♪♪
- Mr. Twain! Can we come in?
- Sure!
- Look, Mr. Twain, what we found in the newspaper.
(clears throat) It's a picture of a ship.
A big Mississippi steamer that has your name on it.
Does this boat belong to you, Mr. Twain?
- Oh, my, no.
This don't belong to me, boy.
- But then, why does it say your name on it?
- Mama told me that you had been working on a boat
like that when you were young.
Can you tell us about it?
I also want to travel
on a big steamer.
- Well, better go pretty quick, little princess,
'cause there ain't many more of these left.
- What do you mean, there aren't that many anymore?
- Well, son, the time was when
there used to be hundreds of these steamboats...
mighty, mighty steamboats going up and down
the mighty Mississippi.
But, with the invention of the rail road,
many of these are gone now. But that's a...
(clears throat) whole other story
in and of itself.
- Can you tell us a story?
- Yes please, Mr. Twain!
Tell us your story.
- All right.
All right, pull up a chair and sit a spell.
All right, here we go.
This story took place
way before you two were ever even born.
But I still remember just as it happened
way back in those days.
♪♪
(steamboat chugging)
Mark Twain: Once a week, the "Paul Jones," the mail-boat,
would chug upstream and dock right here.
And all the kids had only one simple
but honorable wish...
to be the steamboat captain.
Sure, we entertained the idea of becoming
a clown in the circus, or maybe even a pirate.
But, no desire was so strongly anchored in our hearts
as the one to be a steamboat captain.
And one of us kids was Tom Sawyer.
- Girl: "Columbus departed from Spain with three ships."
"The 'Santa Maria,
"the 'Pinta, and the 'Nina.
"Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands
"on September 6th,
"for what turned out to be a five week voyage
"across the ocean.
A man looked out..."
(clatter)
- Thomas Sawyer.
Stand up, Thomas Sawyer,
and let the class know
the reason you are so tardy today.
- Well, sir...
the reason that I'm so late today
is because I was having an intense conversation
with my best buddy, Huckleberry Finn.
- Thomas Sawyer, that has got to be the most amazing
confession I have ever, in my entire life, ever heard.
An action of this sort is deserving
an extra-special penalty.
This! Ls! Big!
- Please, sir...
punish me as you see fit,
just don't send me to sit over with the girls, please.
- Not to the girls, huh?
(students whispering and giggling)
Hmm.
- Student: He's gonna get it.
- Huh! Immediately go to the girls' side
and no talking back.
Let this be a warning to you, Mr. Thomas Sawyer.
(whispering continues)
teacher: Keep on reading.
(thwack)
girl: "And spotted land"
"at about 2:00 in the morning,
"and he immediately alerted the rest of the crew
"with a shout.
"Then, the captain of the 'Pinta,
(stammering) "Martin Alonso Pinzén,
"verified the discovery and alerted Columbus
"by firing a Lombard.
"Columbus later said that he himself
(chair creaking) "had already seen a light on the land
"a few hours earlier,
"and he claimed for himself the money
"promised by King Ferdinand
(chuckles) and Queen Isabella to the..."
- Mark Twain: Already one day later began a chain
of events that would result in undesirable consequences.
♪♪
(frog creaking)
(birds chirping)
(sighs)
- So, uh, what'cha doing down here?
- Psh, nothing.
(Spits)
You know, I'm just... just spitting.
(chuckles) - Hucky, you got a good life.
You don't need to go to school.
You can do what you want when you want to.
I wish I had a father like yours who was a drunken bum
and didn't make me do stuff.
- Yeah.
Yeah, well, it turns out, um...
my old man ain't that bad after all.
- Do you mind if I take a pull?
- Yeah. Yeah, sure. You're my buddy.
Go right ahead.
- Hey, Huck, what's that?
- Oh, this?
Uh, well, that's her.
That's my mom, my true mother.
- But, Huck, you ain't got a mom.
Everybody knows that.
- Tom, I do have a mother.
She's out there.
See that?
Mississippi's my mother.
She was there when I opened my eyes for the first time.
She was there when I was growing up.
She's there when I get lonely.
Sometimes I come out here when I'm alone...
and I talk to her.
It's weird, you know?
- Hey, Hucky, what you got in the pouch?
- Nothin'.
Just a... just a dead cat.
- That critter's stiff as an ironing board.
Where'd you get it from?
- I bought it about two weeks ago from Ben Rogers.
- And, uh, what does something like that cost you?
- Ah, it ain't worth talking about.
- Okay, and uh, what's the dead cat good for?
- It banishes your warts.
- Okay-
How... how does that work, exactly?
- You really want to know? - Yeah.
- All right, well...
you go to the cemetery.
Now, you gotta go to where some dead guy's laying
about six feet under, and at the stroke of midnight,
the devil's gonna show himself.
Now, when that happens, you're gonna hear a sound,
something like a hissing or the wind
or maybe even words.
Anyways, when you hear the sound,
you take the dead cat and you gotta throw it
in the direction you heard the sound coming from.
But, after you do that, you gotta say this...
"Devil gets the cat, cat gets the corpse,
warts get the cat, and that's not where I'm at."
Then the warts go away.
- Okay, so when are you gonna try this?
- Oh, I don't know. I figure tonight,
they're gonna be coming to get good ol' Ross Williams,
so probably then.
- Would... would you mind if I tagged along?
- Yeah, sure.
Just better not get me busted like last time.
Old man Hopkins sent a whiskey bottle
flying right past our heads, you remember that?
(crickets chirping, frog creaking)
Meow!
Meow? Meow!
Meow!
(quiet scraping)
♪♪
(hay rustling)
- Think old man Ross Williams hears us talking?
- Well, I sure as hell ain't been dead before.
Either that or his ghost can.
- Damn it. (chuckles nervously)
I... I meant to say "Mister Williams."
- Huck: You oughta be careful what you say about dead people.
(distant howling)
- Uh, hey, Huck, would you mind if I were to call it night?
After all, they are your warts.
- What?
I ain't got no warts.
- You ain't got no warts?
Then what the devil are we doing down here?
Just think, Hucky.
What would you do if these ghosts don't exist?
I mean, for me, it'd...
it'd be as though something were missing.
(branches snapping)
- Did you hear that? - What?
- Over there!
- What is that?
(rustling)
You saw that, right? You saw that!
- Yeah.
- I'm tell... I'm telling you they're real, look!
I ain't bluffing, those are the devils!
They're at work right now!
- They're coming straight towards us.
Uh, uh...
Come on, come on!
♪♪
- man: Now, I gotta look nice.
I got a job on top of everything else.
- Tom, am I going crazy, or is that the voice of Muff Potter?
- Man: The crap you do when times are hard.
- That's him, isn't it?
- Can that be?
- Yeah, I know Muff's voice.
Drunk or sober, that's him.
- All right, this is it.
- The other's Doc Robinson, and the other's...
- Injun Joe.
- Muff Potter: Come on, hurry.
The moon can show itself any minute now, gentlemen.
I suggest you get a move on.
Start digging-
♪♪
(tools scraping earth)
(distant howling)
- Oh, yeah.
Ah, that's good enough.
(scraping continues)
Muff Potter: Open it.
(creaking)
- Mark Twain: Even up to this point,
Tom and Huck had not even the slightest idea
of what was going on.
The fact that Doc Robinson wanted
the corpse of Ross Williams for studies of the anatomy
was discovered later.
- So, good doctor,
think you can throw another five
for the trouble for us to keep our trap shut?
(Spits)
- Now, may I remind you that we had an agreement?
Your payment upfront, which I gladly did.
It's called an agreement, Mister Joe.
- He's right, Joe, let it go.
(grunts)
- Joe: His father arrested me once
and punished me in front of all the people.
Do you think I'm gonna forget that?
(grunting)
" Uhh!
Take it easy, Joe!
Come on, don't hurt me.
Oh, Christ.
God damn Injun.
- Joe: This might hurt.
(grunts)
♪♪
(panting)
- Huck, what do you think's gonna happen?
(sighs)
- If Doc Robinson don't wake up in the morning,
someone's gonna get hanged.
- You really think so?
- I'm as sure as an amen in church.
- Well, who do you think's gonna tell 'em? Us, maybe?
- No, if anyone's gonna say something,
it's Muff Potter.
- Huck, Muff Potter don't know nothing about this.
How's he supposed to say something?
- Tell me why he don't know nothing.
- 'Cause he just happened to get clunked out
as Injun Joe did it.
- Oh, damn!
- Huck, are you sure you can keep a lid on this?
- Now, Tom, you know we got to keep a lid on this.
We have to.
If the devil Injun Joe finds out that we ratted him out,
he don't get hung, he'll snuff us out for sure.
We don't want that.
- Huck, we need to swear
not to tell a soul a single word.
- I swear.
- So just repeat after me.
Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer...
- "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer..."
- ...solemnly swear to keep their traps shut...
- "...s... uh, so... solemnly swear
to keep their traps shut..."
- ...and not to tell a single, solitary soul...
- "...and not to tell a single, solitary soul..."
- ...a single word.
- "...a single word."
- Unless they want to die in their tracks and rot.
- "Unless they... " Well, that last part's kind of rough,
- don't you think there, Tom? - Needs to be.
♪♪
(gasps) - Finally, I caught you.
Young man, this deserves punishment.
You will paint the picket fence tomorrow.
- The whole fence?!
- Yes, picket by picket.
(door closes)
♪♪
(imitating steam whistle)
- Starboard! Starboard!
(continues imitating)
Hey, buddy.
Hey, my friend, heh.
That's a pretty tough job, huh?
So... I'm going swimming, you know?
Wouldn't you not like to come along?
Nah, what am I thinking?
Tom Sawyer'd prefer to work.
- You calling that work?
- So, are... are you saying that...
that's not work,
what you got going on right there?
- Maybe.
Maybe not. I don't know.
But, I do know that I'm having the time of my life.
(scoffs) - Come on, Tom Sawyer,
cut it out.
You're really trying to tell me that you're having fun?
- Well, believe it or not, I'm having a lot of fun.
You know, you don't get the opportunity
to paint a picket fence every day.
You just don't have the chance to have this much fun.
You know what I mean, booga-bean?
- Ha, Tom.
My good, good friend.
I... could I, uh, think I... think I might, uh...
Mind if I give it a try?
- Nuh-uh, Ben, buddy man.
Auntie Polly is real particular
about how it's done and about who do it, too.
She is proud of her picket fence.
This is precision work right here.
This white picket fence is out here through thick
and through thin.
I really don't think that there is one in 1,000
who can do this job the way it's meant to be done.
Well, maybe one in 2,000, maybe.
- Now, come on, give me the brush.
I'll give you a piece of my apple, 'kay?
- Now, come on, Ben.
What kind of fair sportsmanlike is that?
What is an apple against a whole picket fence?
- Okay, then, I'll give you my shirt.
- No, Ben, I do not want your shirt.
I do not want your shirt.
- Okay, Tom Sawyer.
I'm gonna make you an offer that you can't squawk at.
I know just how much you want a switchblade knife
just like mine.
So, you know what, Tom Sawyer?
I'm gonna give you my switchblade knife.
That's right.
Pretty good offer.
Come on.
Thanks, man.
This is pretty fun.
- Yeah, it's very fun.
♪♪
- Mark Twain: Even having won Ben over,
Tom took advantage of the opportunity to acquire
- a set of marbles from Billy Thatcher. - Okay.
- John Miller got in through his offering
- Okay. - Of a harmonica in excellent condition.
- Yeah.
- And so on it went.
Without his even knowing it,
- Tom learned a very important - Okay.
- Nah. - Human law having to do
with transfer and trade.
To raise the desire of another individual,
then there is nothing more necessary than to make
that object of desire difficult to reach.
(overlapping chatter)
(loud tapping)
Mark Twain: By mid-day, the awful news
had spread throughout the entire town like lightning.
A murder had taken place.
At the murder scene, a bloody knife was found
next to the victim that was identified
to belong to Muff Potter.
(overlapping chatter)
(chatter continues)
- man: They got him! Over there!
(crowd murmuring)
- man: They're bringing him. Hey, it's Muff Potter.
Hey look, they're bringing him out.
(chatter begins anew)
(chatter stops)
- I... I didn't do it, folks.
I swear to God.
All of you.
(crowd murmuring)
- Is this your knife?
(murmuring continues)
- man: That crook.
- You tell them, Joe.
- Joe: What should I say, except how it happened?
I saw it all. I didn't say nothing till now
'cause Muff's my buddy.
There was argument, pretty hot.
Don't know exactly about what.
All I do know is that Muff pulled that knife out
and rammed it into Doc's guts.
(overlapping shouting)
(crowd shouting "Hang him!")
(overlapping shouting intensifying)
(gunshot)
- woman: Now, just hold your horses!
For your information, and it's nothing new,
but we just happen to have a judge in this town,
and we also have laws!
Even though I see that some of you folks
want to take it into your own hands.
But what if he happens to be innocent?
(crowd murmuring)
You all know Muff Potter for years.
He is entitled to a fair trial
which he is going to get.
So, Sheriff, what are you waiting for?
- Take him to the jail.
(overlapping chatter)
- man: You got lucky, Muff Potter!
- Take him! - Sooner or later, you're gonna hang!
- Man, Tom, you were chattering away in your sleep.
I didn't get to sleep a wink!
What's! You say'?
- Tell me, Tom, what's troubling you?
- Auntie Polly, just dumb stuff.
- Dumb stuff?
I heard words like, "Blood."
Blood. That's blood!"
I heard that a lot.
You moaned and said, "Please..."
please, don't torture me. I won't tell!"
- It must be that awful murder.
I've been having nightmares myself.
- You see, Aunt Polly?
We're all having bad dreams.
♪♪
(birds chirping, splashing)
- Here you go, Potter, little bit of bacon,
some bread, and a pack of cigarettes.
- Wow.
Thanks, Tom.
You and Huck are good boys, I gotta say.
- Yeah, Muff, it's okay.
Tom: You know what me...
you and me gonna do?
- What?
- We're gonna bust him out.
- Tom, you losing your marbles?
- Yeah.
No, I'm not losing my marbles,
and, yeah, we're gonna get him out of there.
- Say we do get him out.
What the heck then?
- "What the heck," Huck?
We get him out of the joint, out of the town,
out of the state, out of the country.
He's gonna make tracks to Europe
where he can't be hung. (sighs)
- Well... Okay, okay, say we get him to Europe.
What's he gonna do over there?
Or better yet, how is he gonna get over there?
- Well, you're just gonna have to trust me
'cause I got a plan.
♪♪
(tapping)
- Huck: Tom, look!
We got the tools right here to do the job!
I say we bust a hole through this here wall
and then just get him out.
- Would you please hush, Hucky?
How am I supposed to concentrate
and come up with the perfect solution
with you chatter-boxing the entire time?
Hold the lamp.
I got an idea.
We're not gonna go through the wall.
No, we're gonna go under the wall.
Yeah, that's how we're gonna do it.
Just like I've read it's been done in lots of my books.
Here we go, right here's the spot.
- What the heck are you doing, Tom?
- Hucky, can't you see that I'm digging a tunnel
under this confounded wall?
- Well, how long you reckon that's gonna take, Tom?
- There was this guy held, locked up
in a cellar or dungeon in a castle
near the ocean or something like that,
somewhere over in France or something like that...
you know, somebody of importance...
and so, this count started digging.
And how long do you think he needed to get through
the solid rock of that castle?
- I don't know.
I figure about a month or so?
- No, incorrect, wrong. He needed 37 years.
- Well, I don't think we got that long.
I mean, by the time we do that,
Muff Potter will be either hung high
or probably be dead from old age or something.
- Now, come on, do you honestly and truly think
that we're gonna need 37 years to get through
this little bit of earth, huh?
He was sitting on solid rock and he only had one knife.
We got two.
And, Huck, for someone who can't read and write,
you're pretty smart.
(laughs) But, I have read practically every topic
that's ever been printed on this book.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
- I don't care how the counts
are doing it in France.
All we need is a shovel
and a pickaxe to get the job done.
♪♪
(grunting)
(Muff snoring)
(sniffs)
He is pretty drunk.
Hope we don't gotta carry him out like this.
- Don't worry, Hucky.
He'll be okay by the morning. Let's get outta here.
- What?
Well, I thought we came here to break him out today.
- Yeah, Hucky, we will, but not just yet.
♪♪
Let's make tracks.
(sighs)
- After all this hard work, we're losing precious time.
I mean, what happens if we come back tomorrow?
They're gonna hang an innocent man.
That poor guy'll be strung up for nothing.
- Huck, we're gonna get him out in the morning.
A break like this needs to be planned to detail.
Otherwise, they're gonna get Muff
before he even notices that he's on the run.
(grunts)
Now, let's get outta here.
- Oh, better turn this light off.
♪♪
(whispering) - Potter! Potter, wake up!
- It's empty. There's nobody in there.
Hucky, you hear me?
♪♪
. Hyah!
- Damn it, Huck. Potter's gone.
- He is gone.
I can't believe it.
What are we gonna do now?
- To be honest, I don't know.
But I do know that, without us, he's not getting too far.
- Man: All right, boys. It's right up here.
- Damn, damn, damn!
We gotta cover our tracks!
Go! Go! Go!
- Man: Get up, Potter! Come on!
Time to go!
- You know we's here, Potter!
HE'S gone!
- Man 1: Crawled through it or something.
- Man 2: He ain't in here!
- I don't know where he is. - Let's get him!
- Man 1: Come on, let's go get him.
- Man 2: Well, he can't be far.
Come on, boys. Come on!
- Hyah! Come on! Hah!
(crickets chirping)
- Mark Twain: Now, there was life in this small town.
Muff Potter was found about two miles outside of town
in a dilapidated one room shack.
But, before he was sent back to jail, he was memorably
tarred and feathered.
(overlapping chatter)
- Tom: I can't watch this. I'm gonna be sick.
- Come on, Tom.
(gavel banging)
- Order in the court.
- Yeah, and I saw Muff Potter washing in the creek.
- Yeah, but that is not so out of the ordinary,
someone bathing in the creek.
- It dam tooting is, 'cause everybody in town
knows that Muff rarely washes.
(light laughter)
- prosecutor: Is it possible that Muff Potter washed himself
after the act of murder, removing all traces of blood,
after the brutal stabbing of the good Doc Robinson?!
(crowd gasping)
And are you sure that this is one of the knifes
that you sold from your store?
- Objection!
- Objection taken.
- Thank you, Your Honor. No further questions.
- The court calls the defense.
We have no further questions, Your Honor.
(overlapping chatter)
- Now, what in God sakes is going on in here?
Can you not even try to do so, if you would defend this poor man?
- Mark Twain: Towards the end of the second day of trial,
word went around that Injun Joe's testimonial
is rock solid, and he has no shadow of a doubt
about how the decision of the jury will lean.
- Y'all know there's no visitors. This better be good.
- Just want to bring Muff some smokes.
- All right.
- And you better know that this is a high profile,
high security zone.
- Hey, Potter, you got visitors.
- Hey, Muff, how's it going?
Uh, we brought you something.
- Wow.
Thank you, fellas, you're real chums.
- Uh, Muff, are you all right?
- What am I supposed to say?
When you sit here and wait
and you're so close to dying
an unnatural death for something you didn't want to do,
then you know how good life is.
And Joe, bless him, meant well,
but he'd be better off to let it go
so he don't get pulled in deeper.
- Let it go? Let what go?
- The break-out.
That just made things worse.
Just realized that I had a real friend.
And... and I'm happy. I've got three.
You guys and Joe.
(sniffs) Mmm.
- Several of our most upstanding citizens
have sworn witnessing events so out of the ordinary
that any question of doubt can immediately be erased.
This horrible crime committed by the accused, Muff Potter,
has been shown to be his and his alone.
(crowd murmuring)
The prosecution requests
on behalf of the citizens of this fine town
against the accused Muff Potter
death by hanging.
(crowd murmuring)
- Your Honor,
members of the assembly,
at the start of this trial,
due to the overwhelming evidence
and information's detrimental to the name of the accused,
we attempted to plea for a less harsh sentence
based on his, in the past, reputation.
We no longer wish to take this stand.
Because, from this moment on,
we are dealing with a completely new situation.
The defense wishes it to be known
that it now has the fullest intention to save our client
from the untimely demise at the end of a hangman's noose.
(crowd gasping)
Let it be noted that new evidence,
shortly to be presented, will beyond a shadow of a doubt
free Muff Potter from all burdens and charges.
The defense wishes to call to the stand a new witness.
Please call to the stand Mr. Thomas Sawyer.
(crowd murmuring)
♪♪
- judge: Put your hand on the Bible.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
- Yeah... uh, yes, sir.
I... I mean to say, I swear to tell the truth.
- Very good, Tom. Very good.
Now, take a seat, son.
- Thomas Sawyer, where were you on June 17th at midnight?
Now, Tom, just tell us.
Where were you on the before-mentioned night?
- At the graveyard, sir.
- Okay, Tom, now, for those in the back row
who may not have heard you,
please repeat that a little bit louder.
- I was at the graveyard, sir.
- At the graveyard.
And where in the graveyard were you?
- Uh, I was near to Ross Williams's grave.
- Were you alone? - Yes, sir.
I was alone that night.
- Young man, was there anything else
that may have been out of the ordinary
that we absolutely should be made aware of?
- Uh, yeah.
There was a sound,
and, well, that made me unsure of what should be going on
at that... like you said, that untimely hour,
and for just that reason, Your Honor,
I was obliged to keep a discreet cover,
and so I stayed in the shadows.
- Defense attorney: You stayed in the shadows?
Are you trying to tell us that you were hiding?
- Yes, sir, I was hiding behind the tree.
The... the elm next to Williams's grave.
- And about how far from that grave is that wise old elm?
- The distance is about the same between you and me right now.
- Well, let me get this straight.
You were alone at midnight in the graveyard
and you heard sounds, and you hid.
Did anything else happen?
♪♪
(crowd gasping)
(shattering)
(overlapping shouting)
(gunshot, crowd screaming)
(horse whinnying)
-Hiyah!
♪♪
(gunshot)
♪♪
(overlapping shouting)
Go!
(horse whinnying)
- Mark Twain: A mute Spaniard had been hanging around the town
for a few days.
He had long white hair and he was wearing dark glasses.
No one knew where he came from or what he wanted.
(thunder crashing)
♪♪
- No! Please, no!
Huck!
What the fudge you trying to do to me?!
You scared me out of my wits!
- Tom, you broke our pact!
Remember, the one that we agreed to?
Now, you know Injun Joe ain't gonna take this lightly, don't you?
- Well, I didn't say a word about you, so you're still in the clear.
- That don't matter. There's a killer on the loose.
You're in danger and I'm scared.
I'm getting outta here.
- Huck, where you gonna go?
(thunder rumbling)
- I don't know.
But, I'll tell you one thing, I'm getting far away from here.
- Huck, I know where we're gonna go,
and I'm gonna be with you. Come on.
See that old wreck?
- Tom, there's no way that boat's empty.
We should go back.
- Never! You'd have to be out of your mind
to be on a wreck like that.
(thunder crashing)
- It looks like me.
(laughing)
- man: I caught you, you little snake.
- Hucky, where are you?
- Man: You thought that I didn't see you.
I don't want you talking to them.
- Tom? - They could be onto us.
- Man 2: Oh believe me, I did not talk and nobody was there.
I was all alone.
- Tom, we ought to get outta here.
This ain't smart. Come on. Come on.
- Man 2: I was on the other side when it happened.
- Yeah, Huck, maybe you're right.
- Man 1: You're a real filthy rat. What, you thought you could
get away with all the dough?
(laughing)
They don't know what's going on.
♪♪
(metallic clanging)
- Windy. - I'm gonna put a piece of lead
- in your head. - Windy, I swear.
I ain't gonna spill the beans.
Not a single, solitary syllable.
Please, let me go.
- Put your piece away, Windy.
Don't kill him. At least, not now.
- Thank you, Joe.
- In less than a half hour, he'll be resting on the ground,
and a drowned corpse is always less incriminating
than a corpse with a hole in it.
- Please, I won't say a word.
Please, I swear.
- Windy: I'm sure you won't say nothing.
Tam'.
- Come on, Hucky, let's get outta here, like now!
Go, go, go!
Go!
- Tom, the boat!
"'It's gone!"
- Come on, Hucky, we gotta get outta here!
Go!
(gasps)
- Over there! The raft! - Huck!
- Quick, it's going down! It's sinking! - Go!
- Go, go! - Come on.
Agh!
Come on, Hucky.
(grunting)
(boat creaking)
(metal groaning)
(light water splashing)
♪♪
- Mark Twain: Just three miles from Saint Petersburg
at a spot where the Mississippi is a little over a mile wide,
and where an excellent hideaway exists on an uninhabited thin
and woodsy piece of free-floating land,
was the Jackson Island.
♪♪
- Hucky, wake up.
Wake up!
- Come on, Huck! Wake up! - Okay.
- Let's go catch some game.
(duck quacking)
(sizzling, fire crackling)
(distant boom)
- I'd sure like to know what that sound was.
- It sounded really awkward.
(two booms echoing)
- Well, it ain't thunder, that's for sure.
- Come on, Hucky.
Somehow, I know that sound.
♪♪
- man: Just stay close to the embankment!
- Got any idea what that might be?
- William, you got anything?!
- Huck, I know what's going on. - Nothing here!
- I know exactly what's going on.
(boom) Tom: Someone's drowned.
- Huck: Oh yeah! - That's what's happening.
Yeah, now... now I know.
Like last summer, they did the same thing
- when Bill Turner died. - Yeah.
- Man: Might have got hung up on that sand bar!
- Huck: I'd like to be over there right now.
Give an arm and a leg to know who they're looking for.
- Man: It gets real shallow here. Yeah.
- Huck! - Yeah.
- Man, Oh man, Huck!
- Man: How's the west bank?
I bet I know who they're looking for.
I bet I know whose drowned.
- Huck: What makes you so sure you know?
- 'Cause of the circumstances the last couple of days.
- Man: You might look through them bulrushes!
- I ain't following you, Tom.
- Think, Huck, think.
- They're looking for us. - Well, we're right here.
- Man: Yeah, let's just do that! - Sure we are, Huck.
And we know that, but they don't.
- Now, after all that, the curiosity and temptation
of hearing what was being said about his postmortem
was just too tantalizing not to follow up on.
Now, Tom had no intention of abandoning
his best friend, Huck, but he just had to know,
would he be missed?
Would he even be missed or wept over?
So, he waited until Huck was fast asleep.
Just before midnight, he left Jackson Island
and waded over to the shallow water
on the Illinois side of the river.
And then, he waited till just the last ferry of the day,
what was called the night ferry.
And he jumped on and stowed away,
and he crept into one of the dinghies
so he wouldn't be discovered as a stowaway
or a presumed dead man.
And then he made his way back to Saint Petersburg.
Mark Twain: For the return trip, he borrowed the canoe
from Joe Harper, naturally without telling Joe.
♪♪
(water splashing)
- Huck, man! Huck! Wake up! - What?
- Wake up, Huck! - Yeah?
- While you were sleeping, I was out and about
figuring out what the world is up to,
and I gotta tell you, this coming Sunday's
gonna be our day... yours and mine.
This coming Sunday, everybody's gonna be praying
and crying, and rejoicing, redeeming,
and doing whatever else they do to set a soul on the right path.
And the things I heard.
You know, when you're alive and kicking, nobody cares.
But, when they're dead, everybody just loves you.
(bell ringing)
(crowd murmuring)
(floorboards creaking)
(coughing)
- Brothers and sisters of the congregation,
we are brought here today to mourn the loss
of one of our own.
This is a day of great sadness, due to the untimely departure
of one of our most gifted young people.
The spirit of good.
Because I am the power,
and the eternal life, and any mere mortal
who would doubt the resurrection,
who would doubt...
(gasps) What?
(overlapping murmuring)
- Oh, Tom. My God, Tom.
Oh, Tom.
- Come on, Aunt Polly, somebody's gotta be happy
that Huck's still around other than me.
- Well, of course we're all happy that Huck is here.
Please, let me give you a hug, poor motherless boy.
(overlapping chatter)
- man: Where's he goin'?
- Becky.
♪♪
And he travels all over the world,
he stays in the best hotels.
I'm gonna be a musician when I get bigger.
- Oh, that sounds just wonderful, Tom.
- Oh yeah, and they get good pay, too.
Almost a buck a day.
At least that's what Ben Rogers told me.
Hey, Becky, mind if I ask you a personal question?
- No, Tom Sawyer, I don't mind.
- Have you ever... ever been engaged?
- No.
Of course not. Never.
Um, Tom?
What's that mean, anyway?
- Oh, you gotta try it out.
- Oh, Oh, I... I don't know, Tom.
How does that work?
HOW?
Uh, well, it's as easy as nothing.
All you gotta do is say to a guy like me
that you'd never, ever take another guy,
and then you kiss each other and then that's it.
Everyone can do it.
- Kissing?
- Why on earth would... - Uh, yeah.
Uh, kissing is for...
Oh, you know, 'cause they always do that.
But first, you gotta say that you love each other.
- Oh.
I don't... I don't think I want to be engaged.
- You... you don't have to say it too loud.
You could even whisper it real soft.
(whispers) I love you.
Now, you whisper it to me just like I did.
- Now, you tum your face away,
and don't you say a word of this to anybody.
- Of course not, promise.
- I love you.
(giggles)
♪♪
- And from now on, you love me and only me, okay?
And we can walk to school together,
and we can walk home from school together,
when no one's looking, of course.
- Oh, how romantic.
- Sure is. What do you think it was like
back when me and Amy Lawrence was engaged?
(chuckles nervously) Uh, here, Becky.
How'd you like to have it?
Hey, Hucky.
So, is this where you've been hanging out?
- You know, Tom...
Injun Joe was a murderer,
but I imagine how desperate he must have been
once he found out the jig was up.
Man, he was probably in a bad state.
- Yeah.
Who knows, someday...
we might turn out to be murderers.
Yeah.
So where you been hanging out the last couple of days?
I've been looking for you high and low.
- Just been squatting at the haunted house.
It's the only dry place I know.
Besides, ever since Injun Joe's been gone,
pretty safe, too.
Hey, you see, Tom?
It ain't all that bad in here.
Come home, hang up my stuff in this wall closet.
And then, retire upstairs to the bedroom at night.
Come on, I'll show you.
(chickens clucking) - Wow.
This place is a real home.
(men chattering)
Shh.
- Man: If you need to lift 'em, we'll get a mule or something.
- Huck: That's the deaf mute Spaniard.
- I told you no.
I don't like it and I ain't gonna do it.
- Shut up, Windy.
- Mark Twain: The voice...
exactly that voice took their breaths away
and sent chills down the spines of Tom and Huck instantly.
Simultaneously.
And, as a matter of fact,
there was no doubt in a million that this voice
belonged to only one.
- You're right.
- Mark Twain: Injun Joe.
- But, I'm telling you, this time, leave it be!
- Injun Joe: What are we gonna do with all that cash leftover?
- Don't know.
Windy: We leave it here.
Don't make sense taking 'em out
before we're heading south.
650 is a lot of weight.
- Yeah, but you listen to me.
It could take a while before the time is right.
(whispers) - Get down. Get down.
- Injun Joe: This spot here isn't right.
We need to bury it right, and I mean deep.
(stones and dirt clattering)
(scraping)
(grunting)
(knife hitting wood)
I'm hitting a rotten piece of wood here.
Nah, it's a crate, I think.
Come here and give me a hand
so we can see just what's down here.
- Windy: Wait, Joe.
- Joe: Ohh!
- Let me do it. Come on, Joe.
Here.
There's money in it.
(laughing) Look at it! Money!
(laughing) - There's gotta be $1,000 dollars in there.
- Now, you don't have to do that last job.
(laughs)
(gasps)
- That goes to show you don't know anything about me,
and at least not enough.
I don't like it when someone's got the upper hand on me.
I got a job to do before I can leave this place.
- Windy: What are we gonna do about this here?
Bury it back like it was before?
- Joe: Let's get outta here.
- Windy: Wait.
(clattering)
- Joe: Time to move.
(rustling)
(chickens clucking faintly)
(grunts)
(chickens clucking)
(gunshot)
(chickens clucking)
Get outta here before they pluck our eyes out.
(coins jingling, Tom laughing)
(grunting, stifled screaming)
(coughs)
(Whispers) - Hucky?
(Whispers) Hucky?
Hucky?
(whispers) Huck!
- Howdy, Huck. - Huh?
- Hucky.
Hm?
(grunting) Howdy, Tom.
- You know, Huck,
that treasure rightfully belongs to us.
- Yeah, now you're really dreaming.
- Could be, but, uh... we was there first,
and that's why it belongs to us.
- You should tell that to Injun Joe.
- You know, Huck, I don't know why
I didn't come up with it before,
but uh... down in the caves.
I'd have to say that that's where they took the loot.
- Well, I ain't going down there.
- Well, if you don't wanna go, that's fine,
but you at least gotta cover me.
- Yeah.
Yeah, I can do that.
All right.
- Now, you're being sensible.
Now, you don't lose strength
and I won't lose strength neither.
♪♪
(creaking)
(sniffing)
- Meow! Meow!
- Dam it!
Come on, Huck, let's get outta here, come on!
- Mark Twain: Next day was the annual archeological school outing.
This excursion would bring the kids from Saint Petersburg
up to the McDouglas caves.
- So, students, can you guess what the name of the cave is?
Look up, and you will see
these amazing big eyes.
Yes, the name of the cave is the Big Eyes.
Please.
From this point on, I will lead you,
and... Tom,
and you, Becky, bring up the rear.
I'm counting on you two.
And remember what I told you all.
Stay together.
(students whispering)
- "And remember what I told you: Stay together."
Hm!
(giggles)
- Becky? - Yeah?
- Oh, I gotta show you something. Come over here.
- All right.
Follow me, my lady, into the bowels of these caverns.
(laughs)
♪♪
- Oh, isn't this wonderful, Tom?
- Yeah, Becky, it sure is marvelous.
(giggles)
(wings flapping)
(shrieks)
Come on, Becky, over here. Come on, come on over here!
Tom!.
- Tom: It's okay, Becky.
I'm here. Nothing can happen.
- Tom.
Oh, my God. Group.
Our class, they'll be looking for us.
- Yeah, Becky, you're right. It's time to go back.
- Do you think you can find the way back out?
I don't have the slightest clue.
- That is the least of our worries.
We should find a different way out
so that we don't have to go through that again.
Come on over here.
- All right.
You know Becky, I think it'd be better if we just light this torch.
- All right.
- Hold this.
(screaming)
(bell ringing)
(overlapping chatter)
- Mark Twain: On Sunday morning, alarming news spread through
the first of the congregation and then the town,
and eventually the country,
demanding the attention of both young and old.
Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher did not return
with the rest of the group from McDouglas caves
and have not been heard of since.
- But they must still be in the cave!
- Yes, they're still in there! They have to look for them!
- Yes, my darling.
And that's exactly what they did.
(overlapping chatter)
- Oh, my God.
Without light, we'll never get out of here.
Do you think that they're looking for us, Tom?
- Yeah, Becky.
I know that someone's looking for us.
(crying softly)
What are you thinking, Becky?
- What day it is and if it's day or nighttime.
- Man 1: Becky?!
- Man 2: Let's split up in three groups.
- Man 1: Tom!
- Man 2: You guys check out Big Eyes.
- Man 1: Hello?!
We're staying down in the lower quarter.
- Hey, stay together.
- Be careful of them cliffs!
- Becky! Tom!
(overlapping shouting)
- Hello? - Where are you?
(crying) And...
we're never gonna get out of here.
- Sure we are. Look, I'm gonna feel my way over there.
And you're gonna stay right here until I get back, okay?
- No, please, please, don't leave me alone in here.
- Becky, I have to.
I'll be right back. You stay right here.
- Don't move. - Please!
- Man: Hello? - Man 2: Tom, where are you?
- You over here? - Come on out!
Becky, where are you?
- Man: Stay together!
(overlapping shouting)
- man: There's footprints over this way!
- Man 2: They must have gone up to the forbidden caves.
- Becky Thatcher's hair band.
Becky!
- Stay together!
(men continue shouting)
- Hello? Hello?
Hey, hey, hey! We're over here!
So, this is number two.
♪♪
Come on, Becky. We gotta get away!
- All right. - Come on!
Tom: Come on!
This is not... not...
Over here. This is the way.
- Come on, Becky. - Okay.
(screams)
♪♪
Tom: Come on, Becky.
Come on. Through here.
Go! Quick!
Hurry!
(grunting)
- Mark Twain: Some believe that those missing youngsters
aren't even stuck in the cave,
but rather that they would have somehow drowned
and have been flushed out onto the river.
That's the reason for all those floating lights.
They were meant to aid in the search effort.
(bird calling)
♪♪
Mark Twain: There she was again,
that mighty Mississippi.
Wide, endless, powerful as always.
Oh, that was without a doubt one of the nicest nights
that town or any town would ever experience.
Long into the wee hours of the morning, the town ate,
drank, danced, and was merry.
All but the two guests of honor were present,
since the ordeal of the last few days took their toll
on their stamina.
They were safely and soundly fast asleep
in their respective beds.
A day and a night under those conditions
were not so easy to shake off.
(water splashing)
- Tom: Start turning. Start turning.
(laughing)
- See that there, way up high? - Yeah.
- On the mountain where the landslide was, that's it.
Where it's white and rocky, that is the opening
to our brand-new world, buddy.
Yippee!
- Let me tell you, Huckleberry buddy,
from this spot, we can reach the hole that saved Becky and me
from a certain demise.
And not everybody can fit in it,
and it's so close, you can spit on it.
See, Hucky, didn't I tell you
that this is the most hidden cave opening
in all of the United States of America?
♪♪
(whooshing)
(gasps)
- Lookie there. - What's that?
- Somebody... somebody's body.
- That's gotta be Windy.
- Yeah.
Can be pretty sure that he didn't die of natural causes.
- Injun Joe.
- Injun Joe and that treasure.
It's just plain, old-fashioned greed.
Come on, Huck.
- Mark Twain: And that is exactly what it was.
- And over here, Hucks, we're gonna see number two.
- Lookie there. - Well, you best get in there.
- Yeah, hold this.
Right there.
(Huck grunts)
Tom: Wow.
Whoa, look at that, Hucky.
(cocks gun, gun clicks)
(chuckles)
Where are the saddlebags?
Hey, Hucky, lookie here.
Hand prints and drops of tallow on this one side,
but nothing on the other.
(scraping)
(knife hitting wood)
- What is that? - You hear that, too?
One second.
(grunts)
(laughing) Hucky.
Tom: The saddlebag!
(laughing) We're rich!
- We're rich! - Come on, let's get it and get out of here.
- Yeah, yeah!
(laughs)
Come on, come on, Hucky.
(match striking)
- Let's see what we got here.
Mr. Thomas.
Smarty Pants Sawyer and his worthless buddy.
What have our Boy Scouts found on their journey?
- Nothing. Just a lamp. Take a look for yourself.
- What'cha gonna do with the lamp?
- Uh, well, first... first, you gotta rub it,
you know, to make it work.
Use your hand or a cloth or a towel.
Whatever works, really.
But after you rub it, a genie'll come out.
The whole place will fill with smoke
and you can't see nothin'.
Um, but the genie'll give you almost anything you want.
Gold, silver, rubies, cigarettes.
Whatever you want.
Matter of fact, Tom's got a book on it.
Don't you, Tom?
- Uh, yeah. Yeah.
Uh, it's... it's all in there.
- Yeah, yeah. What's the... what's the name
- of the book you got there? - Uh...
Uh... uh...
- Uh, "Aladdin"!
"Aladdin and the Magic Lamp." Yeah.
That's the name of it.
(gunshot)
- You little fish heads could have had a future
if you would have kept your nose out of my business.
But too bad.
Now, not even Aladdin can help you.
(clicks)
♪♪
Hey, Joe!
- Tom: Grab the saddlebags!
♪♪
(grunting)
(overlapping chatter)
- All right, Mrs. Douglas.
Be careful. Up you go.
- Mark Twain: The widow Mrs. Douglas opened her heart and her home
to offer Huckleberry the best possible future
and everything that goes along with it.
- Hey Becky, you wanna see what I got?
Then just ask me for the time.
- Boys: Whoa!
- Judge Thatcher: Hey, Tom.
How is our treasure chest finder doing?
Anything, uh, interesting at the McDouglas caves?
- Uh, no, Mr. Thatcher.
Should anything be going on?
- Exactly that.
Should anything be going on?
Now, Tom, from now on, nothing will be going on there
because we've, uh, taken some special safety measures.
- Safety measure... what kind of safety measures?
- Uh, well, indirectly, thanks to you,
the safety measures include, um,
guided trips with constant accounting of participants.
In addition, we've locked the entrance to the cave
with a triple closure made of steel.
Uh, that means no more entry
without the permission of my office.
And... I personally have the key.
- Well, sir, I think that somebody
still might be in there.
- Who on God's earth could be in there?
- Injun Joe.
- Go first. (overlapping chatter)
- man: Careful fellas, he might be armed.
- Man 2: Yeah, he's killed before.
- Open the door. - Ready?
- He's in there. - What's happening there.
- Mark Twain: Tom was moved with what he saw
because he knew from his own experience
how that troubled man suffered in those final hours.
He felt sorrow, but the feeling of relief
and the safety was even stronger,
because Injun Joe was dead.
♪♪
Mark Twain: Vacations have begun, and Tom was traveling
with Aunt Polly and Sid, just as it happened each and every year,
to their relatives down the river in Saint Louis.
- Aunt Polly: Steward?
Steward, could you help us get our luggage on board?
Aunt Polly: Tom!
Come here!
It's time for you to come on board.
- I'm coming, Aunt Polly, just a minute.
Now look, Huck...
I know that it's been hard,
but it ain't that difficult, huh?
And even though the old widder may give you some problems,
she only means the best.
And, when I get back,
we're finally gonna form a Sawyer-Finn gang.
- Aunt Polly: Tom!
- Just a minute, Aunt Polly, I'm coming!
Dagnabbit.
(ship horn blowing)
- All yours now.
The widder was gonna confiscate it anyways, so...
ain't no more use to me.
- Okay, but just until we form the gang, okay?
- Tom Sawyer!
- Just a second, Aunt Polly!
Take care, Huckleberry. See you.
(ship horn blowing)
♪♪
- Mark Twain: Then suddenly, just like that,
the day to day mundane, barren, and empty ritualistic life
returned to this lonely part of the world
here on the west shore side of the Mississippi.
When one day Huck's long lost dad showed up in town
and demanded his share of the fortune,
he realized that money doesn't equal happiness.
Huck managed to escape his father, the Widow Douglas,
and what's even more important, so-called civilization.
That didn't really work for him.
Together with runaway slave Jim,
he decided to let the Mississippi take them
to a place far away
where you can leave in freedom and without
the restraints of civilized society.
- Jim: Widow Miss Douglas didn't really wanna sell me.
Brotha, she was wailing the whole day.
But, she didn't have much choice.
Times are hard and she really needed the money.
You can't get that kind of money together.
Besides, I'd-a never again get to see my wife and kids.
- Well, Jim, now you can't see your wife
and kids neither, 'cause a, well, runaway slave
ain't got too much chance for surviving.
- This might sound funny, but I got me this here.
This...
this is a map.
And the ticket to freedom.
My freedom.
Now, here we are.
- Right here? - Mm-hmm.
Now, we take this down here.
If I can make it down here near the cable
where the Ohio River and the Mississippi River flow,
then I can make it up here.
Then I could make it up to the free states.
And once I get there, brother,
I'm gonna get me a good job
and make me enough money to buy my whole family back.
(ship horn blowing) - Mm-hmm.
Jim! Jim! Jim!
Steamboat's coming straight for us!
- Whoa, whoa, don't you worry, Mr. Huckleberry.
He ain't gonna touch us. You just pass me the tiller.
Here.
♪♪
- girl: What happened to Huck and Jim?
- Oh, those two?
Well, they floated down the Mississippi
toward the town of Cairo.
There, they were to board a steamboat
to get to the free states, but carelessness
was responsible for them to override that entry
and regrettably send them even deeper
into the southern states... and of course,
deeper and deeper into the slave regions.
- Has Tom ever seen Huck again?
- No.
No, they never saw each other again.
♪♪