Footloose Quotes

Chuck: Shit, I thought only pansies wore neckties.

Ren: See that? I thought only assholes used the word "pansy".

Ariel: Woo, he gotcha on that one, Chas!

Chuck: SHUT UP! Son of a bitch is gonna pay for that!

Ren: You like Men at Work?

Willard: Which man?

Ren: Men at Work.

Willard: Well where do they work?

Ren: No, they don't, they're a music group.

Willard: Well what do they call themselves?

Ren: Oh no! What about the Police?

Willard: What about 'em?

Ren: You ever heard them?

Willard: No, but I seen them.

Ren: Where, in concert?

Willard: No, behind you.

Wes: Ethel, are you sure you're not tired?

Ethel: No, Ren did most of the driving.

Amy: [dreamily] If you ask me, Ren is a total fox.

Lulu: [shocked] Amy!

Wes: Where did you hear that? Ethel, do you see how television and those kinds of books influence children? You see?

Wes: Seems that a bunch of kids was raising some hell over at Burlington Cranton's property a few days back. Tore up the fields, turned over a tractor and everything. Today someone suggested to me there's been some trouble up at the high school. I think it was drugs. You don't happen to know anything about that, do you.

Ren: [Quietly] No.

Wes: What was that? I can't hear you.

Amy: He said no.

Lulu: Amy.

Ren: I said no, sir.

Wes: It seems that a lot of people are pointing the finger in your direction lately.

Ren: And what have they said?

Wes: What I have been telling you about the trouble and the drugs and... It just seems like you've had a lot of problems since you moved here. And I figured...

Ren: You figured where there's smoke there's fire, right?

Wes: Usually works like that. Now look Ren, you know that I would never try to take the place of your father.

Ren: Yeah well, there's no chance of that!

[Gets up and leaves the house]

Lulu: Ren!

Sarah: [Running over to the window] Uh oh, he's taking the car.

Ren: What are you doing here?

Ariel: Watching.

Ren: I thought I was alone.

Ariel: Not in this town. There's eyes everywhere.

Willard: You know what it is, you've got an attitude problem.

Ren: Oh I've got an attitude problem?

Willard: Yes and I'm not the first one that's noticed it. I mean we're not stuck in the goddamn middle ages here. I mean we've got TV. We've got Family Feud. We're not stuck in Leave It to Beaver land here.

Ren: Well I haven't noticed a wet T-shirt contest in town yet.

Willard: Yeah well I haven't either, but I'm waiting. Patiently.

Ren: I tell what I'd like to do - I'd like to fold a Playboy centerfold inside every one of Reverend Moore's hymnbooks!

[last lines]

Ren: Hey, hey! What's this I see? I thought this was a party. LET'S DANCE!

Andy Beamis: You're the last folks I expected to see around here tonight.

Reverend Shaw Moore: Hi Andy.

Vi Moore: Hi Andy.

Andy Beamis: Reverend, you done a good thing here.

Reverend Shaw Moore: Well, I'm still not sure it was the right thing.

Andy Beamis: Comes close.

Willard: People think she's a hellraiser.

Ren: Is she?

Willard: I think she's been kissed a lot.

Reverend Shaw Moore: Were you drinking?

Ariel: No.

Reverend Shaw Moore: Smoking something?

Ariel: No! I wasn't stealing, I wasn't gambling, I wasn't dancing, I wasn't reading books I'm not supposed to! I am late!

Reverend Shaw Moore: Who were you with?

Ariel: Ren McCormick.

Reverend Shaw Moore: I don't want you to see him anymore.

Ariel: Why not?

Reverend Shaw Moore: Because I've heard he's a troublemaker.

Ariel: Just because he hasn't lived in this town for 20 years doesn't make him a troublemaker!

Reverend Shaw Moore: Ariel, I don't know what I'm going to do with you.

Ariel: There ain't nothing to *do* with me, Daddy. You like it or not, this is it. It doesn't get much better.

Mr. Gurntz: He was trying to teach *that* book down at the school.

Mrs. Allyson: Slaughterhouse-Five, isn't that an awful name?

Ren: Yeah it's a great book... Slaughterhouse-Five, it's a classic.

Mr. Gurntz: Do you read much?

Mrs. Allyson: Maybe in another town, it's a classic.

Ren: In *any* town.

Mr. Gurntz: Tom Sawyer is a classic!

Willard: You won't get any dancing here, it's illegal.

Ren: Jump back!

Ariel: [Shaw is busily typing in his den, Ariel is in the next room over, studying... Shaw is playing classical music in the background] Daddy? I don't know what came over me.

Reverend Shaw Moore: You know I can't always be with you, Ariel. I can't always look out for you.

Ariel: [getting up and walking to the den] What's the music?

Reverend Shaw Moore: [preoccupied] Oh, it's uh, I think it's Haydn. A chamber piece.

Ariel: And that kind of music is OK?

Reverend Shaw Moore: [somewhat defensive] Well, it's uplifting... it doesn't confuse people's minds and bodies.

Ariel: I don't...

Reverend Shaw Moore: [annoyed] What?

Ariel: I see.

Reverend Shaw Moore: [he calls out to her after she leaves the room] Listen, could you tell your mother to go on to bed? I still have a lot of work to do down here.

Ariel: I will.

[she re-enters the den]

Ariel: Daddy?

Reverend Shaw Moore: [not looking up] What is it?

Ariel: [disheartened] Good night.

Reverend Shaw Moore: Good night, honey.

Ariel: I'm no saint you know. I'm not even a virgin.

Reverend Shaw Moore: Don't you talk like that here!

Ariel: Why not? Isn't this where I'm supposed to come to confess my sins to my preacher? In CHURCH! I ask to be forgiven! Am I?

Willard: Hey, I came with this girl.

Fat Cowboy: Well it doesn't look like you're leaving with her.

Willard: Hey, I guess you didn't hear me the first time.

Rusty: Willard, no fights, you don't even know this guy.

Fat Cowboy: Why don't you just flake off, huh?

Ariel: Do you wanna kiss me?

Ren: Someday.

Ariel: [Gets in Ren's car] What's this "someday" shit?

Ren: Well, it's just I get the feeling you've been kissed a lot, and I'm afraid I'd suffer by comparison.

Ariel: How come you don't like me?

Ren: What makes you think that I don't like you?

Ariel: You never talk to me at school. You never *look* at me!

Ren: Yeah, well maybe that's because if I did, your boyfriend would remove my lungs with a spoon.

Ren: [addressing the town council, reading from his notes in the Bible] "From the oldest of times, people danced for a number of reasons. They danced in prayer... or so that their crops would be plentiful... or so their hunt would be good. And they danced to stay physically fit... and show their community spirit. And they danced to celebrate." And that is the dancing we're talking about. Aren't we told in Psalm 149 "Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song. Let them praise His name in the dance"? And it was King David - King David, who we read about in Samuel - and what did David do? What did David do?

[paging frantically through Bible]

Ren: What *did* David do?

[audience laughs]

Ren: "David danced before the Lord with all his might... leaping and dancing before the Lord."

[smacks table in front of Reverend Moore]

Ren: *Leaping* and *dancing*.

[stands up straight]

Ren: Ecclesiastes assures us... that there is a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to laugh... and a time to weep. A time to mourn... and there is a time to dance. And there was a time for this law, but not anymore. See, this is our time to dance. It is our way of celebrating life. It's the way it was in the beginning. It's the way it's always been. It's the way it should be now.

Reverend Shaw Moore: [discussing Ariel] We're losing her, Vi. Don't you see that?

Vi Moore: No. I see you chasing after her and I see her running from you.

Reverend Shaw Moore: She's become so willful, so obstinate.

Vi Moore: She's like her father. The two of you were so wonderful once. You had so much to talk about. I was almost jealous.

Reverend Shaw Moore: It's not as if we don't talk. It's just that sometimes people run out of things to say.

Vi Moore: Shaw, it's 20 years now I've been a minister's wife. And I've been quiet, supportive, unobtrusive and after 20 years I still think you're a wonderful, a wonderful preacher. You can lift a congregation up so high they have to look down to see heaven. But it's the one to one where you need a little work.

Vi Moore: None of this is going to undo one stupid accident.

Reverend Shaw Moore: I'm responsible for the spiritual life of this community.

Vi Moore: Shaw, you can't be a father to everybody. You can't do that.

Reverend Shaw Moore: I thought that at least *you* believed in me.

Vi Moore: [whispering] I never stopped.

Ren: I'll tell you, there was this place called the Blue Heaven. It was great. Had to steal IDs to get in, but it was incredible. It was like a huge underground circus, you know. Hot pink neon climbin' up the walls. And astro music. And millions of girls, like from the university mostly. If we could get one to dance, just one, then that was it. We'd get out on the floor and we'd really start to smoke. We'd start cuttin' in, and these girls would stop. - And they'd look.

Willard: They'd look how?

Ren: You know, they'd start to warm up a little. Right? Pretty soon, they'd start buying us beers.

Willard: They're buying you guys beers?

Ren: Oh, yeah. Wait. There was this one. This was the best. Ginger. Listen. We started dancing, right? Slow dancing, like we're stuck to each other. Eventually it's obvious to me that she wants to do more than dance. Right? So we left the place. On the way to the car, she's already got her tongue in my ear. We get to the car. She says we can't go to her place 'cause of her roommate, right? But she says, ''Hey, that's no problem.'' She's got seats in the car that recline back. All the way back. - If you know what I'm saying. - All the way? Would I shit you? Right? She rips my shirt open. She's clawing my chest. She's biting my neck, and I'm trying to get over the stick shift... 'cause we're goin' like a freight train now. All of a sudden, she starts screaming at the top of her lungs... ''Oh, God! Oh, God! Don't stop! Make Ginger pop!''

Willard: Oh, shit, really?

Ren: [laughs] No!

[Willard looks confused]

Ren: But we did dance. We danced our asses off.

Vi Moore: [embracing] Shaw?

Reverend Shaw Moore: What?

Vi Moore: We're almost dancing.

Willard: Woody over here don't know a dance from a dipstick.

Woody: And you do? You do, huh? Which way is left? Willard, which way is your left?

[Willard looks perplexed]

Woody: He don't know his left foot from his right foot.

Ethel: You gonna wear that tie?

Ren: Yeah.

Ethel: I think you might want to dress down for now.

Ren: Why? I like the tie.

Ethel: September, when you go to college, you can dress like David Bowie. Come on, let's go.

Coach Roger Dunbar: Doesn't take much time for corruption to take root, Reverend.

Reverend Shaw Moore: And how long is that, Roger? About as long as it takes compassion to die?

Andy Beamis: Can you operate a pallet jack?

Ren: Huh uh.

Andy Beamis: How about a bag closer?

Ren: Huh uh.

Andy Beamis: Where you from?

Ren: Chicago.

Andy Beamis: You're not stupid, are ya?

Ren: Hey, are you trying to piss me off?

Andy Beamis: Well, boy, a lot of folks are gonna give you problems right off, 'cause you see, you're an outsider. You're dangerous. They're always gonna worry about you. Screw 'em. This is only one little corner of the world.

Ariel: [Chuck mimics a fire engine's siren and grabs Ariel around the waist; she laughs] You'd never guess your daddy's a fire chief!

Chuck: You'd never guess your daddy's a minister, with them red boots.

Ariel: My daddy *hates* me wearing these boots.

Chuck: And you love that, don't ya?

Andy Beamis: You know you were railroaded, don't you ?

Ren: Huh?

Andy Beamis: Boy, when are you gonna wake up and smell the coffee? Shaw Moore walked into that meetin' with them votes already in his pocket. You didn't have a prayer.

Ren: Bad pun, Andy.

Andy Beamis: Well, what are you gonna do now?

Ren: It's over.

Andy Beamis: What if it ain't? What if you had your dance in Bayson?

Ren: Nah... nah, the whole point was to do something here in Bomont. Bayson's, what, 30 miles away?

Andy Beamis: Not where it runs up to these tracks, it ain't.

Ren: Huh?

Andy Beamis: Well, I figure if the Bomont fire trucks can't cross these tracks, then neither can the long arm of the law.

Ren: Yeah, what about the long arm of Reverend Moore?

Andy Beamis: You remember he said if you could find a way to convince him it wouldn't be a spiritual corruption, he'd think about it?

Ren: So?

Andy Beamis: So make him think about it.