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Million Dollar Baby Scene 16 Summary

Desert Doctors Need Not Apply

  • Maggie is in a hospital bed. She wears a neck brace and a breathing tube is implanted in her throat. She murmurs. She spots her reflection in the mirror. Everything goes black.
  • Cut to Maggie in the same position. Frankie's there.
  • Maggie can talk, weakly, and the teases Frankie about his facial hair. Fade to black.
  • Now Scrap's at Maggie's bedside. Frankie's outside talking to the doctors.
  • Maggie tells Scrap that she's a C1 – C2 complete, which means her spinal cord is extremely damaged, and she'll be a quadriplegic for life. She asked the doctors to tell Frankie the news.
  • Maggie asks Scrap to tell Frankie that she's sorry she didn't protect herself. Scrap refuses.
  • Out in the hall, Scrap asks Frankie what the plan is.
  • Frankie tells Scrap that this is all Scrap's fault since he talked Frankie into training a girl. Then he walks off. Frankie's in some major pain here.
  • Back in Maggie's hospital room, Frankie tells her he's going to get her out of there because the doctors stink. For starters, they choose to live in the desert.
  • Scrap's voice-over tells us that Frankie called every doctor in America he thought could fix Maggie, and came close twice.
  • But once those two prospective doctors looked Maggie over, they concluded there was nothing that could be done.
  • Frankie gives Maggie a sponge bath; the nurses, he says, are just amateurs. Maggie has skin ulcers because she can't change positions.
  • Frankie and Maggie drive back to Los Angeles by ambulance. "Fly there, drive back," Maggie jokes.
  • Maggie gets set up in a nice rehab facility. It takes several hours each day to get her ready for her wheelchair. She requires 24/7 respirators because she can't breathe on her own. While a team of staff transfers Maggie from her bed to her chair, Frankie watches. Maggie smiles weakly at Frankie, and he winks.
  • Cut to Frankie's church. He's alone in a pew. Actually, he's alone in the whole church. He's on his knees and quietly sobbing.