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

Two desperate men attack Solomon on the dark road for his money and fiddle; he fights back with a pine knot and drives them off.

Scene 168 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:46 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 168

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 165
Solomon tries to use crushed berries as ink with the feather and stolen paper, but the liquid runs too freely.
Scene 166
Solomon plays his fiddle at a party at Yarney’s house, entertaining the guests as they dance.
Scene 167
Yarney gives Solomon seventeen dollars collected by the delighted party guests, marveling that the money makes him wealthy by plantation standards.
Scene 168
This scene

168EXT. ROAD - EVENING

Solomon is returning to Judge Turner's on foot. There is only the moonlight with which to light his way. As he travels, Solomon hears steps behind him. He turns and sees TWO BLACKS. Solomon relaxes. Fellow blacks; surely they mean him no harm. As Solomon looks them over carefully - their clothes tatters and they themselves covered in dirt - it becomes quite clear they are not just slaves. A fact confirmed when they step menacingly toward Solomon, ONE WITH A SHIV IN HAND.

At first it seems they want his money. Worse, THEY GO FOR HIS FIDDLE.

Solomon has but a moment to brace himself before he is attacked, TAKING A CUT TO THE ARM. Solomon fights back, picking up a pine knot and striking his attacker over the head. That takes the fight out of him, and both men retreat back the way they came leaving Solomon be.