Hurt by What You Love: A Sound of Metal Script Analysis
Recently, while searching for a movie to watch one night, I happened upon Darius Marder’s 2020 film Sound of Metal. Admittedly, I was a little late to the party. When it came out, everyone in my circle was recommending it to me, but I just never got around to it. And now, having seen it, I can honestly say that I was definitely missing out. While many other contemporary dramas have begun to rely on elaborate, convoluted plots to get their point across, this movie instead chooses to dive as deeply as possible into one incredibly simple idea: a drummer who goes deaf. It’s not necessarily the most original concept, as similar ironic tales have existed in reality forever: Claude Monet went blind, Michelin Star chef Grant Achatz lost his taste buds, and even perhaps the most renowned composer in all of history, Beethoven, too, lost his hearing. But what makes this story so fresh and unique isn’t the irony or theme of creating art even when you can’t experience it; it’s about dealing with the harsh reality that sometimes the things you love can hurt you. Let’s dive in.
OPENING IMAGE
The film opens with a shot of Ruben, a drummer for a heavy metal band, as he pounds away at his drumset during a show. He keeps making eye contact with the band’s female lead as she screams at the top of her lungs. The intensity is high and the music is loud, but something about Ruben’s face tells us that something’s wrong.
SET UP
The next morning, we find Ruben waking up inside an Airstream trailer next to the band’s singer, Lou. Turns out, the two of them have been dating for some time and are currently driving the Airstream across the country as they go on tour.
The two wake up, go about their various romantic morning routines, and then get back on the road as they race to get to the next stop in time. This is their nomadic life together.
INCITING INCIDENT
As they set up their next show, Ruben begins to hear a loud ringing in his ears. Not sure what’s going on, he chooses to disregard it and continue doing what he’s doing.
The next morning, he awakens to discover that he can barely hear a thing. Whatever’s happening, it’s getting worse–fast.
He tries to ignore whatever problem’s going on as he and Lou pack up their equipment for the next show, but when he realizes that he can barely hear her talking to him, he makes a quick run over to a nearby pharmacy for help.
The pharmacist, quickly realizing this is something serious, makes a phone call to a nearby ear doctor who says he can see Ruben right away. Now absolutely terrified, Ruben heads over.
After a series of hearing tests, the doctor returns to Ruben to deliver his results.
The doctor proceeds to give Ruben a trifecta of horrible news: he is going deaf, the hearing he’s already lost is not recoverable, and if he wants to conserve the little hearing he does have, he’s going to have to avoid being around any loud noises for the remainder of his life.
He does, however, offer Ruben a slight glimmer of hope: there is the possibility of one day surgically installing cochlear implants into Ruben’s head, which has the potential to bring back some of his hearing. The only thing is they’re expensive, and Ruben’s broke. Not happening anytime soon.
DEBATE
That night, after Ruben tells Lou about what’s going on, they go to a local diner to try to figure something out.
In a panic, Ruben rushes outside to bum a cigarette off a guy smoking outside. When he gets back, he finds Lou absolutely furious with him and demanding that they call someone named Hector. As it turns out, Ruben is a recovering addict, and Hector is his sponsor.
When Hector calls back, he tells them that he has somewhere for them to go. Cut to:
Days later, they pull the Airstream into the driveway of a rural ranch where they’re greeted by a deaf man named Joe. They say their hellos before Joe leads Ruben into his house to have a private conversation. During this talk, it’s revealed that Joe runs a sort of compound for deaf addicts, and he’s thinking about letting Ruben stay there with them.
Joe proceeds to tell Ruben that it’s probably best he stay there with them. It’d be free, he’d get to learn sign language, and more importantly, he’d learn what it’s like to live as a deaf person. However, there is a catch: Lou would not be allowed to stay with them, and outside communication is completely prohibited. Ruben has to make a choice.
BREAK INTO TWO
Act 2 begins with Ruben and Lou back on the road. Clearly, they rejected Joe’s offer and are attempting to figure this out themselves. However, the next morning, Lou awakens to find Ruben having a mental breakdown in the Airstream. Figuring it out themselves isn’t as easy as anticipated.
Lou, in a panic, calls someone for help. Not to help Ruben, though, but to find herself somewhere to stay while he goes back to Joe’s. When Ruben discovers her on the phone with this mystery person, he flips out.
Within minutes, a cab arrives to take Lou to the airport. She and Ruben have one last conversation before she goes.
Ruben promises, Lou leaves, and in an instant, he’s completely alone. Just like his drug use leading to addiction and his drumming leading to deafness, sometimes the things you love end up hurting you the most.
FUN AND GAMES
Ruben goes back to the compound where he’s accepted with open arms. Joe sets him up with a room (which he has to share with another guest) and takes away his keys and phone. When you’re here, you’re fully invested. No outside distractions whatsoever.
Later that night, all of the adults in the house meet up to discuss their lives and problems–sort of like an AA meeting. Joe makes sure to introduce everyone to Ruben, but he primarily communicates to them in sign language, which leaves Ruben mostly in the dark.
One day, Joe brings Ruben down to the local school for the deaf, where it quickly becomes clear he’s been enrolled there. He awkwardly sits down amongst a class of second-graders who have now become his peers. Not quite rock bottom, but far from the peak.
Ruben doesn’t quite know what he’s doing yet, but he’s at least willing to try. I mean, what choice does he really have?
MIDPOINT
While it’s clear Ruben has a fairly positive attitude surrounding his newfound circumstances, he’s still completely alone in this. Sure, he has all of these kind people surrounding him and offering help, but he doesn’t really know any of them. The only person in his life, for the most part, was Lou. And she’s gone now. So, in a moment of weakness, he sneaks away to use Joe’s computer in order to check on her…
As painful as this whole experience is, he’s still got some light at the end of the tunnel; a little glimmer of hope. And sometimes, that’s all it takes to keep a person going.
BAD TO WORSE
Despite these glimmers of hope, Ruben still doesn’t know what to do with himself. Almost everything he had in his life has been taken away, so he’s just completely lost in the world. In an attempt to distract himself one morning, Ruben takes it upon himself to fix a broken shutter in the house. When Joe catches him doing this, he becomes more frustrated than grateful.
Joe’s no idiot. He sees exactly what’s going on with Ruben. He knows Ruben’s stuck in his own head. So, in order to remedy this, he challenges Ruben to wake up every morning at 5:30, sit alone in a room, and write. Write until he’s finally able to feel relaxed and can just sit down and enjoy the silence. And Ruben accepts this challenge because he’s really just looking for any excuse to stick around. It’s remedial and a bit silly, but it helps. And more importantly, it allows Ruben to help himself.
BREAK INTO THREE
The third act begins many months later. Ruben, who can now speak ASL pretty well, plays on the schoolyard with Ms.Diane and the children. He’s having fun with them, he’s able to communicate with everyone alright, and he actually looks happy for the first time since he became deaf.
We begin a montage of Ruben absolutely crushing it in all of his day-to-day activities. He writes every morning, participates enthusiastically at school, and is finally able to have fun conversations with the other deaf adults at dinner. For once, it’s starting to look like Ruben has his life back.
FINALE
The hope doesn’t last long, though, as Ruben’s anxiety has started up again. One by one, people are “graduating” from the program and moving on with their lives, and that makes him nervous. He still doesn’t have anywhere to go after this, but when Joe offers him the opportunity to remain on the compound full-time, a new fear sets in: maybe staying here is worse. Not because it’s a bad place to be, per se, but because it’s not the reality he’s grown to know his entire life. It’s something entirely different, and that scares him. Staying here means actually accepting his situation, and he’s not quite ready to do that just yet.
Looking for a sense of comfort, Ruben once again sneaks away to check Lou’s social media.
While many of these social media updates have left him sad and distressed, the reason was always the same: because he and Lou miss each other. But this…this is something different. He didn’t quite know what he was expecting to see, but he didn’t expect her to just be out in the world living her life. In a sense, she’s moved on, and that destroys him.
He goes back to his Airstream (which is still parked on the property), sits at his drumset, and just plays. Plays like it’s the last time he’ll ever play again. And as it turns out, it might just be. Right after he finishes bashing on the drums, he starts taking them apart and putting them into boxes to be sold. His friend on the compound, Jenn, agrees to sell them in town for him as a favor.
NOTE: In the original script, Jenn takes the money she makes selling Ruben’s drums, buys drugs, and overdoses. This aspect of the screenplay was completely removed from the final film (which I think was a good decision), so just disregard those scenes when reading this copy of the script.
Later, after selling off all the music equipment he owns, Ruben finally gets rid of the last piece of his old life he has left: the Airstream.
With that money, Ruben is finally able to afford his ticket back to normalcy: the ear implants. We cut to an image of him on an operating table as doctors buzz into his skull.
After the surgery, Ruben goes back to Joe’s to have one final goodbye.
Then, in a moment of weakness, Ruben proceeds to ask Joe if he can front him the money to buy back his RV. Joe, obviously disappointed, declines.
Until this point, Ruben has relied on the people in the compound, especially Joe, for everything. They’ve given him a home, a purpose, and a comfortable transition into his new life as a deaf person. They grew close together; became a real family. But despite all that, Ruben was so focused on his old life that he went ahead with the surgery anyway. And in doing that, he’s put himself in a position where he once again needs Joe’s help to get by. This entire ordeal breaks Joe’s heart, and he lets him know it.
Sometimes the things you love hurt you the most.
Ruben goes back to the hospital weeks later to get his implants activated. When the doctors finally turn them on, he realizes that this miraculous surgery is not what he was expecting.
All that money, pain, and the destruction of his relationship with Joe, for this. Just like with addiction, Ruben has sacrificed everything to obtain something that won’t give him any real satisfaction or happiness in the end. Reality sets in, and he finally decides to go to the only person he has left: Lou.
Weeks later, we find Ruben in Paris (Lou’s hometown). He makes a surprise visit to her family’s apartment, where he finds Lou’s father, Richard, alone, as he prepares for a party they’re throwing that evening. For what seems to be the first time since they’ve known each other, the two sit down and have an honest, intimate conversation.
Finally, Lou returns, and she looks completely different. She’s excited to see him, of course, but things aren’t the same as they used to be. Maybe she really has moved on.
Later that evening, we find the apartment filled with guests for the party. Ruben sits in the background, taking everything in, when Richard announces that he and Lou would like to perform a song together.
The distorted sounds of their singing serve as another reminder that Ruben’s life with Lou will never be the same. She has her world, and he has his (as painful and lonely as it may be).
CLOSING IMAGE
After thanking Lou for saving his life, Ruben departs for the streets of Paris. As he sits alone on a park bench, taking in his surroundings and the distorted sounds that come with them, he has what addicts refer to as a moment of clarity and removes the implants from his ears: complete silence. But not the terrifying, frightful silence that has been terrorizing him throughout the past year. No, this silence is the kind that Joe mentioned many times before at the compound; one of peace. Finally, he’s able to move forward.
WHY IT’S GREAT
After watching this film, I was left in awe. Not just because of the creative, ironic plot or in-depth characters, but because of its ability to realistically illustrate pain. Pain is one of those things that affects everyone, and as a result, is something that everyone has to overcome. For anyone who has suffered from addiction or has known someone suffering from addiction, you know that it’s a never-ending cycle of being hurt, searching desperately for moments of peace in the form of escape, and then being hurt even more by what you used to escape in the first place. And the only way out of that cycle is to accept the situation you're in and take the steps to move forward. This script brilliantly illustrates this idea through three different aspects of Ruben’s life: his initial addiction, his relationship with Lou, and his struggle with accepting his new life as a deaf person. By the end, he has conquered all of these challenges, allowing the audience to leave the film with their own feelings of hope and peace, knowing that one day, maybe one not too far away, everything will be alright.
