Get my stuff down to the laundry.
And shine my shoes.
- I want them looking like mirrors. - Yes, sir.
It's good having you back.
Place wasn't the same without you.
Lights out!
I've had some long nights in the stir.
Alone in the dark with nothing but your thoughts...
... time can draw out like a blade.
That was the longest night of my life.
Give me a count!
Tier 3 south, clear!
Man missing on tier 2, cell 245!
Dufresne!
Come out. You're holding up the show!
Don't make me come down or I'll thump your skull for you!
Damn it, you're putting me behind! I got a schedule to keep.
You'd better be sick or dead in there. I shit you not!
You hear me?
Oh, my Holy God.
I want every man on this cellblock questioned.
- Start with that friend of his. - Who?
Him
Open 237.
What do you mean, "He just wasn't here"? Don't say that to me.
Don't tell me that again.
But sir, he wasn't.
I can see that, Haig! Think I'm blind?
Is that what you're saying?
- Am I blind, Haig? - No, sir!
What about you. You blind?
- Tell me what this is. - Last night's count.
You see Dufresne's name there? I sure do. Right there.
"Dufresne."
He was in his cell...
...at lights out.
Stands to reason he'd still be here in the morning.
I want him found.
Not tomorrow, not after breakfast. Now!
Yes, sir.
Let's go. Move your butts. Move it!
Stand.
Well?
Well, what?
I see you two all the time. You're thick as thieves, you are.
He must have said something.
No, sir, Warden.
Not a word.
Lord, it's a miracle!
Man vanished like a fart in the wind.
Nothing left...
...but some damn rocks on a windowsill.
And that cupcake on the wall. Let's ask her.
Maybe she knows.
What say there, fuzzy-britches? Feel like talking?
Guess not.
Why should she be any different?
This is a conspiracy.
That's what this is.
One big, damn conspiracy!
And everyone's in on it!
Including her!
In 1966...
... Andy Dufresne escaped...
... from Shawshank Prison.
All they found was a muddy set of prison clothes...
... a bar of soap...
... and an old rock hammer...
... damn near worn down to the nub.
I had thought it'd take a man 600 years to tunnel through the wall with it.
Old Andy did it in less than 20.
Oh, Andy loved geology.
I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature.
An ice age here...
... million years of mountain building there.
Geology is the study of pressure and time.
That's all it takes, really.
Pressure...
... and time.
That and a big goddamn poster.
Like I said...
... in prison, a man will do anything to keep his mind occupied.
Seems Andy's favorite hobby was toting his wall out into the exercise yard...
... a handful at a time.
I guess after Tommy was killed...
... Andy decided he'd been here long enough.
Lickety-split. I want to get home.
I'm just about finished, sir.
Three deposits tonight.
Andy did like he was told.
Buffed those shoes to a high mirror-shine.
The guards simply didn't notice.
Neither did I.
I mean, seriously...
... how often do you really look at a man's shoes?
Andy crawled to freedom through 500 yards...
... of shit-smelling foulness I can't even imagine.
Or maybe I just don't want to.
Five hundred yards.
That's the length of five football fields.
Just shy of half a mile.
The next morning, right about the time Raquel was spilling her secret...
... a man nobody ever laid eyes on before...
... strolled into the Maine National Bank.
Until that moment, he didn't exist.
- Except on paper. - May I help you?
He had all the proper ID...
... driver's license, birth certificate, Social Security card...
And the signature was a spot-on match.
I must say I'm sorry to be losing your business.
I hope you'll enjoy living abroad.
Thank you.
I'm sure I will.
Here's your cashier's check, sir. Will there be anything else?
Please.
Would you add this to your outgoing mail?
I'd be happy to.
Good day, sir.
Mr. Stevens visited nearly a dozen banks in the Portland area that morning.
All told, he blew town...
... with better than $370,000 of Warden Norton's money.
Severance pay for 19 years.
Good morning, Portland Daily Bugle.
Byron Hadley? You have the right to remain silent.
If you give up this right, anything you say can be held against you in court.
I wasn't there to see, but I hear Byron Hadley sobbed like a girl...
... when they took him away.
Norton had no intention of going that quietly.
Samuel Norton.
We have a warrant for your arrest. Open up.
Open the door.
I'm not sure which key.
Make it easy on yourself, Norton!
I like to think the last thing that went through his head...
... other than that bullet...
... was to wonder how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him.
Not long after the warden deprived us of his company...
... I got a postcard in the mail.
It was blank, but the postmark said...
... Fort Hancock, Texas.
Fort Hancock...
... right on the border.
That's where Andy crossed.
When I picture him heading south in his own car with the top down...
... it always makes me laugh.
Andy Dufresne...
... who crawled through a river of shit...
... and came out clean on the other side.
Andy Dufresne...
... headed for the Pacific.
Hadley's got him by the throat, right?
He says, "I believe this boy's about to have himself an accident."
Those of us who knew him best talk about him often.
I swear, the stuff he pulled...
"My friends could use a couple of beers."
And he got it!
Sometimes it makes me sad, though...
... Andy being gone.
I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged.
Their feathers are just too bright.
And when they fly away...
... the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice.
But still...
... the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone.
I guess I just miss my friend.
Please sit down.
Ellis Boyd Redding...
...your files say you've served 40 years of a life sentence.
You feel you've been rehabilitated?
Rehabilitated?
Well, now, let me see.
I don't have any idea what that means.
It means you're ready to rejoin society...
I know what you think it means, sonny.
To me it's just a made-up word.
A politician's word so that...
...young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie...
...and have a job.
What do you really want to know?
Am I sorry for what I did?
Well, are you?
There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret.
Not because I'm in here or because you think I should.
I look back on the way I was then...
...a young...
...stupid kid who committed that terrible crime.
I want to talk to him.
I want to try and talk some sense to him.
Tell him the way things are.
But I can't.
That kid's long gone...
...and this old man is all that's left.
I got to live with that.
Rehabilitated?
It's just a bullshit word.
So you go on and stamp your forms, sonny, and stop wasting my time.
Because to tell you the truth...
...I don't give a shit.
Here you go, miss.
Restroom break?
You don't need to ask me every time you need to go take a piss. Just go.
Yes, sir.
Forty years I've been asking permission to piss.
I can't squeeze a drop without say-so.
There's a harsh truth to face.
No way I'm going to make it on the outside.
All I do anymore is think of ways to break my parole...
... so maybe they'd send me back.
Terrible thing, to live in fear.
Brooks Hatlen knew it.
Knew it all too well.
All I want is to be back where things make sense.
Where I won't have to be afraid all the time.
Only one thing stops me.
A promise I made to Andy.
There it is.
Much obliged, sir.
Dear Red:
If you're reading this, you've gotten out...
... and if you've come this far, maybe you'd come a bit further.
You remember the name of the town, don't you?
Zihuatanejo.
I could use a good man to help me get my project on wheels.
I'll keep an eye out for you, and the chessboard ready.
Remember, Red...
... hope is a good thing...
... maybe the best of things.
And no good thing ever dies.
I will be hoping that this letter finds you...
... and finds you well.
Your friend...
... Andy.
"Get busy living...
... or get busy dying. "
That's goddamn right.
For the second time in my life...
... I'm guilty of committing a crime.
Parole violation.
Of course I doubt they'll toss up any roadblocks for that.
Not for an old crook like me.
Fort Hancock, Texas, please.
I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head.
I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel.
A free man at the start of a long journey...
... whose conclusion is uncertain.
I hope I can make it across the border.
I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.
I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.
I hope.