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THE ENGLISH PATIENT

Almasy flies across desert with Katherine in plane. Shot down. Crashes.

Nurse with army. Asks about her boyfriend. Learns he died.

Almasy is rescued by Arabs, and helped. One finds a thimble.

Italy, October 1944. Patient is questioned about who he is. Perhaps he's German. Nurse is his nurse.

Convoy. Nurse's friend is killed by a mine.

Kip clears the minefield. Nurse walks into minefield. Saved by Sergeant.

By side of road, she gives Patient morphine. "Everyone who gets close to me, dies." Sees villa.

Nurse explores villa. Establish piano. Convoy leaves her there, she'll catch up when he dies. She cuts her hair.

She'll read his Herodotous book to him. They eat plums. Reads book.

Desert. Reading book. Katherine and husband arrive.

They go flying in separate planes. Gorgeous.

Present. He talks about his past. She'll keep him alive because she's a nurse.

She plays hopscotch.

Sound pulls him to Arab drumming. They play spin the bottle performance game, intercut with her reading to him, and Katherine reads the same story. About a man seeing a woman naked, killing the king, and marrying the queen.

Present. Caravaggio shows up with two eggs, drops one. Has no thumbs. Steals morphine. He was in Africa, and wants to stay here.

She tells Patient that Caravaggio may stay.

Caravaggio talks to Patient, tells him his name is Almasy. Asks if he remembers Katherine Clifton.

Cairo market. Almasy bumps into Katherine. They talk, he's cold.

Bar in hotel. All in black tie, and looking for money. They're all married but Almasy. He avoids eye contact with her. At party, he dances with her. She wonders why he followed her.

Nurse has fallen asleep on his chest. She was dreaming, goes to kitchen. Washes off, and begins to cry. Caravaggio comes in, to see if she's all right. "Leave me alone." Caravaggio thinks that she's in love with the patient. "I'm in love with ghosts. He's in love with ghosts." What if you knew he cut my thumbs off? "Ask him who he's killed."

Desert. Katherine and Husband have helped fund their mapping. Husband has to go back to Cairo to take pictures. Husband leaves, and Katherine watches Almasy watching Husband leave.

Present. She plays the piano. Caravaggio shoots up. Kip comes, tells her to stop playing and finds a bomb. He's staying with Sergeant in front yard. She thinks she may marry him, because of a prophecy her mother made.

She works in garden, sees Kip go by. Patient remembers.

Desert. He is rude to her while they're driving and talking together. They climb in rocks. He finds cave of swimmers.

She's copying some of the drawings. Estab. one mapmaker is homosexual.

Driving across desert. Homosexual mapmaker has Arab boyfriend on top of truck, being cutesy, and the boy falls off, and the man wrecks the truck. They're leaving Almasy, to go into town, but the truck is stuck in sand and Katherine stays behind. It's only one night.

He looks at her drawings. She gives him some to paste into his book, but he refuses and says he doesn't want to be obliged.

She smokes on the dune. Sandstorm comes. They get in truck together. He tells her about the different kinds of wind, caresses her hair. Her hand caresses the window, dissolve to Patient's face.

Patient remembers.

Desert. The other truck drives by, but they don't see the flare. He asks her to put the pictures in the book, says he'd be honored. They have to dig the Arab diggers out. While the men dig for their belongings, she puts the pictures in his book, sees notes he's made about her.

Night. She tells him that her husband is in Ethiopia, in case he's wondering if he's going to appear. Maddox finds them. She asks if she's the "K" in the book. He caresses her face.

Kip reads Kipling to the Patient. Patient knows that Nurse likes Kip. Kip's tapping on top of condensed milk tin brings him back to Arabia.

Shepheard's Hotel. She invites him in, he refuses. He calls her Mrs. Clifton. Angers her. He takes his book.

His apartment, old part of town. She comes to him. They embrace, she slaps him, and he rips her dress, they collapse to floor.

He's in bathtub sewing her dress. She washes his hair. They talk. She is very happy and very unhappy, now. She gets in the tub and talks of the things she loves, including her husband. She hates a lie. He doesn't like ownership. She gets out.

Nurse finds a Christmas cracker wrapper in his book. Reads it. He tells her K is for Katherine.

Cairo Christmas party. Husband, dresses as Father Christmas. Through a grille, she cracks a Christmas cracker. Almasy tells her to faint. She can't sleep... While he writes notes on the cracker, she faints in the crowd. She finds him, they make love inside. Husband finds her, later, and is all concerned. She wants to go home to England. He wonders what she smells like, decides it's marzipan.

Caravaggio tries to figure out if Patient is the same guy from Egypt. Asks about first anniversary being paper...

Cairo. Husband tells wife he's going out of town... but, he really isn't, as it's his anniversary and he'll surprise her. Caravaggio is there, and they discuss paper anniversary.

Husband drives up to hotel, sees her getting into a cab.

Apartment. She's in his bed. He puts on a record, a Hungarian nursery rhyme. He thinks Maddox knows. She feels like a different person here.

Husband sits in cab all night.

Katherine goes to dinner with Almasy, buys an old thimble. She asks if he followed her to market that day. Yes.

Morning. Husband sees her walking back into the hotel.

Caravaggio has music, that he stole. Patient knows many songs. She sees Kip washing his hair. Meets the Sergeant, who dances cutely.

Katherine gives Kip olive oil to put in his hair.

Caravaggio talks to Patient. Patient asks what's under his mittens.

Tobruk. June, 1942. Caravaggio has a girlfriend there. Caravaggio is left behind. "The Germans have our maps!" Maddox was betrayed by Almasy, his best friend.

Line of refugees. Caravaggio sees Germans with his girlfriend, tries to leave. Is caught.

Caravaggio is chained to a table. German officer wants him to tell who his contacts were, as he knows he's a spy. Has photographs. Caravaggio wants a doctor. They bring in a nurse. She cuts off his thumbs.

Cairo. Caravaggio is looking for the man who gave the Germans the maps.

Almasy and Maddox worry about the maps, and that they are in Almasy's room. He asks Maddox the name of a part of a neck. Maddox tells him to pull himself together.

Outdoors movie. Katherine tells him she can't do it any more. He doesn't agree. He will miss her, she says.

Patient remembers.

Dinner party. Almasy makes a drunken ass of himself. Apologizes and sits to eat. Later, corners her and wants to dance. He misses her, wants to touch the parts that belong to him. She asks if he's the only one who feels anything.

Present. Patient sends Nurse away so she can get some sleep. She finds a snail shell candle. Leads to Kip's room. Caravaggio sees them get together.

Kip takes Nurse to church, shows her the murals. A lovely moment.

In his bedroom, Nurse asks Kip what would happen if she didn't come to see him one night.

Morning. Sergeant wakes them up. There's a bomb. She is afraid. It's his job.

Kip works on bomb near a bridge. Tanks come, and he's nearly killed. The war is over.

It rains. They all take the patient out into the rain for a jolly romp. They all dance.

In the town, the party goes on and the Sergeant goes up to the statue. Booby trapped. Kip comes, and Sergeant was killed.

Kip stays behind a locked door, won't talk to her.

Caravaggio is about to leave, knows that the Patient is his man. Came here to kill him. Patient is the one who got the spy in to take the photographs that cost him his thumbs. Maddox shot himself. Patient says he had to get back to the desert.

Desert. Maddox is leaving Almasy. Wonders how long the war will be.

Patient says he didn't kill the Cliftons... then says, he did. Nurse is listening from above.

Desert. Husband flies to come pick up Almasy. Tries to kill him, and crashes the plane. Wife is there. Almasy takes her to the swimmer's cave. She tells him she's always loved him. He cries.

Night, in cave. He builds a fire. He promises to come back, and says he'll never leave her.

He walks across desert for a couple of days.

British post. They insist on papers, he loses his temper and they knock him out.

She writes in the book. Light goes out.

They drive him away in chains. He escapes from the train.

Patient tells Caravaggio "She died because I loved her." After the British made me their enemy, I gave our enemy our maps... show him trade maps for Maddox's airplane.

He flies back.

Caravaggio says he came here to kill him, but won't. Patient: "I died years ago."

Kip is moving out. Talks about Sergeant and what a great guy he was. She knows he loved him.

Almasy goes back into cave. Lies down beside her.

Nurse think Patient has died, but he hasn't. She tells Kip goodbye. He leaves.

Nurse prepares morphine, Patient indicates that he wants a fatal dose. She loads it up. he asks her to read to him. She reads Katherine's last note. Intercut with Katherine's voice. Almasy marks her face with dirt. Carries her out. Nurse finishes reading and the Patient is dead.

Plane takes off.

Nurse comes to empty room. Gets his book. Caravaggio is there and she gets into his truck.