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

Turner asks Solomon to identify the men who attacked him, now captured as runaways; Solomon refuses to accuse them, and the patrolmen drag them away for public punishment.

Scene 174 of 211 · ≈ 2 min on screen · Act two

Judge Turner
Solomon

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:51 into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 174

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 171
Solomon sneaks into the plantation storehouse and steals a small amount of food for Celeste.
Scene 172
Solomon gives Celeste the food and reveals his true name and plan to write to friends in New York; Celeste doubts the letter can be delivered and urges him to flee with her.
Scene 173
A stern overseer summons Solomon from the sugar house and tells him to bring his whip, alarming him that his theft may have been discovered.
Scene 174
This scene

174EXT. TURNER PLANTATION - MOMENTS LATER

Solomon is walked out to the field. The two slaves who previously attacked Solomon in the night are present. Both are bound and muzzled strictly and look to have already been thoroughly beaten. There, too, is Judge Turner along with a couple of WHITE PATROLLERS and several NATIVE AMERICANS who have captured the runaways. There is one among the group who is of MIXED RACE, black and Native American. Though his skin is fairer as would be a Native American, HIS HAIR HAS THE KINK OF AN AFRO.

The Judge asks of Solomon:

JUDGE TURNER

Do you recognize them, Platt? Are

these the pair who accosted you?

Solomon stares, but does not dare answer.

JUDGE TURNER (CONT'D)

Runaways from a plantation in the

vicinity of Lamourie. Hidden away

for three weeks. The Bayou is

full with them. Look carefully.

Are they those who meant to take

your life?

SOLOMON

I don't know their intent.

JUDGE TURNER

What else could it be? Beyond

their hunger and desperation,

their heads are filled to the

point of lunacy with mythic idyll

of life in the north. Nothing

good will ever come of a nigger in

flight.

SOLOMON

I cannot say what plans they held

for me.

JUDGE TURNER

But these are the two, then?

SOLOMON

I am uncertain.

JUDGE TURNER

You may have your satisfaction

with them. You deserve as much

and they deserve no better.

SOLOMON

Master, I am uncertain.

JUDGE TURNER