The Fly (1986)

Geena Davis: Veronica Quaife

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Quotes 

• Seth Brundle : You have to leave now, and never come back here. Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects... don't have politics. They're very... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect. I'd like to become the first... insect politician. Y'see, I'd like to, but... I'm afraid, uh...

  Ronnie : I don't know what you're trying to say.

  Seth Brundle : I'm saying... I'm saying I - I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake.

  Ronnie : No. no, Seth...

  Seth Brundle : I'm saying... I'll hurt you if you stay.

• Tawny : [after Seth says it's Tawny's turn to teleport]  I'm afraid.

  Seth Brundle : Don't be afraid.

  Ronnie : No. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

• Ronnie : Don't you get it? I'm finally onto something that's big. Huge.

  Stathis Borans : Yeah? What? His cock?

  Ronnie : Crude, Stathis. Very crude.

• Seth Brundle : What's there to take? The disease has just revealed its purpose. We don't have to worry about contagion anymore... I know what the disease wants.

  Ronnie : What does the disease want?

  Seth Brundle : It wants to... turn me into something else. That's not too terrible is it? Most people would give anything to be turned into something else.

  Ronnie : Turned into what?

  Seth Brundle : Whaddaya think? A fly. Am I becoming a hundred-and-eighty-five-pound fly? No, I'm becoming something that never existed before. I'm becoming... Brundlefly. Don't you think that's worth a Nobel Prize or two?

• Seth Brundle : I was not pure. The teleporter insists on inner pure. I was not pure.

  Ronnie : I don't know what you mean.

  Seth Brundle : A fly... got into the... transmitter pod with me that first time, when I was alone. The computer... got confused - there weren't supposed to be two separate genetic patterns - and it decided to... uhh... splice us together. It mated us, me and the fly. We hadn't even been properly introduced.

• Seth Brundle : I've come here to say one magic word to you.

  Ronnie : Yeah?

  Seth Brundle : Cheeseburger.

• Veronica Quaife : I'm pregnant.

  Stathis Borans : [dismissive]  Oh, no.

  [reality kicking in] 

  Stathis Borans : Oh, no.

  Veronica Quaife : I'm pregnant with Seth's baby.

• Ronnie : If you *SAW* him, Stathis, if you saw how scared and angry and desperate he is...

  Stathis Borans : I'm sure Typhoid Mary was a very nice person too when you saw her socially.

• Veronica Quaife : You're changing Seth. Everything about you is changing. You look bad. You smell bad.

  Seth Brundle : I've never been much of a bather.

  Veronica Quaife : Those... weird hairs that were growing out of your back. I took them to a lab. I had them analyzed.

  Seth Brundle : The hairs? The hairs? Oh... Yeah, that's a strange thing to do.

  Veronica Quaife : Not as strange as the results. The guy at the lab had trouble identifying them. He finally came to the conclusion, that they were definitely not human.

  Seth Brundle : Oh... Very good.

  Veronica Quaife : Not human, Seth. In fact... very insect-like hairs.

• Ronnie : Do you ever change your clothes?

  Seth Brundle : What?

  Seth Brundle : Your clothes. You're always wearing the same clothes.

  Seth Brundle : No, these are clean. I change my clothes every day.

  Ronnie : [Veronica looks into his closet and finds five sets of the same suits, ties, shoes and pants]  Five sets of exactly the same clothes?

  Seth Brundle : Learned it from Einstein. This way I don't have to expand my thought on what I have to wear next, I just grab the next set on the rack.

• Veronica Quaife : [to Seth]  Something went wrong, Seth. When you went through, something went wrong.

• Veronica Quaife : [to Seth after her stocking disintegrates in the telepod]  Great. The world's largest microwave oven. I'm glad I didn't give you my Rolex, if I had a Rolex.

• Seth Brundle : I farm bits and pieces out to the guys who are much more brilliant than I am. I say, "build me a laser", this. "Design me a molecular analyzer", that. They do, and I just stick 'em together. But, none of them know what the project really is. So...

  Veronica Quaife : Wow! And, uh, the money? Bartok Science Industries Financed this?

  Seth Brundle : Hmm-mmm... But they leave me alone, 'cause I'm not expensive. And they know they'll end up owning it, whatever it is.

• [about Veronica's request for an abortion] 

  Dr. Cheevers : Listen, I don't mean to interfere, but I detect a certain... uncertainty here. You know, there are tests we can do to determine whether or not...

  Veronica Quaife : [interrupting]  I don't want tests. Tests can't guarantee anything. The baby could start off normal and then become...

  [she pauses] 

  Veronica Quaife : I want an abortion.

  [voice cracking] 

  Veronica Quaife : I'll do it myself if I have to.

• Ronnie : [after an unsuccessful test of the telepods]  We've gotta do this, Seth. Talk to the tape. Get in the habbit. The world will want to know what you're thinking.

  Seth Brundle : "Fuck!" is what I'm thinking.

  Ronnie : Good... The world will want to know that... What else? Why didn't it work?

  Seth Brundle : [Disappointed]  I think it turned the baboon inside-out.

  Ronnie : Why?

  Seth Brundle : [sigh]  It can't cope with the flesh. It only seems to work on inanimate objects; nothing that's living.

  Ronnie : Why?

  Seth Brundle : Computers are dumb. They only know what you tell them... I must not know enough about the flesh myself. I'm gonna have to learn.

  [Long pause] 

  Seth Brundle : I don't wanna talk now.

  [Ronnie turns off the camera and watches Seth sympathetically as he walks away with his head held low in disappointment] 

• Seth Brundle : [Seth and Ronnie try an experiment late at night. Seth takes a steak and cuts it in half. He cooks one half, and the other half is teleported then cooked. He hands one plate to Ronnie and cuts her a piece]  Okay. Eat this, and I need an objective opinion.

  Seth Brundle : [Ronnie chews it and looks at Seth confused as to what he is doing]  Yeah?

  Ronnie : Well, it could use some finesse, but um... it tastes like a steak.

  Seth Brundle : Mmm-hmm.

  [Cuts some steak] 

  Seth Brundle : Now, I want you to try this... teleported half.

  Ronnie : Oh, are you serious? A monkey just came apart in there.

  Seth Brundle : Baboon... Eat.

  Ronnie : [Ronnie eats it]  Oh... Oh, oh, tastes funny.

  [Spits it in a napkin] 

  Seth Brundle : Funny? How?

  Ronnie : It tastes um... synthetic.

  Seth Brundle : [Seth smiles and takes the napkin]  Mmm-hmm.

  Ronnie : [smiles with intrigue]  So, what have we proved?

  Seth Brundle : The computer is giving us its interpretation... of a steak. It's, uh translating it for us; it's rethinking it, rather than *reproducing* it, and something is getting lost in the translation.

  Ronnie : Me... I'm lost.

  Seth Brundle : The flesh. It should make the computer, uh crazy. Like those old ladies pinching babies. But it doesn't; not yet because I haven't taught the computer to be made crazy by the...

  [smiles at Ronnie] 

  Seth Brundle : flesh. The poetry of the steak. So, I'm gonna start teaching it now.

• Seth Brundle : I think you're making a mistake. I think you really want to talk to me.

  Ronnie : Sorry, I have three other interviews to do before this party's over.

  Seth Brundle : Yeah, but they're not working on something that'll change the world as we know it.

  Ronnie : They say they are.

  Seth Brundle : Yeah, but they're lying. I'm not.

• Veronica Quaife : [to Seth after he fills his coffee with sugar]  Do you normally take coffee with your sugar?

• Dr. Cheevers : OK, what's the story?

  Stathis Borans : She's pregnant and she wants an abortion.

  Dr. Cheevers : In the middle of the night?

  Stathis Borans : We have good reason to think that... this... child will be deformed.

  Dr. Cheevers : Yeah, but in the middle of the night...

  Stathis Borans : Look, Brent, please.

  Dr. Cheevers : Is it your child?

  Stathis Borans : No. It's the... child of a man who is deformed.

  Dr. Cheevers : Look, I don't mean to interfere, but I detect a certain uncertainty here. You know, there are tests we can do that can determine whether or not...

  Veronica Quaife : I don't want tests. Tests can't guarantee anything. The baby could start off normal and then become...

  Veronica Quaife : [determinedly]  I want an abortion. I'll do it myself if I have to.

• Seth Brundle : It's not ready yet.

  Veronica Quaife : It seems to work okay...

  Seth Brundle : No, something important's missing.

  Veronica Quaife : Yeah?

  Seth Brundle : Yeah.

  Veronica Quaife : Which is?

  Seth Brundle : I can only teleport inanimate objects.

  Veronica Quaife : Well, what happens when you try to teleport living things?

  Seth Brundle : Not while we're eating.

  Veronica Quaife : [pointing on her cheeseburger]  It can't be worse than this.

• [last lines] 

  Veronica Quaife : No, I can't. No, I can't.

• Ronnie : [Ronnie is driving to Seth's lab quickly in her car. Seth is on the passenger side, breathing heavily and appears to be ill]  Are you sick?

  Seth Brundle : [sighs]  Huh? Oh... sure.

  Ronnie : You're not a very accomplished drunk.

  Seth Brundle : No, no I'm always like this it's um... motion sickness. When I was a kid, I uh... puked on my tricycle.

  [Ronnie goes over a speed bump. The car bounces] 

  Seth Brundle : [smiles weakly]  I hate vehicles.

• Ronnie : [to Stathis]  You're a petty schmuck!

• Veronica Quaife : Oh are you serious? A monkey just came apart in there.

  Seth Brundle : Baboon. Eat.