Jerry Maguire (1996)

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?"

• 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ドル.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")