The Indian in the Cupboard (1995)

We'll pick up your drawing.
Hi, Mom.
- Bye, Rita.
- See you, honey.
- How was school today?
- OK.
- What did you do?
- Nothing.
- Who's at home?
- Nobody.
All right!
- What did you wish for?
- He can't tell.
- He can choose to.
- You never do.
I bet you wished for a skateboard.
- They got you the good one.
- Yes!
- Comes with this.
- Thanks, you guys.
I got you this.
I know what it is.
- Thanks, A.D.
- All righty.
Here we go.
- What's that?
- What a pretty cupboard!
- Where'd you get that?
- Found it.
- And you washed it?
- Yes, Mother.
- Thanks.
- No problem.
- Is there a key?
- There's no key.
- I have lots of keys.
- You save keys?
I've collected them
since I was a girl.
- Think it means anything?
- I didn't say that!
- I think she has secrets.
- What a sweet thing to say!
Watch out.
Guys, not inside. If you want
to ride, you'd better go now.
Not alone.
A. D?
All right. Let's go.
Here we go.
OK, watch this.
- I can do that.
- Piece of cake.
I got you something
to celebrate your birthday.
- It's like an antique.
- Yeah.
I couldn't do much, you know.
It just reminded me of you.
OK. See if one fits.
I love these guys.
- If one fits, can I have it?
- I'll give it to you.
Thanks.
- It works!
- Let me see.
My grandmother gave me that one.
She was dying
and had nothing to leave me...
so I picked up that key and I said
I wanted it more than anything.
- What will I put in the cupboard?
- Here. Put this in.
- Omri, let's read.
- OK
Did I know her, your grandma?
No, you didn't.
She would have loved you.
"Because he was...
"Chapter Eight, Michael.
"Because he was so small,
"Stuart was often hard to find
around the house.
"His father and his mother
and his brother George..."
- Seldom.
- "...seldom could locate him
"by looking for him.
"Usually, they had to call him.
"The house often...
echoed with cries of Stuart!
"Stuart..."
You hurt me.
- Hello.
- Demon!
- Demon?
- Giant!
- Me?
- Omri!
Omri, we're late.
Come on, buddy, hurry.
Come on.
Look for my bike shorts.
- Working on the house today?
- Yeah. Have a nice day.
- Please make a skylight.
- Goodbye, guys.
- Bye-bye, guys.
- Bye, Mum.
- I'll be right back.
- That wasn't too bad.
Pretty day.
- Did you forget something?
- Why?
- Did you?
- No.
...but the dad might open
a Chinese restaurant.
We've skimmed this chapter,
now let's have some discussion.
- Emily?
- Does Fudge's family want?
- I love the Indian. He's great.
- Why?
Omri, Patrick...
Hurry, Mum. Open the door.
You must be getting hungry.
We're home!
I think your mealy worms are dead.
They're in the pupa stage.
I've seen the pupa stage.
These suckers are dead.
Honey, you can start them again.
I'm sick. I'm tired.
Come on.
- I'm heading up.
- Gili going too?
- He's looking for his Walkman.
- OK.
How do you feel about skylights?
I won't hurt you.
- This is magic?
- I guess.
I think you are a dream.
- Are you a real Indian?
- I am Onondaga gah.
Wolf Clan. Iroquois.
Iroquois? I've heard of them.
Were you always this small?
I am not small. You are big!
But I'm not big. You're so small.
Can you be the Peacemaker?
I'm a boy. My name is Omri.
- The Great Spirit can be a child?
- Who are you?
Ohkwahe. Little Bear.
Little Bear.
- How do you know English?
- We know the English.
They sent for us
to fight the French for them.
When? What year?
- Year 1761.
- 1761?
Will you come out, Little Bear?
You are so real!
I am. Yes. Are you?
If it is magic... then magic
will take me home. I shall go now.
But you just got here.
Look. This is for you.
- What is it?
- It's a tepee. You know, a tepee.
I do not know.
- Terrible.
- It's plastic.
Plaz-teck... Plazteck.
- Terrible.
- I want to try. Wait.
You can sleep here.
You and I, we are together? Here?
We are here... together.
It's weird for me, too.
- Do you make it night now?
- It is night.
Yes, it is night.
I will be with you
when the sun rises?
I hope. Go to sleep now.
Sleep?
- You sleep?
- Yes.
It is magic.
Halt!
Great Omri... up.
A new day.
The day came without you.
Do you make more magic now?
Plazteck things?
- Make what?
- A white man's gun.
No way. What else?
Make King George.
I'd like to see him.
I don't have any kings.
Where is your fire?
How does your wife cook?
We're inside. We can't have a fire.
I don't have a wife.
Do you have a wife?
- She died.
- I'm sorry.
I have decided to stay.
- For a time.
- Really?
- Really.
- I'll make you a bow and arrow.
Good! Tools.
Also, I shall build a longhouse.
Onondaga gah do not sleep in tepee.
What's a longhouse?
The mother's house.
The clan home. It is made of wood.
I can find tools. How about a horse?
I can make you a horse.
- A horse?
- To ride.
Iroquois walk.
What is that?
Outside.
Take us outside, Earth Grasper.
Don't run away. Please.
This is the same as where I live.
We'd better go. Get in. Get in.
Get out! Go!
- I need bigger weapons.
- You're hurt.
Not much. I need husks.
Tie it tight. Stops the bleeding.
Husks... Where are the husks?
What are husks?
Don't be afraid. It's all right.
I'm a dream you're having.
Someone's hurt.
Hurt? Someone?
Well, I'm your man, then.
Let me have a look.
I can do this in my sleep, mate.
- Is he hurt bad?
- Dream, is it?
I should have guessed.
Am I asleep, what?
The whole rotten war's a nightmare.
No, it's not bad. We'll tape him up.
I'll be jiggered! A bloomin' Injun.
Englishman... Healer?
Me? Well, I never heard it
put that way. Yes, I am.
- I am a healer.
- You are, are you?
Well, that's something
we've got in common then, isn't it?
Yes. This is not much.
Do you have husks?
A bloomin' Injun!
A right rum dream this is.
I feel like I'm really in this dream.
Very real. Very clear. Exciting.
So... Custer's last stand, was it?
I know a bit.
You know, read up as a boy.
- You Sitting Bull.
- No.
How!
How!
There we go. That'll do.
- Thank you.
- Only doing my duty.
- Are you ready to wake up?
- I never want to wake up.
Mud, German shells, awful rats.
They eat at wounded men.
Still, can't desert, even in a dream!
How.
- Maybe you could dream us again.
- A pleasure.
Tommy Atkins at your service. Any
night except if there's an attack.
None of us gets any sleep then.
Got to win the damn war.
You up already? Feeling better?
I feel pretty damn good.
Really?
Come on down and eat breakfast.
You can build here.
- I need tools.
- Omri, come on down!
- Who is she?
- My mother.
The mother.
What would you like for breakfast?
Granola, please.
Have I died and gone to heaven?
With berries
and cranberry juice, please.
I have to go to school.
- What is school?
- Learn things - all day.
Good. Learn the stories
of your ancestors.
Go. I am ready to build.
- Need anything else?
- A hatchet.
Omri, let's go!
- Gili.
- I'm coming.
I'll miss you.
Come on, guys, let's go.
- See you later, Mum and Dad.
- Bye, guys.
- Bye, Omri.
- Bye, Dad.
OK. All right.
Can I get your attention, please?
Are we ready? Shall we read?
- Who wants to go first?
- Please! Can I do it?
Emily?
"The day I got Punisher,
the masterpiece of my collection.
"Also, I got
the first hologram card.
"I'm looking for
the original card of Wolverine."
Very good, Emily. Sam.
"JFK. There was once a man named JFK
"who always wanted to be good
and do what was right.
"JFK was elected President
of the United States in 1960."
"I have a magic cupboard
with a magic key.
"I put a plastic Indian
in the cupboard and he came alive.
"He is a real Iroquois man.
"He talks. He eats. He trusts me."
That's very interesting.
Good imagination.
Your house is fantastic.
It will do. It is agreeable.
I learned a lot about you today.
Good. Tonight, I will hunt for food
and we will cook meat
and we will tell stories.
You tell all about me.
Little Bear?
- Do you keep the man, Omri?
- Just the bow and arrow.
Can I watch?
He is Mohawk.
It is an excellent bow.
It's all right.
It's OK.
No... Little Bear?
- He is dead.
- He's dead? I killed him?
He is old. His days are done.
- We must bury him.
- Bury him? Us? Here?
Yes. You never had a dead man here?
Do people die here?
- People die. We just don't see them.
- How do you not see them?
Come down here, please.
Can't I just send him back?
You are afraid of him?
A dead man?
You are a child. Yes, send him back.
- What if he was alone?
- Then he is alone!
Where were you?
Guiding my nephew through the woods
to live alone and learn to be a man.
You should not do magic
you do not understand!
Omri, now!
Send him back.
He would want to be back.
Are you mad at me?
What did you do with them?
- I buried them.
- My saw blades? Why?
Those are my things.
I work with them. I need them.
What do you want me do to?
We'll go to Yapp's and buy a set.
Come on.
I can go alone. It's a block away.
You don't need to go with me
like I'm a baby.
I've been before.
You just didn't know.
What did you get? Let me see.
What is this junk? Give me the money.
You! Come back!
You don't deserve that hair!
Look. I got this guy
to go with your Indian.
Patrick. Omri? Are you OK?
Omri, are you sure you're OK?
- This thing is incredible.
- Get your hands out of the way.
Where do you think he got this?
Look how small it is.
- What are you looking at?
- This is incredible.
How did you make this?
Don't bring that rat in here.
I found him in here, Beavis, and
my figures and my magnifying glass.
- What else do you have that's mine?
- That thing was in here?
This is great. Dad should see this.
I want you both to leave my room now.
Jeez, temperamental.
- You got to promise me...
- What?
Little Bear, where are you?
What are we looking for?
Here!
It's all right. You can come out.
- I heard them and I ran.
- That was good.
- They are enemies?
- Brothers.
Brothers?
Those brothers took my house!
I am in the dark here.
Send me back. I want to go back.
But I brought my friend to meet you.
Patrick, Little Bear.
Another Great Spirit?
Make another little man?
No. No more men.
- Little Bear, will you come out?
- No. You come in.
- This is the plastic Indian?
- Not plastic any more.
- How did you do that?
- The cupboard.
Show me.
Put a plastic thing in and lock it.
If it's a person,
the person is alive.
They're real people.
They can even be real dead people.
- I want to make one.
- Never!
- It's a huge responsibility.
- I'm a responsible person.
Omri, I'm down here.
- Don't touch the cupboard.
- OK.
I mean it, Patrick.
It means a lot to me.
Thank you. I heard.
Can I see your arm? Yeah.
You all right?
You need to wash that.
- It's not much.
- This child has a very strong will.
- Good ones all have a strong will.
- Patrick is just plain defiant.
- No! No!
- Yes!
It's not a game!
Slow down!
God-dang it! Put me down!
Dang... tarnation.
No more. I promise no more.
Oh, dog! Not another drop.
- He's mine.
- Shut your eyes! Watch out, Patrick!
Get back. Come on.
He shot me! He shot me!
Deliriums! Hell-fire and damnation!
That's what it is. They're deliriums!
That rotten Kansas sheep-dip!
William Howard, where are you,
you pot-bellied drunkard?
Anthony Miles,
you son-of-a-buck's horse's ass!
I can't believe it.
He really shot me!
Darlin'! What the hell
you doin' way over there?
- I can't believe it. This is great.
- This is not so great.
This has got to be a delirium!
Where's my hat?
- He can't stay here.
- I want to keep him.
- I've lost my hat!
- Can we send him back?
I'm comin' to get you, Darlin'!
I want him!
Not one more drop as long as I live.
Oh, my dear sweet Lord!
I need a drink.
This is just gettin'
worse by the minute.
What's your name?
Boone. What's yours, Mr Delirium?
He is so cool!
Step back, cow pie.
How will you take care of him?
- Patrick, time to go.
- Coming! Let me keep him.
But it's got to stay a secret.
Listen, let me keep him here tonight.
I have this under control.
- Bring him to school tomorrow.
- School?
Everybody's so big.
You'll be OK. Don't cry.
I always cry.
The boys call me "Boo-hoo" Boone.
I've got a soft heart.
- Bring him to school. Promise?
- I promise.
Be careful - cowboys and Indians!
Indians?
Omri, don't turn him back, please?
What Indians?
Redskins.
No!
Wait! What in the...
You better put me down!
Who do you think you are?
I'm telling you the truth,
I'll lay you in your grave.
I don't care how big you are.
Kindly return to me my hat,
tenderfoot.
You say you take no more men.
You tell blind stories.
Watch out that savage don't
scalp you in your sleep, Injun lover.
You're not gonna shut me
up in here, are you?
Now we've become reconciled...
as you start away.
Now we've become reconciled
as you start away.
Don't you want this open?
I'm not scared any more.
You can close it.
- Is she in the dark?
- What do you mean?
- Does she know of me?
- No.
I'm alone.
I need a wife.
Come on and fight!
Darlin'!
Every time I try to...
We're supposed to be a team.
Hey, dang!
- What's the matter with that Injun?
- No, no, stop!
Behave!
He says I steal his horse.
He shoots at me.
If that's true, I'll squish him
like a bug. Boone, drop it!
Well, she's my horse.
- Drop it!
- No!
I'm sick of being hauled off. I knew
you'd side with that stinkin' savage.
He smells and he calls me
a dirty savage.
I didn't call you dirty,
I called you stinkin'!
Stop it, Boone!
Listen to me. Boone is leaving.
You don't have to live together.
Where can I buy coffee?
I like to start my day with coffee.
OK, if you'll be good,
I'll make you breakfast.
Omri cooks! Like a woman.
You are a woman.
Please! You guys
are so old-fashioned.
I'll have you know
I'm a civilized man.
Unlike some!
Where did you come from?
I come from Texas, Mr Half-a-Brain.
The United States of America,
comprende?
Omri, Texas?
- You're from Texas?
- Proud of it.
- Where are you taking me?
- To school.
- White man goes to school?
- That's right.
- I go to school.
- You wouldn't like it.
- He can go, I can go.
- It's too risky.
- Whiskey?
- Risky! Dangerous!
Good. I like danger.
Do you like danger, Texas man?
Are you threatening me, Injun? You'll
need some help to get this scalp.
Omri, send him back. Do it.
Come on! Come on!
Come on!
Bye-bye.
You got him?
Careful, he's so delicate. Come here.
- Boone's in the front...
- Let me have him!
I got to check on Little Bear.
- You all right, Little Bear?
- Let me have that!
- Come on! Give me him.
- Calm down, Patrick.
Boys!
School, remember?
All right, thank you,
Malcolm and George.
All right, let's have...
Emily and Loretta.
Loretta and I...
We're making a map
of the United States.
We built it here on a piece of wood.
We made the whole country
out of flour,
water, salt and food colouring
using beans for mountains,
yarn for the rivers
and rice for borders.
We're making the desert
out of brown sugar.
I thought America should
be green and yellow.
Loretta thought it
should be more like beige...
What are these folks talking about?
...to make it more topo...
- Topographical.
Sounds to me like they've
been hitting the old tornado juice.
You ever been west
of the Mississippi?
Big river?
I have travelled far north.
- Land of the Micmacs.
- Micmacs?
Sounds too cold for me.
- Must be purty country though.
- Yes. Cold.
Purty.
Thank you very much.
OK, now, let's have...
Omri and Patrick.
I'll do it!
We both agreed that I'll do it.
I'm the best talker.
You all know that.
Patrick and I are making a volcano.
It's... made out of Play...
Mixed-up Play-Doh, it's big and...
The smallpox.
Yes.
Will you marry again, Little Bear?
If there is a woman for me.
Maybe have another little child.
Yes.
I will heal when
I have another child.
Little children
are the sun and moon and the stars.
Good morning, boys and girls.
Today, lunch is macaroni and cheese
and a build-your-own sandwich.
Don't worry about the iguana,
moulting is a natural process.
Origami is cancelled today.
Damn!
All right, everybody, stay in
double line, please. Thank you.
Follow Mrs Cox.
That's a wonderful
story that you're writing.
- Yeah.
- Have you read about the Iroquois?
What interested you the most?
There were six tribes
that joined together to stop the war.
They formed a true government,
our constitution borrowed from them.
- Yeah.
- So, what else?
As you know, I got to get
going to computer class.
- OK, I'll show you.
- No!
What are you doing?
- I'm just having fun.
- They're two real men.
- It's not fun.
- Shove it!
Hello! Excuse me.
What's going on here? What happened?
What happened?
All right, somebody start talking.
- We can't resolve this now.
- We need to try.
- I can resolve it. Want to see how?
- No!
- I could do it!
- Do what?
No, no!
- I could show. I could.
- Show what?
You can't. They're people.
You can't use people.
All right...
Patrick, show me
what's in your pouch.
Please.
Patrick, show me
what's in your pouch.
They're just plastic toys.
Plazteck people.
- They're just completely plazteck.
- OK.
- That's fine.
- Plazteck.
- Yes. Thank you. Let me see.
- Plazteck.
Let me see.
They're just people.
Why don't you two work this out?
But no more fighting, OK?
- All right.
- Go catch up with your class.
"It's just like having a child.
"Every time I'm away from him,
I worry that he's OK.
"I come home and open the door
"and worry about what I will find.
"But he's a man.
I can't treat him like a baby."
Good. Sam.
"JFK.
"JFK was about
the youngest man ever president.
"There were little kids
in the White House."
Mum, can Patrick
please spend the night?
- Yeah, I think so.
- Spend the night?
It's a wife.
Excuse me.
- That's great. Come on.
- Look at 'em.
Who will she be?
- What is that?
- It's a wife.
A wife? My mother should
choose me a wife.
But your mother's not here.
I've been thinking about
settling down my own self.
It's gone. The cupboard's gone.
Who would take it?
- Where is it?
- Where's what?
- The cupboard, butt-head.
- Who gave you that cupboard?
Please, where's the cupboard?
Gili, please.
Where's my rat ball?
Where? Please?
In the crawlspace.
Damn.
The key! Where's the key?
There was no key. I swear.
You mean, we've got to live
here forever? Little like this?
No new wife for Little Bear?
No baby? He needs a baby.
I could look for another key.
I want to go home. We've just got
the railroad coming through town
and we've got a new doctor,
a good doctor.
Hell, it's 1879. I'm living
at the dawn of a new century.
Now I know what
you was talking about.
God sure do play with men, all right.
There is no god here.
Come on, Gili!
- Bye, Mum. Bye, Dad.
- Bye, guys.
Bye, Mum.
Disgusting display.
They do this in front of children?
- It's not real.
- It's real all right. It's real.
Let's change to
the Discovery Channel.
...roaming the great savannahs
of Africa.
Let me see that clicker.
Apaches! The ugliest Redskins
that ever walked the earth!
Get 'em, boys! Hell, yeah!
Amigo?
- He's alive.
- I wish we had Tommy.
- You do not have the key.
- Can you take the arrow out?
Blood will flow. Get me husks.
We have no husks.
Leave me.
Boys?
Time for bed.
- Can you turn out the light, please?
- Sure.
I feel like I haven't seen
you in days.
- Cartoon day tomorrow.
- I don't think we'll watch, thanks.
- Good night.
- Good night, Mum.
- Night, Patrick.
- Night, Janie.
If you hear noises under floor,
it's Gili's rat.
- What?
- He escaped.
Dad pulled up your floorboards
but he couldn't get him.
That rat's under my floor?
Maybe. He might have moved on.
If we're lucky, he moved out.
- Oh, no.
- I know.
Good night, guys.
- Do you think he'll be OK?
- A rat will eat at a wounded man.
Now we can't go to sleep at all.
We'll take turns.
If you go first,
I'll give you a million dollars.
Wake up! I hear the rat! Get up!
- It's the key!
- Get it!
Hold this.
Watch out.
Oh, no!
Let me go.
I am too big. I am too big!
See if you can get under
that loose floorboard there.
There's an animal, a big animal.
Move fast.
Do you see a way? Is there a hole?
Yes, I see one.
Yeah?
- What are also dangers?
- Everything.
Did he take his bow and arrow?
And his knife?
I hear him! Over there!
- Where is he?
- Little Bear, come back.
Come back.
- What was that?
- I don't know.
Please, Little Bear, come back.
Why won't he come?
I got him!
It's you again.
I do pick my moments to fall asleep.
A great Minnie whining overhead.
Thought I was a goner.
Perhaps I am a goner. Did I die?
No. You're dreaming again.
There's two of you now,
are there? Good show.
Well, take me to him.
The elegant Injun?
No, it's another.
That's clever. Hello again.
- The bleeding stopped.
- Yes. Good.
He needs a blood transfusion
but I'm not prepared for that.
- A bullet, was it?
- Arrow.
Lucky it missed his heart and lung.
The cotton's damp.
So, you're a pal of his, are you?
Amigo.
That should just about do it.
Look, keep a close watch on him.
Plenty of water.
He could use a doctor's care.
There's a doctor in his town.
- No.
- When he wakes up.
Not yet.
It's time for them to go home.
Good. That will do.
He needs to sleep.
Well, I best be getting back.
We'll all be waking up soon enough.
I suggest a drop of brandy.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome, mate.
Buckles keep catching on my doodah.
I'm so ashamed of myself.
I hurt you.
What are you talking about?
Did I hear somebody mention brandy?
No, Omri.
She has her life.
She has a family, a clan.
Maybe a husband and a child.
I don't want you to be alone.
I will be with my people.
I will be with you
when the sun rises?
One more time.
Hey, son. When we go back,
are we going back to the last
thing we remember or ahead?
I don't know.
I hope it's forwards.
How about you, Little Bear?
Little Bear, where are you headed?
I was on the journey
with my brother's son.
I think I will wake up in the woods.
It is quiet
and the nights are getting cold.
I can almost smell the trees.
I can almost smell them, too.
Like I'm part Indian now myself.
If you were my nephew, it'd be
time to walk you through the forest.
I would go.
It is difficult.
You would live by yourself,
care for yourself.
We would travel for days,
tell stories,
hunt and fish.
I'd leave you and return
to the village.
You must live alone for one season.
You would learn to live in harmony
with Mother Nature...
the two-legged,
the four-legged, the winged.
When the seasons change,
my nephew would come home.
I would be waiting for you.
We would have a great celebration
because you return
to the village... as a man.
When I leave you, Omri,
I take you... as my nephew.
Time to go, gentlemen.
Easy, Darlin'. Easy, now.
Don't y'all forget me.
I won't.
You look after yourself now,
Little Bear.
And you, friend.
- Goodbye, my friendly giants.
- Great Spirit?
Yes, Little Bear?
Tell me about the Onondaga gah.
Are we always a great people?
You are always a great people,
but it's not always so good.
- Things change for us?
- They will.
We go.
Now!
"I will never know
where he is or how he is
"but I don't worry
about him any more.
"I think Little Bear
will have lots of children
"and he will teach them everything.
"He will always
take care of his people."
That's all.
Very nice.
That's a good ending, Omri.
Sam.
"One day JFK was killed.
"He was shot on a street in Texas.
"My grandpa says that he remembered
exactly where he was..."
English