Lawless

Come on, Jack.

- Just pull the damn trigger. -

I can't.

- -

[J' The Bootleggers featuring Mark Lanegan: "Fire and Brimstone"]

My brother Forrest once said,

"Nothing can kill us. We can't never die. "

The reason being that in the great war,

my eldest brother, Howard, saw his entire battalion

drown in the sea.

Every last one of them.

He was the only survivor.

And Forrest, well, that same year,

Spanish Lady flu hit Franklin,

damn near wiped out the entire state.

It got Ma and Pa and Forrest

but against all the odds,

he somehow managed to fight it off.

So you could see why Forrest felt that way.

Me and my brothers are moonshiners.

Bootleggers.

In 1920, they passed the Prohibition Act

making the sale of alcohol illegal.

Well, at least it was supposed to be.

You want a case, Sheriff?

- Morning, Forrest. - Pure corn whiskey.

That there's the white lightning, Sheriff.

It'll come at you like a knife,

pointy end first, sharp and hot all the way down.

Aw, damn it. Give me two.

All right, then.

- You all right there? - Thanks, boys.

Always happy to oblige an officer of the law.

They called Franklin the wettest county in the world

on account of almost everybody was making the stuff.

Now, you can make moonshine whiskey from just about anything.

Whoa! Whoa, whoa! Hey, Selma.

Turnips, pumpkins, blackberries, cornmeal, tree bark.

- Anything. - All right, then.

He's so fucking sick, man, can't get himself out the bed to tend the stills.

- You want me to take it up to him? - No, I can do it.

- - And at night, in them hills,

you could see them fires from the stills burning

like lights on a damn Christmas tree.

Over the mountains, in the cities,

there was the biggest crime wave this country'd ever seen.

- - And all that illegal liquor

was flowing down from the hills to the cities by the truckload.

Gangsters were just scooping money off the streets like candy.

They had men like Al Capone, Tommy Maloy,

that mad dog Floyd Banner.

They just moved in and took over.

Meanwhile, we were hauling stuff around in our old, beat-up jalopies.

All right now, Jack, I want you to stay here.

- What? - Stay in the truck.

Ain't like someone's gonna steal this piece of shit, Forrest.

Just do what you're told, Jack.

- - All right, Forrest, go on.

- -

- -

Amen! Amen!

Here we go. All right, then.

Get some of this.

Welcome, welcome. How're you boys doing?

Sorry to hear about Little Bean, Ida Belle.

You know Little Bean loved his gals and his giggle water.

She sure is giving him one hell of a send-off.

Give me your money, boy.

Yeah, you do as I say

- or I'm gonna out you. - Hold on, now, I ain't got nothing.

I'm just a driver.

You boys staying?

No, we gotta be getting off, Ida Belle.

Come on, Forrest, one damn drink.

No, we better be getting back now.

You ever seen a Harlem sunset?

Well, I'm fixing to cut one right into you...

I ain't got nothing.

...If you don't hand over that goddamn money.

Motherfucker.

Here, I'll take care of this.

Hey you, come on now, you don't want to do this.

Why don't you put that knife away, take you and your friends on home?

I'd listen to him if I was you.

You the boss?

You just sold a load to those dinges in there, didn't you?

You hand over that cash or I'm gonna cut some daylight into you.

Listen here, mister.

We got no way of understanding this world.

We got about as much sense of it as a bird flying in the sky.

There is a lot that bird don't know.

But it don't change the fact that

the world is happening to him all the same.

What I'm trying to say is...

...is that the course of your life, it is changing.

- You don't even see it. - What are you talking about?

Let's go!

Yep. That's what he's talking about.

- - Yeah, all right now.

You all right there, Jack?

Just caught me off guard is all.

You still good to drive?

- Fuck you, Howard. - Oh, whatever you say,

- little doggie. -

- I -

All right, Jack, come on, we gotta go set up over here.

Thank you.

Finest apple?

All right, then.

Are you gonna talk to Forrest about taking some of me and Cricket's liquor?

- We're working on somethin' big. - What do you mean talk to him?

About letting us in, Howard.

Not with that damn popskull shit you been cooking up.

- We're still perfecting it. - Perfecting it, my ass,

Jack, that shit ain't fit to slop hogs.

Forrest don't want you involved, is all.

Why is that?

'Cause he don't think you got the grit.

Gimme another jar, Jack. Huh?

You might wanna slow down some, Howard. We're trying to sell this stuff.

- Who is that? - She's one of them crazies

from that church at Burnt Chimney.

Her daddy over there, he's gonna be the preacher.

You wanna get yourself a crowbar, Jack, if you wanna get inside of her.

She don't look that crazy.

Her daddy don't look too happy, neither.

All right, now.

Jack, go on and take this around the back.

Store whatever's left in the shed.

You too, Howard.

- Come on, Jack. - Yeah.

Are you Forrest Bondurant?

Um...

I'm Maggie Beaufort.

They say in town you're looking for someone to help out 'round the place.

- - Is that position still vacant?

Forgive me for asking, but, um...

...what does a lady like you...

...want here?

The city can grind a girl down.

Gets to a point where you start looking for somewhere quiet.

Damn.

Well, Mr. Bondurant...

...do I get the job?

Quick. Quick.

- -

Hey!

Cricket!

Hey!

- Hey! -

You ain't never gonna believe what I just seen.

Floyd Banner shoot the tires out of a goddamn ATU car

right smack in the middle of town with a goddamn Tommy gun.

- Floyd Banner? - Floyd Banner.

Oh, hey, look here. In the middle of all that, I was thinking about you.

Got you one of these shell cases, Cricket.

- Oh, thanks, Jack! - Yeah.

Figured we could put holes in it, you know.

Put a chain through it, hang it around our necks for luck or something.

Floyd Banner. He looked like he had direction, vision.

You got smoke coming out the cabin.

Jesus Christ, Cricket.

- This gonna work? - Naturally,

I'm still messing with the recipe, of course.

And with this set-up through the pipes,

no one'll even know it's down here.

The man tucks away his bottle, out he goes.

Well... Partner, I don't know if that's the stupidest thing I ever seen

or you're some kind of damn genius.

- Ooh. - Mm-hm.

Did Jimmy pay us?

- Yup. - He did?

Thank you.

Hi, Forrest.

This here's the new Special Deputy.

He's been brought in from the city to help us out.

You know, make sure things go smooth.

What things might they be?

Sorry, something amuse you?

My name is Charlie Rakes, I'm from Chicago.

That damn brother of yours, is he somewhere about?

Who's in the car?

That there's the new Commonwealth's Attorney, Mason Wardell.

He wants to work it out so everybody gets to do some business.

Henry, go see what Mr. Wardell wants.

Pete, who the hell is this son of a bitch?

Me? I'm the one who's going to make your life real difficult from now on

if you don't toe the line, country boy.

Don't you ever touch me again.

- - All right, all right.

Forrest, it already settled.

The whole county's gonna get on board eventually.