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Big Fish Script
Big Fish Script
Finally, the Big Fish script is here for all you quotes spouting fans of the Tim Burton movie written by John August and starring Billy Crudup, Albert Fi nney, Ewan McGregor, Alison Lohman, yadda yadda This script is a transcript tha t was painstakingly transcribed using the screenplay and/or viewings of Big Fish . I know, I know, I still need to get the cast names in there and I'll be eterna lly tweaking it, so if you have any corrections, feel free to drop me a line. Yo u won't hurt my feelings. Honest. Swing on back to Drew's Script-O-Rama afterwards for more free movie scripts! Big Fish Script
Others claimed he was a dinosaur left over from the "Cruaceous" Period.
...strong enough to hold up a bridge, they said, if only for a few minutes.
The Beast jumped up and grabbed it before it even hit the water.
...the whole time we were calling it a him, when in fact it was a her.
- Well, we had the same destiny. - "We were part of the same equation."
...why did it strike so quick on gold when nothing else would attract it?
...the context for your great adventure, which never happened, incidentally.
They don't. I don't love that story. Not anymore. Not after a thousand times!
I know every punch line, Dad. I can tell them as well as you can!
- How can you not understand that? - I'm sorry to embarrass you.
After that night, I didn't speak to my father again for three years.
In her letters and Christmas cards, my mother wrote for both of them.
And when I'd call, she'd say Dad was out driving or swimming in the pool.
...it's impossible to separate fact from fiction, the man from the myth.
Thank you!
His birth would set the pace for his unlikely life.
It's bad?
Yeah, it's more than they thought. They're gonna stop chemo.
...and quicksand that would swallow you up before you could even scream.
It's common knowledge that most towns of a certain size have a witch...
- Is it true she got a glass eye? - I heard she got it from gypsies.
- Shit.
- Damn.
Screw.
For she had one glass eye which was said to contain mystical powers.
I heard if you look right at it, you'll see how you're gonna die.
I heard she keeps it in a box on her night table. Or are you too scared?
Edward, don't!
Whoa, help!
I was thinking about death and all. About seeing how you're gonna die.
Hi, Mom.
- Is that Dr. Bennett's car? - Yes. He's up with your father now.
- How much time does he have left? - You don't talk about that.
Not yet.
Will.
My wife, Josephine.
A pleasure.
It's a boy.
Try to get him to drink one of these. He won't, but go ahead and try.
Dad?
There's the diapers and the burping and the midnight feeding.
Then you spend years trying to corrupt and mislead this child...
- You think I'm up for it? - You learned from the best.
Drink half the can. I'll tell Mom you drank it all.
Everyone wins.
Dad...
Events. Stories.
You.
- You know where the chemicals are? - I did it when you were gone.
- I thought you said you weren't dying. - I said this isn't how I go.
Trust me on that.
Oh, that's nothing. Once, I had to stay in bed for three years.
...I set upon my plan to make a bigger place for myself in Ashton.
Tigers, go!
Edward Bloom!
I'll do it.
without trying.
Hello?
Go away!
I said, go away!
My arms are a little stringy, but there's some good eating in my legs.
So I guess, well...
If you'd just get it over with quick, because I'm not much for pain, really.
Here.
Did you ever think that maybe you're not too big...
Well, I do want you to leave, Karl. But I want to leave with you.
Okay.
Okay.
But there was one person whose counsel I held above all others.
A new one which was paved and an older one that wasn't.
...this seemed as good a time as any to find out what lay down that old one.
- You know anyone who's taken it? - That poet, Norther Winslow, did.
I'll cut through here, and I'll meet you on the far side.
Here.
...will swallow his pride and admit that he's made a terrible mistake.
...the more difficult something is, the more rewarding it is in the end.
- Edward Bloom.
- You must've taken a shortcut. - Why, yes, I did. It almost killed me.
Life will do that to you. And truthfully, the long way is easier.
He's still here. Let me buy you a drink. I'll tell you all about it.
Now, tell me if that isn't the best pie you ever ate.
It truly is.
At night, the wind goes through the trees where you'd swear...
...there was a whole symphony out there playing just for you.
Hey! Jenny!
Jenny!
...the mystery of how a place could feel so strange and yet so familiar.
Really?
May I?
I got him!
- Did you see that woman? - What did she look like?
Oh, darn.
you'll only be
you'll be
Hey, Edward!
I love Spectre...
Excuse me.
What?
I have to leave.
Tonight.
Why?
But the truth is, I'm just not ready to end up anywhere.
The first was that a dangerous path is made much worse by darkness.
After all, no man can avoid reaching the end of his life.
Friend.
I don't know if you saw it, but Josephine had some photos...
Really?
...but African parrots, in their native Congo, they speak only French.
Really?
It's rude to talk about religion. You never know who you're gonna offend.
Hello.
...unless they're especially portentous. Do you know what that word means?
...but they said it was just a dream and to get back to bed.
That's terrible.
Terrible for her, but think about me, young boy with that kind of power.
Because the crow didn't say how it was gonna happen, just those words:
He said to my mother:
Please?
All right.
...and let me tell you, I've never seen anything like this!
They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops.
What they don't tell you is that once time starts again...
Tell me, Karl, have you ever heard the term "involuntary servitude"?
- Nope. - Great.
Hey, kid.
"Depressed"?
Well, most men have to get married before they lose their wives.
I'm gonna spend the rest of my life looking for her. That or die alone.
Damn, kid.
Reddish-blondish hair?
Blue dress?
Yeah!
Forget it. Don't waste your time. She's out of your league.
You were hot shit back in Hickville, but here in the real world, you got squat.
You were a big fish in a small pond, but this here is the ocean...
I'll find that girl, marry her, and spend the rest of my life with her.
I don't have a job, but I would have a job if you gave me one.
...but I have more determination than any man you're likely to meet.
...l'll tell you one thing about her. That's my final offer.
- The way it was, and the way it will be. - Mr. Calloway, sir?
Daffodils.
Daffodils.
Over the months, I learned a lot about the woman I would marry...
Over the months, I learned a lot about the woman I would marry...
Mr. Calloway?
Mr. Calloway?
No. Wait!
That night, I discovered that most things you consider evil or wicked...
Thank you.
Her name...
I've spent the last three years working to find out who you are.
I've been shot, stabbed, and trampled a few times. I broke my ribs twice.
I knew it when I saw you at the circus, and I know it now more than ever.
- I'm sorry.
At least by reputation.
Well...
Congratulations.
...the girl I love was now engaged to one of its biggest jerks.
...the ship has sailed, and that only a fool will continue.
Take a look at the next graph, and the import of this will be even stronger...
Look!
I told them it was the only way to get my wife to marry me.
Sandra!
- Bloom? - Don.
I promised I wouldn't.
Stop it!
Don, stop!
While I took the beating of a lifetime, Don Price was ultimately defeated.
As it turned out, Sandra was able to keep her same date at the chapel.
Truth is,
...
You see, most men, they'll tell you a story straight through.
Well, when you work for the circus, you don't have a regular address.
Well, when you work for the circus, you don't have a regular address.
...I knew I couldn't survive being away from her that long.
Go! Go!
...to steal the plans for the Wong Kai Tang power plant...
Go! Go!
GUARD!
Bob Hope?!
Bigger.
Ready?
No, God!
After four months, Sandra had gotten over the worst of the nightmares.
When the phone rang, she didn't think it was somehow me calling her.
When a car drove past, she didn't get up to check out the window.
When I was growing up, he was gone more than he was there.
And I started thinking maybe he's got this second life somewhere else.
Or, or...
Whatever it is, he likes his second life better and he tells his stories...
Look, hey...
percent
Son.
Can we talk?
What?
Okay, okay. The thing about icebergs is you only see percent.
The other
percent is below
And that's...
I've told you a thousand facts, Will. That's what I do, I tell stories!
and
Only on the surface, Dad. But it's all I've ever seen.
Look.
Just yourself.
Good, bad, everything. Just show me who you are for once.
I've been nothing but myself since the day I was born.
And if you can't see that, it's your failing, not mine!
So...
What is it?
Okay, go.
After the war, the sons of Alabama returned home, looking for work.
If there was one thing you can say about Edward Bloom...
I'd like a moment of your time to tell you about my new product...
...the Handi-matic.
Edward?
Edward Bloom!
I was astonished to see the greatest poet of both Ashton and Spectre...
There was a whole life out there that I was not living.
So I traveled.
The gun.
Let's go!
It's just...
There's no money.
It turned out that the Savings & Loan had already been robbed...
Norther!
close to $
here!
There's something you should know. The reason they don't have money...
And for that, it was all the riches a man could ever want.
I see.
Come, now.
Hello.
...so he was through here all the time, and everyone in town knew him.
If you found this deed, why didn't you just ask Eddie?
Look, I don't know how much you want to know about any of this.
...and I'm sure he did a lot of things that he never talked about.
Yet he did.
Twice.
...it's that he was a social person, and people took a liking to him.
This town didn't seem the same now that he was older.
...but he had made other men rich, and now he asked for their favors.
In that way, he could make sure the town would never die.
Within six months, his trust had purchased the entire town.
Apparently I overlooked this one piece of it, and I'd like to remedy that.
In order for the town to be preserved, the trust must own it, in its entirety.
Nothing will change except the name on the deed, you have my word.
You buy the swamp from me, but I'll stay in it?
I'll be here, and you'll come and go as you please to one place or another.
...in the way things haven't been changing all this time.
It's not like you'll lose anything. You can ask anyone in town.
I was
. He was
I see.
- But... - Go.
Most men in that situation would accept their failure and move on.
Hold!
Of course, the best part was coming up with the new material.
...we'd worked out a new routine, using only a ukulele and a harmonica.
No.
Now, don't.
Yeah, I know.
And from the first day I saw her until the day I die...
Lucky girl.
Wait! Edward.
Your mother...
...I realized I was in love with a man who could never love me back.
And I'm...
I was make-believe.
Mom?
Josephine?
Josephine?
Will!
What happened?
Is he gonna be okay?
I'll stay.
Your father ever tell you about the day you were born?
No.
Her neighbor drove her, on account of your father was away on business...
...in Wichita.
But it wasn't the custom then for men to be in the room for deliveries...
...so I can't see how it would've been much different had he been there.
Dad?
The river.
The river?
How I go.
I don't know that story, Dad. You never told me that one.
Like this.
Okay. Okay.
...and you and I are in the hospital, and I've fallen asleep. And I wake up...
Dad?
You're different.
Then I say:
...and your old red Charger is there. But it's new. Brand-new.
He's here!
And I mean...
...everyone.
It's unbelievable.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Mom?
He restores my soul.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.
Have you ever heard a joke so many times you've forgotten why it's funny?
Pretty much.
I guess.
A man tells his stories so many times that he becomes the stories.