When Harry Met Sally Read Free Page A

were married. And it’s over fifty years later and we’re still married.
    FADE OUT .
    FADE IN:
    EXT. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CAMPUS—DAY
    CARD: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
—
1977

A couple in a clinch
.
    The young man involved is named HARRY BURNS. He’s twenty-six years old, just graduated from law school. Wearing jeans and a sweatshirt
.
    He’s kissing a young woman named AMANDA. She has long, straight hair that she irons. She’s about twenty. The embrace is fairly melodramatic. They pull back to look at one another
.
    AMANDA     I love you.
    HARRY     I love you.
    They begin to kiss again
.
    A car pulls up right beside them. Stops. Sits there
.
    Driving the car is SALLY ALBRIGHT. She’s twenty-one years old. She’s very pretty although not necessarily in an obvious way. She sits there waiting for the kiss to end. It doesn’t end. She clears her throat
.
    Amanda sees Sally, and she and Harry move over to the car
.
    AMANDA     Oh. Hi, Sally. Sally, this is Harry Burns. Harry, this is Sally Albright.
    HARRY     Nice to meet you.
    They shake hands
.
    SALLY     
(to Harry)
    You want to drive the first shift?
    HARRY     No, no, you’re there already, you can start.
    SALLY     Back’s open.
    Harry looks meaningfully at Amanda
.
    Then he starts to put his stuff—a duffel bag, a box of records—into the back seat of the car, where Sally’s stuff is, too—suitcases, stereo speakers, a guitar, boxes of books, a small TV
.
    AMANDA     Call me.
    HARRY     I’ll call as soon as I get there.
    AMANDA     Call me from the road.
    HARRY     I’ll call before that.
    Harry and Amanda exchange longing looks outside the car
.
    AMANDA     I love you.
    HARRY     I love you.
    They kiss again
.
    Sally sits waiting, waiting. She shifts position and accidentally-on-purpose hits the car HORN, which beeps and startles Amanda and Harry into breaking off their clinch
.
    SALLY     Sorry.
    HARRY     I miss you already.
    AMANDA     I miss you.
    HARRY     Bye.
    Harry gets into the car, and Amanda watches it pull away
.
    CUT TO :
    INT. CAR—DAY
    Harry takes out a bunch of grapes, starts to eat them
.
    SALLY     I have it all figured out. It’s an eighteen-hour trip, which breaks down to six shifts of three hours each. Or, alternatively, we could break it down by mileage. There’s a map on the visor that I’ve marked to show the locations where we change shifts.
    HARRY     
(offering her one)
    Grape?
    SALLY     No. I don’t like to eat between meals.
    Harry spits a grape seed out the window, which doesn’t happen to be down
.
    HARRY     I’ll roll down the window.
    After a lengthy silence
.
    HARRY     ( CONT’D )    Why don’t you tell me the story of your life?
    SALLY     The story of my life?
    HARRY     We’ve got eighteen hours to kill before we hit New York.
    SALLY     The story of my life isn’t even going to get us out of Chicago. I mean, nothing’s happened to me yet. That’s why I’m going to New York.
    HARRY     So something can happen to you?
    SALLY     Yes.
    HARRY     Like what?
    SALLY     Like I’m going to go to journalism school to become a reporter.
    HARRY     So you can write about things that happen to other people.
    SALLY     
(after a beat)
    That’s one way to look at it.
    HARRY     Suppose nothing happens to you. Suppose you live there your whole life and nothing happens. You never meet anyone, you never become anything, and finally you die one of those New York deaths where nobody