When Harry Met Sally (13 page)

HARRY
    
(singing)
    “If you're feeling sad and lonely, There's a service I can render …

INT. SALLY'S APARTMENT—DAY
Sally is getting ready to leave. She glances at her machine as she hears:

HARRY'S VOICE
    (
CONT'D
)    
(singing, on answering machine)
“… Tell the one who digs you only, I can be so warm and tender—Call me, maybe it's late but just Call me …”

INT. HARRY'S APARTMENT—DAY

HARRY
    (
CONT'D
)    
(singing into the phone)
“Don't be afraid to just Phone moi …”

INT. SALLY'S APARTMENT—DAY

HARRY'S VOICE
    (
CONT'D
)    (
singing on answering machine)
“Call me and I'll be around.”

Sally just stares
.

INT. HARRY'S APARTMENT—DAY

HARRY
    (
CONT'D
)    
(into phone, speaking)
Give me a call.

He switches off the song machine

SALLY
    
(through filter)
    Hi, Harry.

INT. HARRY'S APARTMENT—DAY

HARRY
    Hello! Hi, hi! I didn't think that you would … that you were there.

INT. SALLY'S APARTMENT—DAY

HARRY
    
(through filter)
    What are you doing?

SALLY
    I was just on my way out.

HARRY
    
(through filter)
    Where are you going?

SALLY
    What do you want, Harry?

INT. HARRY'S APARTMENT—DAY

HARRY
    Nothing. Nothing, I just called to say I'm sorry.

INT. SALLY'S APARTMENT—DAY

SALLY
    Okay.

She waits for him to seize the moment. Which he doesn't
.

INT. HARRY'S APARTMENT—DAY

He doesn't know what else to say
.

INT. SALLY'S APARTMENT—DAY

SALLY
    I gotta go.

INT. HARRY'S APARTMENT—DAY

HARRY
    Wait a second … wait a second. What are
you doing for New Year's? Are you going to the Tylers' party? 'Cause I don't have a date, and if you don't have a date, we always said that if neither one of us had a date …

INT. SALLY'S APARTMENT—DAY

HARRY
    
(through filter)
    … we could be together for New Year's, and …

SALLY
    Harry, I can't do this anymore. I am not your consolation prize. Goodbye.

She hangs up
.

INT. HARRY'S APARTMENT—DAY
Harry stands there, listening to the DIAL TONE
.

FADE OUT
.

FADE IN:

INT. HARRY'S APARTMENT—NIGHT
A tight shot, on television, of DICK CLARK
.

DICK CLARK
    
(on television)
And here we are, once again, the sixteenth annual New Year's Rockin' Eve, coming to you live from the heart …

We PULL BACK TO REVEAL

Harry lying in bed eating Mallomars and watching Dick Clark on television
.

HARRY
    
(Voice-over)
    What's so bad about this? You have Dick Clark, that's tradition, you have Mallomars, the greatest cookie of all time, and you're about to give the Knicks their first championship since 1973.

Harry aims a toy basketball at a plastic basket mounted on the wall
.

He misses
.

He looks back at the television set
.

CUT TO
:

INT. NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY—NIGHT

A great big New Year's Eve party, just like the one we were at a year earlier. The mirrored ball is twirling. Twinkly lights on everyone's face
.

Sally dancing with a tall man. He dips her. She's appalled. Upright again, she catches Marie's eye as the tall man swoops her about the floor. Marie is dancing with Jess
.

SALLY
    I don't know why I let you drag me to this.

And she's yanked out of frame
.

CUT TO:

EXT. STREET—STOREFRONTS—NIGHT
Harry walks along an empty street
.

EXT. DOWNTOWN STREET—NIGHT
Harry walking down the street past shop windows
.

HARRY
    
(Voice-over)
    This is much better. Fresh air. I have the streets all to myself. Who needs to be at a big, crowded party pretending to have a good time? Plus this is the perfect time to catch up on my window shopping. This is good.

He sees a couple across the street standing with their arms around each other in front of a store window. The woman laughs
.

CUT TO:

INT. NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY—NIGHT
Sally is leaning against a pillar facing a MAN AT THE PARTY, who is telling her a joke
.

MAN AT THE PARTY
    So the guy says, “Read the card.”

Sally leans around the pillar toward Marie, who's on the other side
.

SALLY
    (
CONT'D
)    I'm going home.

MARIE
    You'll never get a taxi.

CUT TO
:

EXT. WASHINGTON SQUARE—NIGHT
Harry is walking along the same place he was dropped off by Sally eleven years ago. He has an ice-cream cone. He dumps the ice cream in a trash can. He stops and looks up at the Washington Square Arch
.

HARRY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    You realize, of course, that we could never be friends.

FLASHBACK—DAY
At the Square under the Arch, Sally and Harry are at the back of her car, facing each other. Sally extends her hand to Harry
.

SALLY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    Why not?

Harry shakes Sally's hand
.

HARRY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    What I'm saying … is that men and women …

FLASHBACK—DAY
Sally and Harry in the airplane
.

HARRY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    
(CONT'D
) … can't be friends, because the sex part always gets in the way.

FLASHBACK—DAY
Harry and Sally walking down the street
.

SALLY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    That's not true.

HARRY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    No man can be friends with …

FLASHBACK—DAY
Harry and Sally walking in the park
.

HARRY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    
(CONT'D
) … a woman he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.

FLASHBACK—DAY
Harry and Sally in the museum—she is laughing
.

SALLY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    What if
they
don't want to have sex with
you?

HARRY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    Doesn't matter …

FLASHBACK—DAY
Harry and Sally in deli, when Sally is faking an orgasm as other customers look on
.

HARRY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    
(CONT'D
) … because the sex thing is already out there, so the friendship is ultimately doomed …

FLASHBACK—NIGHT
Harry and Sally kissing in her bedroom
.

HARRY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    
(CONT'D
) … and that is the end of the story.

SALLY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    Well, I guess we're not going to be friends, then.

HARRY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    Guess not.

SALLY
    
(Voice-over Flashback)
    That's too bad. You were the only person I knew in New York.

EXT. WASHINGTON SQUARE—NIGHT
Harry back in reality. Thinking about what just happened in his mind. He feels the cold and turns his collar up, then starts walking slowly away from the Arch. We stay with Harry as his pace starts to quicken and finally ends with him running down the street
.

CUT TO
:

INT. NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY—NIGHT
It's almost midnight. Balloons, confetti, the mirrored ball spinning slowly around
.

The excitement in the room builds as we approach midnight. We see Sally standing alone in the crowd
.

She decides to leave. She makes her way to Jess and Marie
.

CUT
    to:

EXT. STREET—NIGHT
Harry running
.

CUT TO
:

INT. NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY—NIGHT

SALLY
    
(going for her coat)
    I'm going.

MARIE
    It's almost midnight.

SALLY
    The thought of not kissing somebody is just …

JESS
    I'll kiss you.

CUT TO:

EXT. STREET—NIGHT
Harry is looking for a cab. He can't find one. He keeps running
.

CUT TO:

INT. NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY—NIGHT

JESS
    C'mon, stay. Please.

SALLY
    Thanks, Jess. I just … I have to go.

MARIE
    Oh, wait two minutes.

SALLY
    I'll call you tomorrow.

They kiss each other on the cheek, and Sally heads off
.

CUT TO:

EXT. STREET—NIGHT
Harry runs along the street, rounds the corner, and runs into the hotel and through the lobby
.

CUT TO:

INT. NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY—NIGHT
Sally is making her way through the crowd when she stops dead in her tracks. It's Harry. Slowly he comes toward her and stops in front of her
.

HARRY
    I've been doing a lot of thinking. And the thing is, I love you.

SALLY
    What?

HARRY
    I love you.

SALLY
    How do you expect me to respond to this?

HARRY
    How about you love me, too?

SALLY
    How about, I'm leaving.

Sally turns and walks off, parting the crowd. Harry follows her like a terrier
.

HARRY
    Doesn't what I said mean anything to you?

Sally stops and turns to face him. During the following, we hear the COUNTDOWN to the New Year, after which everyone breaks into “HAPPY NEW YEAR,” confetti flies, everyone is kissing and breaking into “AULD LANG SYNE.”

SALLY
    I'm sorry, Harry. I know it's New Year's Eve, and I know you're feeling lonely, but you just can't show up here, tell me you love me, and expect to make everything all right. It doesn't work that way.

HARRY
    Well, how does it work?

SALLY
    I don't know, but not this way.

Sally turns to go, but Harry grabs her, stopping her
.

HARRY
    How about this way? I love how you get cold when it's seventy-one degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle right there when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you're the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely. And it's not because it's New
Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

SALLY
    
(furious)
    That is just like you, Harry. You say things like that, and you make it impossible for me to hate you, and I hate you, Harry. I really hate you. I hate you.

Harry puts his arms around her
.

They kiss
.

A long kiss
.

The twinkle ball goes around, twinkling

They go on kissing
.

“AULD LANG SYNE” continues in the background
.

HARRY
    What does this song mean? My whole life, I have never known what this song means. I mean, “Should old acquaintance be forgot”? Does that mean we should forget old acquaintances, or does it mean if we happened to forget them, we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot them?