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

On the road home, Solomon secretly removes and pockets one sheet of paper from the shopping sack.

Scene 146 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:34 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 146

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 143
Epps drags Patsey into the field, assaults her, then beats and whips her when she refuses to respond.
Scene 144
Mistress Epps gives Solomon another shopping list as he returns from the cotton field.
Scene 145
At Bartholomew’s, Solomon collects another household order that includes foolscap paper.
Scene 146
This scene

146EXT. ROAD - LATER

Solomon is making his way back to the Epps plantation. He carries with him a sack filled with the goods from the store. As he walks, SOLOMON LOOKS AROUND CASUALLY. When he is certain he is alone, he sets down the sack, opens it and appropriates A SINGLE SHEET OF THE PAPER which he folds and places in his pocket. That done, he cinches up the sack and continues on his way.