Enola Gay
(The scene opens with PAUL TIBBETS flying the “Enola Gay”-the last B-29 fighter plane to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Miles of ocean stretch below and the surrounding clouds still cling to the crimson stain given off by the sun that rose minutes before. The belly of the plane carries twelve silent crew members and her gut holds the instrument that will change the worlds. TIBBETS looks at his watch, looks back up, then down again realizing the second hand isn’t moving.)
TIBBETS: (On his radio headset) Alright Van Kirk—Breaks over.
(A few seconds later Van Kirk enters and returns to his seat, then fastens himself back in. Looking at his control panel, he pulls out a notebook and logs in the altitude, speed and pressure. He then glances at his wristwatch and records the time.)
VAN KIRK: Eight o’ five and o’ three.
(TIBBETS looks at his watch and adjusts the hands without success.)
TIBBETS: Da—(He and VAN KIRK speak at the same time)
VAN KIRK: Getting—
VAN KIRK: Sorry. Go ahead.
TIBBETS: My watch broke.
VAN KIRK: Oh.
(VK continues with his work, almost hastily, as if to hold back nervousness. He drops his compass.)
VAN KIRK: Shoot.
(He bends and picks it up then sets it back on his map.)
Eisenhower’s sayin the Japs have already surrendered.
TIBBETS: Hey— (Chuckling) Which would you rather be called- “Little Boy” or “Fat Man”?
VAN KIRK: Uh, I don’t know.
TIBBETS: Well that’s no good Kirk, if you were gonna make history people gotta know what to call you.
VAN KIRK: (thinks for a second) It’s not what they call me it’s what I do when I get there.
(silence)
VAN KIRK: (quietly) What if Eisenhower’s right” And we’re getting ready to drop th—
(He’s cut off)
TIBBETS: What are you tryin to say Van Kirk? You wanna be court-martialed and sentenced to life in prison because you decided to be humane or does being sent to Japan where you don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell suit you?
VAN KIRK: No. That’s not—
(TIBBETS interrupts again)
TIBBETS: You should be down there fighting those surrendering Japs then, down there with Eisenhower, not here.(He cools off for a second) Listen Kirk, there is no morality in warfare. You kill women. You kill children and you kill old men. You don’t seek them out, but they die. You remember that hurricane that came through in ’31? Wiped out everything from Tallahassee to Miami. I don’t recall the name they gave her, but she sure was on bitch of a storm. Knocked down everything in her path, no mercy, no guilt. People’s homes floated by and everything they’d spent their lives working for washed away within a few minutes. Thousands lost their lives including my younger brother. That storm didn’t seek us out, it just happened and we had to deal with it. It’s not what happens now that matters most Van Kirk, it’s what comes next.
(Silence)
TIBBETS: Well, I’d wanna be called “The Little Tornado”.
VAN KIRK: Why not the “Big Tornado”?
TIBBETS: Hey, how about the Little Fat Boy Tornado?
(Both men chuckle to themselves as they approach the land that has just risen up in the horizon. They give each other a look and VAN KIRK looks at his watch again.)