The Shawshank Redemption · written by Frank Darabont · 1994

The road gang works in mud as Red explains how Norton skims money from the program.

Scene 130 of 249 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act two

Red
Ned
Norton

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:08 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 130

After a banker is wrongly imprisoned for murder, he uses patience, expertise, and friendship to survive Shawshank and build a path to freedom.

Scenes 1–8
Andy’s former life and conviction frame a banker whose apparent control has vanished.
Scenes 9–10
Inside prison, Andy needs a way to survive without surrendering the inner self he is trying to protect.
Scenes 11–30
Andy enters Shawshank and confronts its violence, hierarchy, and rules.
Scene 31
Andy and Red begin the friendship that will carry the film’s argument about hope and connection.
Scene 51
Andy tells Red that prisoners retain an inner life and hope, though Red warns hope can be dangerous.
Scene 112
Andy broadcasts Mozart; the whole prison experiences a brief freedom of mind, revealing what hope can still do.
Just before
Scene 127
Norton announces his Inside-Out prison labor program to the press.
Scene 128
A reporter interviews a road gang about the program while guards supervise.
Scene 129
Heywood sits alone in solitary; the inmates were excluded from the press story.
Scene 130
This scene

130EXT -- WOODED FIELDS -- DAY (1965)

A ROAD-GANG is pulling stumps, bogged down in mud.

RED (V.O.)

'Course, Norton failed to mention

to the press that "bare minimum of

expense" is a fairly loose term.

There are a hundred different ways

to skim off the top. Men,

materials, you name it. And, oh my

Lord, how the money rolled in...

Norton strolls into view with NED GRIMES at his heels.

NED

This keeps up, you're gonna put me

out of business! With this pool of

slave labor you got, you can

underbid any contractor in town.

NORTON

Ned, we're providing a valuable

community service.

NED

That's fine for the papers, but I

got a family to feed. The State

don't pay my salary. Sam, we go

back a long way. I need this new

highway contract. I don't get it, I

go under. That's a fact.

(hands him a box)

Now you just have some'a this fine

pie my missus baked specially for

you, and you think about that.

Norton opens the box. Alongside the pie is an envelope. He runs his thumb across the thick stack of cash it contains. IN THE BACKGROUND, a winch cable SNAPS and whips through the air, damn near severing a man's leg. He goes down, screaming in mud and blood, pinned by a fallen tree stump. Men rush over to help him. Norton barely takes notice.

NORTON

Ned, I wouldn't worry too much over

this contract. Seems to me I've

already got my boys committed

elsewhere. You be sure and thank

Maisie for this fine pie.