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Short filmTranscript
00:00In the middle of the desert, a bunch of boys are digging holes in the sand under the scorching sun.
00:05Suddenly a rattlesnake appears nearby and a boy that can't take the work anymore decides to take
00:09off his shoes to touch the snake, meeting his end. Meanwhile in the city, Stanley Yelnats IV is
00:14walking by when suddenly a pair of shoes falls on his head, knocking him down. Since his dad is
00:19working on a cure for stinky feet, Stanley decides to bring the shoes home, but at that moment the
00:23police surround him. Those shoes belong to a famous baseball player and were stolen from a
00:27charity event, so now the cops think Stanley did it. The police take him to see his parents and
00:32immediately notice suspicious things. His dad Stanley III has an apartment filled with dozens of
00:36shoes, and Stanley IV has posters of the baseball star on his wall. Considering this proof, Stanley
00:41is taken to court, where he's offered two options, jail, or spending 18 months in Camp Green Lake.
00:47Stanley obviously chooses the camp, and during the trip, he can't help wondering if this incident is
00:51part of the family curse. The bus crosses a vast desert full of holes, and for a second Stanley
00:56thinks he can see a merchant with his mule, but it seems it's just his imagination. He arrives at a
01:01small shady town, which is filled with boys wearing prison uniforms. Stanley meets the warden's right
01:06hand Mr. Sir, who finds Stanley's name funny. The boy explains the family's surname Yelnats as
01:10Stanley backward, and naming the son Stanley became a tradition to keep the pun, but Mr. Sir doesn't care
01:15and proceeds to share how things work here. The camp doesn't have watchtowers or fences because
01:20there's nothing but desert for hundreds of miles without a single source of water, so nobody dares to
01:24escape. Stanley is given only two sets of clothing and a shovel, which will be used to make holes.
01:29Every day Stanley must dig one hole five foot deep and measure it with a shovel. The longer it takes
01:34him to dig, the longer he'll stay out in the sun. He also has to be careful to avoid rattlesnakes and
01:39yellow-spotted lizards, because they can kill him. Next Stanley meets the camp's counselor Dr. Podanski,
01:44who shows him around and tells him the number one rule is not to bother the warden. Podanski makes the
01:48other boys take Stanley to the place where he'll sleep, which has vomit stains from the dead child.
01:52The doctor calls the guys by their real names, but they only refer to each other by using the nicknames
01:57they've acquired here. The youngest boy is Zero, who gets called that because he never talks.
02:02Afterward, Stanley asks where he can fill his canteen, but when he uses a boy's real name,
02:06the guy pushes him around to remind him to use the nicknames. Then Stanley grabs dinner, which is just
02:11beans made in different ways. X-Ray steals some of his food, claiming he deserves it more because
02:15Stanley hasn't dug today. The boys ask Stanley why he was sent here, and when he answers he stole famous
02:21shoes, Zero shocks everyone by asking him if they had stars on them. As Stanley confirms it, he remembers
02:26part of the trial, during which the baseball star explained he grew up in an orphanage and that's why
02:30he donated to charity, calling Stanley a fake fan. Late in the evening, Stanley can't sleep and remembers
02:35that his grandfather claims the family is cursed, that's why Stanley III never is successful with his
02:39inventions. Even Stanley I was unlucky, he made a fortune in the stock market but was killed by an infamous
02:45criminal known as Kissing Kate. She got that nickname because she would kiss her victims after
02:49killing them, leaving bright lipstick on their faces. However she didn't kiss Stanley, she just
02:54took his treasure chest and left him stranded in the desert. The next morning, the boys are woken up
02:58when it's still dark to start working. Everyone gets a tortilla for breakfast and a shovel, but when
03:03Stanley grabs one, X-Ray pushes him and takes it from him. It turns out X-Ray's shovel is shorter and
03:08doesn't let anyone else use it. When they arrive at the digging spot, Mr. Sir explains to Stanley that if he
03:13finds anything interesting while digging, then he must report it, and if the warden likes it then he
03:17gets the day off. However Mr. Sir claims that they aren't digging for anything in particular, it's only
03:22to build character. All the boys get to work and when they throw the dirt, sometimes it falls into
03:26another hole. Stanley tries to ask them to be careful, but the boys just laugh at him while Stanley
03:31works on his hole, he thinks about the curse again. His ancestor Elia worked in a pig farm and fell in
03:36love with the boss's daughter Myra. He visited the local fortune teller Madame Zeroni to learn how to win
03:40the girl's heart, but Zeroni told him to forget about the girl and travel to America to meet his
03:44fate. Elia didn't give up and asked his boss for Myra's hand, however there was another candidate
03:49offering a huge pig as dowry and Elia was turned down. He returned to Zeroni, who finally took pity
03:54on him and taught him a trick. Elia had to take a small piglet up the mountain every day to drink
03:58from the stream while Elia sang a tune for it. Elia would grow stronger and the pig would grow larger
04:02until it could be used as the best dowry. After handing in the pig, he had to come back and carry
04:07Zeroni up the mountain so she could drink too. If he failed to do that, a curse would fall on him
04:11and all his descendants. Stanley followed every step for a few days until the pig was huge, so he
04:16took it to his boss. However both pigs were the same size and the boss let Myra choose who to marry.
04:21Myra couldn't make up her mind and offered a guessing game to decide, but Stanley was so offended
04:26by her flippin' attitude that he decided to go to America like Zeroni first told him. Unfortunately he
04:30forgot to take Zeroni to the mountain before leaving, so she cursed the family as promised. Back to the
04:35present, Mr. Sir stops by the holes with his truck so the boys can fill the canteens with water and
04:40teases Stanley for getting his first blisters on his hands. The first one to finish working is Zero,
04:44who is a very fast digger and the boys think he eats the sand. When Stanley finally finishes his hole,
04:49nobody helps him get out of it, so he has to learn to climb out alone. Once he's back in town,
04:54he finds Mr. Sir pointing a gun at him, but actually he's shooting a yellow spotter lizard.
04:58The shot misses and the lizard jumps out to attack Stanley, but Mr. Sir shoots again and the
05:02little lizard dies. Days start to pass and Stanley starts getting used to the camp's routine. He wakes
05:07up early, eats nasty beans, then spends the day digging, which causes more blisters on his hands.
05:13There often are dangerous animals around, and sometimes the shower doesn't even work. The other
05:18boys also keep bothering him, making fun of him for being a softie. Stanley lays low to avoid trouble
05:23and when he writes to his mom, he lies and says he's having a wonderful time in a normal summer camp.
05:27One afternoon, Stanley discovers a fossil and brings it to Podanski, however the doctor informs
05:32him the warden doesn't care about fossils. He also shares that there used to be a lake in this area
05:37and that the land surrounding it belonged to the warden's grandfather. This triggers a flashback
05:41showing how the town used to be lively and thriving. A merchant called Sam often came with his cart
05:45pulled by his mule to sell wonderful onions, which he claimed could cure all diseases and keep
05:49deadly lizards away. Sam had a crush on the local teacher Catherine and always brought a sack of
05:54onions just for her, so she would give a jar of peaches she gathered in exchange. All the men in
05:58town liked Catherine and disliked the attention Sam would get from her. One rainy day, Catherine had
06:03to send the kids home because of the leaks on the school roof, so Sam volunteered to fix them.
06:07This allowed him to spend more time and bond with her, so he started to fix other parts of the school
06:11too. However he also had to watch how the evening adult class kept throwing inappropriate comments at
06:16her. The warden's grandfather Walker actually asked her out, but she turned him down, leaving him
06:21furious. Eventually the school became the most beautiful building in town, but Sam lost his
06:25mule, so he got a boat instead. One rainy afternoon, Sam and Catherine finally gathered enough courage
06:31to kiss, unaware they were seen by Walker who immediately spread the news around town. In just
06:35a few hours, the townsmen came together and burned down the school as punishment. Catherine rushed to ask
06:40the sheriff for help, but he was drunk and asked her for a kiss. As Catherine pushed him away, the sheriff
06:45mocked her and called Sam slurs, reminding her that interracial relationships are illegal and Sam would be
06:50executed. Horrified, Catherine ran to warn Sam but it was too late, the townsmen shot him while he was on
06:55his boat. Sometime later, Catherine came back and shot the sheriff before giving him the kiss he wanted.
07:01Then she left town and became the outlaw known as Kissing Kate. Back to the present, X-Ray approaches
07:05Stanley and tells him that the next time he finds anything, he should bring it to him. Later in town,
07:11Stanley accidentally falls on one of his tormentors and almost gets in a fight. The boys immediately calm
07:15them down, but now Stanley has earned their respect. He is nicknamed Caveman and even gets a
07:20better spot in the water line. Sometime later, Stanley gets a letter from his mother, telling him
07:24his father's experiment keeps failing and that the landlord may kick them out soon. Zero notices Stanley
07:29is ready and admits he never learned, so he asks Stanley to teach him. However Stanley refuses, saying he
07:35isn't a good teacher and that he's too tired at the end of the day so he needs his rest. During another
07:39digging session, Stanley is surprised to discover a little object with the initials KB. The boys wonder if
07:44it's a shotgun shell, but it seems to be too thin. X-Ray takes the object, ignoring Stanley trying to
07:50stand up for himself. As soon as Podanski sees it, he contacts the boss, who immediately comes over and
07:55the boys are shocked to discover the warden is a beautiful woman. She's very pleased with this
07:59discovery, so she tells X-Ray to take the day off and instructs the others to completely excavate the
08:04area around X-Ray's hole. That afternoon the boys work much more than usual, but they don't find anything
08:08because it's the wrong spot. For the next few days, the boys have to keep on digging in the same tunnel
08:13they've created, yet the only thing they find is a small dial. Soon the warden gives up and the boys go back to
08:18digging individual holes. The next day while Mr. Sir is filling their canteens, one of the boys steals a bag of
08:24sunflower seeds from the truck. After Sir leaves, the boys begin sharing them, but unfortunately Mr. Sir quickly
08:30notices the bag is missing and turns the truck around. The boys rush to hide the seeds and they accidentally
08:34spill at Stanley's feet, so he does his best to cover them with sand. When Mr. Sir returns, he still sees
08:40the seeds, so Stanley covers for his friend and says he did it, shocking everyone. Then Mr. Sir brings
08:45Stanley to see the warden for punishment. Inside her office, there are lots of posters about kissing
08:50Kate and the warden proceeds to show her special nail polish that she makes with rattlesnake venom.
08:55After quickly painting her nails, the warden slaps Mr. Sir for interrupting Stanley's digging over
08:59something stupid like seeds, then she sends Stanley back to digging. When he returns to the digging area,
09:04the guys see him as a hero and Zero has finished his hole. As thanks, Stanley agrees to teach Zero
09:09how to read. The next time they see Mr. Sir, he has two horrible scars left by the nails, and he's so
09:15angry with Stanley that he doesn't fill his canteen. As Stanley remembers what he saw in the office,
09:20he thinks that the little tube he found was kissing Kate's lipstick. Another flashback shows that Kate only
09:24killed the people who were involved in Sam's death and the destruction of the school. However she did steal a
09:29lot, and after taking the treasure chest from Stanley I, she buried it where the lake used to be.
09:34While she was resting, she was found by Walker and his wife, who were desperate for money because the
09:38town went to ruins after the lake dried on the day of Sam's death. Instead of killing them,
09:42Kate decided on a sweeter revenge, she let a lizard bite her and took the location of the chest to her
09:47grave, that way William and all his descendants like the warden would be digging forever in such
09:51a big desert. Back to the present, Stanley begins teaching Zero how to read and write. Zero reveals his
09:56real name is Hector Zeroni, meaning he's a descendant of Madame Zeroni. Since Zero is such a fast digger,
10:02he starts helping Stanley with his holes, which makes the other boys envious. One afternoon,
10:07Zero shares the story of his mother, who worked hard to provide for him but one day she disappeared.
10:12Since then Zero has been living on the streets. Sometime later, one of the mean boys continues to
10:16give Stanley a hard time for having help in the hole. Stanley confronts him and Podanski encourages
10:21them to fight to solve their problem. As the boys struggle on the ground, Stanley gets easily
10:25overpowered, so Zero jumps in to help and almost kills the other guy. Podanski shoots in the air to make
10:30them stop, and soon the warden comes by to hear what happened. The boys tell her that Zero is
10:34helping Stanley, so he immediately clarifies that he's teaching Zero to read in return. However the
10:39warden is furious, and Podanski continuously makes fun of Zero as he calls him dumb. Zero finally snaps
10:45and hits Podanski with a shovel before running away in the desert. Mr. Sir wants to go after him,
10:50but the warden tells him not to. Zero had nobody, so they could just delete his files and pretend he was
10:54never here. In the evening, the boys discuss how Zero will die in the desert. Stanley can't stop
11:00worrying and thinks about the story of Stanley the 1st surviving 16 days in the desert after Kate robbed
11:04him. Apparently he found refuge in some place called God's Thumb, but nobody knows what it is
11:09and Stanley the 1st couldn't tell because he was half crazy when they found him. The next day, a new
11:14kid arrives to replace Zero, which bothers Stanley. He makes a plan and when Mr. Sir comes to fill their
11:19canteens, Stanley steals the truck. Mr. Sir immediately goes after him and holds onto the
11:23door, so Stanley tries to push him away and gets distracted, causing the truck to fall into a hole.
11:29Refusing to give up, Stanley leaves the vehicle and runs into the desert as the other boys cheer him on.
11:33When the warden hears about it, she orders Mr. Sir to report Stanley is missing in two weeks
11:38because by then there won't be anything to find. Under the scorching sun, Stanley continues walking and
11:43ignoring all the poisonous lizards in the area. Eventually he finds Sam's boat and Zero is underneath,
11:48tired but alive. He's been surviving by eating the peaches Kate had given Sam all those years ago,
11:53which became jam in the jars. After Stanley also eats some, he notices a mountain in the distance
11:58that looks like a thumb and realizes that's where his ancestor survived. The duo leaves the boat and
12:02starts climbing the mountain, which is quite an effort. Stanley slips and almost falls, but Zero quickly
12:07reaches with his shovel to help him up. Unfortunately this causes Zero's hands to get hurt, so Stanley wraps
12:12them up the best he can. The boys keep going for a while, but soon Zero grows weak and falls.
12:18Stanley catches him before he rolls away, however Zero is too exhausted and passes out. Refusing to
12:23give up, Stanley picks his friend up and carries him all the way to the top of the mountain,
12:27just like his ancestor had taken the pig. Eventually Stanley sees some green and discovers a small
12:32stream with water and Sam's delicious onions. He immediately wakes Zero up and both boys eat and
12:36drink to recover. Stanley also sings a song that his family likes, not knowing it's the pig's song
12:41passed through generations. Now Madame Zeroni's soul can rest in peace. As the curse is lifted from the
12:46family, Stanley III finally finishes his invention and discovers an effective treatment for the foot
12:51odor by blending peaches and onions, so the family celebrates. The next morning, Zero makes a huge
12:56confession. He was the one who stole the shoes. He had seen the shoes as a donation for the shelter
13:01he was in and just took them, not knowing they were famous. However the police soon went after him,
13:05so he took them off and threw them over the bridge, accidentally landing on Stanley. Zero ended up getting
13:10caught while stealing shoes from Payless the next day. Stanley isn't mad though, in fact he sees this as
13:15destiny and is glad it happened. Meanwhile Stanley's lawyer arrives at the camp to pick him up because
13:20it's been decided he's innocent. The warden kicks her out, but the lawyer promises to come back with
13:24reinforcements. Back to Stanley and Zero, once they're feeling better they return to the digging
13:29area and find the hole where Stanley found the lipstick. After lots of digging, they're excited to
13:33finally find the famous chest. At that moment the warden and Mr. Sir find them, however a bunch of
13:38lizards come out and cover both the boys and the chest to protect them. The warden decides to wait for the
13:42lizards to kill the guys and shares a story of how her grandfather used to make her dig even on
13:46Christmas. Morning comes and the lizards still haven't moved or bitten the kids. The wait is
13:51suddenly interrupted by the lawyer, who has arrived with a few cops. The warden invents a story about
13:56the boys stealing the chest from her office and running away with it, but Zero proves they're
13:59innocent by pointing at Stanley's name on it. Afterward they return to town and the lawyer puts the
14:03chest in her car before announcing they're leaving. However Stanley refuses to leave without Zero,
14:08so the lawyer asks for his file. When they discover the file is missing, the cop makes a call to get
14:13permission for an investigation and learns that Mr. Sir is a criminal on the run and Podanski isn't
14:17really a doctor, so both man and the warden get arrested. At that moment, it rains for the first
14:22time in decades and the boys come out to celebrate. A few days later Stanley and Zero open the chest with
14:26the family and find lots of treasure, including shares for AT and .T. Stanley wants to share the treasure
14:32with Zero and the family agrees, so the first thing Zero does with the money is hire private
14:36investigators to find his mother, which results in a very emotional reunion. Sometime later,
14:40the camp is closed and the boys are sent to real counseling. Stanley's and Zero's families
14:45become neighbors in a fancy neighborhood, and their friends from camp visit them often.
14:49Stanley's invention becomes a huge success and the famous baseball star now works on his ads,
14:53proving it was all connected since the very beginning.
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