MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE

The ending to this thriller comes quickly and with purposeful confusion.  I refer to the script when I’m confused.  The two ending scenes are in the script below.  Martha, her sister Lucy and Ted are leaving the vacation home to go home.  They plan to put Martha in some sort of facility when they get home.  Martha decides to “go for a swim” on a day too cold to swim (the viewer anticipates a drowning).

She sees someone looking at her, so Martha quickly leaves the water. Martha thinks it is someone from the cult trying to kill or capture her.  But there is no real evidence to believe that; she is just scared.

The final scene – they are in the car driving home, and she sees the same man at the lake running to his car – and he follows them (as the viewer, you are unsure if it is the same guy, but the script lets you know it is the same guy).

Then it ends

THE SCRIPT

EXT. LAKE HOUSE DOCK – DAY

Martha stands on the dock. She strips down to her

underwear and dives in.



Martha swims out into the lake. She drops under the water

and out of sight, a burst of bubbles pop up to the

surface. A few seconds pass by and she is not coming up.




Suddenly she breaks back through the water and gasps for

air.




She looks around at the thick woods and a handful of nice

homes that appear to be empty now. No one else is

swimming.




Martha sees a scruffy MAN sitting on a neighboring dock,

he seems familiar. He is in his mid twenties, his jeans

are rolled up and his feet dangle in the water. His shirt

is slung over his shoulder and he smokes a cigarette. He

looks directly at Martha. They make eye contact.




He finishes his smoke, throws the cigarette in the water,

puts on his shirt and just sits there.




Martha swims back to the house.

          INT. TED’S CAR – DAY

Martha sits in the back seat of Ted and Lucy's car. Ted

drives and Lucy sits up front. They drive up the driveway

and turn out onto the road. Ted and Lucy talk. Martha

gets a concerned look on her face. Ted slams on the

breaks.

                          TED

Jesus Christ.

                          LUCY

Are you okay?

                          TED

Yeah.

                          LUCY

Fucking idiot. What was he doing?




The MAN from the dock walks past the car. They almost hit

him. As they drive away, Martha turns to see him get into

the a brown car, start the engine and drive. The car

drives behind Ted's car.




Martha looks forward for a long moment, then turns back

again to see that he is still there.




She is frozen with fear, she thinks about saying

something but then stops herself. Instead she sits in

silence.

           CUT TO:BLACK  ……….The End