12 Years a Slave · written by John Ridley and Steve McQueen · 2013

On the road to the mill, Walton’s wagon stops for a group of Chickasaw travelers; the two groups regard one another across the road.

Scene 102 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:01 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 102

After being kidnapped from New York and sold into slavery, Solomon Northup uses his skills and carefully placed trust to survive and seek a way back to his family.

Scenes 1–29
Solomon lives freely in Saratoga as a husband, father, worker, and musician.
Scenes 30–65
Kidnapped and held under the imposed name Platt, Solomon must preserve his life and identity.
Scene 86
Ford takes Solomon, Harry, and Eliza from Freeman; Eliza is dragged away from Emily, committing Solomon to plantation life and its family separations.
Scene 87
Ford brings Solomon and the other captives into plantation life; Solomon must survive within a system that denies his identity.
Just before
Scene 99
Solomon reads Sam’s Bible at lunch; a white customer attacks Sam for reading, but Ford defends the Bible as his gift and affirms the slaves’ right to Scripture.
Scene 100
Tibeats takes Eliza away in a cart; Mistress Ford tells the remaining workers that the separation is for the best because Eliza’s grief disrupts her work.
Scene 101
Solomon and the enslaved men continue cutting timber in the woods.
Scene 102
This scene

102EXT. ROAD - DAY

Walton is at the reigns of the wagon carrying the timber to Ford's mill. Slaves trudge alongside, same as it ever was. Only...it's not quite the same. Walton brings the wagon to a halt. He, and the slaves look up the road ahead of them.

Standing in the middle of the road is a group of CHICKASAWS INDIANS. They are in their "usual" dress of buckskin breeches and calico hunting shirts of fantastic colors, buttoned from belt to chin. They have with them DOGS and HORSES. They carry with them the carcass of a deer.

The two groups stare at each other for a long moment.