1. The endless desert gets a noisy visitor
A steam train cuts across the Nevada high desert, throwing smoke into the sky.
Award-winning feature screenplay
The Making of Men
They rigged the game. It destroyed their family.
Critical scenes from the Western survival drama by Jerry W. Jewell.
Awards
Winner — Best Feature Film Screenplay
World Film Festival Cannes
Winner — Best Drama Screenplay
LA Film Awards
Scenes
2. Reckless youth
Elliot and Ethan, identical eight-year-old boys, race across the roof of the moving train. They leap the...
3. Antelope Escape from the Tunnel The boys dive into the coal tender just as the train plunges into a
Darkness, smoke, sparks, and noise swallow them.
4. Sticking together
When they emerge from the tunnel they admire how the antelope stick together just like they do.
5. The Engineer Has His Fun
Covered head to toe in coal dust, the twins stand in the tender while the engineer blasts them with water....
6. A Rare Moment - Em Smiles
Emma's mood lightens when she sees the boys' mess. Laughter is her only way of coping with them.
7. The boys cheat Gladys at poker
In the dining car, Elliot and Ethan sit across from Gladys and play poker using wooden matches. To...
8. Goldfield promised opportunity. It delivered ruin.
The train arrives in Goldfield, Nevada. The town is alive with freight wagons, miners, gamblers, horses,...
9. The easy ride to Bishop was a lie
Sam gets duped into buying a mule, wagon and supplies instead of taking the stagecoach. The route ahead...
10. Leaving Goldfield
With just one old mule, an overloaded wagon, and Em furious beside him, Sam leads the family out of...
11. Exhausted from quarreling
At a desert waterhole, the family makes camp as evening settles over the open country. The wagon stands...
12. Comic relief from cholla thorns
In a painful comic survival beat, Elliot gets cholla cactus stuck in the worst possible place. Sam and...
13. The mule goes lame
The family is forced to abandon the wagon and take a detour to Hornsilver to find another mule.
14. The long walk to Hornsilver
Em can't leave her belongings behind
15. Painful arrival in Hornsilver
After the wagon is abandoned the family reaches Hornsilver with only what they can carry.
16. The boys enter the wild west
Sam is outside taking care of the mule. Em checks into a room upstairs.
17. Em breaks
Em climbs into the bath fully dressed, too exhausted and defeated to care. The water does not cleanse her...
18. Cheating turns deadly
The twins sneak out after Sam and Em fall asleep. They've stolen money from Sam's pants to play poker.
19. Sam's final act
The most dramatic scene of the story. The boys get caught cheating and scream for their father. He jumps...
20. Em disappears
Sam's body is dragged outside and left.
21. All Night with Sam’s Body
Outside the saloon, the boys sit beside their dead father through the night hoping their mother will return.
22. Elliot and Ethan have to bury their own father
At a lonely desert graveyard, the boys face their father’s burial. There are a few rough markers, dry...
23. The boys buy a new mule in Hornsilver
Filthy, hollow-eyed, and newly alone, Elliot and Ethan go to the livery and buy a rough mule with Sam’s...
24. The food is gone
They expected to find everything as they left it. The wagon is still there, the suitcases, blankets, tent,...
25. The Cougar Attacks
The boys meet Silas, a gold prospector on his way to the Assay Office in Bishop.
26. Last camp before Bishop
They've made it to the Owens Valley. There's food and water in abundance.
27. The boys watch kids at recess
At the schoolyard fence in Bishop, the boys watch other children play. While most children pray to be...
28. We meet Margaret
Gladys and her daughter, Margaret, take the boys in.
29. Elliot's trip to Lone Pine
Elliot hauls a load to Lone Pine and spends most of his money on food.
30. The twins' bond breaks
After Elliot takes off to Lone Pine, Ethan just stands in the road depressed.
31. Betrayal confronted
The final scene.
More
About the Writer
Jerry W. Jewell is the writer of The Making of Men, a Western survival drama about twin brothers forced into adulthood after...
Production Notes
All of the locations described in the script are real places that are available for filming. BLM land requires permits but...