The Last Copper Run
Interior/Exterior - Mountain Hollow
Hidden deep in a forested hollow. Ramshackle wooden structure camouflaged with branches and moss. Interior: copper stills gleaming in lamplight, wooden barrels, steam rising. The heart of the McCallister operation. Opening raid sequence. Abel's last stand. Needs to feel both sacred workshop and doomed fortress.
Interior/Exterior - Remote Mountain
Weathered log cabin. Two rooms. Ruth dying in dim lamplight. Sparse furnishings, evidence of hard mountain life. Birdie's childhood home. The place she must leave behind. Needs isolation, poverty, and fading warmth of family history.
Interior - Mountain Cave System
Where the masterwork copper still is hidden. Narrow entrance concealed by rockfall. Interior opens to larger chamber. The copper gleams in darkness. Birdie retrieves it here, straps fifty pounds to her back. Cave represents both treasure vault and tomb of the old life.
Exterior - Great Smoky Mountains
Mountain ridgelines stretching for miles. Narrow paths through fog and forest. Birdie navigates by ridge lines, creek sounds, moss on trees. Day one and two of journey. Needs vast, indifferent beauty. Ridge after ridge disappearing into mist. The weight of distance made visible.
Exterior - River
Fast-running mountain river. Cold, dangerous current. Birdie strips to underclothes, wraps copper in coat, wades in. Nearly drowns when copper pulls her under. Shallow rocks save her. Day two morning. Needs to feel brutal, unforgiving. Nature as obstacle, not backdrop.
Interior/Exterior - Mountain Valley
Collapsed roof, broken chimney, overgrown yard. Birdie hides here from federal agents. Sleeps in chimney. Beck's men search but miss her. Day two evening. Represents the many families destroyed by Prohibition, economic collapse, government violence.
Exterior - Dirt Road
Rutted dirt road through forest. Birdie encounters Wyatt Shaw here. He warns her of his father's ambush. Brief moment of humanity. Day three dawn. Road represents the choice between paths—continue toward danger or turn back.
Exterior - Knoxville Outskirts
Clearing near a barn. Virgil Shaw and his men waiting. Birdie spotted. Confrontation. She refuses to surrender copper. Runs. Bullets chase her into river. Day three morning. Needs tactical geography—open ground with escape route to water.
Exterior - Riverside
Quiet stretch of river. Beck dying from infection. Final confrontation with Birdie. She tells him about Tommy. He breaks. Admits the poisoning policy murdered innocents. Dies remembering their names. Day three morning. Needs stillness after violence. Water, rocks, morning light.
Interior - Knoxville
Urban warehouse district. Brick building. Interior: whiskey barrels, crates, urban bootlegging operation. Jack Price in suit, smoking cigar. Birdie delivers copper. He pays two hundred dollars, asks no questions about blood. Day three afternoon. Urban contrast to mountain wilderness.
Exterior/Interior - Knoxville
1928 railroad station. Birdie buys ticket west. Stands on platform. Looks back toward mountains. Leaves everything behind. Day three evening. Station represents departure, new beginning, escape from cycle of violence.
Exterior - Great Smoky Mountains
Thirty years later. Same mountains, different Birdie. Older Birdie and her grown daughter scatter Ruth's ashes. Sunset over ridges—orange, gold, fading purple. Mountains watch. Silent. Eternal. Indifferent. Final image: two women walking down mountain together. Full circle.
The mountains are beautiful, brutal, and indifferent. Not romanticized. Fog, darkness, cold. Natural sound design—wind, water, forest sounds. Minimal score. Camera stays intimate during journey, opens up for establishing shots. Colors: cold blues, copper oranges, charcoal blacks.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park or similar Appalachian locations. Period-appropriate structures (existing historical buildings or built sets). River crossing requires stunt coordination, safety protocols. Night exteriors, fog machines, practical lighting. Weather-dependent exterior shoots.
Locations mirror Birdie's internal journey. Still house (heritage/past). Cave (burden/duty). Mountain trails (struggle/isolation). River (transformation/baptism). Abandoned homestead (what's lost). Shaw ambush (violence of men). Beck's death (reckoning). Warehouse (transaction/closure). Train station (escape/future). Epilogue ridge (peace/resolution).