Gabe Quotes in Cliffhanger (1993)

Gabe: [burning the stolen money] It costs a fortune to heat this place.

Qualen: I must say, you're a real piece of work.

Gabe: I must say, you're a real piece of shit.

Jessie: This rope looks 60 years old. Will it hold?

Gabe: Don't think so.

Jessie: Bad answer.

Gabe: Remember, shithead! Keep your arms and legs in the vehicle at all times!

Sarah: Help me! I don't want to die!

Gabe: You're not gonna die.

Gabe: SOMETHING'S wrong!

Gabe: I won't be the one, but neither will you.

Funsch: I am a Multiverse agent.

Gabe: You're a nut.

Funsch: Hey, you're the one that's seeing yourself.

Gabe: [putting a protective helmet on Rotten Ronnie] It's okay. You're doing the right thing.

Funsch: In this, you exist. In another you don't exist. In another, you're married to the same woman. In another, you're married to a different woman. In another, you're married to a man.

Gabe: Hey!

Funsch: There is a string of energy divided among every one of us. We all have it.

Gabe: So I'm next?

Funsch: You're the last.

T.J.: Gabriel.

Gabe: [looks up from pinball machine] Yeah?

T.J.: Gabriel, can't you see we're menacing someone?

Gabe: Never open with a ballad, and never end on one.

Linda Porter: Is it me?

Gabe: No dear, it's too early for back stairs and love affairs.

Gabe: You loved her then?

Cole Porter: I said the words. I meant them.

Cole Porter: You're playing with my life.

Gabe: It's my show.

Gabe: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and he will direct your path."

Andrew Eriksen: You got a Bible verse memorized for it and everything, huh?

Gabe: Here's another one you ought to hear: "It's better to put it in the belly of a whore than on the ground."

Gabe: [Gabe and Sam are locked in Sam's room arguing] I'm sorry if I can't be your Nubian Prince on my black horse ready to take you back to fucking Zamunda.

Sam White: That's not a real African country.

Gabe: Can I at least get a little credit for a solid 'Coming to America' reference? This isn't you Sam.

Sam White: No? And who am I?

Gabe: You're this girl...

Sam White: Perceptive...

Gabe: Who likes to argue with me about *every fucking thing.* And I hate it because we both know you're smarter than me. Your favorite director is Bergman. But you tell everyone it's Spike Lee. You love bebop but you've got a thing for Taylor Swift. And I know because my Mac picks up your Mac's library.

Sam White: I was so careful...

Gabe: You like to watch me when you think I'm sleeping and trace the outlines of my face. You're more Banksy than Barack. But you've been co-opted as some sort of revolutionary leader or something. But really, you're an anarchist. A shit-starter. A beautiful filmmaker. And beautiful in general.

Gabe: So, Sam, how would you feel if someone started a "Dear Black People"?

Sam White: No need. Mass media from Fox News to reality TV on VH1 makes it clear what white people think of us.

Gabe: I'm trying to be here for you!

Sam White: Can you be somewhere *else* for me?

Sarah Bloom: You know, I don't think I ever told you this but, when I lost my sister you were the most helpful person to me.

Gabe: Really? I mean, I'm glad if I was. i don't even remember what I said.

Sarah Bloom: You said, "Nothing in life will call upon us to be more courageous than facing the fact that it ends. But on the other side of heartbreak is wisdom."

Gabe: I said that?

Sarah Bloom: Yeah.

Gabe: That was good advice.

Sarah Bloom: I'm glad to see you've kept your sense of humor.

Gabe: What else am I going to do? Eventually things get tragic enough and then they circle around to comedy.

Gabe: If there's a next time, I'll do better. So fast... Try to remember how fast it goes.

Aidan Bloom: How are you feeling?

Gabe: I'm not afraid. Isn't that funny? I thought I'd be afraid.

Aidan Bloom: I think that's the bravest thing I've ever heard.

Gabe: Really?

Aidan Bloom: Yeah. I really do.

Gabe: You promise?

Aidan Bloom: I promise you.

Sarah Bloom: Well the wisdom that came up for me was that, the things left unsaid, stay with us forever. I wish nothing more than if I could tell my sister how much I loved her and that I always idolized her, but we never said those things. We just weren't like that. Then suddenly one day she's gone. And I have all these things to say, but no one to say them to.

Gabe: Both my boys know how I feel.

Sarah Bloom: Are you sure...

David: This all just feels like... something that happens to other people.

Gabe: Yeah well now, you're other people to other people.

David: I never realised your dad's name is actually Rod Stewart.

Gabe: Yeah, it's been... it's been very hard for him.

Gabe: Love is an ugly, terrible business practiced by fools. It'll trample your heart and leave you bleeding on the floor. And what does it really get you in the end? Nothing but a few incredible memories that you can't ever shake. The truth is, there's gonna be other girls out there. I mean, I hope. But I'm never gonna get another first love. That one is always gonna be her.

Gabe: Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. Love isn't about ridiculous little words. Love is about grand gestures. Love is about airplanes pulling banners over stadiums, proposals on jumbo-trons, giant words in sky writing. Love is about going that extra mile even if it hurts, letting it all hang out there. Love is about finding courage inside of you that you didn't even know was there.

Gabe: Dad, what's the deal with girls? I mean, why are they the way they are?

Adam: You're talking to the wrong man.

Gabe: Well, how come all love has to end?

Adam: Let me tell you something about me and your mom. Once upon a time, we really loved each other, but as time went by, there just got to be all these things, little things, stupid things, that were left unsaid. And all these things that were left unsaid piled up, like the clutter in our storage room. And after awhile, there was so much that was left unsaid, that we barely said anything at all.

Gabe: Well, why didn't you just say them then, dad?

Adam: I don't know, Gabe. I kind of wish I had.

Rosemary: But I thought you hate me.

Gabe: I don't. I lied.

Gabe: [thinking] I wasn't gonna be like my father. I wasn't gonna let all these things left unsaid smother me.

Gabe: Rosemary, I love you.

Rosemary: You what?

Gabe: I do. I'm sorry, but I love you more than anyone's ever loved. I love you, I love you, I love you.

Gabe: [thinking] How's that for letting it all hang out there? And hang, and hang, and hang.

Gabe: You think you might wanna love me, too?

Rosemary: I don't know what I think, Gabe, I'm only 11. I don't think I'm ready to be in love.

Gabe: I'm not ready and I'm doing it!

Rosemary: Maybe I was wrong, maybe girls don't mature faster.

Gabe: No they do, they do, you know they do. You even said so at the park. We at least mature at the same rate.

Rosemary: I don't know what mature is anymore, but I'm really happy you came. Do you want to dance, Gabe?

Gabe: Sure, what the hell.

Gabe: The truth is, you come into this world alone and leave it the exact same way.

Gabe: Never had I been so keenly aware of the ability of palm to manufacture sweat, but I was determined to hold that girl's hand for every single second.

Gabe: [watching Rosemary looking at herself in the mirror in her flower girl dress] Okay, what's going on here? What the heck is this? Oh my God. What's this feeling in the pit of my stomach? Who is this - this amazing creature before me? I looked at Rosemary and just felt so, um, confused. She's a girl. I'm supposed to despise girls, not feel nervous talking to one, not feel tongue-tied. I mean this was Rosemary Telesco, I knew her since Kindergarten!

Leslie: Maybe not everything is supposed to last forever. Certain things are like... like... skywriting. Like, like, like a really beautiful thing that lasts for a couple moments and then... You know?

Gabe: [cries] Mommy!

Leslie: I know, honey. Love sucks.

Gabe: Yeah.

Gabe: [thinking] Geez it was easier scheduling Arab-Israeli peace talks than making a date with this girl!

Gabe: It was the pain that had no name.

[talking about love]

Gabe: Somewhere a million miles away, the girl I once loved was going down her road, and I was stuck back on mine.

Gabe: As I held onto Rosemary Telesco for dear life, we both knew the truth. She was going off to camp and eventually, private school. We were on different roads, she and me. Two ships that passed in Sheep Meadow.

Gabe: But it wasn't that easy. I guess love never is.

Gabe: It's amazing how quickly time moves. Just yesterday, I thought I loved her, but now, I don't even care about her at all.

Gabe: [practicing in the mirror] Hey Rosemary. Hey there, pretty lady. How's it goin, girl? Hey, Rosemary Telesco.

Karate Sensei: So we're going to switch sparring partners to make sure everyone's in their level. That means Tim you'll be with Rosemary.

Gabe: Could this be? My woman getting ripped from my hands like this? I can see where all this leads.

Paster: Do you Rosemary Telesco take Tim Staples to be you lovely wedded husband?

Gabe: No! Rosemary!

Gabe: Where's the whole wish you can come to the wedding? Where's that Rosemary? The Rosemary i loved? Not this alien with her crazy weekend. You're new sparing partner is he coming to the wedding?

Rosemary: What Tim?

Gabe: Oh is that what you call him? Are you calling him after you call me?

Rosemary: What are you talking about?

Gabe: I'm talking about you and Tim Staples sitting in a tree K.I.S.S.I.N.G first comes love then comes marriage then comes Tim Staples in a baby carriage.

Rosemary: You sound crazy you know that?

Gabe: Why don't you have time this weekend?

Rosemary: I'm sorry Gabe i haven't even started packing.

Gabe: You know what? I hate you!

Rosemary: What?

Gabe: I hate you! Why do you even care? I hate you!

Rosemary: Well i hate you too!

Gabe: I hate you more!

Rosemary: How can you say something so mean? I hate you!

Gabe: See, life is about so much more than Rosemary. I had my family, my health, my kicking career. I really had no room for a woman in my life.

Gabe: Never had I felt so alive! I had a date with Rosemary! Was there any better age to be in any better city in the world?

Leslie: I didn't know you were having a play date, or I wouldn't have made plans. Should I stay?

Gabe: It's not a play date, mom, it's practice.

Gabe: Where's that Rosemary? The Rosemary I loved? Not this alien with her crazy weekends!

Gabe: This much I know firsthand - love hurts.

Gabe: What choice did I have but to return to my old, miserable life? Wait a minute. You were happy. Oh, please! I was miserable. I just didn't know how miserable I was.

Gabe: Look at me. I can bounce back. I don't need some girl in my life for me to happy.

Gabe: There are very few things more painful than watching the woman you love grapple with another man. Actually, I take that back. There are no things more painful.

Gabe: With that girl's arms around me... there was nothing I couldn't do.

Birdie: Oh look at that you see that? I knew your folks were going to keep them together didn't i say it?

Rosemary: Let's go practice in my room

Gabe: Okay.

Birdie: Oh come on! He's no good for you! Get back in the truck!

Gabe: ...I'm never gonna get another first love. That one is always gonna be her.

Michael Chaturantabut: Kiss her! Kiss her!

Gabe: I can't that's disgusting!

Michael Chaturantabut: Trust me. Not disgusting.

Gabe: Look at them all. Rats in their cages, their lives destroyed by love. I'm done with it. I won't be like them. The fools.

Gabe: I couldn't escape them, all the little things I left unsaid, I was drowning in them.

Gabe: See, this is just like I told you. Same thing I knew getting into this whole mess - love ends.

Gabe: Is there anything worse than dress shopping? I would rather have my toenails peeled off one by one with pliers than spend five minutes in the dress store.

Gabe: [thinking] My first date. The big spender. Häagen-Dazs all the way, baby. So, how come I have nothing to say to her. Why isn't she looking at me? Am I that hideous? Do I Smell?

Gabe: You um come here often?

Rosemary: Central Park?

Gabe: Um, yeah.

Gabe: [thinking] What kind of question is that? I hate myself.

Gabe: I was charming and suave. Everything you could hope to be on your first real date.

Gabe: Does she like like me?

Gabe: I loathed myself for feeling like I did. I mean, this is crazy. She's a girl for God's sake, it's not like she's a New York Knick or something.

Gabe: [thinking while standing with Rosemary and Ronny] Is there anything more excruciating than you and your date and your mom's date all hanging out with absolutely nothing to say?

Ronny: Don't do anything I wouldn't do, okay kiddo?

Gabe: Okay, that's more excruciating.

Gabe: This was no time for small talk. It was time to lay things on the table. To reach through the phone line and dig deep into that woman's soul.

Gabe: [after intense karate battle daydream] If only life were that simple.

Gabe: [thinking] And the next morning, something kind of amazing happened. The sun came out again.

Old Man on the Street: I had a girlfriend once upon a time, too. She trampled my heart. Left me bleeding on the floor. Run.

Gabe: What?

Old Man on the Street: Run while you still can, brother. Take my advice. Make like the wind.

Gabe: I had no idea what she was thinking she was this total mystery to me. Did I want to kiss Rosemary Telesco? Yes I guess I did. I wanted to more than anything on Earth.

Gabe: Do you want some Gatorade?

Gabe: Who was I kidding anyway? Was I really going to kiss her? I mean come on she's eleven, I'm ten well ten and three quarters actually. She's May, I'm September.

Gabe: This is my level? David Betanahu? How could this happen? She's with Ashton Kutcher over there and i'm stuck with the sweatiest ten year old in Manhattan. The kid's even got a moustache since nursery school.

Rosemary: Who's Ronny?

Gabe: My mom's got a date.

Gabe: She can't cancel her fricken cello lesson?

Rosemary: That's where my aunts getting married next week.

Gabe: Oh the boathouse.

Gabe: Who's getting married?

Rosemary: My mom's sister. It's kind of weird that she's like seven months pregnant.

Gabe: For those of you out there less experienced than me let me tell you something about girls. They're basically gross. See, this pretty much black and white from where i'm standing. Used to be back in the day maybe first or second grade popular wisdom was they gave you cooties.

Gabe: Okay Let me tell you something about Rosemary Telesco. Rosemary wasn't the prettiest girl in our class. That was Madison Shaw. And she wasn't the second prettiest either. That was Vanessa Muir. No Rosemary was third. But boy, could that girl do karate.

Rosemary: What do all the different names mean?

Gabe: Oh it's my mom's stuff and my dad's stuff.

Gabe: Mistake number one was ever taking that God for saken class.

Gabe: 3:09. She's not even coming.

Karate Sensei: Hai!

Gabe: She doesn't even want to see me. She's blowing off class. She hates me.

Karate Sensei: Your fists should be like a hammer.

Gabe: She came! She's here! She loves me!

Rosemary: Sorry I'm late.

Karate Sensei: Miss Telesco, nice of you to join us.

Gabe: Wait a minute. What was that? Was that a smile, or is she like mad at me? Why would she be mad at me? I only kissed her. Why the heck did i kiss her? What was i possibly thinking?

Gabe: Now i didn't want a girl for a sparing partner would you? Hey.

Rosemary: Hey.

Gabe: I couldn't take my eyes off her. She loves me. She loves me not. She loves me. Loves me not. She loves me. Not. Not. Loves. Not. By 3:51 I had descended fully into madness.

Gabe: Uh-oh her doorman's looking at me. Oh my God there she is. I didn't have a contingency plan if i actually saw her. Just go up to her. Go go. Say hi to her. She looked so busy. I- I'll talk to her another day. Coward. You fool. How could you be so weak? I- I'm not weak. I'm only human. What was i going to say? I was in the neighborhood? That's pathetic. No, you're weak and you're pathetic and you're going to be alone your entire life. Who cares? I'd rather be alone than endure this misery and torment.

Gabe: So... How was that class for you? Was it a good one?

Rosemary: Um i'm having a little trouble with this Mochizuki maneuver.

Gabe: Yeah yeah me me too, I couldn't resist. i needed more pain. So uh how's that Tim guy at the Mochizuki?

Rosemary: He's a lot better then me but he wants us to practice together.

Gabe: Oh really? Wow that's terrific. You know hey when can we get together?

Rosemary: Well i've got cello this afternoon so not today.

Gabe: Cello? But i thought cello was on Saturdays.

Rosemary: Tuesday and Saturday.

Gabe: She can't cancel her frickin cello lesson? Doesn't she know our days are numbered before that bus to camp?

Karate Sensei: Who wants to take their yellow belt exam?

Gabe: Me!

Karate Sensei: Ah Gabe. The moment of reckoning it upon us.

Gabe: Okay maybe i was a little overeager but it was my only way back to her.

Michael Chaturantabut: Be the board Gabe. Be the board.

Gabe: At that moment I was the board.

Gabe: I don't remember much after that.

Rosemary: Gabe...

Gabe: They um they said i blacked out.

Gabe: Change equals death!

Judy: What kind of bullshit? That's just a bullshit line! Maybe you fool your twenty-year-old students into thinking that's some kind of a, an insight or something, but it means nothing! Change is what life is made of! Change - if you don't change, you don't grow, you just shrivel up!

Gabe: Boy, I'd hate to be your boyfriend! He must go through hell.

Rain: Well, I'm worth it.

Rain: I just think that maybe I... I could've been threatened by certain things in the book.

Gabe: Like what, you know...?

Rain: Um, some of the attitudes towards women and your ideas on life.

Gabe: You told me you love the book.

Rain: I do. I do love it, yeah.

Gabe: What were your criticisms?

Rain: Um, nothing.

Gabe: No, tell me. Tell me what your criticisms were.

Rain: I was a little disappointed, I guess, with, ah, with some of your attitudes.

Gabe: Like what? What attitudes?

[Rain sighs]

Gabe: With what?

Rain: The way your people just casually have affairs like that, that's...

Gabe: Well, the book doesn't condone affairs. You know, I'm exaggerating for comic purposes.

Rain: Yeah, I mean but are our choices really between chronic dissatisfaction and suburban drudgery?

Gabe: No, but, you know, that's how I... I'm deliberately distorting it, you know, 'cause I'm trying to show how hard it is to be married and...

Rain: Well, you have to be careful not to trivialize with things like that.

Gabe: Well, Jesus, I... I hope I haven't.

Rain: Well, the way your... your lead character views women, it's so retrograde. It's so shallow, you know?

Gabe: What are you talking... You told me you... you know, that... you told me it was a great book.

Rain: Yeah, it's wonderful. And I never said great. I said it's brilliant, and it's alive, and... You know, that's not what I'm... We're not arguing about whether it's brilliant or not. I'm, you know... Triumph of the Will was a great movie, but you despise the ideas behind it.

Gabe: What... what are you saying, now? You despise my ideas?

Rain: No, I don't despise them. All right, that... that example was wrong.

[pause]

Rain: OK, isn't it beneath you as a mature thinker, I mean, to allow your lead character to waste so much of this emotional energy obsessing over this psychotic relationship with a woman that you fantasize as powerfully sexual and inspired when, in fact, she was pitifully sick?

Gabe: Look, let's stop this right now because I don't need a lecture on maturity or writing from a 20-year-old twit.

[first lines]

TV Scientist: [on TV] Einstein was then celebrating, uh, the seventieth birthday anniversary and there was a colloquium given for him. And he said, "God doesn't play dice with the universe".

Gabe: No. He just plays hide-and-seek.

Gabe: It told him something. How millions of sperm... competed for a single egg, not the other way around. Men would make love with any number of women... even total strangers, while females were selective. They were catering to the demands of one small egg. While males had millions of frantic sperms screaming.: "Let us out, let us out!"

Gabe: What happened after the honeymoon? Did desire grow or did familiarity make partners want other lovers? Was the notion of ever-deepening romance a myth along with simultaneous orgasm? The only time Rifkin and his wife experienced one was when they were granted their divorce. Maybe in the end, the idea was not to expect too much out of life.

Gabe: [to Jack] It's like your I.Q. is suddenly in remission.

Gabe: [Relating what Rain wrote] Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television.

Rain: I spent five days searching for the perfect word to describe the husband and that's when I came up with "apucious".

Gabe: Apucious. I looked it up in the dictionary but I couldn't find it.

Rain: Yeah, I know. I made it up.

Gabe: Oh, really.

Rain: Yeah. I thought it described him perfectly.

Reece: You can't keep us here, you gotta let us go.

Gabe: We're not keeping you here, you're just staying.

Gabe: I guess we found out his weakness: bullets.

Gabe: The island. The middle of nowhere. They're all professionals. What's the point?

Harris: The point is that they're isolated, alone, and forgotten. That's what it's like to be in the mind of a sociopath.

Gabe: Sir, I thought they didn't let foreign nationals into the FBI?

Harris: Don't worry. On the inside he's 100% American. Right, Rafe?

Rafe: As American as the death penalty.

Harris: That's my boy.

Gabe: Iny, miny, mino, mo. Who's the next motherfucker to go?

[last lines]

Sara Moore: Do you think they'll let me make profiler?

Gabe: That depends. One last question: When's the situation secure, agent?

Sara Moore: On the drive home.

Gabe: Yeah.

Sara Moore: On the drive home.

Gabe: [throws down watch] Time's up, asshole.

Gabe: What is the trap? Where is the trap?

Sara Moore: I don't know!

Gabe: What is the trap? Where is the trap?

Gabe: [referring to the NAZI paraphernalia that adores Hando's room] Why do you have all this stuff?

Hando: Because I don't want to be a white cooly in my own country. 'Cause it's not our country anymore. 'Cause rich people, and powerful people brought in boat loads of human trash. Cheap labour, gooks mainly, and there's gonna be more. I want people to know I'm proud of my white history and white blood. One day it might be all I have. I don't want to go the same way as the fuckin' Abo. See that map?

[map on the wall has areas coloured in red]

Hando: That's all the gook properties on Barkley Street. A few years ago it was a white area.

[picks up a book]

Hando: Mein Kampf. Do you know it?

Gabe: It's about war isn't it?

Hando: This book was written by Adolf Hitler. It turned into a joke by other people who don't want to know Hitler's view of the world. It's simply about, the ongoing struggle of the white race and the enemies it faces. You don't know who the enemy is, you can't win the war. Listen. "All the noble cultures of the past declined, because the purity and vigour of the originally created race faded out. They were compromised by the seed of lesser races that were attracted to the works of the superior men. The undeniable reason for their decline was then due to a kind of racial blood poisoning. Racial blood must be perserved in its purity at all costs."

Gabe: That's a picture of my mum. Isn't she beautiful? Everyone says I look like her. I'm not saying I'm good looking, I'm not saying that, but we do look alike. She's dead now. Was a car accident. She had her head chopped off. I think it's good to be able to talk about these things without cracking up, you know. Besides I know she's still with me somehow. I think that when I have kids, she will be one of them, sort of reincarnated.

Gabe: What's the matter with you?

Hando: You! You dumb slut!

[last lines]

Gabe: Stay.

Gabe: Do you still dream in color?

Oliver Allen: Yeah... starting to fade though.

Gabe: So everything else is black and white?

Oliver Allen: I wish.

Zach: I don't think the whole student thing's going to happen right now.

Gabe: Why, 'cause you didn't get into that art institute place? Go somewhere else.

Zach: Art institute place... Whatever, it's alright... Scholarship was my ticket.

Gabe: Well you are the king of scholarships.

Zach: Got me into your richy-rich private school.

Gabe: On the short bus every day.

Zach: [laughing] Rich fuck.

Gabe: [laughing] Fuck you, ghetto trash.

Gabe: So...

Zach: So?

Gabe: Why didn't you tell me?

Zach: Tell you what?

Gabe: I don't care - at all.

Zach: I don't know what you're talking about.

Gabe: Okay. Have you... have you always known?

Zach: Seriously, dude.

Gabe: Okay. The fact that it's my brother is totally weird.

Zach: I know.

Gabe: No, like, really really fucking weird.

Zach: Alright, I got it. I'm sorry.

Gabe: Don't be sorry.

Zach: Don't tell anyone, okay?

Gabe: Okay. So are you going with other guys?

Zach: No!

Gabe: I heard they give better head. They give better head, don't they?

Zach: Dude, stop!

Gabe: They swallow?

Zach: Gabe!

[first lines]

Gabe: Time's up.

Young Erol: Wait!

Marika: Is the truck loaded?

Gabe: Yes, ma'am. Come on. I have a plane to catch.

Marika: Well, if you don't leave now, you're going to miss your flight, and then he's going to be late for school. Come on, come on. Games up.

Gabe: Hey yo, pisswad, you're in my way.

Casey: I'm sorry. I was breathing here.

Gabe: Yeah, that's the problem, you're occupying my air, anal probe.

Denise: Neither of you are getting me alone. Neither!

Aaron: Ah! We share, right? None of us have to be greedy.

Gabe: Yeah, come on. We'll be good.

Aaron: Oh, you will? Where's the fun in that?

Gabe: Oh, you bad little bitch.