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

Henry collapses in the field from the heat; Edward throws water on him instead of letting him drink, and Henry is sent back to work.

Scene 141 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Treach
Edward

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:32 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 141

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.
Scenes 66–123
He enters plantation life under Ford, passes through Tibeats’s violence and the near-lynching, and is transferred to Epps.
Scene 124
Solomon is transferred to Epps’s plantation and placed among Patsey and the enslaved workers, opening the harsher final plantation phase.
Just before
Scene 138
Solomon runs down the road at full speed toward his destination.
Scene 139
Solomon finds Patsey taking tea with Harriet Shaw; Harriet explains how she survives Shaw’s affairs and sympathizes with Patsey’s exposure to Epps’s lust and violence.
Scene 140
Epps chases Solomon, who runs from him; Solomon later recounts the episode to Mistress Epps.
Scene 141
This scene

141EXT. MASTER EPPS'S PLANTATION/FIELD - DAY

With the sun yet again high in the sky the slaves are working the field picking cotton. As before they sing a spiritual, the only thing that distracts them from the tedium at hand.

But there is no distracting from the heat. We see Henry begin to falter before it... And eventually collapse right in the dirt. Though the other slaves take note, none move to help him. None dare.

From Treach rather matter of factly:

TREACH

Get him water.

Edward runs to fetch a gourd. He carries it to Henry, DUMPS THE WATER ON HIM, BUT DOES NOT ACTUALLY GIVE HENRY ANYTHING TO DRINK.

Roused, Henry rights himself.

EDWARD

Go'won. Git up.

Unsteadily, Henry lifts himself and heads back into the field. He joins in again with the spiritual, as if the song is all that can keep him going.