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

Clemens dies and the hospital bell tolls; near death, Solomon stares at sunlight refracted through the window.

Scene 82 of 211 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 49 min into a 2:22 film

The story so farBefore scene 82

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.
Just before
Scene 79
In a crowded, unsanitary ward, Black patients with smallpox are stripped, given gowns, and surrounded by sparse staff as a bell tolls.
Scene 80
Days later, Solomon and Clemens lie covered in smallpox sores, feverish and nearly blinded by pain amid the ward’s cries.
Scene 81
A ward worker drains Solomon’s smallpox sores as he watches the sicker Clemens and imagines the death that may await him.
Scene 82
This scene

82INT. HOSPITAL/PATIENTS ROOM - LATER

Again, days on. A DOCTOR covers Clemens Ray with a blanket. Clearly he is dead. The doctor sends off a WARD. A few moments later, as the body is being taken away, THE BELL TOLLS.

As he lays in bed, Solomon's head lolls to one side. He looks toward the WINDOW. The light of the sun flares off the pane. The glass, poorly made, refracts the sunlight and casts off a slight spectrum of color. It dances across Solomon's face. The light in his eyes offering him more pain the solace, but he cannot help but look at it. As he looks toward the light, as his eyes flutter between life and lifelessness...