A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Keanu Reeves: Bob Arctor

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Quotes 

• Fred : [voiceover]  What does a scanner see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does it see into me? Into us? Clearly or darkly? I hope it sees clearly because I can't any longer see into myself. I see only murk. I hope for everyone's sake the scanners do better, because if the scanner sees only darkly the way I do, then I'm cursed and cursed again.

• Bob Arctor : The pain, so unexpected and undeserved had for some reason cleared away the cobwebs. I realized I didn't hate the cabinet door, I hated my life... My house, my family, my backyard, my power mower. Nothing would ever change; nothing new could ever be expected. It had to end, and it did. now in the dark world where I dwell, ugly things, and surprising things, and sometimes little wondrous things, spill out in me constantly, and I can count on nothing.

• [last lines] 

  Fred : I saw death rising from the earth, from the ground itself, in one blue field.

  [picks up a blue flower] 

  Fred : A present for my friends... at Thanksgiving.

• Fred : D... Substance D. "D" is dumbness, and despair, desertion-desertion of you from your friends, your friends from you, everyone from everyone. Isolation and loneliness... and hating and suspecting each other, "D" is finally death. Slow death from the head down. Well... that's it.

• Bob Arctor : That fucking Barris, you know how he works. He doesn't kill anybody, but he hangs around until the situation arises where they die. Then he just sits there, he sort of sets them up in the first place while he stays out of it.

• Fred : What does a scanner see? Into the head? Into the heart? Does it see into me? Clearly? Or darkly?

• Fred : [voiceover]  Crazy job they gave me. But if I wasn't doing it, someone else would be. And they might get it wrong. They might set Arctor up, plant drugs on him and collect a reward. Better it be me, despite the disadvantages. Just protecting everyone from Barris is justification in itself. What the hell am I talking about? I must be nuts. I know Bob Arctor. He's a good person. He's up to nothing. At least nothing too bad. In fact, he works for the Orange County Sheriff's office covertly, which is probably why Barris is after him. But that wouldn't explain why the Orange County Sheriff's office is after him. Something big is definitely going down in this house. This rundown, rubble-filled house with its weed patch yard and cat box that never gets emptied. What a waste of a truly good house. So much could be done with it. A family and children could live here. It was designed for that. Such a waste. They ought to confiscate it and put it to better use. I'm supposed to act like they aren't here. Assuming there's a "they" at all. It may just be my imagination. Whatever it is that's watching, it's not human, unlike little dark eyed Donna. It doesn't ever blink. What does a scanner see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does it see into me, into us? Clearly or darkly? I hope it sees clearly, because I can't any longer see into myself. I see only murk. I hope for everyone's sake the scanners do better. Because if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I do, then I'm cursed and cursed again. I'll only wind up dead this way, knowing very little, and getting that little fragment wrong too.

• Freck : [twitching horribly]  Okay, if you guys are gonna kill eac hother, I'm s-splitting! It's getting very fucked up over here!

  Fred : Freck, the most dangerous kind of person is the one who's afraid of his own shadow.

  Freck : What is that supposed to mean?

  Barris : It means, Freckles, that if you take too much of that stuff, not only are you going to start seeing and feeling buggy bugs all over yourself but you're also gonna start talking like...

  [makes quacking sounds] 

  Barris : And no one can understand you.

  Fred : What did you say, Barris? I didn't understand you.

  [Barris softly quacks to Fred and then louder at Freck] 

  Freck : You guys are fucked up!

  Barris : [imitating Frecks in a raspy twitching voice]  Oh no. It is you ga ga goo that are fuck upted up!

  [Freck leaves and Luckman throws a rock to the ground] 

  Luckman : Go Freck yourself!

  Barris : [in a high pitched voice]  "Don't take the car, you'll kill yourselves! Ye gogh gogh gogh gogh!"

• Fred : Hey Donna, do you like cats?

  Donna : Drippy little things, moving along, about a foot above the ground.

  Fred : Above? You mean ON the ground?

  Donna : Just dripping, behind furniture. Little spring flowers with blue in them might come up first.

  Fred : Yeah...

  Donna : What if someone stomps on them and they're all gone?

  Fred : It's like you know me. You can read me.

• Medical Deputy #1 : You know, Fred, if you keep your sense of humor like you do, you just might make it.

  Fred : Make it? Make what? The team? The chick? Make good? Make do? Make out? Make sense? Make money? Make time? Define your terms. The Latin for 'make' is facere, which always reminds me of fuckere, which is Latin for 'to fuck', and I have been getting jack shit in that department as of late.

• Luckman : This proves you got somebody out to get you real bad Bob. I just hope that the house is still there when you get back.

  Fred : Yeah I didn't think of that.

  Barris : I wouldn't worry about it too much.

  Luckman : You wouldn't! Christ! They may have broken in and ripped off all we got. All Bob's got anyhow. What if they stomp the animals?

  Barris : Don't worry about it. I left a little surprise for 'em.

  Fred : What?

  Barris : Yes. Anyone entering the house while we were gone today will receive a little surprise. A little something I perfected earlier this morning.

  Fred : What kind of surprise? It's my house Jim, you should ask me before you start wiring up my house.

  Barris : Why would you get so uptight about protecting your house from intruders? Why would you care?

  Fred : I'm just saying it's my house, that's all. You can't start going around booby trapping my house.

  Barris : Okay, okay! I mean jeez. Or as the Germans would say "leise" which translates to "be cool". Just be cool.

• Fred : Whatever it is that's watching... it isn't human.

• Medical Deputy #2 : Damage has taken place to the normally dominant left hemisphere, and the right hemisphere is attempting to compensate.

  Fred : The two hemisphere in my brain... are competing?

  Medical Deputy #2 , Medical Deputy #1 : [in unison]  Yes.

• Fred : I'm not going to tell you first what I do as undercover officer engaged in tracking down dealers and the source of their illegal drugs in the streets of our cities ad corridors of our schools here in Orange County. I'm going to tell you what I'm afraid of.

• Fred : I'd say Arctor is doomed if he's up to something. And I have a hunch from what you're saying that he is.

• Barris : If I'd known it was harmless...

  Luckman , Fred , Barris : [together]  I would have killed it myself!

• Fred : So there is no sheep here, is there?

  [pause] 

  Fred : Was I close?

• Fred : I'm not going to tell you first what I do as undercover officer engaged in tracking down dealers and the source of their illegal drugs in the streets of our cities and the corridors of our schools here in Orange County. I'm going to tell you what I'm afraid of.