Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Read online

  NEWT

  Surgito.

  JACOB reacts as though to a bucket of cold water. He comes back to himself and takes in his surroundings. He looks at NEWT.

  NEWT

  Congratulations on your engagement, Jacob.

  JACOB

  Wait, what?

  NEWT looks at QUEENIE.

  JACOB

  Oh no.

  He realizes he has been taken against his will. Slowly, he gets to his feet to face QUEENIE.

  She reads his mind. With a sob, she runs to close her case (several small objects, including a lipstick and a fragment of torn postcard, fall out) and flees the apartment.

  JACOB

  Queenie!

  (turning to NEWT)

  It’s very nice to see you. Where the hell am I right now?

  NEWT

  Uh, uh, London.

  JACOB

  (frustrated)

  Oh! I always wanted to go here!

  (angry)

  Queenie!

  He runs after her.

  SCENE 37

  EXT. NEWT’S STREET—A MINUTE LATER—NIGHT

  QUEENIE dashes out of NEWT’S house and off up the street, crying. JACOB runs after her, livid.

  JACOB

  Queen, honey. Well, I’m just curious, when were you going to wake me up? After we’d had five kids?

  QUEENIE turns to confront JACOB.

  QUEENIE

  Why is it wrong to want to marry you?

  JACOB

  Okay—

  QUEENIE

  To wanna have a family? I just want what everyone else has, that’s all.

  JACOB

  Okay, wait. We talked about this, like, a million times. If we get married and they find out, they’re gonna throw you in jail, sweetheart. I can’t have that. They don’t like people like me marrying people like you. I ain’t a wizard. I’m just me.

  QUEENIE

  They’re really progressive here, and they’ll let us get married properly.

  QUEENIE gestures to the street.

  JACOB

  Sweetheart, you don’t need to enchant me. I’m already enchanted! I love you so much.

  QUEENIE

  Yeah?

  JACOB

  Yeah. But I can’t have you risking everything like this, you know? You’re not giving us a choice, sweetheart.

  QUEENIE

  You’re not givin’ me a choice. One of us had to be brave, and you were being a coward!

  JACOB

  I was being a coward? If I’m a coward, you’re a—

  She reads his mind.

  QUEENIE

  —crazy!

  She reacts. He knows she “heard” him.

  JACOB

  I didn’t say it . . .

  QUEENIE

  You didn’t have to.

  JACOB

  No, I didn’t mean it, sweetheart.

  QUEENIE

  Yeah, you did.

  JACOB

  No.

  QUEENIE

  I’m gonna go see my sister.

  JACOB

  Fine. See your sister.

  QUEENIE

  Fine.

  QUEENIE Disapparates.

  JACOB

  No, wait! No! Queenie! I didn’t mean it. I didn’t say nothing.

  But he is alone in the street.

  SCENE 38

  INT. NEWT’S HOUSE—SHORTLY AFTER—NIGHT

  NEWT’S miserable gaze falls on the piece of postcard. He crosses to pick it up, then points his wand at it.

  NEWT

  Papyrus Reparo.

  It reconstitutes into a whole. We see a picture of Paris.

  Postcard text becomes visible onscreen.

  TINA (V.O.)

  My dear Queenie,

  What a beautiful city.

  I’m thinking of you,

  Tina X

  SCENE 39

  INT. NEWT’S BASEMENT MENAGERIE—NIGHT

  CLOSE ON JACOB as he enters, pushes open the door, stares around. Soaked through, he has been searching the streets for an hour. NEWT is nowhere to be seen.

  JACOB

  Hey, Newt?

  NEWT (O.S.)

  Down here, Jacob. I’ll be with you in a second.

  JACOB starts peering into the enclosure. By the patch of dark water where the Kelpie lives, NEWT has placed a sign for BUNTY: BUNTY, DON’T TOUCH UNTIL I GET BACK. He walks on.

  An Augurey caws mournfully at JACOB as he walks past.

  JACOB

  I got my own problems.

  NEWT (O.S.)

  No, no, no. Back in, please. Right, wait, wait, wait, wait.

  A sign on the Augurey cage reads: BUNTY—DON’T FORGET TO GIVE PATRICK PELLETS. JACOB hears movement and changes direction, passing a snoozing griffin with a bandaged beak: BUNTY: CHANGE DRESSING DAILY.

  NEWT’S case sits beside the Niffler enclosure. On the inside of the lid is a large moving picture of TINA he has torn out of a newspaper.

  NEWT comes round the corner wearing his coat.

  NEWT

  Queenie left a postcard. Tina’s in Paris looking for Credence.

  JACOB

  Genius. Queenie’s gonna go straight for Tina.

  (elated)

  Okay, we’re going to France, pal! Hold on. I’ll get my jacket.

  NEWT

  I’ve got it.

  NEWT has already pointed his wand at the ceiling. JACOB’S coat, hat, and case drop onto the floor in front of him. JACOB is blasted with warm magical air, which dries his rain-soaked clothes.

  JACOB

  (impressed)

  Oh. Beautiful.

  They leave. We close in on the note that has appeared: BUNTY, GONE TO PARIS. HAVE TAKEN NIFFLERS WITH ME. NEWT.

  SCENE 40

  EXT. PARIS, PLACE CACHÉE—NIGHT

  A clear, starry night. TINA GOLDSTEIN, reinstated Auror on a mission of her own, more elegant and confident than in New York but carrying private sadness, walks toward the bronzed statue of a robed woman set on a tall stone base, where witches and wizards dressed as Muggles are vanishing.

  SCENE 41

  EXT. PLACE CACHÉE, CIRCUS ARCANUS—NIGHT

  Music, laughter, and conversation erupt around her. The circus is now in full swing. A banner declares: CIRCUS ARCANUS: FREAKS AND ODDITIES! Several tents, a big top in the middle.

  TINA walks past the street performers working in the open, scrutinizing them. A HALF-TROLL performs feats of strength. A few misshapen and particularly downtrodden humanoids—UNDERBEINGS without powers but of magical ancestry—shuffle around, taking money from the crowd. Horns hidden beneath hats, unusual eyes beneath hoods; HALF-ELVES and HALF-GOBLINS juggle and tumble.

  A magnificent Chinese Zouwu, a giant catlike creature with a long, plumed tail, is imprisoned in a cage. Fireworks burst overhead.

  SCENE 42

  INT. CIRCUS ARCANUS, FREAKS’ TENT—EVENING

  NAGINI is kneeling at a trunk, stroking her circus dress. She must perform shortly. CREDENCE hurries to her.

  CREDENCE

  (whispers)

  Nagini!

  She turns.

  NAGINI

  Credence.

  He hands her the note. She scans it, frowns.

  CREDENCE

  (whispers)

  I think I know where she is.

  NAGINI looks up, meets his eyes.

  CREDENCE

  We escape tonight.

  SKENDER comes into NAGINI’S tent.

  SKENDER

  Hey, I’ve told you to stay away from her, boy—did I say you could take a break? Clean out the Kappa.

  SKENDER closes the curtain between CREDENCE and NAGINI.

  SKENDER

  (to NAGINI)

  And you, get ready!

  CREDENCE turns and looks up to a cage full of Firedrakes.

  SCENE 43

  INT. CIRCUS ARCANUS, BIG TOP—NIGHT

  SKENDER is standing beside the circular platform/cage in the middle
of a crowd, many of whom are drunk.

  SKENDER

  Next in our little show of freaks and oddities, I present to you—a Maledictus!

  He whips open the curtains. There stands NAGINI in a snakeskin dress. Men in the crowd whistle and jeer.

  SKENDER

  Once trapped in the jungles of Indonesia, she is the carrier of a blood curse. Such Underbeings are destined, through the course of their lives, to turn permanently into beasts.

  TINA makes her way around the back of the crowd, looking for CREDENCE.

  Elsewhere in the tent, an elegant, suited French African, YUSUF KAMA, is scanning the crowd rather than watching SKENDER. There is a black feather in the band of his fedora.

  SKENDER

  But look at her. So beautiful, yes? So desirable . . . but soon she will be trapped forever in a very different body. Every night, when she sleeps . . . mesdames et messieurs . . . she is forced to become—

  Nothing happens. The crowd jeers at SKENDER. NAGINI looks at SKENDER, a look of hatred.

  SKENDER

  She is forced to become . . .

  CREDENCE’S and NAGINI’S eyes meet across the big top.

  ANGLE ON TINA, who has spotted CREDENCE. She starts to edge toward him, trying not to attract attention.

  ANGLE ON KAMA, who does the same.

  SKENDER

  She is forced to become . . .

  SKENDER whips the bars. NAGINI closes her eyes. Slowly, she melts into coils.

  SKENDER

  Over time, she will not be able to transform back. She will be forever trapped in the body of a snake.

  NAGINI suddenly strikes at SKENDER through the bars and utters a cry in Parseltongue. SKENDER crumples, bleeding. At the back of the tent, CREDENCE smashes open the Firedrakes’ cage and they soar to freedom like fireworks. The big top catches fire—screams, panic, the crowd falls over one another to reach the exit—

  SCENE 44

  EXT. CIRCUS ARCANUS, BIG TOP—NIGHT

  The big top is on fire. Firedrakes weave patterns in the sky above it, trailing showers of sparks. The fire has terrified and enraged the creatures. A hippogriff is rearing and plunging while its handlers try to control it. Everywhere performers are packing up, fast, elves shutting themselves into boxes, which fold smaller and smaller.

  TINA Apparates and, with a flick of her wand, puts out the fire.

  The Zouwu crate is on fire and shaking perilously. The creature within roars and howls. The Zouwu explodes out of it: a monstrous cat the size of an elephant, five-colored, with a tail as long as a python. It has been horrendously abused: Scars across its face, it is malnourished, limping, and now driven to a frenzy of terror.

  TINA spots CREDENCE in the distance.

  TINA

  Credence!

  The Zouwu hobbles as fast as it can, away into the darkness. SKENDER knows there is no catching it now. He runs to galvanize his workers.

  SKENDER

  Pack it up! Paris is done for us now.

  SKENDER points his wand at the tent, shrinks it to the size of a handkerchief, and pockets it.

  TINA

  (approaching SKENDER)

  The boy with the Maledictus, what do you know about him?

  SKENDER

  (contemptuous)

  He’s looking for his mother. All my freaks think they can go home. Okay, let’s go.

  He leaps up onto a carriage and, as the crates and boxes are all magically reduced to a few cases, clatters away into the night.

  TINA is left on her own in what seems for a moment to be a deserted square. Then she realizes that KAMA is standing behind her.

  CUT TO:

  SCENE 45

  EXT. PARISIAN CAFÉ—NIGHT

  TINA and KAMA sit together at an outside table. TINA is suspicious of KAMA.

  TINA

  I think we were both at the circus for the same reason, monsieur . . . ?

  KAMA

  Kama. Yusuf Kama. And you think right.

  TINA

  What do you want with Credence?

  KAMA

  The same as you.

  TINA

  Which is?

  KAMA

  To prove who the boy really is. If the rumors of his identity are correct, he and I are—distantly—related. I am the last male of my pure-blooded line . . . and so, if the rumors are correct, is he.

  KAMA takes The Predictions of Tycho Dodonus out of his pocket and holds it tantalizingly before her.

  KAMA

  You have read The Predictions of Tycho Dodonus?

  TINA

  Yes. But that’s poetry, not proof.

  KAMA

  If I could show you something better—more concrete—something that proves who he is—would the Ministries of Europe and America let him live?

  A beat.

  TINA

  They might.

  KAMA

  (he nods)

  Then come.

  He gets up and TINA follows.

  SCENE 46

  INT. GRINDELWALD’S HIDEOUT, DRAWING ROOM—NIGHT

  GRINDELWALD exhales vapor from a glowing skull-shaped hookah. His ACOLYTES watch as the smoke forms a vision of the Obscurus, a swirl of black and flashing red, then resolves into an image of CREDENCE.

  All look excited, except KRALL, who is sulky.

  GRINDELWALD

  So . . . Credence Barebone. Nearly destroyed by the woman who raised him. Yet now he seeks the mother who bore him. He’s desperate for family. He’s desperate for love. He’s the key to our victory.

  KRALL

  Well, we know where the boy is, don’t we? Why don’t we grab him and leave!

  GRINDELWALD

  (to KRALL)

  He must come to me freely—and he will.

  GRINDELWALD returns his gaze to the vision of CREDENCE suspended in the center of the drawing room.

  GRINDELWALD

  The path has been laid, and he is following it. The trail that will lead him to me, and the strange and glorious truth of who he is.

  KRALL

  Why is he so important?

  GRINDELWALD walks to face KRALL.

  GRINDELWALD

  Who represents the greatest threat to our cause?

  KRALL

  Albus Dumbledore.

  GRINDELWALD

  If I asked you now to go to the school where he is hiding and kill him for me, would you do it for me, Krall?

  (smiles)

  Credence is the only entity alive . . . who can kill him.

  KRALL

  You really think that he can kill the great—can kill Albus Dumbledore?

  GRINDELWALD

  (whispers)

  I know he can. But will you be with us when that happens, Krall? Will you?

  SCENE 47

  EXT. WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER—DAWN

  NEWT and JACOB are walking with cases toward Beachy Head. Pickett pokes his head out of NEWT’S breast pocket and yawns.

  NEWT

  Jacob, that man Tina’s been seeing—

  JACOB

  Don’t worry! She’s gonna see you and she’ll see the four of us together, it’ll be just like New York all over again. Don’t worry about it.

  NEWT

  Yes, but he’s an Auror, Queenie said?

  JACOB

  Yeah, he’s an Auror. So what? Don’t worry about him.

  A beat. They walk.

  NEWT

  What d’you think I should say to her, if I see her?

  JACOB

  Oh, well, it’s best not to plan these things. You know, you just say whatever comes to you in the moment.

  A beat. They walk.

  NEWT

  (reminiscently)

  She has eyes just like a salamander.

  JACOB

  Don’t say that.

  A beat. JACOB decides NEWT needs help.

  JACOB

  Nah, look, you just tell her that you missed her. Right, and then you came all the way to Paris to find
her. She’ll love that. And then, tell her you’re losing sleep at night for thinking of her. Just don’t say anything about no salamanders, all right?

  NEWT

  Right. Okay.

  JACOB

  Hey, hey, hey. It’s gonna be all right. We’re in this together, pal. Okay, I’m gonna help you out. I’m gonna help you find Tina, find Queenie, and we’ll all be happy again. Just like old times.

  He spots a slightly sinister figure on the edge of the cliff: all black, tattered robes.

  JACOB

  Who is this guy?

  NEWT

  He’s the only way I can leave the country without documentation. Now, you don’t suffer from motion sickness, do you?

  JACOB

  I don’t do well on boats, Newt.

  A beat.

  NEWT

  You’ll be fine.

  PORTKEY TOUT

  Stir your stumps—it leaves in one minute!

  Confused, JACOB looks around for the conveyance, ignoring the rusty bucket on the ground.

  PORTKEY TOUT

  Fifty Galleons.

  NEWT

  No, we said thirty.

  PORTKEY TOUT

  Thirty to go to France, twenty not to tell anyone I seen Newt Scamander leaving the country illegally.

  Angry, NEWT pays up.

  PORTKEY TOUT

  Price of fame, pal.

  (checks watch)

  Ten seconds.

  NEWT picks up the bucket and holds out his hand to JACOB.

  NEWT

  (to JACOB)

  Jacob.

  JACOB

  ARGH!

  They are pulled away into thin air.

  CUT TO:

  SCENE 48

  EXT. PLACE CACHÉE—DAY

  NEWT and JACOB peer around the corner. A French POLICEMAN is standing in front of the statue of the robed woman. JACOB is pale, sweaty, and still clutching the bucket, which has come in handy.

  JACOB

  I didn’t like that Portkey, Newt.

  NEWT

  (absently)

  So you keep saying. Follow me.

  NEWT points his wand at the POLICEMAN.

  NEWT

  Confundus.

  The POLICEMAN lurches as though drunk, blinks, shakes his head, then giggles and ambles off, raising his hat at disconcerted passersby.

  NEWT

  Come on. That’ll wear off in a few minutes.

  NEWT leads JACOB through the statue and into Magical Paris. He puts his case down and points his wand at the street.

  NEWT

  Appare vestigium.