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Jerry Maguire (1996)
In writer/director Cameron Crowe's popular sports-related
romantic comedy-drama, noted for many famous catch-phrase lines:
- the introductory scene (with voice-over) demonstrating
the hard-sell tactics of 35 year-old cocky, fast-talking sports
super agent Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise), working for Sports Management
International, to a potential client: ("I will not rest until
I have you holding a Coke, wearing your own shoe, playing a Sega
game featuring you, while singing your own song in a new commercial,
starring you, broadcast during the Super Bowl, in a game that you
are winning, and I will not sleep until that happens. I'll give
you 15 minutes to call me back")
- the continuation of the opening sequence when Jerry
began suffering from guilt, stress and burn-out, and wrote a 25 page
breakthrough
"mission statement": ("Who had I become? Just another
shark in a suit? Two days later at our corporate conference in Miami,
a breakthrough. Breakdown? Breakthrough. I couldn't escape one simple
thought: I hated myself. No, no, no, here's what it was: I hated my
place in the world. I had so much to say and no one to listen. And
then it happened. It was the oddest, most unexpected thing. I began
writing what they call a mission statement. Not a memo, a mission statement.
You know, a suggestion for the future of our company. A night like
this doesn't come along very often. I seized it. What started out as
one page became twenty-five...The answer was fewer clients. Less money.
More attention. Caring for them, caring for ourselves and the games,
too. Just starting our lives, really. Hey - I'll be the first to admit,
what I was writing was somewhat touchy feely. I didn't care. I have
lost the ability to bulls--t. It was the me I'd always wanted to be")
- the scene of Jerry's phone call to disgrunted Arizona
Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), promising
to represent him - with the client's request to: "Show me the
money!"
- Jerry's "Flipper" Speech, when he broke
off from his job to go independent and form his own sports agency,
and challenged others to join him: ("Well, don't worry. Don't
worry. I'm not gonna do what you all think I'm gonna do, which is
just Flip Out! But let me just, let me just say, as I ease out of
the office I helped build - I'm sorry, but it's a Fact! - - that
there is such a thing as manners, a way of treating people. (He then
referred to an aquarium fish tank in the office) These fish have
manners. These fish have manners. In fact, they're coming with me.
I'm starting a new company, and the fish will come with me. You can
call me sentimental. The fish - they're coming with me....(Jerry
netted one of the gold fishes and placed it inside a clear baggie)
Okay. If anybody else wants to come with me, this moment will be
the moment of something real and fun and inspiring in this God-forsaken
business, and we will do it together. Who's comin' with me? Who's
coming with me? Who's coming with me besides 'Flipper' here? This
is embarrassing")
- remarkably, only idealistic, 26 year-old single young
mother Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger), a staff accountant, was willing
to join him: "I will go with you," but then when she was
uncertain about things, she whispered: "Right now?"
- the scene of the front-door kiss after a date between
Jerry and Dorothy, when after a few nibbling kisses, he accidentally
pulled her thin black dress straps loose ("Oops!"), when
slowly re-tying them behind her neck (after suggesting: "Let
me fix this"), he kissed her on the side of her neck, on her
shoulder and on her bare chest - and on her lips; afterwards, she
coyly invited him in and both decided to have sex: ("I think
you should not come in. Or, come in, depending on how you feel....No,
I have to go in. I live here....Good. Are you sure we want to do
this?"); he replied: "Oh, hell, yes"; inside her bedroom,
they laid down and embraced on the bed; when he cautioned: "You
know this is gonna change everything," and she responded: "Promise?"
Jerry's and Dorothy's Date - Followed by Sex
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- the restroom-locker-room scene of Jerry's inspirational
advice to a reluctant Rod Tidwell, begging him to help him: ("Let's
show them your pure joy of the game. Let's bury the attitude a
little bit, and show them...I'm saying to get back to the guy who
first started playing this game. Remember? Way back when, when
you were a kid, it wasn't just about the money, was it? Was it?
Was it?...I am out here for you. You don't know what it's like
to be me out here for you. It is an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing
siege that I will never fully tell you about, okay?! God. Help
me! Help me, Rod. Help me help you. Help me help you. Help me help
you!"); Rod couldn't help but laugh, then responded that he
agreed: ("You are hangin' on by a very thin thread. And I
dig that about you! No contract? I'll help me, I'll help you, help
everybody! That's my man"); Tidwell ended the conversation,
seen from his nude backside: ("See, that's the difference
between us. You think we're fighting and I think we're finally
talking")
- the Monday night football game scene of Cardinals
player Tidwell suffering an injury on the field, but then recovering
and dancing for the wild, cheering crowds in the stands, with the
stadium board lit up - "In Rod We Trust"
- the sequence of Jerry's admission of his love to his
stunned wife Dorothy Boyd in front of her friends during a divorced
womens' support group meeting in her own living room, stressing:
("I'm looking for my wife...If this is where it has to happen,
then this is where it has to happen. I'm not letting you get rid
of me. How about that?...Our little project, our company had a very
big night. A very, very big night, but it wasn't complete. It wasn't
nearly close to being in the same vicinity as complete, because I
couldn't share it with you. I couldn't hear your voice, or laugh
about it with you. I missed my wife. We live in a cynical world,
a cynical world, and we work in a business of tough competitors.
I love you. You complete me, and I just...."); Dorothy interrupted
with tears and accepted his profession of love: "Aw, shut up.
Just shut up. You had me at hello. You had me at hello" - they
embraced (viewed from outside the window)
- the final Tidwell interview scene on Roy Firestone's
Sports Show, when he was reminded of his difficult upbringing and
past: ("Your father leaves home on Christmas Eve, leaves your
family all alone, had a mother had to sweep out the steps of the
prison just to earn enough money for tuition for you. Your brother
loses a leg in a tragic bass fishing accident. I mean, there's been
a horrific list of things that have happened to you in your life");
Tidwell reacted: "I'm not gonna cry, Roy"; and then, Tidwell
was told "good news," to his surprise, that he had just
secured a guaranteed $11.2 million contract to play for four years
with the Arizona Cardinals pro-football team, and finish up his career
in his home state; Tidwell was ecstatic with thanks, and almost forgot
to acknowledge Jerry: ("I love everybody. I love my wife! Whoo,
Marcee! I love my kids! Tyson. My baby, my new baby, Katie. My older
brother, who got one leg but he's still doin' it, and my younger
brother, Tee Pee. You're militant, but I ain't mad at ya. I ain't
got nothin' but love for ya. I love my teammates. I'm leavin' somebody
out here, Roy... I want to send some beautiful love out to my offensive
line....Wait, wait, wait. Wait, I'm forgettin' somebody. Jerry Maguire,
my agent. You are my ambassador of kwan, man")
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Jerry: Writing a Breakthrough "Mission Statement"
Jerry's Phone Call to Rod Tidwell: "Show me the money!"
"Flipper" Speech to Co-Workers After Losing
Job
Restroom-Locker Scene: "Help me help you!"
"In Rod We Trust"
Jerry's Admission of Love for Dorothy
Dorothy: "Aw, shut up. Just shut up. You had me at
hello. You had me at hello"
Couple Embracing
(Shot From Outside Window)
Tidwell Ecstatic on the Sports Show: "I'm not gonna
cry, Roy"
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