Narrator

• The tale told at a 1961 awards dinner for the American Association Of Forensic Science by Dr. Donald Harper, president of the association, began with a simple suicide attempt: seventeen-year-old Sydney Barringer in the city of Los Angeles on March 23, 1958. The coroner ruled that the unsuccessful suicide had suddenly become a successful homicide. To explain: The suicide was confirmed by a note left in the breast pocket of Sydney Barringer. At the same time young Sydney stood on the ledge of this nine-story building, an argument swelled three stories below. The neighbors heard, as they usually did, the arguing of the tenants, and it was not uncommon for them to threaten each other with a shotgun or one of the many handguns kept in the house. And when the shotgun accidentally went off, Sydney just happened to pass. Added to this, the two tenants turned out to be Fay and Arthur Barringer; Sydney's mother and Sydney's father. When confronted with the charge, which took some figuring out for the officers on the scene of the crime, Fay Barringer swore that she did not know that the gun was loaded. A young boy who lived in the building, sometimes a visitor and friend to Sydney Barringer, said that he had seen six days prior the loading of the shotgun. It seems that the arguing and the fighting and all of the violence was far too much for Sydney Barringer; and knowing his mother and father's tendency to fight, he decided to do something. Sydney Barringer jumps from the ninth floor rooftop. His parents argue three stories below. Her accidental shotgun blast hits Sydney in the stomach as he passes the arguing sixth floor window. He is killed instantly but continues to fall, only to find, three stories below, a safety net installed three days prior for a set of window washers that would have broken his fall and saved his life if not for the hole in his stomach. So Fay Barringer was charged with the murder of her son and Sydney Barringer noted as an accomplice in his own death. And it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that this is not just "something that happened." This cannot be "one of those things"... This, please, cannot be that. And for what I would like to say, I can't. This was not just a matter of chance. Ohh. These strange things happen all the time.

Frank T.J. Mackey

• I will not apologize for who I am. I will not apologize for what I need. I will not apologize for what I want!

• In this life, it's not what you hope for, it's not what you deserve — it's what you take.

• Earl... You don't look that bad. You prick. Cocksucker. That's what you used to like to say, right? "Cocksucker." But you are a cocksucker, Earl. It hurts, doesn't it? Huh? You in a lot of pain? She was in a lot of pain. Right to the end, she was in a lot of pain. I know because I, I was there, Earl. You didn't like illness, though, did you? I was there. She waited for your call. For you to come. I am not going to cry. I am not going to cry for you! You cocksucker, I know you can hear me. I want you to know that I hate your fucking guts. You can just fucking die, you fuck. And I hope it hurts, I fucking hope it hurts. Why didn't you call? I fucking hate you. Goddamn you, you fucking asshole. Oh, God, you fucking asshole. Don't go away, you fucking asshole! Oh, God, don't go away, you fucking asshole!

Quiz Kid Donnie Smith

• No, it is not dangerous to confuse children with angels.

• I really do have love to give; I just don't know where to put it.

• And the book says, "We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us!"

Jim Kurring

• Let me tell you something, this is not an easy job. I get a call on the radio, dispatch, it's bad news. And it stinks. But this is my job and I love it. Because I want to do well. In this life and in this world, I want to do well. And I want to help people. And I might get twenty bad calls a day. But one time I can help someone and make a save, correct a wrong or right a situation, then I'm a happy cop. And as we move through this life we should try and do good. Do good... And if we can do that, and not hurt anyone else, well... then...

• I lost my gun today when I left you and I'm the laughingstock of a lot of people. I wanted to tell you. I wanted you to know and it's on my mind. And it makes me look like a fool. And I feel like a fool. And you asked that we should say things, that we should say what we're thinking and not lie about things. Well, I can tell you that, this, that I lost my gun today, and I am not a good cop. And I'm looked down at. And I know that. And I'm scared that once you find that out you may not like me.

• I can't let this go. I can't let you go. Now, you... you listen to me now. You're a good person. You're a good and beautiful person and I won't let you walk out on me. And I won't let you say those things, those things about how stupid you are and this and that. I won't stand for that. You want to be with me... then you be with me. You see?

• A lot of people think this is just a job that you go to... take a lunch hour, the job's over, something like that. But it's a 24-hour deal... no two ways about it... and what most people don't see is just how hard it is to do the right thing. People think if I make a judgment call, that it's a judgment on them. But that's not what I do, and that's not what should be done. I have to take everything and play it as it lays. Sometimes people need a little help. Sometimes people need to be forgiven. And sometimes they need to go to jail. And that's a very tricky thing on my part... making that call. The law is the law, and heck if I'm gonna break it. But if you can forgive someone... well, that's the tough part. What can we forgive? Tough part of the job. Tough part of walking down the street.

Claudia Gator

• I'll tell you everything, and you tell me everything, and maybe we can get through all the piss and shit and lies that kill other people.

• Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing me again?

Others

• Earl Partridge: I'll tell you the greatest regret of my life: I let my love go.

• Dixon: When the sunshine don't work, the good Lord bring the rain in.

Dialogue

Young Pharmacy Kid: Strong, strong stuff here. What exactly you have wrong, you need all this stuff?

Linda Partridge: Motherfucker...

Young Pharmacy Kid: What are you talking about?

Linda Partridge: Who the fuck are you? Who the fuck do you think you are? I come in here. You don't know me. You don't know who I am, what my life is. You have the balls, the indecency to ask me a question about my life?

Old Pharmacist: Please, lady, why don't you calm down?

Linda Partridge: Fuck you, too. Don't call me "lady". I come in here, I give these things to you. You check, you make your phone calls, look suspicious, ask questions. I'm sick. I have sickness all around me and you fucking ask me about my life? "What's wrong?" Have you seen death in your bed? In your house? Where's your fucking decency? And then I'm asked fucking questions. What's... wrong? You suck my dick. That's what's wrong. And you, you fucking call me "lady"? Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on both of you.

Cast

Tom Cruise - Frank T.J. Mackey

Pat Healy - Sir Edmund William Godfrey/Young Pharmacy Kid

Julianne Moore - Linda Partridge

Genevieve Zweig - Mrs. Godfrey

Mark Flannagan - Joseph Green

William H. Macy - Quiz Kid Donnie Smith

Jeremy Blackman - Stanley Spector

Philip Seymour Hoffman - Phil Parma

John C. Reilly - Jim Kurring

Ricky Jay - Burt Ramsey/Narrator

Philip Baker Hall - Jimmy Gator

Melora Walters - Claudia Gator