Mowgli's Brothers (1976) Movie Script
1
Now, this is the Law of the Jungle,
as old and as true as the sky.
And a Wolf that shall
keep it may prosper,
but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk,
the Law runs both forward and back.
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf.
And the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
It was 7:00 of a very warm evening
in the Seeonee hills
when Father Wolf woke up
from his day's rest...
It's time to hunt again.
...and spread out his paws,
one after the other,
to get rid of the sleepy feeling in their tips.
Good luck go with you,
O Chief of the Wolves.
And good luck and strong teeth
go with the noble children,
that they may never forget
the hungry in this world.
Enter, then, and eat what you can find.
But there is little food here.
Oh, for a wolf, no.
But for so humble a person as myself,
a dried bone is a good feast.
It was the jackal,
Tabaqui, the Dish-Licker.
Shere Khan, the Big One,
has shifted his hunting grounds.
He will hunt among these hills
for the next moon,
or so he has told me.
Shere Khan was the great white tiger
who lived near the Waingunga River,
20 miles away.
He has no right.
By the Law of the Jungle,
he has no right to change his quarters
without due warning.
Shall I tell him of your displeasure,
O King of the Wolves?
Out! Out and hunt
with your master, Pot-Licker!
A good deed never goes unpunished.
That fool.
To begin a night's work with that noise.
Does Shere Khan think that--
It is neither buck nor bullock
he hunts tonight.
It is Man.
Man?
Not Man on our hunting ground.
The Law of the Jungle, which never
orders anything without reason,
forbids every beast to eat Man.
The reason for this is that
Man-killing means, sooner or later,
that men will come with guns
and set the grass alight,
and hundreds of men will scour
the Jungle for the killer,
with gongs and rockets and torches.
Then everybody in the Jungle suffers.
This way, O Master.
Oh, he went this way.
Something is coming up the hill.
Man!
A Man's cub! Look!
And a Man's cub it was, indeed,
as soft and as dimpled a little atom
as ever came to a wolf's cave at night.
Is that a man's cub?
I have never seen one.
Bring it here.
How little.
How naked.
And how bold.
So this is a man's cub.
He is altogether without hair,
and I could kill him
with a touch of my paw.
But see?
He looks up and is not afraid.
My lord, my lord!
It went in there!
Shere Khan does us great honor.
What does Shere Khan need?
My quarry.
The Man's cub.
Its parents escaped me.
Give it to mel
It is his.
Give it to him.
The Wolves are a Free People.
They take orders
from the head of the Pack,
and not from any striped cattle-killer.
The man's cub is ours to Kill if we choose.
You choose, and you do not choose.
What is this talk of choosing, O Master?
Am I to stand,
nosing into your dog's den
for my fair dues?
Fair dues.
Itis I, Shere Khan, who speaks!
And it is I, Raksha the Demon,
who answer!
The Man's cub is mine.
Mind to me!
He shall not be killed.
He shall live to run with the Pack
and to hunt with the Pack.
And in the end, look,
you hunter of little naked cubs.
Frog-eater!
He shall hunt you.
Now get hence!
Back to your starved cattle.
Branded beast of the Jungle!
Gol
Each dog barks in his own yard.
We shall see what your Pack will say
to this fostering of Man's cubs,
o bush-tail thieves!
Bush-tail thieves!
Shere Khan speaks this much of the truth.
The cub must be shown to the Pack.
Would you still keep him, Mother?
Keep him?
He came naked by night,
alone and very hungry,
yet he was not afraid.
Keep him?
Assuredly, I will keep him.
Sleep well, o Mowgli.
Mowgli the Frog, I will call you.
But what will the Pack say?
The Law of the Jungle
lays down very clearly
that as soon as wolf cubs
are old enough to stand on their feet,
they must be brought
to the Council Rock
so that Akela, the Pack leader,
can recognize them,
and so the other wolves may identify them
as members of the Pack.
Wolves, you know the Law.
Look!
Look well.
Look well, O Wolves.
You know the Law! Look!
Look well!
Look well, O Wolves!
Look well, O Wolves!
Look!
The cub is mine!
Give him to mel
What have the Free People to do
with a Man's cub?
Yes. What?
Look well, O Wolves.
What have the Free People to do
with the orders of any
save the Free People?
What have the Free People to do
with a man's cub?
Yes, what do we have to do with a Man?
Why shouldn't we give him to Shere Khan?
Right! We are wolves.
This is a Man's cub!
Who speaks for the Man's cub?
Now, the Law of the Jungle
lays down that if there is any dispute
as to the right of a cub
to be accepted by the Pack,
he must be spoken for
by at least two members of the Pack
who are not his father and mother.
The Man's cub?
Man's cub?
I speak for the Man's cub.
There's no harm in a man's cub.
I have no gift for words,
but I speak the truth.
Let him run with the Pack,
and be entered with the others.
I myself will teach him.
The only other creature
who was allowed at the Pack council
is Baloo,
the sleepy brown bear
who teaches the wolf cubs
the Law of the Jungle.
We need yet another.
Baloo has spoken.
Who speaks besides Baloo?
O Akela, and you Free People,
I have no right to speak in your assembly,
but the Law of the Jungle says
that if there is a doubt
in regard to a new cub,
the life of that cub
may be bought at a price.
Am I right?
- Good! Good!
- Listen to Bagheeral
The cub can be bought for a price!
- It is the Law!
- Baloo has spoken on his behalf.
Now, to Baloo's word,
I will add one bull,
and a fat one, newly killed,
not half a mile from here,
if you will accept the Man's cub
according to the Law.
Is it difficult?
- What does it matter?
- He will die in the winter rain.
He will scorch in the sun!
What harm can a naked frog do us?
Let him run with the Pack.
Look well!
Look well, O Wolves!
And that is how Mowgli
was entered into
the Seeonee wolf pack:
for the price of a bull
and Baloo's good word.
Now, we must be content
to skip 10 or 11 whole years
and only guess at the wonderful life
Mowgli led among the wolves.
Because if it were written,
it would fill an enormous book.
He lived with the Seeonee wolf pack
and with the cubs,
although they, of course,
were grown wolves
almost before he was a child.
Father Wolf taught him the meaning
of all things in the Jungle,
until every rustle in the grass,
every breath of warm night air,
every note of an owl above his head,
every scratch of a bat's claws
as it roosted for a while at a tree,
and every splash of every little fish
jumping in a pool
meant just as much to him
as our everyday work means to us.
He took his place
at the Council Rock, too,
when the Pack met.
And there, he discovered that
if he stared very hard at any wolf,
the wolf would be forced
to uneasily drop his eyes.
And so, like any other boy,
he stared at them for fun.
But he learned kindness, too,
and picked long thorns out of their paws,
for wolves suffer terribly
from thorns and burs in their coats.
His insatiable curiosity
led him down the hillside
into the cultivated lands by night,
where he stared at the villagers
and the fascinating habit they have
of wearing extra skins on their bodies.
He borrowed some to see how it felt,
but the turban was
a complete mystery to him.
And the rest of it seemed
to only have one advantage.
It scared Tabagqui half out of his wits.
In the end, Mowgli found himself
most comfortable
in practically nothing at all.
And so, Mowgli grew,
and grew strong,
as a boy must grow who does not know
he is learning any lessons
and who has nothing
in the world to think of
except things to eat and teasing tigers.
Little Brother,
how often have I told you
that Shere Khan is your enemy?
As many times as there
are nuts on that palm.
Oh, what of it?
I'm sleepy, Bagheera.
And Shere Khan
is all long tail and loud talk.
Shere Khan is all long teeth
and long memory.
He has never forgiven or forgotten
his humiliation at the Council Rock
when you were admitted to the Pack.
Akela grows old and tired.
As Akela, the leader
of the Seeonee Wolf Pack,
grew older and feebler,
Shere Khan came to be great friends
with the younger Wolves of the Pack,
who followed him for scraps--
a thing Akela would never have allowed
when he was young and strong.
I often wonder,
Tabaqui, my friend,
why such fine young hunters
are content to be led
by a dying wolf and a Man's cub.
Why, Master, the Man's cub
pulls thorns out of their paws.
He is their master, as you are mine.
I am sure that these
brave young hunters are not aware
that they are the laughingstock
of the Jungle.
Perhaps it is well
that they never find out.
Shere Khan dare not kill you in the Jungle
where we can protect you.
But remember, Akela is very old.
It is in my heart that when
Akela misses his next kill,
he will be leader no more.
That is the Law.
Yes. The Pack will turn against him.
And against you.
Me?
Me?
And remember, Mowgli,
many of the Wolves that voted you
into the Pack are old, too.
Many young Wolves believe only
what Shere Khan
has carefully taught them.
He has taught them that Man
has no place in the Pack.
And, in a short time, Mowgli,
you will no longer
be a Man-cub, but a Man.
But I am not a Man!
I am a Wolf!
No, Mowgli.
You'll soon be a Man.
And so, as a Man, you must go back
to the Lairs of Men at last,
for they are your brothers.
So...when the Council meets next,
I will be thrown out of the Pack or killed.
Why do I not return
to my brothers the Men now?
Because they will kill Akela.
You must save Akela from the death.
And with you gone,
Mother Wolf and Father Wolf
will be killed, too.
If that mangy cat dares touch
one hair of my family--
Wait, Mowgli.
What we must plan now is what to do
when Akela misses his buck.
I have it!
What we need is the Red Flower!
The Red Flower.
The Red Flower!
We will go the lairs when Men live
and pick the Red Flower!
Come, Bagheeral
Keep watch, Baloo!
Yes, Mowgli.
With the Red Flower,
you will have even a stronger friend
than I or Bagheera.
By Red Flower,
Baloo meant fire.
But no creature in the Jungle
will call fire by its proper name.
Every beast lives
in deadly fear of it.
O Wolves!
Hear the great Shere Khan!
Free People!
The Pack leadership
has been forfeited
by this toothless fool.
He has missed his kill!
He is doomed!
It is the Man's cub
who has lived too long!
Give him to mel
He is a Man!
A Man's child.
And from the marrow
of my bones, I hate him!
Free People!
Does Shere Khan lead the Pack?
Are we all jackals
to fawn on this cattle-butcher?
Silence!
You Man's cub!
Let the Man-cub speak.
He has kept our Law.
Silence!
He is Shere Khan's meat!
Give him to Shere Khan!
He is our brother in all but blood,
and you would kill him.
Indeed, I have lived too long.
He pulls thorns from our toes!
He pulls burrs from our coats!
He shames us!
He is a Man!
- He is a Man!
- Yeah! A Man's cub!
Give him to Shere Khan!
No Man's cub can run with
the People of the Jungle!
Give him to mel
Kill Akela! Kill Akela!
Save Akela from death.
He was ever your friend.
Kill Akela!
Kill Akela!
Kill the Man!
Kill the Man!
Akela goes free
to live as he pleases,
and you will not kill him!
For that is not my willl
You have told me so often tonight
that I am a Man.
And indeed, I would have been
a wolf with you to my life's end.
That I feel your words are true!
Go. I do not call you
my brothers anymore,
but dogs, as a Man should.
I see that you are indeed dogs.
And I am a Man.
And I go to my own people,
if they be my people.
But there is a debt
to pay before I go.
Up, mangy cat!
Up when a Man speaks.
Cattle-butcher said
he would kill me as a Man
because he had not
killed me as a cub.
Stir a whisker,
and I ram the Red Flower
down your throat!
Go, singed cat!
This is honored ground.
Do not think you will
sit here any longer,
lolling out your tongues
as though you were somebodies...
instead of dogs,
whom I drive out thus!
Gol
What is it?
What is wrong with my eyes?
Am I dying, Bagheera?
No, Little Brother.
It is only tears, such as Men use.
Now I know that you are a Man,
and the Jungle is shut,
indeed, to you, forever.
Let them fall, Mowgli.
They are only tears.
You-- You will not forget me?
Little naked son of mine,
I loved you more
than ever I loved my own cubs.
The dawn was beginning to break
when Mowgli went down
the hillside, alone,
to meet those mysterious things...
called Men.
Now, this is the Law of the Jungle,
as old and as true as the sky.
And a Wolf that shall
keep it may prosper,
but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk,
the Law runs both forward and back.
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf.
And the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
It was 7:00 of a very warm evening
in the Seeonee hills
when Father Wolf woke up
from his day's rest...
It's time to hunt again.
...and spread out his paws,
one after the other,
to get rid of the sleepy feeling in their tips.
Good luck go with you,
O Chief of the Wolves.
And good luck and strong teeth
go with the noble children,
that they may never forget
the hungry in this world.
Enter, then, and eat what you can find.
But there is little food here.
Oh, for a wolf, no.
But for so humble a person as myself,
a dried bone is a good feast.
It was the jackal,
Tabaqui, the Dish-Licker.
Shere Khan, the Big One,
has shifted his hunting grounds.
He will hunt among these hills
for the next moon,
or so he has told me.
Shere Khan was the great white tiger
who lived near the Waingunga River,
20 miles away.
He has no right.
By the Law of the Jungle,
he has no right to change his quarters
without due warning.
Shall I tell him of your displeasure,
O King of the Wolves?
Out! Out and hunt
with your master, Pot-Licker!
A good deed never goes unpunished.
That fool.
To begin a night's work with that noise.
Does Shere Khan think that--
It is neither buck nor bullock
he hunts tonight.
It is Man.
Man?
Not Man on our hunting ground.
The Law of the Jungle, which never
orders anything without reason,
forbids every beast to eat Man.
The reason for this is that
Man-killing means, sooner or later,
that men will come with guns
and set the grass alight,
and hundreds of men will scour
the Jungle for the killer,
with gongs and rockets and torches.
Then everybody in the Jungle suffers.
This way, O Master.
Oh, he went this way.
Something is coming up the hill.
Man!
A Man's cub! Look!
And a Man's cub it was, indeed,
as soft and as dimpled a little atom
as ever came to a wolf's cave at night.
Is that a man's cub?
I have never seen one.
Bring it here.
How little.
How naked.
And how bold.
So this is a man's cub.
He is altogether without hair,
and I could kill him
with a touch of my paw.
But see?
He looks up and is not afraid.
My lord, my lord!
It went in there!
Shere Khan does us great honor.
What does Shere Khan need?
My quarry.
The Man's cub.
Its parents escaped me.
Give it to mel
It is his.
Give it to him.
The Wolves are a Free People.
They take orders
from the head of the Pack,
and not from any striped cattle-killer.
The man's cub is ours to Kill if we choose.
You choose, and you do not choose.
What is this talk of choosing, O Master?
Am I to stand,
nosing into your dog's den
for my fair dues?
Fair dues.
Itis I, Shere Khan, who speaks!
And it is I, Raksha the Demon,
who answer!
The Man's cub is mine.
Mind to me!
He shall not be killed.
He shall live to run with the Pack
and to hunt with the Pack.
And in the end, look,
you hunter of little naked cubs.
Frog-eater!
He shall hunt you.
Now get hence!
Back to your starved cattle.
Branded beast of the Jungle!
Gol
Each dog barks in his own yard.
We shall see what your Pack will say
to this fostering of Man's cubs,
o bush-tail thieves!
Bush-tail thieves!
Shere Khan speaks this much of the truth.
The cub must be shown to the Pack.
Would you still keep him, Mother?
Keep him?
He came naked by night,
alone and very hungry,
yet he was not afraid.
Keep him?
Assuredly, I will keep him.
Sleep well, o Mowgli.
Mowgli the Frog, I will call you.
But what will the Pack say?
The Law of the Jungle
lays down very clearly
that as soon as wolf cubs
are old enough to stand on their feet,
they must be brought
to the Council Rock
so that Akela, the Pack leader,
can recognize them,
and so the other wolves may identify them
as members of the Pack.
Wolves, you know the Law.
Look!
Look well.
Look well, O Wolves.
You know the Law! Look!
Look well!
Look well, O Wolves!
Look well, O Wolves!
Look!
The cub is mine!
Give him to mel
What have the Free People to do
with a Man's cub?
Yes. What?
Look well, O Wolves.
What have the Free People to do
with the orders of any
save the Free People?
What have the Free People to do
with a man's cub?
Yes, what do we have to do with a Man?
Why shouldn't we give him to Shere Khan?
Right! We are wolves.
This is a Man's cub!
Who speaks for the Man's cub?
Now, the Law of the Jungle
lays down that if there is any dispute
as to the right of a cub
to be accepted by the Pack,
he must be spoken for
by at least two members of the Pack
who are not his father and mother.
The Man's cub?
Man's cub?
I speak for the Man's cub.
There's no harm in a man's cub.
I have no gift for words,
but I speak the truth.
Let him run with the Pack,
and be entered with the others.
I myself will teach him.
The only other creature
who was allowed at the Pack council
is Baloo,
the sleepy brown bear
who teaches the wolf cubs
the Law of the Jungle.
We need yet another.
Baloo has spoken.
Who speaks besides Baloo?
O Akela, and you Free People,
I have no right to speak in your assembly,
but the Law of the Jungle says
that if there is a doubt
in regard to a new cub,
the life of that cub
may be bought at a price.
Am I right?
- Good! Good!
- Listen to Bagheeral
The cub can be bought for a price!
- It is the Law!
- Baloo has spoken on his behalf.
Now, to Baloo's word,
I will add one bull,
and a fat one, newly killed,
not half a mile from here,
if you will accept the Man's cub
according to the Law.
Is it difficult?
- What does it matter?
- He will die in the winter rain.
He will scorch in the sun!
What harm can a naked frog do us?
Let him run with the Pack.
Look well!
Look well, O Wolves!
And that is how Mowgli
was entered into
the Seeonee wolf pack:
for the price of a bull
and Baloo's good word.
Now, we must be content
to skip 10 or 11 whole years
and only guess at the wonderful life
Mowgli led among the wolves.
Because if it were written,
it would fill an enormous book.
He lived with the Seeonee wolf pack
and with the cubs,
although they, of course,
were grown wolves
almost before he was a child.
Father Wolf taught him the meaning
of all things in the Jungle,
until every rustle in the grass,
every breath of warm night air,
every note of an owl above his head,
every scratch of a bat's claws
as it roosted for a while at a tree,
and every splash of every little fish
jumping in a pool
meant just as much to him
as our everyday work means to us.
He took his place
at the Council Rock, too,
when the Pack met.
And there, he discovered that
if he stared very hard at any wolf,
the wolf would be forced
to uneasily drop his eyes.
And so, like any other boy,
he stared at them for fun.
But he learned kindness, too,
and picked long thorns out of their paws,
for wolves suffer terribly
from thorns and burs in their coats.
His insatiable curiosity
led him down the hillside
into the cultivated lands by night,
where he stared at the villagers
and the fascinating habit they have
of wearing extra skins on their bodies.
He borrowed some to see how it felt,
but the turban was
a complete mystery to him.
And the rest of it seemed
to only have one advantage.
It scared Tabagqui half out of his wits.
In the end, Mowgli found himself
most comfortable
in practically nothing at all.
And so, Mowgli grew,
and grew strong,
as a boy must grow who does not know
he is learning any lessons
and who has nothing
in the world to think of
except things to eat and teasing tigers.
Little Brother,
how often have I told you
that Shere Khan is your enemy?
As many times as there
are nuts on that palm.
Oh, what of it?
I'm sleepy, Bagheera.
And Shere Khan
is all long tail and loud talk.
Shere Khan is all long teeth
and long memory.
He has never forgiven or forgotten
his humiliation at the Council Rock
when you were admitted to the Pack.
Akela grows old and tired.
As Akela, the leader
of the Seeonee Wolf Pack,
grew older and feebler,
Shere Khan came to be great friends
with the younger Wolves of the Pack,
who followed him for scraps--
a thing Akela would never have allowed
when he was young and strong.
I often wonder,
Tabaqui, my friend,
why such fine young hunters
are content to be led
by a dying wolf and a Man's cub.
Why, Master, the Man's cub
pulls thorns out of their paws.
He is their master, as you are mine.
I am sure that these
brave young hunters are not aware
that they are the laughingstock
of the Jungle.
Perhaps it is well
that they never find out.
Shere Khan dare not kill you in the Jungle
where we can protect you.
But remember, Akela is very old.
It is in my heart that when
Akela misses his next kill,
he will be leader no more.
That is the Law.
Yes. The Pack will turn against him.
And against you.
Me?
Me?
And remember, Mowgli,
many of the Wolves that voted you
into the Pack are old, too.
Many young Wolves believe only
what Shere Khan
has carefully taught them.
He has taught them that Man
has no place in the Pack.
And, in a short time, Mowgli,
you will no longer
be a Man-cub, but a Man.
But I am not a Man!
I am a Wolf!
No, Mowgli.
You'll soon be a Man.
And so, as a Man, you must go back
to the Lairs of Men at last,
for they are your brothers.
So...when the Council meets next,
I will be thrown out of the Pack or killed.
Why do I not return
to my brothers the Men now?
Because they will kill Akela.
You must save Akela from the death.
And with you gone,
Mother Wolf and Father Wolf
will be killed, too.
If that mangy cat dares touch
one hair of my family--
Wait, Mowgli.
What we must plan now is what to do
when Akela misses his buck.
I have it!
What we need is the Red Flower!
The Red Flower.
The Red Flower!
We will go the lairs when Men live
and pick the Red Flower!
Come, Bagheeral
Keep watch, Baloo!
Yes, Mowgli.
With the Red Flower,
you will have even a stronger friend
than I or Bagheera.
By Red Flower,
Baloo meant fire.
But no creature in the Jungle
will call fire by its proper name.
Every beast lives
in deadly fear of it.
O Wolves!
Hear the great Shere Khan!
Free People!
The Pack leadership
has been forfeited
by this toothless fool.
He has missed his kill!
He is doomed!
It is the Man's cub
who has lived too long!
Give him to mel
He is a Man!
A Man's child.
And from the marrow
of my bones, I hate him!
Free People!
Does Shere Khan lead the Pack?
Are we all jackals
to fawn on this cattle-butcher?
Silence!
You Man's cub!
Let the Man-cub speak.
He has kept our Law.
Silence!
He is Shere Khan's meat!
Give him to Shere Khan!
He is our brother in all but blood,
and you would kill him.
Indeed, I have lived too long.
He pulls thorns from our toes!
He pulls burrs from our coats!
He shames us!
He is a Man!
- He is a Man!
- Yeah! A Man's cub!
Give him to Shere Khan!
No Man's cub can run with
the People of the Jungle!
Give him to mel
Kill Akela! Kill Akela!
Save Akela from death.
He was ever your friend.
Kill Akela!
Kill Akela!
Kill the Man!
Kill the Man!
Akela goes free
to live as he pleases,
and you will not kill him!
For that is not my willl
You have told me so often tonight
that I am a Man.
And indeed, I would have been
a wolf with you to my life's end.
That I feel your words are true!
Go. I do not call you
my brothers anymore,
but dogs, as a Man should.
I see that you are indeed dogs.
And I am a Man.
And I go to my own people,
if they be my people.
But there is a debt
to pay before I go.
Up, mangy cat!
Up when a Man speaks.
Cattle-butcher said
he would kill me as a Man
because he had not
killed me as a cub.
Stir a whisker,
and I ram the Red Flower
down your throat!
Go, singed cat!
This is honored ground.
Do not think you will
sit here any longer,
lolling out your tongues
as though you were somebodies...
instead of dogs,
whom I drive out thus!
Gol
What is it?
What is wrong with my eyes?
Am I dying, Bagheera?
No, Little Brother.
It is only tears, such as Men use.
Now I know that you are a Man,
and the Jungle is shut,
indeed, to you, forever.
Let them fall, Mowgli.
They are only tears.
You-- You will not forget me?
Little naked son of mine,
I loved you more
than ever I loved my own cubs.
The dawn was beginning to break
when Mowgli went down
the hillside, alone,
to meet those mysterious things...
called Men.