"you still here?" "i'll come back and get my things after my shift." "yeah, well, you just might find 'em in the front yard." "want breakfast?" "well, i was going to go up and eat at the cafe." "no, you don't." "now, you can go and tell les and bobby and charlie that i threw you out, but i ain't going to have you going to work eating cafe breakfasts. here." "thank you." "i appreciate it." "hmm." "melissa, melissa, look, this whole thing just one big mistake, baby." "i swear that girl don't mean nothing to me." "she meant enough for you to go and sleep with her." "how many times i got to say it?" "i am ashamed of what i did!" "you ashamed of what you did, or you ashamed 'cause you got caught?" "well, what'd you want me to do, huh?" "i mean, you want me to beg you for forgiveness for the rest of my life?" "how the hell you want your eggs?" "ba... charlie:" "they told me i could have the night shift if i wanted to." "that way i'd never have to see another sunrise again." "bobby:" "yeah, unless it's because you late." "les:" "like you were this morning." "i'm not kidding, though, 'cause my boy jeffrey-- he's going to be all-conference football and basketball this year, and i'm not going to miss one of his games." "yeah, you betcha." "bobby:" "?" "oh, my darling... ?" "charlie:" "oh, come on, don't start singing this early in the morning." "?" "oh, my darling clementine... ?" "wilson, parker, you two guys hang on a second." "i'm taking you guys out of shaft 15 this morning." "that's great, schmidt." "hey, we get to work on our golf." "we need a crew in the junction." "junction?" "what the hell for?" "that's the oldest part of the mine, schmidt." "it was robbed before we was even born." "it's a good thing you guys aren't running this company." "we had a geophysical team from the university down here last month, and they say there's several million dollars' worth of coal in those trenches." "gasification." "yeah, coal gasification." "got a pilot plant over in charleston starting up to do just that." "get to it, boys." "(bell rings) and then they squish it all together, you see, and they make gas." "now, you make yourself enough gas, you see, and the next time they raise them oil prices, you can just tell those fellas to go kiss your sweet patootie." "now, we're not going to listen to this all morning, are we?" "yeah, gasification ain't important." "it's high school football." "john:" "what you say you read-- i don't know about this." "charlie:" "best that article tell you, this part of the mine's about 100 years old." "well, maybe it did, and maybe it didn't." "les:" "charlie, maybe it's not too late to change shifts." "(laughter) charlie:" "13-c." "(knocking) 13-d-- that- that ain't right." "now what's the matter, charlie?" "something wrong?" "well, that last turn should've put us at pillar 11." "this says 13." "well, maybe somebody changed the numbers when they closed the junction." "no, more likely we took a serious wrong turn back there." "uh, les, bobby, you track back to the shaft and get old schmidt on the phone." "okay." "all right, and hey, charlie, if we're not back by noon, you start without us." "get out of here." "see you around." "we could be digging down here for the rest of our lives." "why worry?" "you're not going anywhere, john." "you could make this a home away from home." "way i hear, you're going to need one anyway." "charlie, you ought to take a look at this." "(grunts) hey, charlie, i think you ought to take a look at this..." "john, look out!" "(gasping)" "(coughing)" "charlie?" "charlie?" "charlie?" "!" "charlie!" "charlie!" "charlie!" "(coughs):" "help!" "help." "charlie?" "charlie?" "charlie!" "help!" "somebody there?" "who's there?" "somebody there?" "here." "i think i could use a hand." "who's there?" "(gasp of pain) just hold it." "(gasps) boy... (grunts) come on. just close your eyes." "get up. come on." "(grunting) thanks." "no problem." "i think i broke my leg." "yeah?" "let me take a look." "don't touch me." "hey, come on, let me take a look at it." "(groans) yeah, now, look, i think it is broken." "i'm going to make you a splint." "you ready?" "what's that?" "what?" "on your wrist?" "that's a wristwatch." "(beeps) come on, man, i need that." "now, you ready?" "yeah." "all right, hold on." "just hold it." "(panting) when you're done, you turn out that fire." "huh?" "turn out the lamp." "it'll start an explosion." "this ain't going to cause no explosion." "i'm just hoping that the batteries'll hold out." "now, you hold this for me." "yeah." "right there." "no heat." "hey, come on, man." "right there." "what are you doing?" "that's our light!" "i've never seen a lantern like this before." "yeah, well, you can pick one up at any hardware store." "cost you about 150 bucks." "$150?" "that's three months' pay." "did you say 150 bucks is three months' pay?" "uh-huh." "hey, they're still up there." "they got to be looking for us." "yeah. hey, hey!" "somebody help!" "we're down here!" "we're here!" "hey, you think they're still looking for us?" "they always do." "yeah, well, it sound like you been through a few of these." "i seen it happen." "i spent a lot of time digging my friends out of spots like this." "i can't understand it." "i don't know what happened." "well, i don't rightly know." "one minute, i was swinging a pick, and the next, i was buried under there..." "a pick?" "you had a pick?" "where is it?" "!" "somewhere up there." "(grunts):" "oh, god." "how could you lose a thing like that?" "!" "we could dig our way out of here!" "save your breath!" "it's under a ton of rock." "i don't believe i know you." "i didn't know we had colored working in the mine." "yeah, well, we're all over the place, buddy." "and i don't think i know you, either." "i ain't never seen you, not on the day shift." "you work the day shift, and you don't know ray dobson?" "no, i don't!" "i'm the senior man here." "are you, ray?" "!" "and making what you make?" "!" "well, you ought to talk to your union rep, man." "the only union men in this mine are dead men, sir." "now, ray, this is stupid." "we got a hell of a lot more to worry about, instead of you and me down here fighting." "you're right." "yeah, right." "i'm sure your daddy told you the same thing that mine told me." "just like religion and politics, you don't ask a man what he makes." "i wouldn't know." "my pappy died when i was born." "cholera got him in 1877." "yeah, well, i'm s... did you say 1877?" "i did." "yeah, well, ray, that makes you about 109 years old, buddy." "on my last birthday, i was 35." "now, come on, ray!" "i wasn't that good in math, but i do know that if you was born in 1877, and you just turned 35, well, that just brings you out to 1912." "that's right. september 16, 1912." "there you are, dotty." "did we ever get that letter from the school board?" "why are you looking at me like that?" "reverend bailey, it is not my place to tell you exactly how to do your job." "oh, come on, dotty, why should you be any different?" "i thought you were going to deliver this letter to melissa parker yesterday." "well, i was going to do just that, dotty, when mrs. ritter's husband called about her stroke." "i had to spend the rest of the day at the hospital with the poor woman." "oh, i understand." "i-i'm just... dotty, this thing's been sitting here how long?" "60-some years?" "since 1912." "and for all we know, it's just some kind of prank." "i mean, no one's ever steamed it open to see what was inside it." "i don't believe anyone's ever bothered to tell melissa parker it exists." "so it's... so it's a day late." "reverend... reverend!" "reverend bailey, this letter was entrusted to the church because the instructions were to be followed." "and besides, until their wedding several years ago, there was no melissa parker." "(sighs):" "i'm duly chastened, mrs. clark." "of course instructions should be followed." "although i must confess, i see no reason to worry that it was delivered a day late." "(horn sounding) oh." "(horn sounding loudly)" "woman:" "there must've been an accident at the mine." "yeah, that might work." "what the devil?" "come on. you're the one that was worried about flames." "now, you just leave that alone." "what's this?" "the last time i checked, it was a five-dollar bill." "oh, yeah?" "what do you call this?" "counterfeit." "this is a perfectly good silver certificate." "are we going to sit here and talk about this, or are we going to try and dig our way out of here?" "you can dig till doomsday, if you want, but you still won't get five feet from where you're standing." "besides, you're using air." "why don't you sit down and rest?" "save your strength." "somebody is coming." "trust in the lord." "the lord helps those who help themselves." "i don't like this." "maybe i ought to be dead." "maybe i'm already dead." "then what does that make me?" "you're another ghost." "yeah." "there's been a lot of cave-ins down here." "maybe you died in 1912." "well, maybe you're the devil himself." "(alarm blaring) d-13!" "we want it in d-13." "oxygen in d-13." "the whole tunnel collapsed." "we're trying to get the men out." "keep them out of there so we can get the work done." "we'll let 'em know them who's safe as soon as we can." "now, move out, boys." "bobby, bobby!" "who's with you?" "just les." "what about charlie and the parker kid?" "they were way back in the junction when the whole thing came down." "damn it!" "watch out!" "stretcher coming through." "hey, did you see johnny down there?" "did you find parker, too?" "man:" "we were lucky to find this one." "the whole thing is down!" "great. gotta search for one man whose air's running out in a hundred square yards of tunnels." "we may never find him in that." "what are you going to do, give up?" "no. we've got a few tricks." "hirsch... get the rescue team over to the junction." "bobby will show you the way." "les, pull that crew out of shaft six." "get 'em over to the junction from the other side." "have 'em get some picks and shovels." "that's the only way." "let's move, people." "ray, this air is getting stale." "tastes like coal." "(coughing) got to take it easy." "stretch out the supply." "can we talk at least?" "if you can't talk, you might as well die." "anyway, i was seeing abby carter at the time." "she had this sister, sarah, her twin." "they was always pulling the switch on me." "just so happened, they pulled it the very night i was going to propose to abby." "i guess i was so nervous i couldn't tell the difference." "i went right ahead and proposed to sarah." "she said yes." "abby was so mad at me, she wouldn't talk to me for weeks." "which one is that?" "is that abby or sarah?" "it's sarah, of course." "she's the one that said yes." "she looks like a good woman to me." "yeah." "married, john?" "yeah. been married several years." "her name is melissa." "she was my high school sweetheart." "sarah and i have been married five years." "five happy years, i hope." "we had our ups and downs." "well, right now i'm having one of my downs." "i've been making mistakes-- mistakes i'll be paying for the rest of my life." "my mama used to say every night when the sun went down it was the death of the sky." "but at dawn, it's reborn." "she's beautiful." "thank you." "there is color in this picture." "mrs. parker?" "melissa parker?" "i'm not ready to see you yet, reverend." "this has nothing to do with the mine." "i been looking for you." "it's about a letter addressed to you." "i don't understand." "it's old." "74 years old, to be exact." "what is this?" "no one knows." "but you're melissa parker, as it says." "i was supposed to deliver this letter to you yesterday, so you could open it." "go ahead." ""dear mrs. parker," ""this will strike you as madness," ""but there's no other way to put it." ""if you are reading this on september 15, 1986," ""then you must stop your husband john" ""from going to the cassutt mine." ""on september 16, he will be trapped in a cave-in."" "i don't want excuses." "i want equipment and i want it here right now!" "melissa's on her way in here and she's got the reverend with her." "that guy works fast." "what about the vent shaft?" "can't we check those?" "junction's an old dig, bobby." "they didn't drop as many vent shafts as we do now." "we're just gonna have to face facts." "our chances of finding parker are nonexistent." "i'm sorry, melissa." "please, listen to this." ""john parker is trapped in a junction" ""in a tunnel opened september 2, 1912, approximately 25 yards north of pillar 11."" "let me see that." "where did this thing come from?" "it's been in a safe at my church for some 70 years." "reverend watts showed it to me when i took over." "good god, reverend, i can't pull my crews out of shaft 12 right now." "you don't just pick up and move a crew like that on some goofball idea." "parker is dying down there." "do it." "do what the letter says." "melissa... you're the one who sent him down there." "(digging sounds) ray. ray." "ray, do you hear that?" "what is it?" "that sound." "listen." "there's somebody up there." "we're here!" "we're here!" "we're here." "come on. keep coming." "we're alive." "we're here." "man:" "we've got him." "i'm down here!" "you've got to go back down there." "i'm telling you you've got to go down." "he's still in there." "will you listen to me?" "i'm telling you, he's still down there!" "what's he talking about?" "he's the only one missing." "too much dust, i suppose." "makes him see things." "oh, ray, you're safe." "thank god. oh, god." "sarah... sarah, this man saved me." "his name is john parker." "he didn't know me." "he didn't have to help me." "but he's still down there." "no, ray, it's all right." "you're safe now." "we can go home." "i can't just leave him down there." "ray, they say that you were the only one down there." "no. here's a picture of his wife." "he told me all about her." "the picture is painted." "i know this sounds crazy, honey." "but this man's from the future." "and somewhere..." "somehow... she's worrying about him just like you worried about me." "i've got to help him, honey, even though it may mean interfering with the lord's plan." "ray... no." "will you get me a pencil and a piece of paper?" "i don't understand any of this, but i love you and i will help you." ""your husband saved my life, mrs. parker." ""and if you believe that a man facing death" ""thinks only of those things that are important and true," ""you should know that john was thinking of you." ""he's too good a man" ""to spend his life begging forgiveness." "sincerely, ray dobbs."" "(shouting and whistling) this guy will do anything to get out of work for a day." "you done real good." "it's okay, melissa." "i'm all right." "melissa... i'm sorry." "i'm so... uh-uh." "let's go home." "(cheering)"