Beasts

of No Nation

Scene-by-scene Breakdown

By Jacob Holmes-Brown

GoIntoTheStory.com

Pages 1-2: Introduction to AGU (10), a mischievous but innocent boy.
Agu and his friend, DIKE, use the frame of an old television to make money off
the occupying ECOMOD (UN sanctioned) troops. They and their friends act out
the television programs.

2-4: Agus BIG BROTHER (15) spots the two and ropes them into another money
making scheme: blocking the road with branches then charging bush taxis a tax
to remove the obstacle. Agu is a willing participant.
An OLD WITCH WOMAN confronts Agu and she curses him (on behalf of his
family) for her displacement from her land.

4-7: Agu (through V/O) introduces his good family; his FATHER teaching in a
school and helping build a refugee camp on the land they gave up; his MOTHER
cooking and caring for his BABY BROTHER and LITTLE SISTER; and Big Brother
(obsessed with his looks and getting the girls). Agu and Big Brother fight and
annoy each other as siblings do. The family attends church and believes in God.

7-12: Continued introduction of family (incl. GRANDFATHER). Agus father
makes Agu return his earnings to the ECOMOD soldiers; the food is meant for
the refugees. The radio illuminates the political situation of Agus region: a
military coup has established a new regime (NRC) that has announced all other
parties illegal; the NRC aim to rid the country of the opposing PLF and NDF
(Native Defence Force). Agus father reassures him that they are living in the safe
buffer zone.

12-15: Agus father wakes the family for an emergency meeting at the church. On
the way, Agu sees the NRC trucks roll into town.
The village elders and PASTOR argue over what the town should do: flee and
abandon their belongings or fight for what is theirs? ECOMOD have offered to
take women and small children to a safer area. Agu is looking for his friend Dike;
Dike and his family have fled already.

15-20: Agus mother and father argue over their familys safety. Father wins: he
will stay whilst Mother and the children will leave.
There is not enough room on the ECOMOD truck: Agu must stay with the men.

20-25: NRC GOVERNMENT TROOPS clash with PLF REBELS and Agu, Big
Brother, Father and Grandfather are forced to take shelter. They are captured by
NRC troops who interrogate them and dont believe that they are from the
village. The Old Witch Woman is brought in identify them, she lies and says she
 2

doesnt recognise them. The NRC SERGEANT sentences Agus family to death;
Agu and Big Brother break free, trying to escape. Big Brother is shot.

25-33: Agu flees through the jungle, barely surviving. He is ambushed by a BOY
with a machete and surrounded by NDF (Native Defence Force) SOLDIERS. Agu
is beaten, tied up and expects to die.

Enter: the COMMANDANT, the powerful leader of the NDF, who asks what is
being done with Agu. He questions his TWO-I-C about Agu and details to the
crowd how a boy can be dangerous. Commandant asks Agu where he is from and
promises to help the boy if he tells. Agu explains about the NRC troops and his
town, and about fleeing. Commandant tells him that they have come from Alpha
Town and that Agus father must be dead. He offers Agu a place in his army, to
personally turn Agu into a warrior to fight the army that killed his father: Agu
agrees, he has no other options.

33-36: Agu carries ammunition and distributes water on the way back to the
NDF camp. Commandant leaves Agu with Two-I-C. Agu is placed with the other
boys of the SBU (Small Boys Unit): STRIKA (the boy who ambushed him), HOPE,
GRIOT, PREACHER, JUSTICE and CHICKEN LEGS. Agu is not given a ration, he is
not yet a real soldier; he is jealous of Strikas apparent preferential treatment
by Commandant.

37-46: Agu trains with the NDF soldiers. He is told that their mission is to
destroy those who destroys the peace. Agu (in V/O) tells Mother that he will
find her after the war is won.
Two-I-C and Commandant explains that the NRC government is illegal and their
enemy; they must destroy the NRC before the international community can be
fed the lie that the NDF is causing the war.

Agu is initiated: he is laid in a shallow grave, the clearing drenched in smoke.
Chickens and goats are sacrificed and stones are buried. Agu is pulled out
reborn. The initiates run a gauntlet, being beaten. Then Agu is cut, his wounds
bandaged and a PRIEST blesses him. He is now a soldier.
Commandant announces the intention to join forces with a greater army under
Supreme-Commander DANA GOODBLOOD.

47-57: After initiation, Commandant takes Agu aside: Have you killed a man
before? Hope and Chicken Legs assure him it is easy. Strika gives Agu some fruit
as a peace offering.

The SBU prepare for an ambush. The other boys sniff brown-brown (cocaine
mixed with gunpowder); Griot gives Agu some kind of alcohol to prepare him.
Chicken Legs fires an RPG and halts a convoy of Trucks and Lightly Armoured
Vehicles. The PLF and NRC soldiers surrender immediately and Commandant
executes them.

A survivor, a CORPORAL, is found. Commandant tells Agu that this Corporal is
the one who killed his father and that he must kill him. The Commandant decides
 3

that Agu must kill the man with a machete. The Corporal begs but Agu focuses
his anger, chopping the man up.

Agu vomits and Commandant tells him that God wanted justice. Agu thinks (in
V/O) that he has committed a great sin and that he can feel it in his body.
The other soldiers celebrate their victory over the NRC.

Commandant rewards Agu with a new rifle and promotes both Agu and Strika to
his personal Special Guards.

58-60: Commandant sells the SBU a dream of the town of abundant resources,
where he will take them a place of bountiful food, beautiful women and sexual
release. They are interrupted by the arrival of CIVILIAN REFUGEES who claim
that the NRC and PLF attacked their village.
Commandant makes the decision to go into battle.

60-65: Commandant surveys the battle whilst Hope shows Agu the remnants of
the villagers: bodies with their hands cut off, allegedly the work of the PLF.
Commandant speaks to Two-I-C over the radio. Two-I-C explains that they are
facing difficulty but Commandant expects them to take a bridge.

Commandant rallies up his SBU and they charge into battle. Led by Commandant
it is as if they are invincible, untouchable and they successfully storm the PLF
position.

65-69: In the aftermath the soldiers loot the bodies and finish off survivors. Agu
barely notices that Chicken Legs is torturing his prisoner. Agu loots a body,
finding a small bundle of gold nuggets.

Agu shows Strika the gold and Strika then takes him to see Commandant.
Commandant is speaking over radio to Supreme Commander Dada Goodblood;
he is in line for a promotion.

Agu hands over the gold and Commandant is impressed, he offers Agu some
brown-brown. Commandant explains the plan: they are travelling to Taro visit
Dada Goodblood and then will be on to the Capital. Agu will be able to look for
his mother.

Commandant tells Agu that he is his favourite and swears him to secrecy. He
then commands Agu to fellate him.

69: Agu hobbles (presumably raped) and collapses into Strikas waiting arms
and cries. The two boys are alone in their pain and understanding.

70-76: The NDF soldiers prepare for battle on the outskirts of a rural village.
Hope notices Agu hobbling in pain, and gives him brown-brown to take off the
edge. Commandant prepares his soldiers by telling them that they are entering a
land of enemies.

 4

A convoy of UN vehicles passes them and Agu makes eye contact with a white
woman in the convoy. He is provoked to anger by her apparent fear.

Agu enters a drug fuelled daze. He says (V/O) he is a servant to his gun and he
trails after the violence wrought by the NDF.

From rural village - to salt flats to a stairwell to a candlelit den; each time Agu
is unsure of how he got here.

Agu joins an assault on a fortified home. He challenges God (V/O) to witness his
actions.

The SBU comes across a WOMAN and her DAUGHTER (10) hiding in a cupboard.
Agu mistakes the woman for his mother and hugs her. She shrinks in fear. The
boys drag her from the cupboard preparing to rape her. Agu is disgusted that the
woman is not his mother and shoots her.

Agus attention is drawn to the rest of the village, a view of atrocities being
committed.

77-84: Commandant gets the call: the NDF are to travel to Taro.
Taro, the town of abundant resources is full of heavily armed men and burnt
out cars. Commandant doesnt receive the welcome he expects, it is as if he isnt
expected at all.

Commandant must leave his troops on the outskirts and Agu and Strika
accompany him to Goodbloods HQ.

Whilst they wait at the HQ, Agu watches the delegations bring Goodblood tribute.
They are kept waiting until it is too late, Goodblood will see them in the morning.

84-88: Commandant attends his meeting with Goodblood with Two-I-C, Strika
and Agu in tow. Commandant is suspicious of Goodbloods motivations;
Goodblood has decided not to take the capital, he now wants to play the game of
international politics. Two-I-C is to take over Commandants battalion and
Commandant will be promoted to Deputy Secretary of Defense. They are to ally
with the UN and ECOMOD.

Commandant argues his promotion and Goodblood assures him that he wont
have any reward without obedience. Commandant appears to agree with the
plan but he wants to spend one more night with his men. He tells Two-I-C to
gather them.

89-96: Commandant takes the men to a whorehouse. The men are uneasy with
Commandants calls for free flowing drinks and girls, he seems to have taken his
news too well. Commandant calls for the MADAME to secure a special girl for
Two-I-C, the request is loaded. The men go off with girls and Agu and Strika are
left alone.
 5

Two-I-C bursts from his room, he has been shot. The GIRL he was with claims
ignorance, an accident. As Two-I-C accuses Commandant of organising his
murder, Commandant orders Agu and Strika to gun down the girl and the
madame for conspiring.

As Two-I-C dies he asks Agu: Do you know you are just a boy? And, Was this all
for nothing?

Commandant tells Agu: Sometimes, Agu, I am feeling sorry for you.

Commandant uses Two-I-Cs death to undermine Goodbloods command; his
NDF battalion will go and claim their own territory.

96-99: The NDF battalion is ambushed whilst sleeping in the jungle and Agu and
Strika are numb, clinging to each other. They gather what they can from the
dead. All the men are exhausted but Commandant wants them to move out.
Strika is immovable and reveals that he was struck by shrapnel. Agu carries him.
Agu hears a distant song, like one his mother sang. He wants to know if Strika
heard it too, but Strika is dead Agu mourns.

99-106: Agu stands in a muddy trench and spies the girl from the whorehouse.
She is now pregnant and struggling to get out of the trench. He refrains from
shooting her and she is grateful, only to be killed moments later. Agu barely
registers her death.

Agu hears his mothers song from out of the surrounding mist. Preacher tells Agu
that they are out of ammo and commands him to find more.

Agu, in a haze, finds Commandant, overseeing a flailing goldmine. He tells the
Commandant that everyone is dead. Commandant instructs Agu that everyone
will betray him eventually, but he (Commandant) will always look after Agu like
a son.

Preacher confronts Commandant, he is leaving because there is no ammo and the
conditions are poor. Other NDF soldiers rally behind him in agreement.

Commandant curses them with a vision of their future: rejected through fear
from their home villages, condemned to a life lacking in education and purpose,
just orphans.

Commandant walks up to Agu and points the boys rifle at his heart. Agu says
that he wants to surrender and not fight. He leaves with the other NDF men.
Agu questions the sun (V/O) and why it must shine down and reveal all the evil
things they have done.

The surrendering NDF troops are processed through a UN checkpoint.

 6

106-: Agu awakes in a clean bed, in a facility presumably for orphaned children.
He watches the other CHILDREN play in the sea but he cannot join in. He speaks
(V/O) of how he cannot shake off the reminders of war.

We see a series of flashbacks: Agu arriving at the facility; Agu sweating out his
drug addiction; Agu fighting against the camp staff.

Preacher says goodbye to Agu, he cannot stay because all he knows is how to
fight, to be a soldier.

Agus counselor, AMY, tries to get him to speak of his experiences. He explains to
her that the terrible things he has seen are more than could be seen by twenty
thousand men and that he wants to be happy, not to dwell on the horror.

He tells her that he is not only a beast or a devil, but also a boy who had a family.
Agu watches the other children play and he cannot help himself, he steps
forward to join in.

END