under this:
Gavroche is already climbing the barricade under cover of the smoke.
The rays of the rising sun break through, lighting up Gavroche.
Crack! A musket shot. Gavroche falls face down onto the barricade.
He runs up the barricade, seizes Gavroche's body in his arms, convulsed with grief, and brings it back through the gate in the barricade.
At the other end of the street Javert has appeared. He sees this gate. And talks to the Army Officer.
As the smoke from the muskets clears horses are revealed drawing field artillery into position. The Army Officer is lining up the big guns carefully.
Enjolras gazes on his pitifully small group.
The sun now appears above the rooftops of the city.
And the big guns fire - BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The bombardment hits the barricade, rocking it. In its wake a massive barrage of musket fire.
The big gun has been lined up with the gate and has burst right through in the first hit.
Bullets fly, and every few moments another cannon ball smashes into the piled debris. Javert is glimpsed among the attackers.
Enjolras and the students throw themselves onto the barricades, firing at the attackers, handing their rifles down to others to be re-loaded, firing again.
Valjean moves among them, tending to the wounded, lifting down the dead, regardless of his own safety.
Marius takes a bullet, and crumples and falls. Valjean runs towards him -
CRASH! The latest cannonade bursts a hole in the barricade and now the soldiers are storming through. The hard core of student fighters retreat, firing as they go, into the Caf� Musain.

109: INT. CAF� MUSAIN - DAY
Students and soldiers fight in the caf�, on the stairs, up the stairs to the upper room. Students driving back the pursuing soldiers hack away at the staircase, smashing it to fragments - the soldiers below fire up at them - students fall, their bodies caught on the jagged remnants of the stairs. Grantaire is still unconscious from drink.

110: EXT. BARRICADE - DAY
Valjean has Marius in his arms and is hiding him from the onrush of the soldiers -

111: INT. CAF� MUSAIN - DAY
The students' ammunition has run out, they're hurling sticks and bottles - but the soldiers have found a way to clamber up, shooting as they come, and one by one the students are falling.

112: EXT. STREET OUTSIDE CAF� MUSAIN - DAY
Valjean carries Marius away from the carnage. A soldier challenges him. One violent blow from Valjean sends the soldier flying -

113: INT. CAF� MUSAIN - DAY
The soldiers break through at last to the upper room, to find there's only Enjolras still alive. He stands by the window, knowing he will die now, proud and unafraid. Seeing him the soldiers hesitate. The sudden silence wakes Grantaire from his drunken slumber.
He sees Enjolras with the muskets raised against him. Grantaire goes and joins him. Enjolras smiles, and raises his now-ragged red flag.
The rifles blaze. Grantaire drops back to the ground. Enjolras falls back -

114: EXT. BARRICADE - DAY
Enjolras falling backwards out of the window, until he hangs upside down, the red flag still in his hands, streaming like blood down the wall.
PULL BACK to see the street littered with corpses, and the remains of the barricade, and soldiers scouring the rubble for any last pockets of resistance.
BACK AND BACK to come to a stop looking at the wide scene. INTO FRAME walks Javert, grimly surveying the victory of law over rebellion.

115: EXT. BACK ALLEY - DAY
Valjean carries Marius down a long narrow alley that runs between the backs of tall houses. The alley turns a corner - and there ahead is a dead end. Behind him, the stamp of soldiers' boots. Ahead, no way out.
Then his searching gaze falls on an iron grating in the ground. A storm drain.
ON THE SOLDIERS - As they come round the corner into the end of the alley. They look round. It's empty.
The soldiers depart. A moment of silence.
Then into the alley's end steps Javert. Not so easily fooled. He walks all the way to the end, and looks round. He sees the drain at his feet. He sees the signs that the grating has been lifted.
He stoops, and tries to lift it. It's far too heavy for him.
He straightens up and looks round, calculating. Where does the drain lead?

116: INT. PARIS SEWERS - DAY
Valjean is pulling Marius after him down a tight sloping pipe, where dark water races. Suddenly they start to slide, then drop through a vent into a wide sewage tunnel. Faint light reflecting off the slime of curving tunnel walls. The skitter of rats. Sodden forms floating by: dead bodies.
Valjean carries Marius down the tunnel, moving as fast as he can, losing strength all the time. He reaches an intersection where four sewers meet. Light falls through distant gratings. One of the four sewers is dry. Here he lets his burden down, and himself sinks to the slimy ground to rest. He lets his eyes close.
A voice echoes in the shadows.
A figure coming closer. A sewer thief, robbing corpses. No sign of life in either Valjean or Marius.
Now we see the thief is Thenardier. He finds a ring on Marius's finger and pulls it off.
Valjean wakes, rears up, seizes Thenardier by the arm, slams him against the sewer wall.
Valjean drops him, picks Marius up once more, and sets off.
Thenardier stares after them, grinning. He's sent then the wrong way.
LATER - Valjean in the sewers, Marius on his back, and they're sinking ever deeper into the slimy water.
As he feels himself sink, Valjean holds Marius up in his arms and forges on, chest deep, lifting the younger man above his head. Still he sinks, until his face is half- submerged and he's gagging in the filth. He stumbles, and suddenly he's sunk beneath the surface, and Marius is dropping -
Then up he bursts again, face black with slime, eyes burning with his refusal to be beaten.
LATER - Valjean staggers down the endless sewers, Marius on his back. But all the time he can hear, closer now, the rushing sound of the river.
Round a bend and at last - moonlight ahead.
He drags himself on through the shallow running water towards the moonlight.
He reaches the exit at last. Before him the river.

117: EXT. RIVER EMBANKMENT, PARIS - NIGHT
Valjean, crusted with slime, heaves Marius out of the sewer onto the embankment that runs beside the river.
He looks up. There, staring at him, is Javert.
Valjean rises slowly. Heaves Marius up onto his back once more. The strain of the night is showing. He's a man near the end of his strength.
He starts to move past Javert.
Javert draws his pistol and holds it to Valjean's head.
Valjean meets his eyes. That old battle of will against will.
He starts walking past Javert. Javert's hand trembles as it holds the pistol.
Valjean keeps walking. Javert wills himself to shoot, but he just can't do it. Frustrated, enraged with himself, he lowers the gun.
He turns away, trembling now all up and down his body. He stares into the river. Valjean is gone now. He's alone.
He begins to move away along the embankment, up steps, towards a bridge. He's unaware of everything except the turmoil in his brain.
He moves up from the embankment onto the bridge. Here he stands, looking down at the dark water of the night river. The Seine forms a whirlpool here, where violent currents swirl round the piles of the bridge.
He climbs up onto the parapet, reaching his arms up to the night sky.
He reaches higher, turning his body, twisting, as if he wants some angel from on high to save him - and so, turning, he falls into the river. The swirling eddies close over him. And he's lost.

118: EXT. STREET OUTSIDE CAF� MUSAIN - DAY
Soldiers are dismantling the last of the barricade. Women move about the street, seeking their dead loved ones among the bodies that still litter the barricade. These are both the middle-class mothers of the students - Enjolras's mother, Grantaire's sister - and the working women of the slums for whom they died, united now in their grief.
The women move off to go about their day's business.

119: INT. MARIUS'S FAMILY HOUSE, PARIS - DAY
CLOSE ON MARIUS - He's waking from the nightmare, finding himself in a fine bed, with clean linen. He looks round: a handsome room.
Marius recognises the old man anxiously watching him: his grandfather, Monsieur GILLENORMAND.
He struggles to rise, but he lacks the strength. His grandfather's face shows only love and concern.
Timidly the old man comes closer to the bed. Tears form in Marius's eyes. Encouraged, the old man takes Marius's hand in his.
The distant voices of the mourning women -

120: INT. CAF� MUSAIN - DAY
Marius makes his way slowly up the stairs to the upper room. He's still weak from his wounds. He enters the room where his friends died, and looks round. He sinks into a chair.
He sees the bloodstain on the wall beneath the window sill. The blood of Enjolras.
He looks out of the window at what's left of the barricade. He seems to see again the brave doomed defence, the smoke and the gunfire, the young men falling.
Slowly he rises from the chair and turns to the doorway. There stands Cosette, waiting for him.

121: INT. MARIUS'S FAMILY HOUSE, PARIS - DAY
Cosette holds Marius, supporting him, as he enters the house.
Cosette leads him into the room where Valjean and Gillenormand wait.
As Valjean and Gillenormand look on, Marius and Cosette sing their love to each other.

122: INT. PARLOUR, MARIUS'S FAMILY HOUSE - DAY
Marius stands before Valjean, alone in this more private room.
He's prepared himself to make this confession, but it's still hard.
Marius hears this with shock.
Marius can't conceal that he's disturbed by this revelation.

123: EXT. MARIUS'S FAMILY HOUSE, PARIS - DAY
A waiting cab. Valjean comes out of the modest lodging house and gets in. The cab rattles away down the street.
IN THE CAB - Valjean sits gazing far away at nothing. Then his weary eyes close.

124: INT. MARIUS'S FAMILY HOUSE, PARIS - DAY
Cosette gazes at Marius, bewildered by what she has just learned.
Cosette comes into Marius's arms, tears in her eyes.

125: EXT. MARIUS'S FAMILY HOUSE, PARIS - DAY
Marius and Cosette, newly married, are walking towards Marius' house through an aisle created by wedding guests. Carriages line the street.

126: INT. MARIUS'S FAMILY HOUSE, PARIS - DAY
Waltz music plays as Marius and Cosette lead the dancing at the wedding reception.
As the dance proceeds, two extraordinary figures enter, and start helping themselves to the drink and the food. They are Thenardier and his wife, dressed up for high society.
They look round as the dance continues, highly satisfied with themselves and see Marius.
Thenardier makes a mock-formal bow.
He shows off his ring. Marius stares in astonishment.
Thenardier steals the ring back.
Thenardier looks past Marius to where Cosette stands among their friends. He lowers his voice.
He takes out money and reluctantly presses it into Thenardier's hands. Madame Thenardier takes the money before Thenardier has safely pocketed it.
Marius hands over yet more money to Madame Thenardier.
CRACK! Thenardier sinks to the ground, felled by a powerful blow from an angered Marius. The band stops playing.
Marius rushes to Cosette and we see him telling her where Valjean is. They hurry away.
Thenardier clambers to his feet, helped by his wife. He gestures to the band to continue. They stand by the tiered wedding cake. As Thenardier recovers his composure, Madame Thenardier steals one then two pillars from the cake so it collapses on the floor. She then pushes it under the table with her foot.
As he pivots Madame Thenardier, stolen silver drops out from Madame Thenardier's dress. The music stops dead in the clatter. The Thenardiers look up, as if implying that the silver dropped from the ceiling. The dance continues. Monsieur Gillenormand motions to the Majordomo to remove these unwanted guests.
The Thenardiers are carried off, singing as they go.
As they are thrown out, the Thenardiers steal a tiara and a candlestick.

127: EXT. CONVENT, PARIS - NIGHT
IN ON A WINDOW - Where two candle burn.

128: INT. CONVENT CHAPEL, PARIS - NIGHT
Valjean prays in the chapel, on his knees. He's very weak.
Next to the crucifix on the altar are Valjean's two silver candlesticks, in which two candles burn.
VALJEAN is joined by the ghost of Fantine. She takes his hand as he prays.

129: EXT. CONVENT CLOISTERS - NIGHT
Cosette and Marius rush round the cloisters and enter the chapel in the middle of the cloisters.

130: INT. CONVENT CHAPEL - NIGHT
The sound of the door opening. Valjean looks round. It's Cosette entering, followed by Marius.
Tears form in his eyes. Cosette goes to him, kneels before him, takes him in her arms.
Marius comes to him.
He holds out a letter for her.
Cosette takes the letter and kisses it.
Valjean turns back, face shining, towards the table where the candles burn in the silver candlesticks. There he sees three ghosts waiting for him. The ghost of the Bishop. The ghost of Fantine. And beyond her, watching Marius with love, the ghost of Eponine.
Fantine comes towards him, reaching out her hands.
Cosette embraces Valjean, weeping.
Valjean reaches up his hands, and lets the ghost of Fantine take them.
Led by Fantine, Valjean walks out of the Chapel towards the cloister.
What remains is Cosette, her head cradled in the lap of the man who has just died.
The walls of the cloisters are covered in votive candles. The Bishop of Digne waits in front of the candles. Now Valjean's strong and young again. Before they reach the wall of candles, all three are gone.
As they disappear we CRANE UP, high over the cloister, high over the walls of the Convent and we see the Paris streets outside. Fires are burning and debris is scattered in the streets. Dawn is breaking.
From far away, the sound of an approaching crowd -

131: EXT. PLACE DE LA BASTILLE - DAY
THE CAMERA MOVES over the cobbles as the light of the rising sun reveals the devastation left by a bitter street battle. Past the remains of a barricade.
The distant sound of an approaching march.
From far off, the swelling sounds of the approaching march become the words of a song.
As THE CAMERA RISES we see we're in the Place de la Bastille. The triumphal column has long been completed, but the great elephant is sadly dilapidated and has become incorporated into an immense barricade - three stories high, seven hundred feet long. Down all the streets that converge on the square we now see the multiple victory marches approaching. They cheer and beat drums as they climb up to the top of the barricade.
There in the forefront of one column march Marius and Cosette.
As the marchers come nearer we begin to realise how many there are: thousand upon thousand. And there marching among them we see ghosts from the past - Enjolras and the students who died - and Fantine - and Eponine -
And out of the crumbling elephant peers another ghost: the grinning face of Gavroche. He climbs out to dance on the elephant, as the crowd fill the square.
As the marchers converge, there watching them are Thenardier and his wife. Thenardier gives the marchers a wave of greeting. Survivors to the last.
Now among the marchers we see the ghost of Valjean, singing with the rest atop the barricade, amongst the waving red flags.