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

Burch cuffs the prisoners together and beats John until he stops insisting his master will pay his debt and reclaim him.

Scene 43 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

John
Burch

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 30 min into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 43

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.
Scene 30
Solomon is drugged and abducted in New York, abruptly ending his free life and beginning his captivity.
Scene 31
After Solomon is drugged and abducted in scene 30, he wakes in chains and discovers that he has been stolen from his free life.
Just before
Scene 40
Clemens predicts they will be sold in New Orleans, while John insists his master will redeem him; Burch brings Eliza and her children, who reunite in the yard.
Scene 41
In the cell, Eliza tells Solomon how her former master promised freedom but his family instead sold her and her children into harsher bondage.
Scene 42
Burch and Radburn wake the captives at night and force Eliza and her children out of the cell for what Radburn disguises as a boat trip.
Scene 43
This scene

43EXT. BURCH'S DUNGEON/YARD - NIGHT

We now have Solomon, Clemens, John, Eliza and the children. They are being cuffed together. As John is cuffed, he pulls back. Scared. He beings in desperation:

JOHN

John's massa gunna pay his debt.

John's massa gunna come for him.

Not wanting to hear any of this talk, Burch strikes John several times in the head with a sap-like instruments. Weakened, but again:

JOHN (CONT'D)

John's massa gunna--

Burch again strikes John until he's quiet. Curiously, Emily and Randall don't even flinch. Why would they? They are quite used to seeing this kind of violence.

BURCH

Not a word out of none a yah. Not

a word.