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Danielle: If you hold on to the past, you die a little each day...
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Claude Kersek: No, you're scared. But that's okay. I want you to savor that fear. The South evolved in fear; fear of the Indian, fear of the slave, fear of the damn Union. The South has a fine tradition of savoring fear.
-
Max Cady: It's not necessary to lay a foul tongue on me my friend. I could get upset. Things could get out of hand. Then in self defense, I could do something to you that you would not like, right here.
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Max Cady: Every man... every man has to go through hell to reach paradise.
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Max Cady: You learn about loss.
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[repeated phrase]
Max Cady: Counselor.
-
Max Cady: I ain't no white trash piece of shit. I'm better than you all! I can out-learn you. I can out-read you. I can out-think you. And I can out-philosophize you. And I'm gonna outlast you. You think a couple whacks to my guts is gonna get me down? It's gonna take a hell of a lot more than that, Counselor, to prove you're better than me!
-
Sam Bowden: [they first meet - Sam is about to start his car when suddenly a hand reaches in and snatches the keys. It's Max Cady!]
Max Cady: [smiling] Free as a bird. You go wherever you want with whomever.
Sam Bowden: I'd like my keys back, please.
Max Cady: Could it be you don't remember me?
Sam Bowden: I remember you. You were at the movies the other night.
Max Cady: I'm disappointed. I'm hurt.
Sam Bowden: I would like my keys.
Max Cady: Max Cady. You look the same. Maybe 15 pounds heavier. But they say the average man gains a pound a year till he's about... Come on. Gains a pound a year till he's about 60. Me? I dropped a pound every year in my sentence.
Sam Bowden: Atlanta. July 1977?
Max Cady: You got it.
[looks at keys and adds]
Max Cady: Fourteen years since I held a set of keys.
-
Max Cady: I'm Virgil and I'm guidin' you through the gates of Hell. We are now in the Ninth Circle, the Circle of Traitors. Traitors to country! Traitors to fellow man! Traitors to GOD! You, sir, are charged with betrayin' the principles of all three! Quote for me the American Bar Association's Rules of Professional Conduct, Canon Seven.
Sam Bowden: "A lawyer should represent his client... "
Max Cady: "Should ZEALOUSLY represent his client within the bounds of the law." I find you guilty, counselor! Guilty of betrayin' your fellow man! Guilty of betrayin' your country and abrogatin' your oath! Guilty of judgin' me and sellin' me out! With the power vested in me by the kingdom of God, I sentence you to the Ninth Circle of Hell! Now you will learn about loss! Loss of freedom! Loss of humanity! Now you and I will truly be the same...
-
Max Cady: You ready to be born again, Miss Bowden?
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Max Cady: [to Lori] Maybe I could chop you into 40 pieces.
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Lieutenant Elgart: So what happened, your wife let the dog out and Cady abducted him and...
Sam Bowden: No, my wife didn't let the dog out.
Lieutenant Elgart: So he came into the house? Now that's illegal entry...
Sam Bowden: No, he didn't come into the house either. Now look, I'm not a cop, I don't know how he did it, all I know is that he DID it.
-
Sam Bowden: I know how the dog died.
Leigh Bowden: Sam, are you dreaming?
Sam Bowden: No, no, I just had the weirdest feeling that he
[Cady]
Sam Bowden: was already in the house.
-
Leigh Bowden: [about Cady] I'd still like to kill him.
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Sam Bowden: My wife found some marijuana in one of Danni's schoolbooks, we don't know if Cady gave it to her, but she's scared and won't talk to us, now this has gone far enough.
Claude Kersek: Did you call the police?
Sam Bowden: No I didn't call the police, what did you call them? Slow, slobbery, skeptical...
-
[Max Cady stares at Mrs. Bowden]
Max Cady: Mmm-mmm, hot as a firecracker on the fourth of July.
-
Prison Guard: What about your books?
Max Cady: Already read 'em.
-
Max Cady: [Danielle throws scalding grease over Max] Danielle, were you about to offer me something hot?
[Lights a flare and holds it aloft]
Max Cady: Let's get something straight... I spent fourteen years in an eight by nine foot cell surrounded by people who were less than human. My mission in that time was to become more than human
[lets boiling wax drip on his skin]
Max Cady: ... so you see! Granddaddy used to handle snakes in church, Granny drank strychnine. I guess you could say I had a leg up, genetically speaking.
-
Max Cady: [Approaching a dumpster Sam is hiding behind] Counselor... could you be there? Could you be there?
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Max Cady: "I am like God, and God like me. I am as large as God, He is as small as I. He cannot above me, nor I beneath Him be." Silesius, 17th Century.
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Max Cady: Your mommy's not happy... your daddy's not happy, and you know what? You're not happy.
-
Claude Kersek: Well, gee golly gosh. I sure am sorry I offended you, you white trash piece of shit.
-
[Max Cady bares his heavily tattooed body]
Lieutenant Elgart: I don't know whether to look at him or read him.
-
Lieutenant Elgart: Well, pardon me all over the place.
-
Max Cady: I understand, I'm not your type, too many tattoos. Thing is, there isn't much to do in prison except desecrate your flesh.
-
Max Cady: Are you my friend? Are you my friend?
Claude Kersek: No I'm not your friend.
Max Cady: Well, see, I like to plan my comings and goings with friends, so if you're planning my comings and goings I'd call that presumptuous, in fact I'd call it downright rude.
-
Max Cady: Counselor! Come out, come out, wherever you are!
-
Max Cady: [hanging upside down, on the phone with Danielle] ... well, you can trust in me 'cause I'm the "Do-Right Man".
-
Max Cady: I am going to teach you the meaning of commitment. Fourteen years ago I was forced to make a commitment to an eight by nine cell, now you are going to be forced to make a commitment. You could say I'm here to save you.
-
[first lines]
Danielle: My reminiscence. I always thought that for such a lovely river the name is mystifying: "Cape Fear". When the only thing to fear on those enchanted summer nights was that the magic would end and real life would come crashing in.
-
[last lines]
Danielle: [voiceover] We never spoke about what happened, at least not to each other. Fear, I suppose, that to remember his name and what he did would mean letting him into our dreams. And me, I hardly dream about him anymore. Still, things won't ever be the way they were before he came. But that's alright because if you hang onto the past you die a little every day. And for myself, I know I'd rather live.
[whispers]
Danielle: The end.
-
Max Cady: Are you a cop? Or were you a cop? Or were you not good enough to remain on the force? Cause you know what? That's the feeling I'm getting here.
-
Claude Kersek: Anytime you feel squirrelly, you just jump.
-
[Cady has just killed Kersek]
Max Cady: I learned that in prison... You white-trash piece of shit!
-
Sam Bowden: He says we're fugitives!
Danielle: What does that mean?
Sam Bowden: That means we're doing something right!
-
Leigh Bowden: You don't know Danny. If she finds a palmetto bug in her bedroom, she takes it outside. She could never kill anything.
Claude Kersek: Even a six-foot palmetto bug?
-
Leigh Bowden: I'd like to know just how strong we are. Or how weak. But I guess the only way we're gonna find that out is just by going through this.
-
Max Cady: You will now have an opportunity. "What is that opportunity?", you ask. Why, here and now, we have an opportunity to depict and dramatize...
Leigh Bowden: Oh, no!
Max Cady: ...both the heights and the depths of a mama's true love for her daughter, if y'all get my meaning. C'mon out, baby, let's go. C'mon darling. Get out.
[shoves Danielle up on the table]
Max Cady: Get up here.
-
Max Cady: [hit in the head with a rock] Forget about that restraining order, Counselor? You're well within 500 yards!
-
Max Cady: So, here we are, two lawyers for all practical purposes talking shop.
Sam Bowden: How much do you want, Mr. Cady?
Max Cady: How much do I want what?
Sam Bowden: How much money do you want?
Max Cady: Money? Counselor, do I look destitute to you?
Sam Bowden: Well I'm open to discussion within reasonable limits.
Max Cady: You ever been a woman?
Sam Bowden: What?
Max Cady: A woman... some fat, hairy hillbilly's wet dream.
-
Leigh Bowden: Stop! Stop!
Max Cady: Yes, Leigh?
Leigh Bowden: Listen to me, Max, listen to me. You know, Max, since all this started, I've thought about you all the time. I've tried to imagine what it must have been like for you, all those years locked up in jail... I've tried to imagine you and even your crimes, and how you must have felt in those moments that you did them... See, I know about loss, Max. I know about losing time, even losing years. And I know it doesn't compare to jail, but I can understand. And I can share this with you. Because of that, whatever it is you've got planned, I want you to do it just with me... not with her... because... we have this connection.
-
Sam Bowden: Because I knew he brutally beat and raped her!
Max Cady: Talk... TO ME! I'm Right HERE!
[hits Sam in the face]
Sam Bowden: Just because she was promiscuous... didn't give YOU THE RIGHT TO RAPE HER! But YOU BRAGGED about how you beat TWO prior rapes... you were a menace!
Max Cady: [Screams] YOU WERE MY LAWYER... you were my lawyer! That report could've saved me FOURTEEN YEARS!
Sam Bowden: [begrudgingly] You're probably right.
Max Cady: [Disgusted] YOU SELF-RIGHTEOUS FUCK!
-
Max Cady: [singing hysterically to the heavens] I'm bound for the promised land, I am, I'm bound for the promised land.
-
Max Cady: [to a snarling Sam] You already sacrificed me, counselor.
-
Max Cady: This is my night, Counselor. Don't you step on my lines!
-
Claude Kersek: [Cady's realised Kersek's tailing him] Hey, Cady! Come here. Wait up a second. You know, I've been in a real bad mood lately. Shame, innit? You know what you can do to brighten my mood?
Max Cady: [takes the time to smoke some of his cigar before answering] No.
Claude Kersek: Get the hell out of here.
[Cady laughs that off]
Claude Kersek: I don't just mean this whole town. I mean the whole goddam state. I don't want to see you. I don't want to hear you. And I don't want to smell you... now leave.
Max Cady: Now, I like... are you my friend?
Claude Kersek: No, I'm not your friend.
Max Cady: Oh, cause' I thought maybe you were my friend, cause' I like to plan my comings and goings with friends. But if you're not my friend, you're plannin' my comings and goings, I'd call that presumptuous. In fact, I'd call it downright rude, cause' I ain't your porch-baby, buddy.
Claude Kersek: Well, gee-golly-gosh. I sure am sorry I offended you you white-trash piece of shit.
Max Cady: Ooh, I got the all-over fidgets on that one! And you're really shaken' me up! I'm shiveren' all over! Whew! It's not necessary to lay a foul tongue on me, my friend. I could get upset. Things could get out of hand. And then in self-defence, I could do something to you that you would not like... right here.
Claude Kersek: Anytime you feel squirrely, you just jump.
Max Cady: You threatenin' me? You threatenin' me?
Claude Kersek: You catch on fast.
Max Cady: [the jokey look on Cady's face is dangerous now] Cause' I'm well within my rights to be here, and you know it. And if I stay here what you gonna do?
Claude Kersek: I don't give a rat's ass about your rights. You just watch your step. And you know what I'm talkin' about.
Max Cady: What you gonna' do? Arrest me? What are you a cop? Or were you a cop? Or were you not good enough to remain on the force? Cause' you know what? That's the feelin' I'm gettin' here.
[Kersek gives nothing away]
Max Cady: Hope you enjoyed your breakfast.
[Cady saunters off]
Cape Fear Quotes
Extended Reading
