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Great Scene: “Witness”
4 min readJun 10, 2020
Oscar-winning project has been called a B-movie with A-movie performances.
IMDb plot summary: A young Amish boy is sole witness to a murder; policeman John Book goes into hiding in Amish country to protect him.
If I asked you to name the most memorable scene in Witness (1985), it would probably be this one: Where young Samuel witnesses a murder in a Philadelphia train station bathroom. It is an incident that unbeknownst to the story’s Protagonist John Book (Harrison Ford) will become his Call To Adventure. Here is the scene from the script:
ANGLE IN MEN'S ROOMAs Samuel enters.It's a long row of sinks, urinals, and stalls... Samuel stops
before one of the urinals – a long, trough-like affair with
water drizzling down the rear porcelain panel.It's set a little high for Samuel, and it is making GLUGGING
FLUSHING NOISES that are, at least, intimidating. Samuel
stares for a moment, then turns, looks toward the stalls,
stoops to see which are empty.HIS POV – TOILETSBeneath the row of doors we can see no feet visible. Samuel
is alone in the restroom.BACK TO SCENEAs Samuel proceeds along the row of door, finally selects a
stall near the end. He enters. As he does so, a…
