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

Chapin gives Solomon the nails and rides away, leaving him to carry the heavy keg himself.

Scene 117 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Chapin

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:11 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 117

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 114
While Solomon builds the weaving house, Tibeats disputes the boards and orders him to fetch nails before daybreak.
Scene 115
Unable to bear Eliza’s constant crying, Solomon strikes her; she asks whether he still grieves his own children and calls him by his true name, piercing his attempt to suppress his pain.
Scene 116
At dawn, Solomon waits for Chapin and asks for the keg of nails Tibeats ordered him to collect.
Scene 117
This scene

117EXT. STORE HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER

Chapin is rolling out a a keg of nails for Solomon.

CHAPIN

If Tibeats prefers a different

size, I will endeavor to furnish

them, but you may use those until

further directed.

Chapin mounts a nearby horse. As he rides off into the field where slaves are already at work:

CHAPIN (CONT'D)

Good morning to you, Platt.

Left alone, Solomon shoulders the keg and begins to carry it off.