17 AGAIN [2009]

Who Says You're Only Young Once?

Janitor: Mike O'Donnell

Mike: Do I know you?

Janitor: No, but I know you.

Mike: Oh yeah?

Janitor: High school star.

Never quite lived up to your potential.

Sooner or later you all come back to the old school.

Stand there and look at the picture of the glory days, wondering waht might have been.

Seems to me you guys are living in the past.

Mike: Well, of course I want to live in the past.

It was better there.

Janitor: I'll bet you wish you had it to do all over again.

Mike: Huh, you got that right.

Janitor: You're sure about that?

Mike, mumbling: Oh, yeah...

Mike: Remember, it's not how big you are...

Alex: It's how big you play.

Mike, after hear Scarlet wants to do something with their backyard: The divorce isn't final for another 2 weeks, so you have no right.

Scarlet: Really?

So, I've spent the last 18 years of my life 

listening to you whine about all the things you could've done without me,

and I have no right?

I have not done anything for me since 1989.

~Mike, age 17

Look, you always had my back in high school, okay?

So if your spirit guide insists you to be a fake teenager and me to be your fake dad,

the least I can do is make sure that my fake son doesn't look...

look like a total douche.

~Ned

[while playing with Stan basket ball]

You know Stan, I feel sorry for you.

You're the man, captain of the basket ball team.

Dates the pretty girls.

High school is your kingdom.

But people, Stan's a bully. Why?

It'd be way too easy to say Stan preys on the weak simply because he's a dick.

No, no, no... Stan here... is much more complex than that.

See, according to leading psychiatrists, Stan's a bully for 3 reasons.

One, underneath all of that male bravado, 

there's an insecure little girl banging on the closet door trying to get out.

Two, like a caveman, Stan's brain is... underdeveloped.

Therefore, Stan is unable to use self-control and so he acts out agressively.

And the third reason, Stan has a small wiener.

[throw a ball back to Stan]

Don't hurt yourself, bigboy.

~Mike, age 17

Ned: So, what did you learn at school today?

Mike, age 17: That I'm a bad dad.

Ned: I thought it was going great.

Mike, age 17: It was going fantastic for me.

Ned: And then what?

Mike, age 17: And then I found out my son spent the last year being the school punching bag,

and watched my daughter get a tongue bath from a psychopatic jackass.

Ned: High school delightful, isn't it?

Mike, age 17: Yeah, but I think I was wrong about my spirit path.

Ned: Ahaha, and who was right?

See, I told you... I told you that high school was the wrong thing.

Mike, age 17: No no no... high school was right, but it's not about basketball.

It's about helping Alex and Maggie.

[after the teacher talks about abstinence, making love and spread the condom among the students]

He's right, I don't need one.

You know why I don't need one?

Because there's no one I'm in love with. 

It's called 'making love', isn't it?

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, 

but I think that means you're ready to take that love and turn it into a baby.

Because that's what love is.

It's that first moment when you hold your baby girl 

and you didn't know that anything could be so small or so delicate.

And you feel that tiny heart beat, 

and you know that you couldn't love anything more in the whole world.

And you hope that you can do right by that little girl 

and always be there to catch her when she falls,

and that nothing ever hurts her.

Not a broken arm, or a bad dream, or a broken heart.

~Mike, age 17

Mike, age 17: Do you think you guys are ever going to get back together?

Scarlet: No.

Mike, age 17: Why are you so sure?

Maybe there's something he could do to fix things.

Scarlet: I love my husband and care about him,

but sometimes that's just not enough.

Mike, age 17: If you girls don't respect yourselves, 

then how do you expect anyone else to respect you, right?

Jamie: Don't respect me.

Lauren: No, don't respect me...

Samantha: You don't have to remember my name.

Mike walks away: This is some other dad's problem.

You know, when you're young, everything feels like the end of the world.

It's not. It's just the beginning.

You might have to meet a few more jerks,

but one day you're going to meet a boy who treats you the way that you deserve to be treated.

Like the sun rises and sets with you.

~Mike age 17, comforting Maggie

Scarlet, before you go through with this, I want to remind you of September 7th, 1988.

It was the first time that I saw you.

You were reading Less Than Zero.

You were wearing Guns 'n Roses t-shirt.

I'd never seen anything so perfect.

I remember thinking that I had to have you, or I'd die.

Then you whispered that you loved me at the homecoming dance.

And I felt so peaceful... and safe.

Because I knew that no matter what happened from that day on,

nothing could ever be that bad, because I had you.

And then I grew up, and I lost my way.

And I blamed you for my failures.

And I know that you think you have to do this today.

I don't want you to.

But I guess, if I love you, I should let you move on.

~Mike, age 17, reading a letter to Scarlet at  the court

I thought Mark was hanging out with Alex to get to me, not you.

~Maggie to her mom

Scarlet: You didn't have to come after me again.

Mike: Yes, I did, because I love you.

You're the best decision I ever made, I just forgot.

And then I fell of the bridge and things got pretty weird after that.

But I'm never going to forget again.

*****

THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE [2009]

Henry: You do understand why it is I don't know you?

Clare: Of course.

When you're older, you'll travel back to when I'm a little girl.

For me... I mean, I've known you since... since I was 6 years old.

Since you appeared in the meadow behind my parents' house where I used to play.

Clare, put her journal on the table: I wrote down every time that you came to visit me.

Henry: Which I gather I did, or will do, fairly often?

Clare: The last time that I saw you, I was 18.

Seems that you got back to the same places a lot.

Henry: Yeah, it's like gravity.

Big events pull you in.

Clare: I was a big event.

Henry: So it would seem.

Clare: This is weird, I never knew you at this age.

I mean, I've only known you at this... mature worldly person.

Henry: I'm competing against myself.

Clare: How's it feel? I mean, I know what i's like to watch you go, 

but what's it like to always be the one that's going?

Henry: Sometimes it feels like you've stood up too quickly.

Your hands and feet are tingling and then they're not there at all.

Sometimes it feels like your attention has wandered just for an instant,

then you're standing naked someplace.

Maybe you've been there before, maybe you haven't.

You don't know how long it's gonna last,

so you start walking till you find some clothes.

Then you seem just like everybody else.

Except you're stranded and all alone, just waiting to disappear.

Clare: But you get to see people from the past.

People who are gone, like your mom.

Henry: Yeah, but the thing is, you can't change what happens to them.

I've tried.

It just happens anyway.

Gomez: Why don't you tell me what this is about?

Henry: You wanna know? I'm gonna tell you.

Because you and I are gonna be friends for a long time.

So you might as well know now.

Gomez: Know what?

Henry: I look older, right? That's because I am.

I've come back to this night from the future.

I'm a time traveler.

Gomez: Oh my God, you are out of your mind.

Henry: Started when I was 6 years old.

I have fits. I disappear. I travel through time.

I've come to this night from 2003.

What year is this?

Gomez: 1995. I don't like this.

Henry: I get dislocated in time.

I never know when it's gonna happen or where I'm gonna end up.

I have to break and enter, steal clothes from the first person I see.

You name it, I've done it.

Gomez: There's something wrong with you.

Henry: Yeah, there is.

But I care about Clare more than you can imagine, so don't worry about that.

Gomez: Whoa, hey, I'm reassured. 

Listen, in the future do Charisse and I get married?

Do I go bald? Does Charisse go bald?

Henry: I'm not gonna tell you things about your life.

Knowing stuff in advance makes you crazy.

Gomez: You're full of shit! You know that!

Henry: You won't think that in a minute.

Gomez: Yeah? Why's that?

[Henry disappear]

I've been waiting for him my entire life and now he's here.

I mean, it's already happened.

I couldn't even change it if I wanted to.

~Clare

Henry: I'm getting married.

Richard: Who would marry you? Does she know about...

Henry: She knows everything about me. Everything.

Her name's Clare. Clare Abshire. She's an artist.

And I'd really like to give her Mom's wedding and engagement rings.

That's why I'm here.

And I think Mom would really like that.

Richard: How would you know what your mother would like?

You barely knew her.

Henry: I know her. I still know her now.

I've just seen her on the subway.

I see her pushing me in the stroller. I see her with you too.

This thing I have isn't always a curse.

Richard: Then why don't you keep her from getting into that goddamn car?

Henry: I would if I could, you know that.

I've watched her die hundreds of times.

I can never get there in time to change it.

Henry: My wife had a miscarriage.

Dr. Kendrick: I am very sorry about that but I don't see what I can do to help.

Henry: What if the baby's a traveler like me?

What if it has the same genetic anomaly?

What if it traveled out of the womb?

Dr. Kendrick: You need help.

Not the kind of help I can give you.

Henry: How can I prove it to you?

Dr. Kendrick: You can't. It's impossible.

Your brain emits a blast of electromagnetic energy akin to an epileptic's

right at the moment you travel.

~Dr. Kendrick

What, you think that I wanted this life?

This husband that disappears without any kind or warning?

Do you think anyone would want that?

Who would want that?

~Clare

I'm pregnant...

Do you remember the night in the parking lot, when I came to get you?

You were younger.

Before the surgery.

I mean, it's not like I cheated on you.

~Clare

Henry: This is the first time we've ever met.

Alba: How do you do?

Henry: How old are you?

Alba: 10. How about you?

Henry: 38.

So tell me about you. 

How's school? What are you learning?

Alba: Well, not much at school.

But I read all the time. I read about Egypt.

Mom and I are reading The Lord of The Rings.

And Grandpa teaches me the violin.

And I heard Grandma sing. It was beautiful. At the opera, Aida.

Henry: What, you time traveled?

Alba: Mom says you and I are exactly alike.

Except Dr. Kendrick says I'm a prodigy, because sometimes I can choose where I go.

Henry: You can control it?

When you go and when you come back?

Alba: I'm learning.

Alba: I love you, Daddy.

Henry: I love you too, honey.

Henry: Alba.

Clare: Alba?

Henry: We name her Alba.

Clare: You met her?

Henry: Yeah. She's so beautiful, and so smart.

You're gonna love her so much.

Alba, age 5: Try to stay, Daddy.

Henry: How do you do it?

Alba, age 5: When I feel like I'm going, I sing... I sing to myself.

Henry: Let's try then.

[they start to sing as Henry start to disappear]

Alba: Tell me the story of how you and Mom met.

Henry: Doesn't she tell you?

Alba: She does but not like you do.

Henry: Well, it was right here in this meadow.

And one fine day, your mom -who's just a tiny little things-, 

goes out to the clearing and there's a man there...

Alba: With no clothes.

Henry: Not a stitch on him.

And after she gives him a blanket she happens to be carrying,

he explains to her that he's a time traveler.

Now for some reason I'll never understand, she believes him.

Alba: Because it's true.

Henry: I'm going.

Alba: No, Daddy... Sing!

Henry: I can't sing.

Clare: Why didn't you tell me you were coming?

I would've been here waiting.

Henry: I didn't want you to wait.

I don't want you to spend your life waiting.

Alba: Sometimes I think he's in the trees, deciding when to come out and surprise me.

Clare: I used to think that when I was a little girl,

that he was always here, even when he wasn't.

Alba: I guess he is, isn't he?

*****

THE DARK KNIGHT [2008]

Welcome To A World Without Rules

I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger.

~Joker

Alfred: Whenever you stitch yourself up, you do make a bloody mess.

Bruce: Yeah, it makes me learn from my mistakes.

Alfred: You ought to be pretty knowledgeable by now, then.

Bruce: There were more copycats last night, Alfred, with guns.

Alfred: Why not hire them, take the weekend off?

Alfred, see so many scars on Wayne's back: Know your limits, Master Wayne.

Bruce: Batman has no limits.

Harvey: When their enemies were at the gates, 

the Romans would suspend democracy and appoint one man to protect the city.

It wasn't considered an honor, it was a public service.

Rachel: Harvey, the last man that they appointed to protect the republic was named Caesar and he never gave up his power.

Harvey: Okay, fine.

You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Chechen: What do you propose?

Joker: It's simple. We, uh, kill the Batman.

[the rest gentlemen laugh]

Maroni: If it's so simple, why haven't you done it already?

Joker: If you're good at something, never do it for free.

You wanna know how I got this scars?

My father was... a drinker... and a fiend.

And one night, he goes off crazier than usual.

Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself.

He doesn't like that... not one bit.

So, me watching, he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it.

He turns to me and he says, "Why so serious?"

He comes at me with the knife.

"Why so serious?"

He sticks the blade in my mouth.

"Let's put a smile on that face"

And... why so serious?

~Joker, kill Gambol

You see, this is how crazy Batman's made Gotham.

You want order in Gotham, Batman must take off his mask and turn himself in.

Oh, and everyday he doesn't, people will die.

Starting tonight.

I'm a man of my word.

~Joker

[grab Rachel with a knife pointed to her mouth]

You wanna know how I got them?

So I had a wife.

She was beautiful like you, 

who tells me I worry too much, who tells me I ought to smile more...

who gambles and gets in deep with the sharks.

One day they carve her face.

And we have no money for surgeries.

She can't take it.

I just wanna see her smile again, hm?

I just want her to know that I don't care about the scars.

So... I stick a razor in my mouth and do this... to myself.

And you know what?

She can't stand the sight of me.

She leaves...

Now I see the funny side.

Now I'm always smiling.

~Joker

Alfred: A long time ago, I was in Burma...

and my friends and I were working for the local government.

They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones.

But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit.

So we went looking for the stones.

But in 6 months, we never met anyone who traded with him.

One day, I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine.

The bandit had been throwing them away.

Bruce: So why steal them?

Alfred: Because he thought it was good sport.

Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money.

They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with.

Some men just wanna watch the world burn.

Mr. Reese: I went to the archives and I started pulling some old files.

Don't tell me you didn't recognized your baby [open up the batmobile sketch]

pancaking cop cars on the evening news.

Now you got the entire R&D Department burning through cash

claiming it's related to cell phones for the army?

What are you building for him now, a rocket ship?

I want... $10 million a year for the rest of my life.

Lucius: Let me get this straight.

You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful man in the world

is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp 

with his bare hands...

and your plan is to blackmail this person?

[smirking] Good luck.

Batman: Where is he?

Maroni: I don't know where he is. He found us.

Batman: He must have friends.

Maroni: Friends... Have you met this guy?

Batman: Someone knoes where he is.

Maroni: Nobody's gonna tell you nothing.

They're wise to your act.

You got rules.

The Joker, he's got no rules.

Nobody's gonna cross him for you.

If you want this guy, you got one way.

But you already know what that is.

Just take off that mask, let him come find you.

Or you can let a couple more people get killed while you make up your mind.

Batman: You're the symbol of hope I could never be.

Your stand against organized crime is the first legitimate ray of light in Gotham in decades.

If anyone saw this, everything would be undone.

The criminals you arrested would be released and Jim Gordon will have died for nothing.

You're gonna hold a press conference tomorrow morning.

Harvey: Why?

Batman: No one else will die because of me.

Bruce: You once told me that if the day came when I was finished, that we'd be together.

Rachel: Bruce, don't make me your one hope for a normal life.

Bruce: Did you mean it?

Rachel: Yes...

[Bruce starts kissing her and then walk away]

Rachel: Bruce, if you turn yourself in, they're not gonna let us be together.

The night is darkest just before the dawn.

And I promise you, the dawn is coming.

One day the Batman will have to answer for the laws he's broken.

But to us... not to this madman.

~Harvey Dent

Rachel: Alfred, why is he letting Harvey do this?

Alfred: He went down to the press conference.

Rachel: I know. And he just stood by.

Alfred: Perhaps both Bruce and Mr. Dent believe that Batman stands for something more important than the whims of a terrorist, Miss Dawes,

even if everyone hates him for it.

That's the sacrifice he's making.

He's not being a hero.

He's being something more.

Batman: Why do you wanna kill me?

Joker, laughing: I don't wanna kill you.

What would I do without you?

Go back to ripping off mob dealers?

No, no, no, no... You... you complete me.

Batman, throw Joker to the wall: WHERE ARE THEY?

Joker: Killing is making a choice.

Batman, hit Joker: WHERE ARE THEY?

Joker, giggle: Choose between one life to the other.

Your friend the district attorney or his blushing bride-to-be.

[Batman hits him again]

You have nothing, nothing to threaten me with.

Nothing to do with all your strength.

Don't worry, I'm gonna tell you where they are, both of them.

And that's the point, you'll have to choose.

He's at 25052nd street and she's on Avenue X at Cicero.

Do you wanna know why I use a knife?

Guns are too quick.

You can't savor all the little emotions.

You see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are.

So in a way, I knew your friends better than you ever did.

~Joker

Dear Bruce,

I need to be honest and clear.

I'm going to marry Harvey Dent.

I love him and I wanna spend the rest of my life with him.

When I told you that if Gotham no longer needed Batman we could be together,

I meant it.

But now I'm sure the day won't come when you no longer need Batman.

I hope it does.

And if it does, I will be there, but as your friend.

I'm sorry to let you down.

If you lose your faith in me, please keep your faith in people.

Love now and always,

Rachel.

Bruce: I was meant to inspire good. 

Not madness, not death.

Alfred: You have inspired good.

But you spat in the faces of Gotham's criminals.

Didn't you think there might be casualties?

Things always get worse before they get better.

Bruce: But Rachel, Alfred...

Alfred: Rachel believed in what you stood for... what we stand for.

Gotham needs you.

Bruce: No, Gotham needs its true hero and I let that murdering psychopath blow him half to hell.

Alfred: Which is why, for now... they're gonna have to make do with you.

It's not about what I want, it's about what's fair!

You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time.

But you were wrong.

The world is cruel.

And the only morality in a cruel world is chance [hold his lucky coin].

Unbiased.

Unprejudiced.

Fair.

~Two Faces

Batman: What happened to Rachel wasn't chance.

We decided to act. We three.

Two Faces: Then why was it me who was the only one who lost everything?

Batman: It wasn't.

Two Faces: THE JOKER CHOSE ME!

Batman: Because you were the best of us!

He wanted to prove that even someone as good as you could fall.

Two Faces: He was right.

You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

I can do those things, because I'm not a hero, not like Dent.

~Batman

A hero...

Not the hero we deserved, bu the hero we needed.

Nothing less than a knight... shining.

~Jim Gordon

Jim: They'll hunt you.

Batman: You'll hunt me, you'll condemn me, set the dogs on me.

Because that's what needs to happen.

Because sometimes the truth isn't good enough.

Sometimes people deserves more.

Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.

James, see Batman runs: Why is he running, Dad?

Jim: Because we have to chase him.

James: He didn't do anything wrong.

Jim: Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.

So we'll hunt him, because he can take it.

Because he's not our hero.

He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector, a dark knight.

*****