All My Sons – Alternate Ending by Ben Weizman

Act Four:

Joe, mother (Kate), Chris, and Ann are at Joe’s house. Joe is in the backyard drinking coffee. Ann, Chris, and Kate are in the kitchen. Ann just showed mother Larry’s letter.

Mother: Oh, my God…

Ann: (with pity and fear) Kate, please, please…

Mother: My God, my God…

Ann: Kate, dear, I’m so sorry…I’m so sorry.

(CHRIS enters from the drivway. He seems exhausted. He notices that something happened). 

Chris: What happened?!

Kate: (starts to cry)

Ann: You need to look at this, Chris.

Chris: (Chris takes the letter and begins to read. His eyes open wide as he reads). 

Chris: I thought Larry was missing! I can’t believe it! He crashed his own airplane? Why would he do that?

Kate: (still crying) It can’t be true! My son, not my son!

Chris: I don’t believe it either. It can’t be true. I’m so angry at dad. What kind of person would do something like that?

(Joe walks in the room)

Chris: You’re the worst, you scumbag!

Joe: (in shock) What is going on? Kate, why are you crying? Chris, why are you yelling at me?

(Chris runs over to Joe and starts to punch him in the face. Suddenly, Jim comes in and pulls them apart).

Jim: Woah! Woah! It’s your father! Stop this right now!

Chris: I can’t believe you did it! You caused the death of twenty-one pilots! You are a psycho!

Joe: What?! What do you mean?

(Chris shows Joe the letter from Larry. Joe reads the letter silently. Tears begin to fall from his eyes).

Joe: I….I…I don’t know what to say. This is something I have kept a secret for years and now it has blown up in my face.

Chris: Joe, you need to decide right now. You come with me in the car and I drive you to jail, or go away forever. You aren’t welcome here.

Mother: Chris! No! He’s your father! Just wait… I know this is hard and that it hurts but he is still your father.

Chris: No! How can you forgive him after everything he did? Even after he killed your Larry?

Joe: I’m sorry about what I did. But I won’t go to jail.

Chris: Then get out of here!

(Chris pushes Joe out the door and slams the door on him and locks him out.)

Chris: Don’t come back! You aren’t wanted here!

(Joe gets in his car and drives away. He drives to a liquor store and buys a bottle of whiskey. Then, he drives to a motel and checks out a room for the night. During the night, he gets very drunk and starts to think about what he has done and all the harm that he caused. He begins to talk to himself alone in the room because he is so drunk.)

Joe: (crying quietly to himself) I can’t believe this happened to me. I’m a monster. What have I done? I need to do something that will make this all better. As much as I want to kill myself like Larry did, it will not make anything better. I can’t take back my mistakes and the bad things I did. All I can do now is try to fix things. Maybe….

(Joe lays in bed, thinking about what to do. He falls asleep after a few minutes. In the morning, he wakes up full of motivation. He takes a phone book out of the hotel closet and looks up the names of the people who died because of his actions. He writes them all down on a list and writes down their address and phone numbers. After a week, he starts his journey across the country to find and apologize to the families of the people whose death he caused. Now, Joe is at the first house on his list).

Joe: (knocking on front door) Hello! Hello! Is anyone home?

Father of Pilot: (opens door) Hello? How can I help you?

Joe: Can I come in? It’s about your son.

Father: Yes, yes of course. How did you know Steve?

Joe: Excuse me sir. I have to confess something. I used to sell airplane parts during the war. The plane that your son flew had parts from my company.

Father: Go on…

Joe: Your son was one of the 21 pilots that died because of me. I knew that the parts I was selling weren’t good. But I sold them anyway. (begins to try) I know that this won’t bring your son back, but I needed to apologize to you so that you can try to feel better.

Father: It will never be the same without him. I was very depressed when I heard about my son Steve. It took me many years to get over losing him in that plane crash. And now you’re saying it wasn’t an accident and you knew that the pilots were driving bad airplanes? That’s it, I’m calling the police!

Joe: No! No! Let me explain! Wait!

(The father of Steve, the dead pilot, punches Joe in the face and knocks him out. He then ties up Joe and keeps him in his house while he calls the police. The police come 15 minutes later and he confesses everything that Joe told him. Joe wakes up while the police are putting him in handcuffs).

Joe: (looking tired and defeated) I regret everything I’ve done. But it won’t change anything. The one thing I have left to do is serve my time in jail. Maybe now I can make things better. Maybe now…