Farewell to the King (1989) Movie Script
Borneo. For most of you,
Borneo doesn't exist.
An imaginary name on a map
like Tibet or Tierra del Fuego.
The ends of the earth.
But I know the island exists.
You see, I was there near the end
of the Second World War.
My war. My youth.
I was a botanist before.
I've been a botanist ever since.
That's why they chose me, I suppose.
Special Operations trained me.
I was to help lead the tribes
against the Japanese.
But I didn't lead them, really.
No, that was someone else.
I knew him. He was the last King of Borneo.
It's all right to tell his tale now.
The wind has swept away the stench
of the corpses.
And all that we remember
is the flare of our youth.
Oh, God damn.
Tenga, are you all right? Tenga?
Yes, sir.
Don't appear to have broken anything, sir.
- Yourself, sir?
- Well, I'm upside-down.
Yes, sir.
- Use your knife.
- Yes, sir.
Sorry about that, sir.
Murut?
Iban?
Kelabit?
Comanche.
He said Comanche, sir. He speaks English.
I Comanche.
South-southeast, sir.
Towards the center and up,
into the middle of Borneo.
- I'll take the first watch.
- Yes, sir.
- Well, good night, sir.
- Good night, Tenga.
What the hell is going on, Tenga?
He's a white man, my God.
He's as white as we are.
My name is Fairbourne.
I'm a British serving officer.
Now, why have you done this?
Oh, God.
As I said before,
I'm a British serving officer.
My name is Captain Nigel Fairbourne.
This is Sergeant Lionel Tenga, my radioman.
I'm with Zed Force, Special Operations.
The Japanese are losing the war,
as well as the Germans.
Our side is winning. Am I right, Tenga?
- Right, sir.
- Thank you.
General MacArthur is back
in the Philippines.
The Australians will be landing shortly
to recapture...
I mean, liberate this country.
I have the task of organizing resistance
amongst the tribes.
We need your help, sir.
The wind has veered to the West again.
The British will be back.
Learoyd. I am Learoyd.
When I first arrived at this house, they
wanted to sell my head to the Japanese...
but I didn't know about it.
I had to learn their language like a child.
They know a little English.
It's sacred. Religious.
I ought to explain
that you are in the spirit country.
My people are the sons of the first man,
living by the law of the ancients.
All we men are free.
I have a special relationship with the spirits.
I died once.
I had to.
I had to give up everything.
Even the will to live.
It started in April of '42.
Just before the fall of Corregidor.
When MacArthur skipped out...
some of us figured it was time to go, too.
Took a small boat
driffted all the way down here to Bornio
I suppose we were all deserters.
In say that way
I remember the waves.
Giant waves.
He's dead. He's dead!
- Lights! It's a village.
- No, no. That's Japanese.
There's no choice!
No, I've had enough.
Bataan. Corregidor. You were wrong!
We're free now. We're free.
Free to go our own ways.
We're free.
I left the coastal plains,
and I wandered inland.
And then I came
to where the real jungle begins.
I was suffocated by the trees.
I longed for the sky.
But I was free.
Free to do what?
He had been hunting,
and he caught nothing.
Only me.
It was Gwai who brought me here.
Of course, it was this dragon
tattooed on my chest...
that probably saved me.
I got it in Manila one night
when I was drunk.
Lian the Magnificent
was all for selling my head to the Japs.
He had a bunch of hotheads with him,
and they were all steamed up.
They were running these people down.
It was the women who stopped him.
They were fascinated by my eyes.
They said my eyes were like the sea.
The sea means salt, and here, salt is life.
Her name was Yoo, Gwai's sister.
It was said from when she was a child,
she was born to rule.
Smackee. Smackee.
No. Moonshine.
- Moonshine.
- Moonshine.
I lived with the forest, like an animal.
For the first time in my life, I was truly free.
Men here dream of gods
and strike noble attitudes.
They want to rival the heroes of the past.
The time of Rajah Brooke
and the days of high adventure.
For them, it is a man that counts, not life.
We fought for over an hour.
Lian the Magnificent
wounded me seven times.
I struck him in the heart.
I took him to his mother.
We all mourned him.
He was a bad man...
but they all remembered the little boy
who played in this longhouse.
My children.
They were born Comanches.
Your children?
yes they were born of strife.
My children. Comanches.
Comanches sir..your majesty ?
You called them Comanches?
Yes, they remind me of Indians, you know.
You know,
only not like they are in the States...
like they were originally.
I won't have my people
selling kachina dolls and beads...
by the Grand Canyon at some train.
My Comanches will remain Comanches.
Free men. Headhunters.
And women
Yes that's right spoken like a free man
Who're they?
whose they?
You're really quite something, aren't you?
Well then uncle head man died.
Many people from the longhouses came.
They came from the black lands...
and also from the red lands
where the spirits had fled.
Six buffaloes were slaughtered and eaten.
It lasted for three whole days.
And then, on the third day, I spoke.
I told you, men dream of gods.
But you must find the words
to fire the dream.
I spent a whole year learning the words.
Well, I guess it was time I got married.
And there was the matter of all singar's people,
whose long house was on the river
They had a blood few with wise ancestors
since a time of God
There was a girl from singar's own family
and a boy from our village,they were like romeo & julliet.
When she got pregnant,it happens
Yeah well the man they wanted or
the whole disaster
I spoke to the women and
i gave them some bad ideas.
I don't like these girls, its more sex
i will stop worship if chase supirior anyway
I never see these
Sleep well ,
get for long.
Well the man suits of the
falling of their ways
After the first time in several centuries there was peice
and they all close and been setteled.
I brought them the joy of song
and the fellowship of the round table.
I had united 22 longhouses.
Forged a new nation.
Well, I guess I'd become King.
And I guess I became King.
It doesn't matter what you do,
I'll never go back.
What is it you wanted?
In the north...
the Americans are arming the Sulu pirates.
In the south, other teams like mine
are organizing the Dayaks of Sarawak.
There'll soon be general hostilities
in Borneo.
The Australians are going to land.
No one has ever controlled Borneo
from within.
The Japanese, like everybody else,
have only inhabited the rim.
But when we invade,
we will drive them into the center.
What will your kingdom be worth then?
You can no longer avoid history.
This is the Forest of the Spirits.
It's been like this forever.
It's a real hangover morning, eh, sir?
Great Mountain of the Dead.
Beyond is the Plain of Elephants.
And after that, there's the sea.
They'll have to leave us a way to the sea.
Who? The Japanese?
No, the others. The rest of the world.
After the war.
We need salt from the sea.
What's life without a little salt, eh?
As I said, you can no longer avoid history.
Look, when I said I was a deserter,
I meant it.
I quit your world and your war.
This is a better world I live in.
They don't know about your war.
I'm their king,
and I don't want them to know.
It's almost over, anyway.
You can finish it without me.
And the Japanese?
The jungle's a big place.
They'll wander around till they die
or somebody finds them, but it won't be me.
Figure it this way. You're lucky.
I could sell your heads to the Japs.
Well, Tenga?
Yes. Well, sir,
you do have to see it his way, sir.
I mean,
he really doesn't need World War II, sir.
Yes, but World War II needs him.
He just doesn't bloody well understand,
that's all.
You know, sir, this place is not half bad...
if the sun would come out.
Old Learoyd might know
what he's up to, sir.
Watch it, Sergeant.
Don't let this life seduce you.
Remember, you're British.
No, sir. I'm African, sir.
Kikuyu, the King's African Rifles.
I'm almost a savage.
You're British, sir.
Yes, thank you, Hornbill.
This is Semit One,
acknowledging end of transmission.
Over and out.
Your reply from Hornbill, sir.
"As far as your mad American,
make use of him as necessary...
"but arrange earliest possible evacuation."
- Yes, we could expect that, eh, Lionel?
- Yes, sir.
Can't have any kings
save the one in London, sir.
You think she understood us, sir?
Yes. Maybe not the words,
but she understood.
Morning, sir.
Good morning, sir.
Good morning, sir.
I hope you know, sir,
those are the largest boots in all of Asia.
And perhaps the world, for that matter.
Good morning, ladies.
- Good morning, sir.
- Good morning, sir.
Good morning, sir. Good morning, sir.
Good morning, sir. Good morning, sir.
I'll be damned.
You! Yeah, you!
- You did this with your radio!
- Yes, we have a radio. You know that.
Well, the Japs heard it.
They know you're here.
Well, more or less.
If we can hear them, they can hear us.
And if we stay on a bit too long,
they can triangulate...
and I suppose we stayed on too long!
Look, I'm sorry.
Well, it's simple then.
I kill you and break your radio!
Well, they'll just send another man
with another radio!
Listen, you can no longer avoid history!
- I'm sorry. I've said that!
- Shut up. History?
The world's so full of crap,
sooner or later, you're gonna step in it.
You call that history?
It won't go away.
You've got some feathers in your hair.
I want a deal.
A treaty. An ambassador with a sash.
The whole banana.
- Who's the boss?
- Colonel Ferguson, Zed Force.
No, no, no! The kingfish! The big guy!
- The banana! Top guy!
- That'll be MacArthur.
MacArthur? You expect me to make a deal
with the guy that ran out on me?
He came back.
- Well, I'll forgive him.
- He'll be grateful.
Yes, I'll bet so.
- What do you want?
- Freedom to be like we are.
- Anything else?
- Guns. So they can't take the freedom away.
Well, I'll see what I can do.
And grenades, mortars and mines,
so they can't take the guns away.
Yes, I'll see what I can do.
No treaty, no war.
You'll do it all right. You'll do it.
I know your bosses.
You made us hungry. You hurt us.
Worst of all, you hurt our feelings.
I know,
because I was in the labor movement.
I was a renegade. I was in jail.
Hell, I was a Communist!
If you were a Communist...
how can you be a king?
Only a Communist would've thought of it.
I wouldn't stay in there too long.
That's where the pigs shit.
Parachutes. Parachutes.
Well, what do you think?
Knocked them in the eye, eh, Your Majesty?
They were promised an arrival from the sky.
They've seen it. They are content.
She wants to touch them
to make sure they're not ghosts.
I'm Learoyd. This is my daughter.
Yeah, Dave Corbett, demolition.
Dynamite Dave.
- I'm an American like yourself.
- Is that so?
Where are you from, Dave?
Ventura, California.
A little town just north of Los Angeles.
Lots of orange trees.
- California. Must be nice.
- It is, sir.
Have you ever seen Dorothy Lamour?
Oh, mama.
- She must be something, huh?
- She is, sir. I mean, Your Majesty.
I asked for first rate NCO's as advisors...
so that your personal authority
could gradually replace Learoyd's power.
What, you mean the King, sir?
Well, he seems a good bloke.
- Is he really a king?
- For now he is a king.
- Your name, Sergeant?
- Conklin, sir. Team sergeant.
- How do you do?
- This is Armstrong.
Bren Armstrong. Heavy weapons.
- Dynamite Dave. Demolition.
- How you doing, sir?
- American?
- OSS, sir.
- Stretch Lewis, mate. How are you?
- Very good.
- Sergeant Lionel Tenga, my radioman.
- Hi, Tenga.
Now I want to stress from the start
that we represent Great Britain here...
the civilized world and all that it entails.
We're bringing modern warfare
to these savages.
This is a heavy responsibility.
- Sir?
- Yes?
What's the deal on the women?
Are they free?
Now you're talking.
Artillery. Well, that's something.
- You think they can grasp it?
- Yes, it's quite simple, sir.
It's like their blowpipes, only bigger.
Teach them that and they won't be savages
any longer, will they?
You've got that well organized, haven't you?
Our days passed.
And then an incident
at old Sengar's longhouse on the Srai.
What is it?
See, it can go off like this at any time.
If a girl has a child, and she dies...
then they kill the baby.
Now, a girl from this village here,
she had a child.
She had a son, and she died.
Well, what's the fuss?
Why are they moving apart?
Because the father is from our village.
He's a noble, an aristocrat.
He took the girl. She died.
Now if they kill his son...
it will start a feud, a blood feud.
Who is the father?
My brother, Gwai.
Where is the child?
Bring me the child.
These laws do not apply to me,
and I come from far away.
So I can kill the child, as is the way.
My child. This is my child.
Why would you have killed this baby, huh?
Why?
Why would you have let me?
I've seen you do all manner of things.
But now...
I've seen you King.
- Do you think he's sleeping with her?
- No, no, no.
He says he loves his wife, and I believe him.
What's the point of being king
if you can't have the girls?
Well, he can have anything he wants,
but he doesn't.
Well, a man is a man.
You know him as well as I do.
I think he's hiding something from us.
There must be something.
You have no wives.
Who's going to keep you warm at night?
She says you would enjoy
the luster of her thighs...
and the velvet texture of her belly.
That is if you're not too tired.
Did she really say that?
Well, you're twisting my arm, sir.
There's no greater pleasure
than a woman's love.
No, no.
As you once told me,
"War must be chaste and the warrior pure."
I said that?
I don't trust a man...
who can turn away from the hips and thighs
fashioned by the spirits.
But you do. Why?
Maybe it's the old morality.
I love my wife.
You'll go with one of these women in time.
- Do you trust me?
- Yes.
If I have a choice
between the good or bad in a man...
I choose to believe the good.
The Warrior King, huh?
No, you're the warrior. I'm just a king.
What do you see up there?
Altair.
The Southern Cross.
There's something here,
something you're not telling me.
I'll show you...
in time.
We must see the Jap. Operations demand it.
Or how else am I to know
they're really out there?
They're out there, all right.
We're gonna split up.
One of us will find the Jap
on the river somewhere.
If something happens,
we're gonna meet up at this open spot.
Grid coordinate 32 west by 16 north.
You'll have to wrap your boots.
If the Japs see those prints,
they'll bomb us again, for sure.
I'd rather go barefoot.
Damn British stoicism.
I'd have you carried upside-down on a pole
if I wanted.
And I should. You've got malaria.
A Jap, by God.
I've never seen one before.
He's got a rifle, too, and a long bayonet.
Nasty.
I think you ought to have a look, Conklin.
No, thank you, sir.
I've seen quite enough of them before.
My God.
He's pissing in the river.
Just like one of us.
Just a man.
I've got to get a closer look.
I've simply got to get a closer look.
Get the hell out!
How long have you been here?
- Quite a while, sir. And you?
- The same.
He should have been here by now, sir.
If we wait much longer,
their patrols will be here.
No. We're not going back without him.
He's just lost. He has malaria.
Wait here.
Keep everybody under cover.
I'll be back soon.
Tenga.
How long have I...
God, I can't remember a thing.
- Three days, sir. Malaria.
- Oh, Jesus.
You haven't been taking your quinine, sir.
Very bad.
Something's happened. I can feel it.
Well, it's started, sir.
- What's started?
- The war.
They've landed at Tarakan.
Just an Aussie brigade.
Just a beachhead, but it'll grow, sir.
- Stirred up a hornet's nest, they did, sir.
- I'll bet it did.
Learoyd. Where's Learoyd?
You saved my life.
I found you. It just happened to be me.
Who's Vivienne?
You kept mentioning her name.
She's my fiance.
So that's why you wouldn't.
I said I never trusted a man
who had no woman.
I was beginning to worry about you.
I'll get you what you want.
She doesn't believe you.
- Why not?
- Because you're white.
So are you!
When I came here,
I wanted to remake the world. I did.
I remade my world,
but I cannot remake yours.
I'll be back with the treaty.
You're the only one I can trust.
I know.
- Life.
- Life,
Don't start the war without me.
Bye-bye.
You don't know how much you mean to me.
I've missed you so much.
But I'm still jealous of your jungle
and your headhunters.
It's not fair, you having all the fun.
Fun? You think that's fun?
I suppose you still think you're Tarzan,
do you?
And you think you're Lawrence of Arabia,
I'm sure.
- All right, say a prayer.
- Right.
Now, what about these savages?
This whole thing, you've really done it.
You know, the first time you radioed in...
Ferguson thought you'd landed
on your head.
That's not far from the truth.
He doesn't think that now, does he?
Oh, no, he's very proud of you.
But this so-called King, it disturbs him.
- What's he like?
- He is a king, a real king.
Is he yours?
Hitler's dead.
The war in Europe's over.
We heard it yesterday.
How do you feel?
How do you feel, really?
You've done a hell of a piece of soldiering,
but that's beside the point.
If your American believes he's a king,
then he's mad.
And if you believe his fantasy,
then you're mad.
- Worse things have happened, sir.
- Yes, yes, they have.
Vivienne's like a daughter...
and you're like a son to me.
Do you know
how many sons I have trained...
and dropped in some godforsaken jungle
never to come back?
Show me that respect, or at least pretend to.
Tell me about these Comanches.
Well, sir, there are about 600 of them.
And they fight of their own free will,
depending on their mood.
- Mood?
- Yes.
Sometimes an entire militia
can just march off in a fit of nostalgia...
to visit some ancient valley.
It makes perfect sense if you're out there.
It's very hard to understand if you're not.
Yes, yes. So?
- An army after my own heart, sir.
- Oh, stop it.
You can build them roads and bridges.
You can love their women,
sire their children even.
You could learn from them.
My God, you can learn.
But you've got to stay British.
It's not contempt. It's a line of conduct.
You'll never be one of them.
You're no longer one of us, either.
People never see you the same again.
A dead leaf.
You know that one fine day,
you're gonna have to betray them.
General Sutherland, sir!
This is General Sutherland,
the supreme commander's Chief of Staff.
Colonel Ferguson, sir.
Combined Special Operations.
Cloak and dagger, huh?
Well, I'm sorry to say, Colonel,
that the General...
just doesn't have any time right now
for kings or treaties with mythical empires.
Although I will say
it's certainly entertaining and romantic.
- Are you the fellas who've got the King?
- Yes, sir! We do!
- Well, Dick?
- Yes, sir!
- Bring them in.
- Yes, sir!
King?
Stand easy.
Real king?
- Yes, sir.
- What does he want?
Well, sir, he wants freedom.
- That's what we all want, isn't it?
- Freedom for his people, sir.
And a guarantee they can remain
as they are.
He wants an Allied promise
to protect that right, sir.
Any papers? There are always papers.
Oh, yes, yes, I've got them, right here.
- I had a treaty drawn up.
- Sir!
You don't have to listen
to any more of this nonsense, sir.
nonsense, This is not
nonsense Dick This is history.
History is written by unusual men.
Some who even become kings...
and some who make no more mark
than that of a stone thrown into an ocean.
What we have here...
Well, we just don't know, do we?
But, Captain, if you say he's a king,
then I'll go along with it.
I'll sign these treaties...
as Supreme Allied Commander
of the Pacific Forces.
If your king were here...
I'd kneel before him and offer him my sword.
If I had a sword.
Have copies made.
Handle this as you would dealings
with any other sovereign.
Your copies will be returned
in the morning, Captain.
Right. As a matter of fact, sir,
I've got some copies here.
- You do, do you? Yes, you would.
- Yes.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much indeed, sir.
It's nothing.
Besides, you wouldn't leave until I signed,
would you?
Captain...
you remind me of myself.
very nice smell tobbaco you use.
Smoke a pipe Captain?
No no Not personally but a great friend of mine
But Perhaps your friend used my tobacco
understands rather scares me
His best Chain for you sir.
Thank you very much,indeed.
Give my reegards to his Majesty
And let me know how things go
in the kingdom.
Good luck.
I can't believe it.
- He's incredible!
- He's just a man like any other.
It will never be done.
He'll never have to think of it again.
History will wash his hands, not yours.
- Welcome back, sir.
- Thank you.
You've landed in an uproar, sir. You'll see.
- How's Miss Vivienne and the old man, sir?
- She's fine, Tenga. She's just fine.
- A present from Morotai.
- Thank you, sir!
- Did you miss me?
- Of course, sir!
Things weren't the same.
Sergeant Conklin got in a terrible row
with his wives, sir.
Wives?
- Life, English!
- Life!
- Life, English!
- What is this?
- Refugees, sir. More come every day.
- Life, English!
There's been an uprising on the coast.
Japanese have been quite brutal, sir.
Captain, how was your trip?
There's no controlling him, sir.
I've been away for three days,
and you're acting like schoolchildren!
I guess I owe you more than I can say.
But don't be fooled. It's only a bit of paper.
They've broken a treaty or two before,
you know.
No, no, no, it's you. You did this for me.
Not MacArthur
and not your Special Forces...
or the Allies,
or your whole goddamn empire!
You did this for me!
The King and the country.
Now go to sleep.
Life, English.
Life, Rajah.
So this is the Pass of the Clouds?
I said I'd show you someday.
- Gold? Jewels?
- No, something beyond all that crap.
The Pass of the Clouds.
There! There, there! There are the Punans.
They're called the honey gatherers.
We call it Valley of the Children.
- They're Stone Age!
- Yes.
They don't know of possessions.
They have no word for jealousy or greed.
It's absolutely amazing. Incredible, isn't it?
Why do you bring us here?
If you follow the gorge of the Padas River
and the coastal mountains, you end up here.
Go through their caves
and our whole valley is at your feet.
And you're afraid the Japs might...
The Japs? I'm not afraid of the Japs.
I'm not afraid of anybody!
I want you to rig their caves with dynamite.
And if something happens, we blow it.
They could still come through the jungle,
like you did.
No one would want it that bad.
We control the jungle. It's here. Dynamite!
- So no one will get in ever.
- So it'll be here for all of us.
Spoken like a free man.
So ended our days of peace.
Perhaps some of the happiest of my life.
And with a northwesterly monsoon
gathering before us...
came our days of war.
The death agony of the Japanese army
in Borneo...
was as sad as the sinking of a great ship.
Bullets, explosives, poisoned arrows.
Men stumbling through the night,
mumbling incoherently.
Hunger.
Men eating weeds, leeches, insects...
and each other.
Despair, madness.
For me, for us...
the same period was as thrilling
as a cavalry charge.
May God forgive us.
Advance the colors!
Company, double time!
What's he got there?
What do you think?
- It's a regression. Barbaric!
- Come on, sir. It's good for the longhouse.
Besides, it's also an accurate way
to keep count.
The war is getting closer.
They've slipped
through the whole Ninth Division.
From the beginning,
the Nip has moved with a purpose.
Here from Tarakan,
up this gorge in the Crocker Range.
But that's not our concern.
Our concern is more immediate.
The phantom column.
- The phantom Colonel.
- That's right.
These have chosen not to die.
They fight like Genghis Khan.
Destroy everything in their path,
no prisoners.
Still wear full uniforms, weapons.
They even seem well-fed.
And they move as fast as we do.
- How?
- I don't know, sir.
But we'll know soon enough.
They're coming our way.
They say the Colonel,
a phantom Colonel, rides a horse.
A horse?
- A white horse?
- I don't know, sir.
They seem to be going from here to...
What's this pass called?
Pass of the Clouds.
Pass of the Clouds.
It is the time of fear.
The southwesterly wind brings death.
It is the wind of the flies.
- Who says that?
- Gwai.
He says that it will end
when the northwesterly wind returns.
- Everything ends.
- Yes.
Everything ends. Even me.
Don't let this wind come here to us...
to our people.
Forget this war.
This war is for evil men.
Send these others on.
Let them have the wind of the flies.
The wind is too strong.
The trees cannot stand in the wind.
I must hold them up.
It is the only good thing men can do.
Men dream.
Yes.
You'll be here to try.
But he is a stranger. He's not one of you.
- What'd she say?
- She says she wants to be just like you.
No, no, no, no, no.
You must not be like me.
You must be much, much more.
Not like me.
They're an hour ahead.
They killed everyone here, didn't they?
God!
What is it, Tenga?
We know where they are, sir.
What do you mean?
They're dead, sir. They're all dead, sir!
They've been massacred, sir!
I found bones.
Just bones, sir.
- What are you saying, Tenga?
- They're eating the dead!
- They ain't starving.
- Cannibals! That's what he's saying.
That's how they're living.
That's what they're after.
Then we must destroy them,
every one of them, my God!
Every one.
No quarter asked or given.
All right, get down!
Get up, for me!
Get him off it.
Shit, he's caught on a bayonet, mate.
They've gone.
- We've got to get to the longhouse!
- They've gone.
They've gone to the Pass,
the Pass of the Clouds. I feel it. I know it.
We've got to blow the Pass.
They're going to...
They've killed everyone!
Everyone's dead. My whole crew.
- They can march much faster than we can.
- We've got to be there by noon.
Let's put what's left of the army
between them and the longhouse.
- You should back off!
- Listen to me!
They've broken through!
We've got to get to the longhouse!
Blow it!
Get them out! Go! Go! Come on!
Blow it!
Get out of here! Damn it!
- Blow the son of a bitch!
- Get the hell out of here!
You don't understand! You have to go!
You want me to throw rocks?
Is that what you want? All right!
Get out of here! Scram!
Go on, move! Scram!
Vamoose!
The longhouse!,We've got to
get to the longhouse!
There's nothing you can do!
we got to wait untill dark.no I am going
Come on! We've lost time!
Gwai!
Conklin's got them spotted in a gorge
in the Srai by Falcon's Peak.
We can hold them there till morning,
and then call in for the Air Force.
Vengeance is futile. It never ends.
You told me that.
It's not man that counts, it's life, Learoyd.
It's life!
Blood must be answered by blood.
Come on.
Learoyd am I!
Bastards!
Rajah.
Why are they doing that?
Showing me their bravery, suffering.
But I've seen enough.
It's all gone...
all I had in this world.
None of it will bring them back.
They're gone for tomorrow,
the day after, forever.
What day is it?
What day is it?
It's August the 6th.
What year?
August the 6th, 1945.
It's around 8:00.
From this day, from this time on...
I'll never raise my hand
against another man.
I went on to pursue the Japanese Colonel...
who, like the phantom he was, had escaped.
All Allied Armed Forces, Pacific Theater...
all Allied Forces, China, Burma, India...
the President of the United States.
The world will note
that the first atomic bomb...
was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base.
We won the race of discovery
against the Germans.
We have used it
in order to shorten the agony of war...
in order to save the lives of thousands
and thousands of young Americans.
We shall continue to use it...
until we completely destroy
Japan's power to make war...
Learoyd.
Learoyd.
Vivienne.
- Vivienne?
- Yes.
I'm awake.
- Have I been awake before?
- I thought so. Every day for a little while.
Where are we?
What's happened?
How long have I been here?
You're in Brunei,
and you've been here almost three weeks.
The war.
What about...
The war is over.
"Leave us alone, and we'll leave you alone."
It's simple.
Eloquent.
It's great stuff! Conrad! Kipling!
The days of high adventure!
An Aussie patrol was shot up yesterday.
Men have died.
You made a deal, signed a treaty.
MacArthur signed it. I wouldn't.
They are not gonna tolerate any kings
running around in the hills.
He'll never come down, sir.
He won't toe the line.
He will, poor devil, one way or another.
Vivienne, would you get me
some of that iced tea?
Why, yes, of course.
- Nigel?
- No, I'm all right, thank you.
No one moves very far out of line.
When you're young,
you think you're blazing a trail.
One day you look down
and notice it's a beaten track.
- That's my map, sir.
- Exactly.
What's this place?
Pass of the Clouds?
It's nothing.
Just a pass, that's all.
Why?
Division wants to put
a blocking force in there.
Send up a battery of 105 mm howitzers.
Blast him to oblivion wherever he goes.
Yes, it won't cost them anything.
They have quite a few extra
105 mm shells at the end of a war.
- It's not my plan, but...
- You won't have to.
Why?
Salt.
Yes?
They need salt.
They get it from the sea.
If you cut off their supply of salt,
the revolt will die within weeks.
- No bloodshed.
- Salt.
It's so simple.
What is life without a little salt?
We mountain people.
We come in peace.
Just who might you be, fella?
He Rajah.
King Learoyd.
- You know who I am.
- Yeah.
And what do you think you're doing here?
These are the forest people.
- They need salt.
- Salt, eh? I heard that.
What are you gonna give me for it?
You can have me...
Sergeant Conklin...
Colonel Mitamura.
But the others, they're free.
And what if I don't buy this arrangement?
Yeah, don't cry, little one.
Don't cry.
I'll be with you in the songs they sing
in the longhouses.
And then when you're older
and you have children...
well, you'll sing the songs to them.
And then they'll sing to their children.
And the songs...
The songs will make you strong.
And you won't need me, anymore.
Okay?
Who did this?
He refused to speak, sir, like now.
The men gave him a bit of a pasting.
After all, sir, he is a deserter.
You're a disgrace to the Army!
You'll be stripped!
I didn't want it to be this way.
It ends up shabbily.
It always does.
I'm sorry.
he will be hang through this rope in morning sir
i know
Major its pleasure to have you here,
please sit down.
I have never seen such a feast
but this is my last.
You told them i don't like the salt .didn't you?.
An honest man,
so feel like end of hope for all.
Why?
Why did you do the things you did?
It was my duty to fight,
stay alive and fight again.
And the voilence you attacked on the long house
why?
We found it deep and horror
as human nature would allow.
Canabalism
i would tell you something
It is not the first thing after evil makes man damned,
its just hungering for bread or rice.
But you joined the king.
He came to us only as a king could.
Without weapons with open arms and
he permitted me to see the sky
He was a good man,and all said that
A great man
King told me a lott about you
He loves you very much
I was never to see Borneo again.
The wind from the sea
would carry me home.
Somehow, I managed to go with Learoyd.
He was in the prison hold,
while I had a room to myself.
He was to stand court-martial
in Manila for desertion...
while I was a major with a DSO.
Easy stages.
And then,
somewhere near the straits of Mindanao...
- What's the matter, sailor?
- We've run aground, sir!
- Where's the prisoner kept?
- In the hold.
- Get forward! We've run aground!
- Aye, sir!
Aye, aye, sir.
Who's in charge here?
- Where's the prisoner?
- Over there, sir.
- Prisoner! You're coming with me! Come on!
- Yeah, but why have we stopped?
This way! Quick!
Keep going!
Go on!
- Now turn around and give me those.
- I thought it was you.
- How well do you swim?
- Well enough.
- They'll take away your DSO.
- They've already given it to me.
Besides, with a bit of luck,
they'll never know.
Why are you doing this?
For King and country!
God bless. Now get going!
Life, English!
Life, Rajah.
I'll always know that he's out there.
A free man.
Farewell, my king.
Farewell.
Borneo doesn't exist.
An imaginary name on a map
like Tibet or Tierra del Fuego.
The ends of the earth.
But I know the island exists.
You see, I was there near the end
of the Second World War.
My war. My youth.
I was a botanist before.
I've been a botanist ever since.
That's why they chose me, I suppose.
Special Operations trained me.
I was to help lead the tribes
against the Japanese.
But I didn't lead them, really.
No, that was someone else.
I knew him. He was the last King of Borneo.
It's all right to tell his tale now.
The wind has swept away the stench
of the corpses.
And all that we remember
is the flare of our youth.
Oh, God damn.
Tenga, are you all right? Tenga?
Yes, sir.
Don't appear to have broken anything, sir.
- Yourself, sir?
- Well, I'm upside-down.
Yes, sir.
- Use your knife.
- Yes, sir.
Sorry about that, sir.
Murut?
Iban?
Kelabit?
Comanche.
He said Comanche, sir. He speaks English.
I Comanche.
South-southeast, sir.
Towards the center and up,
into the middle of Borneo.
- I'll take the first watch.
- Yes, sir.
- Well, good night, sir.
- Good night, Tenga.
What the hell is going on, Tenga?
He's a white man, my God.
He's as white as we are.
My name is Fairbourne.
I'm a British serving officer.
Now, why have you done this?
Oh, God.
As I said before,
I'm a British serving officer.
My name is Captain Nigel Fairbourne.
This is Sergeant Lionel Tenga, my radioman.
I'm with Zed Force, Special Operations.
The Japanese are losing the war,
as well as the Germans.
Our side is winning. Am I right, Tenga?
- Right, sir.
- Thank you.
General MacArthur is back
in the Philippines.
The Australians will be landing shortly
to recapture...
I mean, liberate this country.
I have the task of organizing resistance
amongst the tribes.
We need your help, sir.
The wind has veered to the West again.
The British will be back.
Learoyd. I am Learoyd.
When I first arrived at this house, they
wanted to sell my head to the Japanese...
but I didn't know about it.
I had to learn their language like a child.
They know a little English.
It's sacred. Religious.
I ought to explain
that you are in the spirit country.
My people are the sons of the first man,
living by the law of the ancients.
All we men are free.
I have a special relationship with the spirits.
I died once.
I had to.
I had to give up everything.
Even the will to live.
It started in April of '42.
Just before the fall of Corregidor.
When MacArthur skipped out...
some of us figured it was time to go, too.
Took a small boat
driffted all the way down here to Bornio
I suppose we were all deserters.
In say that way
I remember the waves.
Giant waves.
He's dead. He's dead!
- Lights! It's a village.
- No, no. That's Japanese.
There's no choice!
No, I've had enough.
Bataan. Corregidor. You were wrong!
We're free now. We're free.
Free to go our own ways.
We're free.
I left the coastal plains,
and I wandered inland.
And then I came
to where the real jungle begins.
I was suffocated by the trees.
I longed for the sky.
But I was free.
Free to do what?
He had been hunting,
and he caught nothing.
Only me.
It was Gwai who brought me here.
Of course, it was this dragon
tattooed on my chest...
that probably saved me.
I got it in Manila one night
when I was drunk.
Lian the Magnificent
was all for selling my head to the Japs.
He had a bunch of hotheads with him,
and they were all steamed up.
They were running these people down.
It was the women who stopped him.
They were fascinated by my eyes.
They said my eyes were like the sea.
The sea means salt, and here, salt is life.
Her name was Yoo, Gwai's sister.
It was said from when she was a child,
she was born to rule.
Smackee. Smackee.
No. Moonshine.
- Moonshine.
- Moonshine.
I lived with the forest, like an animal.
For the first time in my life, I was truly free.
Men here dream of gods
and strike noble attitudes.
They want to rival the heroes of the past.
The time of Rajah Brooke
and the days of high adventure.
For them, it is a man that counts, not life.
We fought for over an hour.
Lian the Magnificent
wounded me seven times.
I struck him in the heart.
I took him to his mother.
We all mourned him.
He was a bad man...
but they all remembered the little boy
who played in this longhouse.
My children.
They were born Comanches.
Your children?
yes they were born of strife.
My children. Comanches.
Comanches sir..your majesty ?
You called them Comanches?
Yes, they remind me of Indians, you know.
You know,
only not like they are in the States...
like they were originally.
I won't have my people
selling kachina dolls and beads...
by the Grand Canyon at some train.
My Comanches will remain Comanches.
Free men. Headhunters.
And women
Yes that's right spoken like a free man
Who're they?
whose they?
You're really quite something, aren't you?
Well then uncle head man died.
Many people from the longhouses came.
They came from the black lands...
and also from the red lands
where the spirits had fled.
Six buffaloes were slaughtered and eaten.
It lasted for three whole days.
And then, on the third day, I spoke.
I told you, men dream of gods.
But you must find the words
to fire the dream.
I spent a whole year learning the words.
Well, I guess it was time I got married.
And there was the matter of all singar's people,
whose long house was on the river
They had a blood few with wise ancestors
since a time of God
There was a girl from singar's own family
and a boy from our village,they were like romeo & julliet.
When she got pregnant,it happens
Yeah well the man they wanted or
the whole disaster
I spoke to the women and
i gave them some bad ideas.
I don't like these girls, its more sex
i will stop worship if chase supirior anyway
I never see these
Sleep well ,
get for long.
Well the man suits of the
falling of their ways
After the first time in several centuries there was peice
and they all close and been setteled.
I brought them the joy of song
and the fellowship of the round table.
I had united 22 longhouses.
Forged a new nation.
Well, I guess I'd become King.
And I guess I became King.
It doesn't matter what you do,
I'll never go back.
What is it you wanted?
In the north...
the Americans are arming the Sulu pirates.
In the south, other teams like mine
are organizing the Dayaks of Sarawak.
There'll soon be general hostilities
in Borneo.
The Australians are going to land.
No one has ever controlled Borneo
from within.
The Japanese, like everybody else,
have only inhabited the rim.
But when we invade,
we will drive them into the center.
What will your kingdom be worth then?
You can no longer avoid history.
This is the Forest of the Spirits.
It's been like this forever.
It's a real hangover morning, eh, sir?
Great Mountain of the Dead.
Beyond is the Plain of Elephants.
And after that, there's the sea.
They'll have to leave us a way to the sea.
Who? The Japanese?
No, the others. The rest of the world.
After the war.
We need salt from the sea.
What's life without a little salt, eh?
As I said, you can no longer avoid history.
Look, when I said I was a deserter,
I meant it.
I quit your world and your war.
This is a better world I live in.
They don't know about your war.
I'm their king,
and I don't want them to know.
It's almost over, anyway.
You can finish it without me.
And the Japanese?
The jungle's a big place.
They'll wander around till they die
or somebody finds them, but it won't be me.
Figure it this way. You're lucky.
I could sell your heads to the Japs.
Well, Tenga?
Yes. Well, sir,
you do have to see it his way, sir.
I mean,
he really doesn't need World War II, sir.
Yes, but World War II needs him.
He just doesn't bloody well understand,
that's all.
You know, sir, this place is not half bad...
if the sun would come out.
Old Learoyd might know
what he's up to, sir.
Watch it, Sergeant.
Don't let this life seduce you.
Remember, you're British.
No, sir. I'm African, sir.
Kikuyu, the King's African Rifles.
I'm almost a savage.
You're British, sir.
Yes, thank you, Hornbill.
This is Semit One,
acknowledging end of transmission.
Over and out.
Your reply from Hornbill, sir.
"As far as your mad American,
make use of him as necessary...
"but arrange earliest possible evacuation."
- Yes, we could expect that, eh, Lionel?
- Yes, sir.
Can't have any kings
save the one in London, sir.
You think she understood us, sir?
Yes. Maybe not the words,
but she understood.
Morning, sir.
Good morning, sir.
Good morning, sir.
I hope you know, sir,
those are the largest boots in all of Asia.
And perhaps the world, for that matter.
Good morning, ladies.
- Good morning, sir.
- Good morning, sir.
Good morning, sir. Good morning, sir.
Good morning, sir. Good morning, sir.
I'll be damned.
You! Yeah, you!
- You did this with your radio!
- Yes, we have a radio. You know that.
Well, the Japs heard it.
They know you're here.
Well, more or less.
If we can hear them, they can hear us.
And if we stay on a bit too long,
they can triangulate...
and I suppose we stayed on too long!
Look, I'm sorry.
Well, it's simple then.
I kill you and break your radio!
Well, they'll just send another man
with another radio!
Listen, you can no longer avoid history!
- I'm sorry. I've said that!
- Shut up. History?
The world's so full of crap,
sooner or later, you're gonna step in it.
You call that history?
It won't go away.
You've got some feathers in your hair.
I want a deal.
A treaty. An ambassador with a sash.
The whole banana.
- Who's the boss?
- Colonel Ferguson, Zed Force.
No, no, no! The kingfish! The big guy!
- The banana! Top guy!
- That'll be MacArthur.
MacArthur? You expect me to make a deal
with the guy that ran out on me?
He came back.
- Well, I'll forgive him.
- He'll be grateful.
Yes, I'll bet so.
- What do you want?
- Freedom to be like we are.
- Anything else?
- Guns. So they can't take the freedom away.
Well, I'll see what I can do.
And grenades, mortars and mines,
so they can't take the guns away.
Yes, I'll see what I can do.
No treaty, no war.
You'll do it all right. You'll do it.
I know your bosses.
You made us hungry. You hurt us.
Worst of all, you hurt our feelings.
I know,
because I was in the labor movement.
I was a renegade. I was in jail.
Hell, I was a Communist!
If you were a Communist...
how can you be a king?
Only a Communist would've thought of it.
I wouldn't stay in there too long.
That's where the pigs shit.
Parachutes. Parachutes.
Well, what do you think?
Knocked them in the eye, eh, Your Majesty?
They were promised an arrival from the sky.
They've seen it. They are content.
She wants to touch them
to make sure they're not ghosts.
I'm Learoyd. This is my daughter.
Yeah, Dave Corbett, demolition.
Dynamite Dave.
- I'm an American like yourself.
- Is that so?
Where are you from, Dave?
Ventura, California.
A little town just north of Los Angeles.
Lots of orange trees.
- California. Must be nice.
- It is, sir.
Have you ever seen Dorothy Lamour?
Oh, mama.
- She must be something, huh?
- She is, sir. I mean, Your Majesty.
I asked for first rate NCO's as advisors...
so that your personal authority
could gradually replace Learoyd's power.
What, you mean the King, sir?
Well, he seems a good bloke.
- Is he really a king?
- For now he is a king.
- Your name, Sergeant?
- Conklin, sir. Team sergeant.
- How do you do?
- This is Armstrong.
Bren Armstrong. Heavy weapons.
- Dynamite Dave. Demolition.
- How you doing, sir?
- American?
- OSS, sir.
- Stretch Lewis, mate. How are you?
- Very good.
- Sergeant Lionel Tenga, my radioman.
- Hi, Tenga.
Now I want to stress from the start
that we represent Great Britain here...
the civilized world and all that it entails.
We're bringing modern warfare
to these savages.
This is a heavy responsibility.
- Sir?
- Yes?
What's the deal on the women?
Are they free?
Now you're talking.
Artillery. Well, that's something.
- You think they can grasp it?
- Yes, it's quite simple, sir.
It's like their blowpipes, only bigger.
Teach them that and they won't be savages
any longer, will they?
You've got that well organized, haven't you?
Our days passed.
And then an incident
at old Sengar's longhouse on the Srai.
What is it?
See, it can go off like this at any time.
If a girl has a child, and she dies...
then they kill the baby.
Now, a girl from this village here,
she had a child.
She had a son, and she died.
Well, what's the fuss?
Why are they moving apart?
Because the father is from our village.
He's a noble, an aristocrat.
He took the girl. She died.
Now if they kill his son...
it will start a feud, a blood feud.
Who is the father?
My brother, Gwai.
Where is the child?
Bring me the child.
These laws do not apply to me,
and I come from far away.
So I can kill the child, as is the way.
My child. This is my child.
Why would you have killed this baby, huh?
Why?
Why would you have let me?
I've seen you do all manner of things.
But now...
I've seen you King.
- Do you think he's sleeping with her?
- No, no, no.
He says he loves his wife, and I believe him.
What's the point of being king
if you can't have the girls?
Well, he can have anything he wants,
but he doesn't.
Well, a man is a man.
You know him as well as I do.
I think he's hiding something from us.
There must be something.
You have no wives.
Who's going to keep you warm at night?
She says you would enjoy
the luster of her thighs...
and the velvet texture of her belly.
That is if you're not too tired.
Did she really say that?
Well, you're twisting my arm, sir.
There's no greater pleasure
than a woman's love.
No, no.
As you once told me,
"War must be chaste and the warrior pure."
I said that?
I don't trust a man...
who can turn away from the hips and thighs
fashioned by the spirits.
But you do. Why?
Maybe it's the old morality.
I love my wife.
You'll go with one of these women in time.
- Do you trust me?
- Yes.
If I have a choice
between the good or bad in a man...
I choose to believe the good.
The Warrior King, huh?
No, you're the warrior. I'm just a king.
What do you see up there?
Altair.
The Southern Cross.
There's something here,
something you're not telling me.
I'll show you...
in time.
We must see the Jap. Operations demand it.
Or how else am I to know
they're really out there?
They're out there, all right.
We're gonna split up.
One of us will find the Jap
on the river somewhere.
If something happens,
we're gonna meet up at this open spot.
Grid coordinate 32 west by 16 north.
You'll have to wrap your boots.
If the Japs see those prints,
they'll bomb us again, for sure.
I'd rather go barefoot.
Damn British stoicism.
I'd have you carried upside-down on a pole
if I wanted.
And I should. You've got malaria.
A Jap, by God.
I've never seen one before.
He's got a rifle, too, and a long bayonet.
Nasty.
I think you ought to have a look, Conklin.
No, thank you, sir.
I've seen quite enough of them before.
My God.
He's pissing in the river.
Just like one of us.
Just a man.
I've got to get a closer look.
I've simply got to get a closer look.
Get the hell out!
How long have you been here?
- Quite a while, sir. And you?
- The same.
He should have been here by now, sir.
If we wait much longer,
their patrols will be here.
No. We're not going back without him.
He's just lost. He has malaria.
Wait here.
Keep everybody under cover.
I'll be back soon.
Tenga.
How long have I...
God, I can't remember a thing.
- Three days, sir. Malaria.
- Oh, Jesus.
You haven't been taking your quinine, sir.
Very bad.
Something's happened. I can feel it.
Well, it's started, sir.
- What's started?
- The war.
They've landed at Tarakan.
Just an Aussie brigade.
Just a beachhead, but it'll grow, sir.
- Stirred up a hornet's nest, they did, sir.
- I'll bet it did.
Learoyd. Where's Learoyd?
You saved my life.
I found you. It just happened to be me.
Who's Vivienne?
You kept mentioning her name.
She's my fiance.
So that's why you wouldn't.
I said I never trusted a man
who had no woman.
I was beginning to worry about you.
I'll get you what you want.
She doesn't believe you.
- Why not?
- Because you're white.
So are you!
When I came here,
I wanted to remake the world. I did.
I remade my world,
but I cannot remake yours.
I'll be back with the treaty.
You're the only one I can trust.
I know.
- Life.
- Life,
Don't start the war without me.
Bye-bye.
You don't know how much you mean to me.
I've missed you so much.
But I'm still jealous of your jungle
and your headhunters.
It's not fair, you having all the fun.
Fun? You think that's fun?
I suppose you still think you're Tarzan,
do you?
And you think you're Lawrence of Arabia,
I'm sure.
- All right, say a prayer.
- Right.
Now, what about these savages?
This whole thing, you've really done it.
You know, the first time you radioed in...
Ferguson thought you'd landed
on your head.
That's not far from the truth.
He doesn't think that now, does he?
Oh, no, he's very proud of you.
But this so-called King, it disturbs him.
- What's he like?
- He is a king, a real king.
Is he yours?
Hitler's dead.
The war in Europe's over.
We heard it yesterday.
How do you feel?
How do you feel, really?
You've done a hell of a piece of soldiering,
but that's beside the point.
If your American believes he's a king,
then he's mad.
And if you believe his fantasy,
then you're mad.
- Worse things have happened, sir.
- Yes, yes, they have.
Vivienne's like a daughter...
and you're like a son to me.
Do you know
how many sons I have trained...
and dropped in some godforsaken jungle
never to come back?
Show me that respect, or at least pretend to.
Tell me about these Comanches.
Well, sir, there are about 600 of them.
And they fight of their own free will,
depending on their mood.
- Mood?
- Yes.
Sometimes an entire militia
can just march off in a fit of nostalgia...
to visit some ancient valley.
It makes perfect sense if you're out there.
It's very hard to understand if you're not.
Yes, yes. So?
- An army after my own heart, sir.
- Oh, stop it.
You can build them roads and bridges.
You can love their women,
sire their children even.
You could learn from them.
My God, you can learn.
But you've got to stay British.
It's not contempt. It's a line of conduct.
You'll never be one of them.
You're no longer one of us, either.
People never see you the same again.
A dead leaf.
You know that one fine day,
you're gonna have to betray them.
General Sutherland, sir!
This is General Sutherland,
the supreme commander's Chief of Staff.
Colonel Ferguson, sir.
Combined Special Operations.
Cloak and dagger, huh?
Well, I'm sorry to say, Colonel,
that the General...
just doesn't have any time right now
for kings or treaties with mythical empires.
Although I will say
it's certainly entertaining and romantic.
- Are you the fellas who've got the King?
- Yes, sir! We do!
- Well, Dick?
- Yes, sir!
- Bring them in.
- Yes, sir!
King?
Stand easy.
Real king?
- Yes, sir.
- What does he want?
Well, sir, he wants freedom.
- That's what we all want, isn't it?
- Freedom for his people, sir.
And a guarantee they can remain
as they are.
He wants an Allied promise
to protect that right, sir.
Any papers? There are always papers.
Oh, yes, yes, I've got them, right here.
- I had a treaty drawn up.
- Sir!
You don't have to listen
to any more of this nonsense, sir.
nonsense, This is not
nonsense Dick This is history.
History is written by unusual men.
Some who even become kings...
and some who make no more mark
than that of a stone thrown into an ocean.
What we have here...
Well, we just don't know, do we?
But, Captain, if you say he's a king,
then I'll go along with it.
I'll sign these treaties...
as Supreme Allied Commander
of the Pacific Forces.
If your king were here...
I'd kneel before him and offer him my sword.
If I had a sword.
Have copies made.
Handle this as you would dealings
with any other sovereign.
Your copies will be returned
in the morning, Captain.
Right. As a matter of fact, sir,
I've got some copies here.
- You do, do you? Yes, you would.
- Yes.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much indeed, sir.
It's nothing.
Besides, you wouldn't leave until I signed,
would you?
Captain...
you remind me of myself.
very nice smell tobbaco you use.
Smoke a pipe Captain?
No no Not personally but a great friend of mine
But Perhaps your friend used my tobacco
understands rather scares me
His best Chain for you sir.
Thank you very much,indeed.
Give my reegards to his Majesty
And let me know how things go
in the kingdom.
Good luck.
I can't believe it.
- He's incredible!
- He's just a man like any other.
It will never be done.
He'll never have to think of it again.
History will wash his hands, not yours.
- Welcome back, sir.
- Thank you.
You've landed in an uproar, sir. You'll see.
- How's Miss Vivienne and the old man, sir?
- She's fine, Tenga. She's just fine.
- A present from Morotai.
- Thank you, sir!
- Did you miss me?
- Of course, sir!
Things weren't the same.
Sergeant Conklin got in a terrible row
with his wives, sir.
Wives?
- Life, English!
- Life!
- Life, English!
- What is this?
- Refugees, sir. More come every day.
- Life, English!
There's been an uprising on the coast.
Japanese have been quite brutal, sir.
Captain, how was your trip?
There's no controlling him, sir.
I've been away for three days,
and you're acting like schoolchildren!
I guess I owe you more than I can say.
But don't be fooled. It's only a bit of paper.
They've broken a treaty or two before,
you know.
No, no, no, it's you. You did this for me.
Not MacArthur
and not your Special Forces...
or the Allies,
or your whole goddamn empire!
You did this for me!
The King and the country.
Now go to sleep.
Life, English.
Life, Rajah.
So this is the Pass of the Clouds?
I said I'd show you someday.
- Gold? Jewels?
- No, something beyond all that crap.
The Pass of the Clouds.
There! There, there! There are the Punans.
They're called the honey gatherers.
We call it Valley of the Children.
- They're Stone Age!
- Yes.
They don't know of possessions.
They have no word for jealousy or greed.
It's absolutely amazing. Incredible, isn't it?
Why do you bring us here?
If you follow the gorge of the Padas River
and the coastal mountains, you end up here.
Go through their caves
and our whole valley is at your feet.
And you're afraid the Japs might...
The Japs? I'm not afraid of the Japs.
I'm not afraid of anybody!
I want you to rig their caves with dynamite.
And if something happens, we blow it.
They could still come through the jungle,
like you did.
No one would want it that bad.
We control the jungle. It's here. Dynamite!
- So no one will get in ever.
- So it'll be here for all of us.
Spoken like a free man.
So ended our days of peace.
Perhaps some of the happiest of my life.
And with a northwesterly monsoon
gathering before us...
came our days of war.
The death agony of the Japanese army
in Borneo...
was as sad as the sinking of a great ship.
Bullets, explosives, poisoned arrows.
Men stumbling through the night,
mumbling incoherently.
Hunger.
Men eating weeds, leeches, insects...
and each other.
Despair, madness.
For me, for us...
the same period was as thrilling
as a cavalry charge.
May God forgive us.
Advance the colors!
Company, double time!
What's he got there?
What do you think?
- It's a regression. Barbaric!
- Come on, sir. It's good for the longhouse.
Besides, it's also an accurate way
to keep count.
The war is getting closer.
They've slipped
through the whole Ninth Division.
From the beginning,
the Nip has moved with a purpose.
Here from Tarakan,
up this gorge in the Crocker Range.
But that's not our concern.
Our concern is more immediate.
The phantom column.
- The phantom Colonel.
- That's right.
These have chosen not to die.
They fight like Genghis Khan.
Destroy everything in their path,
no prisoners.
Still wear full uniforms, weapons.
They even seem well-fed.
And they move as fast as we do.
- How?
- I don't know, sir.
But we'll know soon enough.
They're coming our way.
They say the Colonel,
a phantom Colonel, rides a horse.
A horse?
- A white horse?
- I don't know, sir.
They seem to be going from here to...
What's this pass called?
Pass of the Clouds.
Pass of the Clouds.
It is the time of fear.
The southwesterly wind brings death.
It is the wind of the flies.
- Who says that?
- Gwai.
He says that it will end
when the northwesterly wind returns.
- Everything ends.
- Yes.
Everything ends. Even me.
Don't let this wind come here to us...
to our people.
Forget this war.
This war is for evil men.
Send these others on.
Let them have the wind of the flies.
The wind is too strong.
The trees cannot stand in the wind.
I must hold them up.
It is the only good thing men can do.
Men dream.
Yes.
You'll be here to try.
But he is a stranger. He's not one of you.
- What'd she say?
- She says she wants to be just like you.
No, no, no, no, no.
You must not be like me.
You must be much, much more.
Not like me.
They're an hour ahead.
They killed everyone here, didn't they?
God!
What is it, Tenga?
We know where they are, sir.
What do you mean?
They're dead, sir. They're all dead, sir!
They've been massacred, sir!
I found bones.
Just bones, sir.
- What are you saying, Tenga?
- They're eating the dead!
- They ain't starving.
- Cannibals! That's what he's saying.
That's how they're living.
That's what they're after.
Then we must destroy them,
every one of them, my God!
Every one.
No quarter asked or given.
All right, get down!
Get up, for me!
Get him off it.
Shit, he's caught on a bayonet, mate.
They've gone.
- We've got to get to the longhouse!
- They've gone.
They've gone to the Pass,
the Pass of the Clouds. I feel it. I know it.
We've got to blow the Pass.
They're going to...
They've killed everyone!
Everyone's dead. My whole crew.
- They can march much faster than we can.
- We've got to be there by noon.
Let's put what's left of the army
between them and the longhouse.
- You should back off!
- Listen to me!
They've broken through!
We've got to get to the longhouse!
Blow it!
Get them out! Go! Go! Come on!
Blow it!
Get out of here! Damn it!
- Blow the son of a bitch!
- Get the hell out of here!
You don't understand! You have to go!
You want me to throw rocks?
Is that what you want? All right!
Get out of here! Scram!
Go on, move! Scram!
Vamoose!
The longhouse!,We've got to
get to the longhouse!
There's nothing you can do!
we got to wait untill dark.no I am going
Come on! We've lost time!
Gwai!
Conklin's got them spotted in a gorge
in the Srai by Falcon's Peak.
We can hold them there till morning,
and then call in for the Air Force.
Vengeance is futile. It never ends.
You told me that.
It's not man that counts, it's life, Learoyd.
It's life!
Blood must be answered by blood.
Come on.
Learoyd am I!
Bastards!
Rajah.
Why are they doing that?
Showing me their bravery, suffering.
But I've seen enough.
It's all gone...
all I had in this world.
None of it will bring them back.
They're gone for tomorrow,
the day after, forever.
What day is it?
What day is it?
It's August the 6th.
What year?
August the 6th, 1945.
It's around 8:00.
From this day, from this time on...
I'll never raise my hand
against another man.
I went on to pursue the Japanese Colonel...
who, like the phantom he was, had escaped.
All Allied Armed Forces, Pacific Theater...
all Allied Forces, China, Burma, India...
the President of the United States.
The world will note
that the first atomic bomb...
was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base.
We won the race of discovery
against the Germans.
We have used it
in order to shorten the agony of war...
in order to save the lives of thousands
and thousands of young Americans.
We shall continue to use it...
until we completely destroy
Japan's power to make war...
Learoyd.
Learoyd.
Vivienne.
- Vivienne?
- Yes.
I'm awake.
- Have I been awake before?
- I thought so. Every day for a little while.
Where are we?
What's happened?
How long have I been here?
You're in Brunei,
and you've been here almost three weeks.
The war.
What about...
The war is over.
"Leave us alone, and we'll leave you alone."
It's simple.
Eloquent.
It's great stuff! Conrad! Kipling!
The days of high adventure!
An Aussie patrol was shot up yesterday.
Men have died.
You made a deal, signed a treaty.
MacArthur signed it. I wouldn't.
They are not gonna tolerate any kings
running around in the hills.
He'll never come down, sir.
He won't toe the line.
He will, poor devil, one way or another.
Vivienne, would you get me
some of that iced tea?
Why, yes, of course.
- Nigel?
- No, I'm all right, thank you.
No one moves very far out of line.
When you're young,
you think you're blazing a trail.
One day you look down
and notice it's a beaten track.
- That's my map, sir.
- Exactly.
What's this place?
Pass of the Clouds?
It's nothing.
Just a pass, that's all.
Why?
Division wants to put
a blocking force in there.
Send up a battery of 105 mm howitzers.
Blast him to oblivion wherever he goes.
Yes, it won't cost them anything.
They have quite a few extra
105 mm shells at the end of a war.
- It's not my plan, but...
- You won't have to.
Why?
Salt.
Yes?
They need salt.
They get it from the sea.
If you cut off their supply of salt,
the revolt will die within weeks.
- No bloodshed.
- Salt.
It's so simple.
What is life without a little salt?
We mountain people.
We come in peace.
Just who might you be, fella?
He Rajah.
King Learoyd.
- You know who I am.
- Yeah.
And what do you think you're doing here?
These are the forest people.
- They need salt.
- Salt, eh? I heard that.
What are you gonna give me for it?
You can have me...
Sergeant Conklin...
Colonel Mitamura.
But the others, they're free.
And what if I don't buy this arrangement?
Yeah, don't cry, little one.
Don't cry.
I'll be with you in the songs they sing
in the longhouses.
And then when you're older
and you have children...
well, you'll sing the songs to them.
And then they'll sing to their children.
And the songs...
The songs will make you strong.
And you won't need me, anymore.
Okay?
Who did this?
He refused to speak, sir, like now.
The men gave him a bit of a pasting.
After all, sir, he is a deserter.
You're a disgrace to the Army!
You'll be stripped!
I didn't want it to be this way.
It ends up shabbily.
It always does.
I'm sorry.
he will be hang through this rope in morning sir
i know
Major its pleasure to have you here,
please sit down.
I have never seen such a feast
but this is my last.
You told them i don't like the salt .didn't you?.
An honest man,
so feel like end of hope for all.
Why?
Why did you do the things you did?
It was my duty to fight,
stay alive and fight again.
And the voilence you attacked on the long house
why?
We found it deep and horror
as human nature would allow.
Canabalism
i would tell you something
It is not the first thing after evil makes man damned,
its just hungering for bread or rice.
But you joined the king.
He came to us only as a king could.
Without weapons with open arms and
he permitted me to see the sky
He was a good man,and all said that
A great man
King told me a lott about you
He loves you very much
I was never to see Borneo again.
The wind from the sea
would carry me home.
Somehow, I managed to go with Learoyd.
He was in the prison hold,
while I had a room to myself.
He was to stand court-martial
in Manila for desertion...
while I was a major with a DSO.
Easy stages.
And then,
somewhere near the straits of Mindanao...
- What's the matter, sailor?
- We've run aground, sir!
- Where's the prisoner kept?
- In the hold.
- Get forward! We've run aground!
- Aye, sir!
Aye, aye, sir.
Who's in charge here?
- Where's the prisoner?
- Over there, sir.
- Prisoner! You're coming with me! Come on!
- Yeah, but why have we stopped?
This way! Quick!
Keep going!
Go on!
- Now turn around and give me those.
- I thought it was you.
- How well do you swim?
- Well enough.
- They'll take away your DSO.
- They've already given it to me.
Besides, with a bit of luck,
they'll never know.
Why are you doing this?
For King and country!
God bless. Now get going!
Life, English!
Life, Rajah.
I'll always know that he's out there.
A free man.
Farewell, my king.
Farewell.