Eraserhead

by

David Lynch

Script Transcription and Annotations (in Bold) by David Johnson

FADE IN:

EXT. SPACE – HENRY AND THE PLANET

Henry Spencer's upper torso floats horizontally in space, looking

bewildered and frightened. His hair stands up straight from his head
(like a scared, surreal cartoon figure and a human representation of
an eraser on a pencil) and he wears a dark suit with pocket protector
containing pens and a large eraser. His figure is transposed over the
dark and textured planet. (The planet's shape is very similar, if not
the same, as that of the Baby's head—the two are linked—both are
fear, both get destroyed in the end.)

Henry floats away and we zoom in on the planet. We pan over the dark
crevices and valleys on the planet's surface, until we go into
complete darkness. (The first of many times we will make a camera
movement into darkness in the film. The crevice is v-shaped—-
vagaina--represents one of the “parents” of Henry's fear. It awaits
the spermatozoon creature from Henry's scream.)

EXT. PLANET – SHACK - NIGHT

In a bird's-eye-view over the planet, we see a small metal shack on

the surface, with a large black hole in the roof. There is a power
line going from the shack into the ground (It might be going from the
shack into the puddle. The shape in the ground looks like the puddle.
Fear is transferred to the shack via electricity). We zoom into the
black hole until we go into complete darkness again. (Again moving
into darkness, and one of many, many times in the film that we will
move into a hole of some sort. The sexual act is woven into the
fabric of this film. The shape of the hole is similar, if not the
same, as that of the puddle.)

INT. SHACK - NIGHT

A hideous, disfigured man--The Man in the Planet--sits in the shack,

staring out of a window with broken planes. We can see his reflection
in the window. (Reflecting his dark, twisted inner state.) There are
a series of levers in front of him. (This is very similar to the way
Henry stares out the window when he sees the assault near the puddle.
Mary will stare out of a window fearfully as well.)

EXT. SPACE - HENRY

Henry, still floating horizontally in space, opens his mouth. (As if

to scream—he looks very frightened.)

INT. SHACK - NIGHT

The Man in the Planet has a spasm/shiver. (Looks instinctual, animal-

like, involuntary. Reacting to something he sees out the window—which
we find out is the assault by the puddle.)

EXT. SPACE – HENRY

A spermatozoan creature (similar to the Baby's head with an umbilical

cord) comes out of Henry's mouth.

INT. PLANET SHACK - NIGHT

The Man in the Planet has another shiver. He suddenly pulls one of
the levers. (Again, The Man in the Planet reacts to something fearful
he sees out the window. Henry blocks this with bricks for a long time
in the film.)

EXT. SPACE – HENRY

The sperm-like creature shoots away from Henry's mouth, (from his
scream) into space.

INT. SHACK - NIGHT

The Man in the Planet pulls another lever.

EXT. PLANET

We see a large puddle of liquid on the planet's surface. (The Man in

the Planet creates the puddle by pulling the lever.)

INT. SHACK - NIGHT

The Man in the Planet pulls a third lever.

EXT. PLANET – NIGHT

The sperm-like creature splashes into the liquid of the puddle,

sinking down into darkness. (The Man in the Planet cause the
conception of the Baby. The Baby represents fear. Because it's a
baby, it's associated with sex. The Baby's “parents,” the puddle and
the spermatozoon creature, are fear, therefore he Baby is fear. Fear
is also intertwined with sex. The Man in the Planet is responsible
for conceiving fear through the process of sex.)

In the darkness we pan until we see a hole of light, with grass

around the edges. We move upwards from the darkness into the hole of
light. (In this shot fear is “born” into Henry's world. Therefore,
fear comes into Henry's world through sex. This opening sequence is a
creation myth for fear, and show that fear and sex are intertwined in
Henry's mind. In the surface story, after sex with Mary her parents
force fear upon them by making them take the Baby, the symbol of
fear. But we don't know the real cause of fear yet, what the Man in
the Planet was reacting to—we haven't seen what's out the window.)

EXT. CITY - DAY

Dissolve to bewildered and fearful-looking Henry, carrying a bag

standing in an decayed, oppressive, post-industrial environment. He
walks towards an opening in a large wall in the background. (Henry
literally walks into darkness here.)

Henry walks over mounds of dirt (like the mound for the dirt tree in
his room—navigating right and wrong), with more decayed buildings in
the background.

As Henry walks through the mud of the road, he steps in puddle with
his right foot. (Going into a puddle again—here it represents Henry
getting fear on him, physically.)(It's the right foot—continuity
error later.)

Henry continues walking past decayed buildings, industrial wreckage,

oily water with broken things in it, run-down factories, and a
frightening electrical plant (electricity, or bad energy, is
associated with fear). He clutches his bag and looks fearful.

Henry comes to the front of an old brick building and walks in the
doorway.

INT. HENRY'S BUILDING ENTRYWAY

The entryway has flower patterns on the walls and furniture, and
wave-like patterns on the floor (the floor pattern is similar to
electrical waves. As Henry moves deeper into the building, the
flowers become less and less) There is a mirror on the wall,
furniture and mailboxes.

Henry walks by a mirror (the building reflects his inner state) and
checks his mailbox, which is empty. (No adulterous thoughts coming in
yet—he's an innocent.) He enters the elevator and waits a long beat
for it to take him up. (Henry is reluctant to go deep into his
subconscious.)

INT. ELEVATOR

In the elevator Henry looks fearful and the lights begin to flicker.
(The deeper Henry goes into his mind, the stronger fear becomes. The
lights represent and attempt to fight fear. He's scared to go deeper
into his mind)

INT. ELEVATOR LANDING

Henry arrives on his floor. The doors to the floor are similar to the
doors in the entryway, but covered with dark, strange textures. (Like
tar on the doors. Again, the deeper we go into Henry's subconscious,
the darker, stranger and more lifeless it gets.) Henry exits the
elevator.

INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE HENRY'S ROOM

Henry walks down a narrow hallway, past a payphone, to the front door
of his apartment. In an little nook on the background wall there is a
strange tree of mostly branches and what looks like stars. As Henry
opens the door (Apartment 26) we hear the voice of Beautiful Girl
Across the Hall. (We can't see this doorway easily in the wide shot
of the hallway—it's not lit initially. It seems to come out of
nowhere.)

BEAUTIFUL GIRL ACROSS THE HALL

Are you Henry?

She stands at her half open door, in a dress that shows a lot of
cleavage.

HENRY
Yes.

BEAUTIFUL GIRL ACROSS THE HALL

A girl named Mary called on the payphone. Said she's at her
parents and you're invited for dinner.

Long beat as Henry appears to be thinking about something.

HENRY
Oh yeah...

Henry stares at her for a long beat. He then turns away with a
frightened look.
 HENRY
Thank you very much.

Henry walks in his apartment and, after giving her another glance,
closes the door. Beautiful Girl Across the Hall stares at Henry's
door disappointedly for another beat before closing her door.
(Apartment number 27 is hers.)(She plants the idea of an affair in
Henry's mind at this point. The seed will soon show up in his
mailbox.)

INT. HENRY'S ROOM

Henry is in the dark in his apartment, clutching his bag (clutched to

his heart, representing his two loves, Mary and the Lady in the
Radiator) and looking scared. (The Beautiful Girl in the Hall
threatened his relationship to his two loves with her sexual
advance.) He switches on the wall light and a floor lamp that has a
horizontal florescent bulb. The florescent bulb doesn't come on. (The
light represents Henry's struggle against fear. It's a weapon against
fear for Henry. Fear is at a low level at this point, so the light is
at half-power. The lights start overloading when fear is at its
highest.) He puts his key on a small table and clutches his bag. He
then takes two packages, a small one and a larger one, out of the
bag, tapping the small one with his thumbs (The Lady in the Radiator)
before putting it down. He stares at the larger package angrily for a
beat. (They are both wrapped up and hidden away—as they are hidden in
the dresser and the radiator. He stares at angrily at large one, the
Mary package, because she hasn't come around for a while.)

Henry's has a bed, dresser, record player, floor lamps, radiator, and
small table in is apartment. The dresser has with what looks like a
mound of twigs on top. (As opposed to the radiator, with a pile of
twigs around the base.) By his bed there is a leafless branch stuck
in a small mound of dirt—the dirt tree with a doily at the bottom.
(The doily is like a judge's shirt. The dirt tree represents the tree
of knowledge of good and evil—something that watches and judges him—
his superego.) Above the tree there is a small picture of a mushroom
cloud. (More fear in the background-- in this case the constant cold
war/nuclear annihilation threat that twisted everyone psyche at this
time.)

Henry's room layout, clockwise: small table, floor lamp w/florescent

bulb, corner, door, record player, dresser w/twigs, floral box (not
lit)(id), corner, small tree, bed, bathroom door, corner, floor lamp
with no cover, radiator with window above, corner, door, back to
small table.

Henry goes to the record player and plays music. He skips a few
tracks on the record, but it's all the same piece of happy organ
music. (He's trying to be happy—the happy organ soundtrack represents
positive self-talk, a positive emotional soundtrack he's trying to
introduce into his mind.) He remembers his wet foot and goes over to
his bed.

On the bed he takes off his left shoe and sock puts it on the
radiator. (The radiator warms the sock--relieves fear.)(Left foot.
Different foot from the one which got wet in the puddle—continuity
error.)

There are twigs all around the bottom of the radiator. (Looks like
pubic hair. Like pubic hair twigs represent a threshold to sex or
another emotional state) Henry stares at the twigs. (The radiator
and the dresser both have twigs—one on top, the other on the bottom.
They're opposed to each other. They represent a choice between two
emotional states and two women, fear or bliss, Mary or the Lady in
the Radiator, respectively. Both women are hidden in these objects.)

Henry then looks up at the window above the radiator. Outside the
window are bricks, which look like they're made of paper. He stares
fearfully at the bricks for a beat. (We find out what's behind the
bricks later--the assault on the road near the puddle. For now he's
walled off this part of his mind—avoided, denied, repressed it.)

Henry snaps out of it after a moment and goes to his dresser with
twigs on top. (The unconscious specter of fear reminds Henry of the
dresser and Mary.) He opens the top drawer.

In the drawer, among other things, there is a bowl of water (another

form of puddle) with coins in it. Henry looks through the drawer,
finds one half of a ripped picture, finds a coin and drops it in the
water (making a wish that things will get better with Mary, but also
making something enter a pool, which indicates sex and fear in this
film), and find the other half of the picture.

Against the backdrop of the twigs (again, a threshold to something.

Henry knows not what), Henry puts the two halves of the picture
together.(Reconstructing her image--a creative act) It's a picture of
Mary. The picture is a little dark and dirty (sexual pun with dirty,
but also because she's been stained by fear). It is ripped so there
is a head half and a body half. (Head separate from the body, just
like Henry in his dream and the Baby at the end. She had been ripped
in two, decapitated—a destructive act.) He looks at the back of the
head half, then puts the picture back together again. (Looking for
twigs on her head, like the ones he sees later when she's in bed. A
threshold, but to bliss or to fear? He doesn't know.)

EXT. X'S HOUSE – NIGHT

Cut to a frightened-looking Mary, staring out the window of a door.
(We can only see her head, as if she's decapitated. Like Henry, she's
a scared person looking out a window, especially when she's
decapitated. When she's whole she's sweet. She appears trapped in
fear.) She has a hearing aid in her left ear. (Foreshadowing the
Baby's crying. She is especially tuned into the sound of fear.) She
is looking for Henry. After a moment she turns away from the window
and stares down in the dark.

EXT. CITY – NIGHT

Henry through the city's broken down, post-industrial landscape.

There are old railroad tracks. He walks towards camera from behind a
railing, towards the railroad tracks. Cut to a wider shot of him
walking towards camera from the railroad tracks. (He seems to
approach from two different directions in these shots—the first time
from behind the railing, the second along the train tracks. Creates
the sense that this is not a “real” world.)

Dogs bark and there is a loud sound of glass breaking. Henry quickly
moves away from that direction and looks scared. (Obviously, violence
and fear pervades this environment.) After a beat he resumes walking
towards Mary's house.

EXT. THE X'S HOUSE – NIGHT

We see a dark vent with steam blowing through it.

Henry comes to the front of Mary X's house. He checks a piece of

paper then looks at the house. The house is bathed in darkness, with
dead or dying flowers in the front yard. On one side there is a large
vent that billows steam into the front yard and onto the flowers.
(Parallel to the respirator blowing on the Baby.) Mary looks out the
window of the front door. Henry approaches the house slowly.

MARY
(accusatory)
You're late, Henry. (Beautiful Girl tells Henry it's late
as well,
but in a seductive way—opposites.)

HENRY
I didn't know if you wanted me to come or not. Where have
you been? (Sexual pun on coming/cumming.)

Mary stares at him without answering. (She's been consumed by fear.)

HENRY
 You never come around anymore.

Mary looks around in the house then opens the door and steps onto the
porch.

MARY
(sweetly)
Dinner's almost ready.

Henry moves onto the porch. (House address is 2416.) Henry and Mary
stare at each other for a beat. Mary expression then changes.

MARY
(Sad, resigned)
Come on in.

Mary enters the house and Henry follows.

INT. THE X'S HOUSE

Mary's mother, Mrs. X, sits in the living room, next to a small

table. On the table is a lamp and a hair brush. Mary and Henry enter.

MRS. X
Hello there.

HENRY
Hello.
(looks at Mary briefly)
I'm very pleased to meet you.

MRS. X
Sit down.

Mary and Henry sit on the couch next to Mrs. X. They both look
uncomfortable.

In the living room there is a dog nursing a liter of puppies. Behind

the dog is a dresser with no drawers (nothing hidden—fear in the
open). There are piles of twigs where the drawers should be
(threshold has been emptied). There are strange, flower-like objects
embedded on and in the walls and floral patterns to the drapes and
furniture (Organic life is trying to break through the industrial
environment.)

MRS. X
It's Henry, isn't it?
 HENRY
Yes.

Long, uncomfortable beat.

MRS. X
Mary tells me you're a very nice fellow. What do you do?

HENRY
Oh, I'm on vacation.

MRS. X
What did you do?

Mary suddenly starts having a seizure of some sort—shaking, moaning,

eyes crossed. Mrs. X picks up the hair brush and vigorously brushes
Mary's hair.

HENRY
Oh, I'm sorry.
(beat)
Well, I work at La Pelle's factory. I'm a printer.

Mary's seizure suddenly stops.

MARY
Henry's very clever at printing.

MRS. X
(sarcastically)
Yes, he sounds very clever.

A door suddenly squeaks. Henry, Mary, Mrs. X and the dog look towards
it. We see Bill, Mr. X, standing behind the dining room table. There
is a large pipe just outside the dining room.

BILL
I thought I heard a stranger.
(beat)
We got chicken tonight. Strangest damn things. They're
man-made. Little damn thing. Smaller than my fist. But
they're new! (Explicit links between the chicken and the
Baby—both new, man-made, little, strange.)
(beat, smiles)
I'm Bill.

HENRY
Hello, I'm Henry.
 MRS. X
Henry's at La Pelle's factory

BILL
Printing's your business, eh? Plumbing is mine. 30 years.
(increasingly angry)
I seen this neighborhood change from pastures to the
hellhole it is now! I put every damn pipe into this
neighborhood!

MRS. X
Bill!

MARY
Dad!

BILL
(angrily)
People think that pipes grow in their home, but they sure
as hell don't! Look at my knees!

Bill steps out from behind the table. Bill's knees are bent. The dog
starts barking.

BILL
Look at my knees!

Mrs. X gets up and steers Bill back towards the kitchen.

MRS. X
Bill, please!

BILL
(retreating to kitchen)
Are you hungry?

MRS. X
Bill!

Bill and Mrs. X go into the kitchen while the dog continues to bark.

In the kitchen MRS. X rip up lettuce and tosses it in a large bowl.

The old lady sits lifelessly in a chair nearby.

In the living room Mary and Henry sit silently, listening to the
sound of puppies nursing.

In the kitchen Bill bastes a pan of chicken in the oven. (There

doesn't seem to be room for Bill in the kitchen. Also, the oven he
uses is not under a stove. There appears to be two other ovens under
the stove. The one Bill uses is separate, connected to drawers.)

Mrs. X puts seasoning and dressing on the salad. She then puts the
salad bowl on the Old Lady's lap. She takes both her hands, places
them on the utensils. Mrs. X moves behind the Old Lady and, holding
the lifeless Old Lady's hands, tosses the salad. When finished she
takes the old lady's hands off the utensils and puts the bowl back in
the sink. Mrs. X then takes out a cigarette, puts it in the Old
Lady's mouth, and lights it. The Old Lady puffs once.

Bill takes the pan of chicken out of the oven and turns off the
light. (The Old Lady is still in the kitchen, with the light off.)

Shot of a coo-coo clock with one hand. The hand points to 8. The
little bird comes out of the clock's door, spins around and chirps.

In the dining room, Henry, Mary, and Mrs. X sit at the table. Bill
brings in the pan of chicken, sets it on the table and sits down.

BILL
The girls have heard his before, but 14 years ago I had an
operation on my arm here. Doctors said I wouldn't be able
to use it. But what the hell do they know, I said, and I
rubbed it for a half hour every day. And I got so's I can
move it a little bit, and I so's I could turn a faucet and
pretty soon I had my arm back again. Now I can't feel a
damn thing in it. All numb. (He is numb to the fear.)

Bill hits his arm. Mrs. X slowly reaches for the chicken pan, as if
by compulsion.

BILL
I'm afraid to cut it, you know? (Bill is afraid to
confront/cut the fear. Stabbing the chicken also links to
Henry stabbing the Baby at the end.)

BILL
Mary usually does the carving, but maybe tonight you'll do
it, Henry.

Bill puts a tiny chicken and fork on Henry's plate.

BILL
Alright with you?

Henry looks anxiously at his plate.

HENRY
 (nervously)
Of course. I'd be happy to.

Henry picks up the carving knife.

HENRY
Do I just, ah, just cut them up like regular chickens?

BILL
Sure, just cut them up like regular chickens.

Henry's fork goes into the chicken (Two prongs, like the scissors at
the end.) Blood leaks out of the chicken's rear end and it's legs
start moving back and forth (Fear, blood, is “born” from the chicken.
Blood=Fear. The legs moving looks like in a sexual encounter. The
chicken symbolizes sex and fear together. They are serving a meal of
sex and fear. Later they will “serve” the Baby to them.)

Henry reacts in horror to the bleeding and moving chicken. Mrs. X

appears to go into a orgasmic state, with head back, mouth open,
tongue out, and eyes rolled up. She starts whimpering and panting in
pleasure. Mary looks at the chicken in horror. As the chicken
continues to bleed Mrs. X's panting turns into crying and screaming.
(Again, sex and fear linked.) She suddenly gets up from the table and
runs into the other room. Bill seems indifferent (numb) to the scene.
(A comment about being numb to the horror in your environment,
including your own home.)

BILL
She'll be alright in a minute.

Mary suddenly leaves the table, following Mrs. X.

MARY
Excuse me.

Henry and Bill sit at the table for a long, uncomfortable beat. Henry
puts down the fork and carving knife. Bill still appears indifferent.

BILL
Well Henry, what do you know?

After a beat Bill breaks into an comically exaggerated smile, which

he holds for the rest of the scene.

HENRY
Oh, I don't know much of anything. (He's naive.)

Bill continues smiling for another long, uncomfortable beat. (Putting

a happy face on horror.)

Mrs. X, composed again, comes back in the dining room.

MRS. X
Henry, may I speak to you for a minute?
(gestures away from the dining room)
Over here.

Mrs. X walks off. Bill continues smiling. Mary, upset and crying,
pokes her head in from the door. Henry looks at Mary, gets up from
the table to go to Mrs. X.

The lamp in the living room starts to flicker and burns out. (The
fear has become too much—it overloads the lights.)

Mrs. X pulls Henry aside by the large pipe outside the dining room.

MRS. X
(accusatory)
Did you and Mary have sexual intercourse?

HENRY
Why?

MRS. X
Did you?

HENRY
Why are you asking me this question?

MRS. X
I have a very good reason, and now I want you to tell me.

HENRY
I, I'm very... I love Mary.

MRS. X
Henry, I asked you if you and Mary had sexual intercourse.

HENRY
Well, I don't, I don't think that's any of your business.

MRS. X
Henry!

HENRY
Sorry.
 MRS. X
You're in very bad trouble if you won't cooperate.

Mrs. X suddenly comes on to Henry, kissing/nibbling on the neck. (Sex

is twisted into a form of violence—a frightening sexual assault.)
Henry turns away in fear and horror.

HENRY
Well, I.... Mary!

Mary comes running in. Mary is still upset and crying.

MARY
Mother!

MRS. X
Answer me.

HENRY
I'm too nervous.

MRS. X
There's a baby. It's at the hospital.

MARY
Mom!

MRS. X
And you're the father.

HENRY
But that's impossible. It's only been...

MARY
Mother, they're still not sure it is a baby.

MRS. X
It's premature but there's a baby. After the two of you
are married, which should be very soon, you can pick the
baby up. (She forces them to take the child of sex and
fear.)

Henry feels his nose, which suddenly starts bleeding. (Connection

with the bleeding chicken, the bleeding tree, and the Baby. Fear,
blood, is “born” from Henry, fear leaks out of him.) Mary continues
to cry.

MARY
Mom, he's got a nose bleed.
 MRS. X
Oh.
(looking at Henry's nose)
I'll get ice. (She'll bring more cold.)

Mrs. X moves off. Henry tries to stop his nosebleed. Mary is still
upset.

MARY
(crying)
You don't mind, do you, Henry? I mean, about getting
married?

HENRY
(very politely)
Oh, no. (He doesn't mind taking on fear, not knowing what
it will do to him and he will do to it.)

Mary cries more. (She doesn't want to take on fear.)

Mrs. X walks past Bill in the dining room. Bill stops her.

BILL
This dinner's gettin' mighty cold. (Layers of meaning—
what we're serving is getting dark and fearful.)

Mrs. X continues into the dark kitchen. The Old Lady is still sitting
there, eyes closed with the cigarette in her mouth. Mrs. X walks out
the back door and we hear the freezer door close. (Mrs. X brings
cold, the Lady in the Radiator brings warmth. Cold is bad, warmth is
good in this world.)

Henry holds a cloth to his nose. He looks to the living room where
the dog starts whimpering. We hear the wind and it blows the twigs in
the living room. We zoom out the living room window into darkness. (A
dark and scary window is shown. We will realize the importance of
fearful windows later. Bill and Mrs. X served meals of sex and fear
to the next generation and passed it on to them.)

INT. HENRY'S ROOM

Mary sits at the small table in Henry's room with the Baby. The Baby
has a strange, alien-like head, (fear is twisted and deformed) which
rests on a pillow. (Henry will rest like this later on.) The Baby's
body is completely wrapped in bandages. (The true hideous nature of
fear is hidden beneath the bandages.) The Baby makes a constant
cooing/crying sound. Mary is trying to feed the Baby, but the Baby
screams and spits the food back out.
INT. ELEVATOR LANDING

Henry enters the elevator from his floor and goes down.

INT. HENRY'S ROOM

Mary keeps trying to feed the baby and it keeps spitting the food
out. Mary gets frustrated, gets up and sits on different chair, away
from the baby.

INT. APARTMENT ENTRYWAY

Henry exits the elevator and checks his mailbox. There is a very tiny
box in it. Henry stares at it.

EXT. CITY - DAY

Henry walks in the streets. He stops, looks around, then takes the
tiny box from his pocket. He opens the box and there is a tiny,
bean/seed in it. He puts it back in the box.

INT. HENRY'S ROOM

Mary still sits in the chair away from the Baby. She hears he sound
of the elevator and returns to the table with the Baby.

INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE HENRY'S APARTMENT

Henry, holding the box, approaches the apartment. He is about to

enter when he stops at the door. He looks at the box, thinks for a
moment, then puts the box in his pocket to hide it before entering.

INT. HENRY'S ROOM - DAY

As Henry enters Mary is again trying to feed the Baby. Henry smiles
at the Baby's cooing, lies on he bed. The baby spits something out
and Henry smiles again. He then stares at the twigs beneath the
radiator. Pan up to the radiator where light goes on and what appears
to be a tiny stage is lit up.

INT. RADIATOR STAGE

Inside the radiator we see a spotlight light up the stage. (Lighting

up an object indicates something coming to prominence in the mind.)
There is a witness stand on the stage, but it's not lit.

INT. HENRY'S ROOM - DAY

Outside the radiator, as the light inside it goes down and we hear
the Baby crying. Mary keeps trying to feed it.

MARY
Is there any mail?

Henry looks like he's hiding something.

HENRY
No.

INT. HENRY'S ROOM – NIGHT

We see dark shadows on the window with bricks. We hear the Baby's
cries and faint screams in the distance.

Henry and Mary are in bed but not sleeping. Henry get up, picks up
his jacket, and takes the box from the pocket. He opens the box and
it emits an energy-like sound. Henry puts the seed in the little
floral cabinet by his bed that has floral patters on the doors—the
floral cabinet. (It's now lit, but hasn't been previously. Putting a
seed in a box is more sex—sperm in the vagina. The cabinet is
associated with the Beautiful Girl Across the Hall.) Henry closes the
doors, makes sure Mary hadn't seen him, and the power sound dies
down. (The dirt tree is lit now.)

The Baby begins to cry again. Both Henry and Mary are in bed with
eyes wide open. Henry, looking fearful, reaches over to Mary, but she
shrugs him away. (Fear and sex again. Fear prevents sex.)

In bed Henry looks at the back of Mary's head (link wit the torn
picture--he looked at the back of her head then) and sees branches at
the back of her head. (He sees a threshold, like the twigs. It
provides comfort to Henry.) Henry goes to sleep.

We see dark shadows on the window with bricks. The shadows envelope
the window in darkness.

The Baby continues to cry incessantly. Henry sleeps (he can live with
fear), but Mary, still in bed, is wide awake and looks very tired.
She can't take it anymore. (The constant cry of fear drives her
away.)

MARY
Shut up!

Henry wakes up. Mary gets up and stands over the Baby.

MARY
 Shut up!

Mary gives the Baby some food. The Baby stops for a minute and Mary
goes back to bed. The Baby starts crying again as soon as she gets
back in bed.

Mary gets up again and turns on the light . Henry wakes up. She and
goes to the bathroom and comes out dressed. She puts her coat on.

MARY
I can't stand it. I'm going home. (Fear drives her away.)

HENRY
What are you talking about?

MARY
I can't even sleep. I'm losing my mind. You're on
vacation now, you can take care of it for a night.

HENRY
Well, you'll come back tomorrow?

MARY
All I need is a decent night's sleep!

Mary takes her bag from the table and goes to the door.

HENRY
(meanly)
Why don't you just stay at home.

MARY
I'll do what I want to do! And you better take real good
care of things while I'm gone!

Mary goes to the foot of bed and reaches under it. She starts pulling
at something. The bed shakes and squeaks and Mary grunts and moans,
pressing her face into the bars with a fearful look. (Sex and fear
linked again.) She finally frees a suitcase from under the bed and
walks out the door with it. Henry looks surprised and the baby
continues crying while he lies in bed wide awake.

INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE HENRY'S ROOM – HENRY'S VISION

Henry has a vision of the BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ACROSS THE HALL walking in
the hallway outside his apartment.

INT. HENRY'S ROOM – NIGHT

Henry awake in bed. The Baby is strangely quiet. Henry gets up and
puts his robe on. Henry takes a thermometer out of the top dresser
drawer and puts it in the Baby's mouth. After a beat he takes it out
and reads it. It shows normal temperature. Henry turns to put the
thermometer away. Suddenly the baby is covered with tiny boils, (a
link to the Man in the Planet—both have boils) with strange skin
color, gasping for air.

HENRY
Oh, you are sick!

Henry examines the sick Baby as it continues to gasp.

INT. HENRY'S ROOM – DAY

Shot of the window with bricks.

The Baby is still sick, but there's now a respirator blowing steam
(like the front yard in the X's house) onto the Baby. Henry is
dressed and sits by the Baby.

Another shot of the window with bricks. (Fear is now controlling

him).

Henry gets up, goes over to the floral box and opens it. We hear the
power sound from the seed. He closes the doors. Henry thinks for a
beat.

INT. APARTMENT BUILDING ENTRYWAY – HENRY'S THOUGHT

We see Henry's mailbox. It is dark in the box and we can't see what's
inside. (He's open to more thoughts of escape.)

INT. HENRY'S ROOM – DAY

Henry puts on his suit jacket and walks towards the door. He checks
on the Baby and is about to leave when the Baby starts crying. Henry
goes to the Baby and it stops. He tries to leave again and it starts
crying again. Henry goes back to the Baby and sits down. It stops
crying, but still looks sick. He thinks he hears a little snicker
from it. (Fear is controlling Henry now, and that fact makes it
laugh.)

Tight on the respirator. Tight on the Baby's labored breathing. (We

see how grotesque fear is.)

INT. HENRY'S ROOM – NIGHT

Henry, still dressed, turns out the light.

Tight on the Baby's eye, like a monster, always watching. (Fear is
always watching.)

Henry lies in bed, dressed and awake. The dirt tree is lit. (Judging,
symbol right and wrong, knowledge of good and evil.)

Tight on the Baby's eye again, still watching.

Tighter shot of Henry, wide awake in bed.

The radiator starts lighting up from the inside.

Another shot of Henry in bed, perhaps falling asleep. (Thinking warm

thoughts about the radiator, comforting, escape.)

Close on the lit radiator grates.

Some metal pieces open, like stage curtains opening.

INT. RADIATOR STAGE

At the edge of the stage there is a threshold of twigs and lights

(for Henry, twigs and lights are good). The lights light up one by
one, like stage lights. We hear Henry's happy organ music in the
distance.

There is a woman on the stage—The Lady in the Radiator. She is blond,

wears a nice dress, white shoes, and has a rose pinned to her waist.
She smiles constantly. Each of her cheeks are large, white, roundish
with lumps, and textured. (They look like mashed potatoes—meat and
potatoes--the meat is the chicken and these are the potatoes.) She
dances back and forth across the stage and giggles at times. There is
a witness stand on the stage that is not lit.

Suddenly a spermatozoon creature falls onto the stage. She continues

dancing and giggling. Another creature falls, then a third and a
fourth. The Lady keeps dancing, carefully avoiding them, and
giggling.

When the music stops, she stomps on one of the spermatozoon

creatures, squishing it. She giggles. The music starts and she dances
carefully again, and squishes another one when the music stops. (She
destroys fear. She is encouraging Henry to do the same. He does so
shortly.)

She suddenly backs up and fades away into black. (She is his warm
thought, she helps him get to sleep, comforting.)
INT. HENRY'S ROOM – NIGHT

Slow pan across the individually lit floral cabinet and dirt tree
(watching, judging), to Henry, who is sleeping in bed.

Mary appears from under the sheets. She is sweating, and there is a
moist, organic sound as she thrashes around in the bed.

HENRY
Move over.

Mary clicks her teeth, rubs her eyes, and thrashes in bed with wet,
organic, exaggerated sounds (Mary is a fearful object, all those
little annoyances about a partner that drive you crazy).

HENRY
Move over. Move over!

Henry feel something in the bed. He reaches under the covers and
pulls out a small spermatozoon creature. (Head like the Baby and an
umbilical cord—same as in the beginning.)

Henry reacts with horror and throws it against the wall.

He reaches under the covers and pulls more of spermatozoon creatures

out of Mary. Mary seem to produce them as she thrashes around. (Fear
coming out of Mary. She's moving around like the chicken in a sexual
way and producing fear.) He throws them against the wall as well.
They splat as they hit the wall by the well-lit floral cabinet. (He
begins to destroy fear. There is an opening/chance for the seed now.)

We then see a spotlight on the floral cabinet and the doors slowly
open. Henry looks at it. We see the seed in the cabinet dance away,
moving onto the planet from the beginning. It dances around on the
surface, going into the crevices, until one end opens up into a large
black hole and we move into it. (Going into a hole/puddle again.)

We see dark textures with a puddle in it. Inside the puddle is Henry
sitting in his room. (This look very much like the puddle the
spermatozoon creature splashed into in the beginning, and the hole
through which something was born and we first saw Henry.)

INT. HENRY'S ROOM – DREAM SEQUENCE - NIGHT

The room is eerily lit, the mood is eery. Henry sits on his bed in
pajamas and robe. Henry picks at something on his robe and tries to
brush it away. (Trying to get this seed off of him—this bad idea that
has attached itself to him, like a burr.)
There is a knock at his door. Henry answers. After a long beat of
Henry trying to see who it is, the BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ACROSS THE HALL
comes out of the darkness. Henry backs away frightened as she enters.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ACROSS THE HALL

I locked myself out of my apartment.
(beat—looking around)
And it's so late.

She looks around Henry's apartment more and turns away from the Baby.
The Baby starts crying. Henry puts his hand over it's mouth.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ACROSS THE HALL

Where's your wife?

HENRY
She must've gone back to her parents again. I'm not sure.

The baby keeps trying to cry and Henry keeps his hand on it's mouth.

She rubs her hands on the dark bed railing, still with her back to
the Baby. (Parallel to Henry turning his back to the window later.)
She approaches Henry, coming very close, as if to kiss him.

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ACROSS THE HALL

Can I spend the night here?

Henry looks very frightened. She slowly moves in to kiss him.

In a new shot we slowly pan from the bed railing up the bed. There is
a large pool on his bed (another version of a puddle) containing
white milk-like liquid. (Milk=bliss, blood=fear.) Henry and the
Beautiful Girl Across the Hall are naked inside the pool, kissing.
The dirt tree is prominently lit. The Beautiful Girl Across the Hall
hears the Baby cry and stares at it fearfully while kissing Henry.
They sink into the pool of white liquid until we see can only see her
hair. (Sinking into milk=very good, sinking into blood=very bad.)

Close shot of the white liquid as it dissolves away, leaving only

darkness. (Revealing the fear beneath.)

The Beautiful Girl Across the Hall emerges from the darkness. She
sees the planet in the darkness, which is shaped like the Baby's
head. She appears frightened of it and recedes in the darkness.
(Again, fear prevents sex.)

INT. RADIATOR STAGE

Out of the darkness the Lady in the Radiator appears. She stands on
the stage in the spotlight, hands clasped at her chest. With organ
accompaniment she sings (hymn-like, with organ):

LADY IN THE RADIATOR

In Heaven, everything is fine
In Heaven, everything is fine
In Heaven, everything is fine
You've got your good things
And I've got mine

In Heaven, everything is fine

In Heaven, everything is fine
In Heaven, everything is fine
You've got your good things
And you've got mine

In Heaven, everything is fine

(First verse, the good things are separate—you've got your, I've got
mine. Second verse, they are together—you've got yours, you've got
mine. She is part of him) (A bug flies through the shot at one point—
continuity error.)

She finishes and we hear the wind blow. Henry climbs over the twigs,
up on the stage. (Through the threshold of twigs—a threshold to
another emotional state.) He approaches the Lady in the Radiator,
avoiding the crushed spermatozoon creatures on the stage.

She opens her hands to Henry. Henry looks scared, but then reaches
for her hands and touches them.

INT. WHITE SPACE

The screen goes completely white, enveloped in light and white noise.

INT. RADIATOR STAGE

Henry appears back on the stage as he takes his hand off her hand.
Henry touches her hand again.

INT. WHITE SPACE

The screen and sound goes completely white again.

INT. RADIATOR STAGE

The Lady in the Radiator clasps her hands to her chest again and
suddenly vanishes. Henry looks bewildered and fearful. We hear wind
blowing, getting louder and louder.
After a beat the Man in the Planet appears briefly. (Bliss has been
replaced by fear.)

The crushed spermatozoon creatures are blown away from the stage.
(The dream is turning into a nightmare.)

We hear squeaking and a giant version of the dirt tree rolls itself
onto the stage. (The judge appears at the court.)

Henry retreats behind the witness stand on the stage. He starts

rubbing the bar nervously, back and forth.

Suddenly Henry's head is decapitated, pushed off by a phallic object

that thrusts itself out of Henry's collar. His head falls on the
stage. (This is Henry's fear that sex will lead to death with his
head being turned into an eraser and replaced by the child's fearful,
crying head.)

Ominous shot of the dirt tree branches. (The branches judge him and
pass a sentence—death.)

Henry's hands keep rolling the bars on the witness stand.

The tree begins bleeding, gushing blood onto the stage. (The tree's
blood represents fear being “born” on the stage. It provides a pool
for the phallus, and Henry's head is the spermatozoon creature in
this nightmarish sequence. This conception and birth will lead
directly to death and destruction.)

We hear the Baby's cry in the distance and the Baby's head slowly
emerges from Henry's collar, growing larger and larger. The cries get
louder and louder.

The blood completely surrounds Henry's head.

The Baby's cries get louder and more constant, until Henry's head
slashes into the blood and disappears.

EXT. CITY – DAY

On the street Henry's head falls from the sky, landing with a splat
on the ground.

The scalp peels off and his brain is revealed.

A bum nearby looks at the head.

A boy runs out from behind a building, picks up the head and runs
away. The bum reaches out for them.

INT. FACTORY LOBBY

Paul, a man behind the counter, a cleans his hands.

The boy comes in the front door with the head. (The flower pots on
the ledge.)

Paul starts pressing a buzzer over and over.

The Boss bursts through a door behind the counter, goes up to Paul
and sticks his finger in his face.

THE BOSS
Okay, Paul!

He turns to the boy and smiles. He gestures for the boy to come
closer.

THE BOSS
Hiya sonny, what'd you got there?

The boy brings the head to the man. He looks at the brain, giggles in
approval and pats the boy on the head. He the leads the boy through
another door. Paul tries to follow. (Bosses treat their workers
horribly.)

THE BOSS
Counter, Paul!

INT. FACTORY

Another man, the Pencil Machine Operator, sits at a strange machine.

The Boss and the boy approach. The man puts down his pad, gets a
drill and extracts a section of the brain from Henry's head. He puts
the section in a hole in the machine. (More holes and phallic shapes,
sex leading to the creation of something destructive.) He starts the
machine and feeds pencils into it. We see eraser-less pencils move on
a conveyor to where the Henry's brain sample is feeding into the
machine. (Like sex—brain sample entering the hole, turned into
eraser. Sex, machine, phallic symbol, hole, pencil is a phallic
symbol as well.) The pencils come out with erasers on top.
The Pencil Machine Operator (a parallel to the Man in the Planet)
pulls a lever twice and two pencils come out onto his work table. He
sticks the pencils in a hole to sharpen it (again sex, going into a
hole), makes a line on a piece of paper and erases part of it.
(Erasing is a destructive act for a printer like Henry. In his
nightmare sex and the fear associated with it have decapitated Henry.
This leads to the Baby's head replacing his and to an industrial
process through which Henry's head is transformed into an object of
destruction.)

The Boss and the boy look on anxiously. The Pencil Machine Operator
nods his approval.

PENCIL MACHINE OPERATOR

It's okay.

The Boss pays the boy. The Pencil Machine Operator collects the
eraser dust in a little pile and wipes it off the work table. We see
the floating eraser dust against the black backdrop. (We will see a
triumphant variation of this image in the climax, as Henry erases
fear, turning it into bliss and transforming the nightmare into a
dream.)

INT. HENRY'S ROOM – NIGHT

Henry lies in bed, dressed, with his hands behind his head. He looks
disturbed by his dream (Afraid that he's going to be erased. He is
starting to unravel fear, peeling back its onion layers.)

INT. HENRY'S ROOM – DAY

We see a shot of Henry's empty bed.

Henry stands by his bed railing, looking at his bed, his back turned
away from the window. (Not ready to face fear quite yet.) We see the
bricks clearly in the background. (These bricks will disappear
shortly.) Henry fidgets with the bed railing. We hear a wind blow
through the room. (Start of the wind, increasing acknowledgment of
fear.)

Another shot of the empty bed as Henry stares at it for a moment

before turning away as if remembering something. (Seems the recognize
the association of sex and fear. Looking at the empty bed leads to
looking out the window.)

EXT. ROAD - NIGHT

Through buildings and blurred barbed wire we see a dirt road with
large puddle in it. There is a pipe going into the puddle. (The pipe
links to the X's—Bill put in all the pipes in town.) A person chases
another person to the puddle, grabs them, and begins attacking them
violently with a club. The wind continues to blow. (This is the scene
that has been walled off in Henry's mind. We are finally seeing it
for the first time.)
INT. HENRY'S ROOM – NIGHT

Henry appears to be watching the scene through the window. (The

bricks appear to be gone now!) The wind is still blowing in his room.

Henry hears something, perhaps a door opening, from the hall outside
his room. Henry opens his door and, after a beat of looking back and
forth, steps in the hall.

INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE HENRY'S ROOM

Henry knocks timidly on the Beautiful Girl Across the Hall's door.
There is no answer.

INT. HENRY'S ROOM - DAY

Henry returns to his room, disappointed. The wind continues to blow.

The Baby starts snickering, mocking him. Henry looks at the Baby with
anger. The Baby stops laughing. (Fear has now lead to anger, anger
eventually will lead to violence.)

Henry takes off his coat and lies on his bed, face up, like the Baby.
(Explicit connection between the two here—they are both lying face
up) The Baby starts snickering at him again. Henry hears his happy
organ music in his head (trying to think happy thoughts) but he also
hears more sounds coming from the hall. He tries to ignore it. He
picks at this bed with one hand, tearing a tiny hole in the blanket.
(Subconsciously trying to tear a hole in the fabric of his illusion,
and trying to see fear for what it really is.) We can see many other
holes in the blanket. Besides Henry and the bed, the dirt tree is lit
up.

The Baby starts snickering/mocking again. He hears more sounds in the

hallway. (Henry wonders if she is inviting other men in for sex.Henry
is obsessed with sex—his subconscious is super-saturated with it.)

We see the darkened floral box. (Trying to shut off this thought.)
The wind continues to blow.

We see the florescent light of his floor lamp. Both lights are on.

EXT. ROAD – THROUGH HENRY'S WINDOW - NIGHT

We see the mud puddle outside with someone crawling near the edge of
it.

INT. HENRY'S ROOM – NIGHT

Tight shot of the radiator.

We see Henry as before, lying on his back like the Baby. He looks
very troubled. A wind blows through Henry's room.

We hear the sound of the elevator opening in the distance (Same

direction as the floral box. The seed in the box—more sexual
metaphors. Floral box=Beautiful Girl Across the Hall.) Henry
suddenly gets up, looking at it. He puts his jacket on, and opens his
front door.

INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE HENRY'S APARTMENT

The Beautiful Girl Across the Hall is with a man. He has his arm
around her. They almost kiss, but she gestures to go inside.

Henry looks at them with anger.

The Beautiful Girl from Across the Hall stares at Henry.

In her point of view, she looks him and sees that Henry's head has
been replaced with the Baby's head. The Baby looks frightened, as if
in a silent scream.

Henry (appearing again as he usually does) quickly closes the door to

his apartment. (Fear has kept him from sex now.)

INT. HENRY'S ROOM – NIGHT

In his room Henry turns off the wall light and looks through the
keyhole. He sees the Beautiful Girl Across the Hall's door shut.

As Henry turns away we hear the wind blow again.

Henry looks at he darkened radiator. (There's no comfort coming from

it.)

Henry stares angrily at the Baby, as it lies quietly. (Fear has led
to intense anger.)

Henry suddenly gets up and goes to his dresser. He opens he top

drawer slowly and takes out a pair of scissors. (A two-pronged
device, like the fork at the X's dinner table.)

Henry walks over to the Baby, staring at it for a moment. He sits

down, trying to decide whether or not to do something.

After a beat Henry starts cutting the bandages, from the bottom
towards the head. The Baby starts crying and quaking in fear.
Once Henry gets to the top, the bandages open to reveal blood and the
grotesque inner organs of the Baby. (Fear is hideous inside.) The
organs are reminiscent of the chicken from the dinner at the X's
house. The Baby has no skin inside its bandages.

Henry stabs the organs with his scissors. (Fear has led to violence.
This scene is parallel with stabbing the chicken at the dinner.)
Liquid shoots out of the organs. Henry recoils in horror. The Baby
spits dark liquid and dark liquid pours from its organs. The Baby
cries and shakes. Henry goes to the other side of the room, to the
dirt tree and looks away. (He is not facing fear yet. He hides his
face from it.)

A mashed potato-like substance starts gushing out of the Baby's

organs. (Which looks exactly like the substance on the Lady in the
Radiator's cheeks. The stuff that comes from her smile. Bliss is
destroying fear.)

Henry's floor light begins to flicker. (Like the lamp at Mary X's
house. Fear is overloading the light.)

Henry crouches by the dirt tree in intense horror and fear, still
looking away from it. (Still not facing it directly. Henry is
horrified by what he's done and the consequences. Fear led him to
committed this violent and destructive act. He's now associated with
the violence he's seen outside his window. He's becoming what he
feared—the Eraserhead.)

The mashed potato-like substance envelopes the Baby's body and comes
up to its head. (Bliss has almost overcome fear. Fear puts up a good
fight and makes a last stand)

Sparks fly out of the light socket where the floor lamp is plugged
in. (Fear is incredibly high now.)

The Baby's head, looking withered, extends far away from it's body.
There is a long umbilical cord attached to the head. The mashed
potato substance has completely consumed the body.

The Baby's head and umbilical cord tries to pull away from the melted
body and mashed potato-like substance.

The Baby's head, still looking withered, shoots liquid and tries to
pull away.

Sparks continue to fly from the light socket.

The floor lamp continues to overload and flicker.

In the next shot the Baby's head is huge, much larger than Henry, and
faces the camera. (Very much resembling the planet) As the lights
flicker the giant head appears in different parts of the room.

Henry finally turns towards the Baby. (Finally facing fear directly.)

The Baby's giant head lunges forward quickly, aggressively, towards

camera.(Trying to scare Henry.)

The floor lamp finally blows out (Fear becomes so overwhelming that
it overloads the lamp and burns out the light.)

The giant head revolves in the room in the dark, like the planet.

Henry turns away away from the giant head briefly. We hear a cracking
sound and Henry looks at it directly again. (Fully facing his fear
now.)

EXT. SPACE - PLANET

We see the dark planet in space. Suddenly the front pieces of the
planet explode off into starless space. (Fear is being destroyed, we
are really peeling back the onion layers of fear now.)

We see Henry with a backdrop of darkness and planet dust flying

around his head (He is the Eraserhead, but it is a triumphant image.
He has destroyed fear. The planet dust parallels the eraser dust from
his dream. This is a triumphant image now. Sometimes you must destroy
(fear) in order to create (bliss). Henry is instinctual though and
can't intellectualize this. He still looks frightened and
bewildered.)

More pieces explode off the front of the planet and we see more dust
around Henry's head. He still looks frightened and bewildered.

The Planet now has a large black hole in its front. We slowly move in
to the dark hole (We're moving into a dark hole once again. The shape
of the hole resembles the hole in the beginning. We moved out of the
planet in the beginning and now at the end we move into the planet.)

INT. PLANET SHACK

We see the Man in the Planet, pulling on his levers with everything
he's got. (Still trying to control Henry, but he cannot anymore.)
Sparks fly from bottom of the levers onto his body and face.

In a tighter shot we see the Man in the Planet grimace as the sparks
fly onto him, hitting his body and face. There is white substance
where the sparks have hit him.
In an even tighter shot of the Man in the Planet's face we see that
the white substance looks exactly like the mashed potato-like
substance that consumed the Baby's body. It is the same substance
that makes up the Lady in the Radiator's cheeks. (And her smile, the
source of her bliss. The Lady in the Radiator, a symbol of bliss, is
overcoming the Man in the Planet, a symbol of fear. Fear is being
destroyed by bliss. This links to the dream sequence when the Lady in
the Radiator stomped on the spermatozoon creatures.)

INT. WHITE SPACE

The scene dissolves into a white space of pure light and white noise.
(This is exactly like the light from radiator stage. The nightmare
has now been turned into a dream. Fear has been transformed into
bliss) The Lady in the Radiator appears, smiling broadly, with arms
clasped at her chest.

We see Henry in the light. He turns towards the Lady in the Radiator.
She embraces Henry warmly. Henry looks completely at peace as he
accepts her embrace. (This image is ecstatic. Fear can no longer
control Henry. He embraces bliss without fear.)

CUT TO BLACK.

THE END