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About Schmidt (2002)
While serving chicken noodle soup, aging hippie Roberta Hertzel (Kathy Bates), the mother of fiancee husband Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney), told widower and retired insurance executive Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson), the father of the bride-to-be Jeannie Schmidt (Hope Davis), about the key to successful marriages - sex!:
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About Schmidt (2002)
The wedding reception speech, a conciliatory self-healing and consoling about-face reflection, by the father of the bride - 66 year-old Warren Schmidt (Oscar-nominated Jack Nicholson), a recently-retired Omaha, Nebraska insurance actuary; he was asked to give a few words following the wedding of his only daughter Jeannine (Hope Davis) to a "nincompoop" waterbed salesman named Randall (Dermot Mulroney):
Then after a very long pause, Warren continued - seemingly ready to cathartically release his disdain, disgust and anger, and lash out at his hated new in-laws, but instead, he decided to swallow his pride:
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Adaptation. (2002)
The opening voice-over monologue by self-loathing screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage), heard over the credits - presented as small white typewriter text at the bottom of a black screen:
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Adaptation. (2002)
The answer given to struggling screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) during a 3-day NYC writing seminar given by lecturer Robert McKee (Brian Cox), when Charlie asked about how to "write a story where nothing much happens...more a reflection of the real world":
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Adaptation. (2002)
In the last lines of the film, long-suffering scriptwriter Charlie Kaufman finally realized how to finish his script for The Orchid Thief, after honestly expressing his love for pretty ex-dating partner Amelia Kavan (Cara Seymour) and for once being filled with hope - with the upbeat playing of The Turtles' song "Happy Together." The film concluded with a sped-up time lapse photograph of flowers and an LA street over a period of several days:
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Gangs of New York (2002)
The chilling scene in which Bill "The Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis) showed young Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) how to knife-fight, using a butchered pig as a proxy for a man, before stabbing the pig repeatedly in demonstration:
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Gangs of New York (2002)
WASP gang leader Bill "The Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis) delivered a wizened, weary speech at the foot of Amsterdam Vallon's (Leonardo DiCaprio) bed after he'd saved him from an assassination attempt, not knowing Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) was Amsterdam's immigrant father:
He kissed his own hand, and placed it on Amsterdam's forehead as a blessing.
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Gangs of New York (2002)
In the film's closing monologue, Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) eulogized the dead and fallen of New York after major riots in 1863, narrating that New York would be rebuilt, but that they wouldn't be remembered:
It was followed by the astonishing "time passage" sequence which showed the development of Lower Manhattan from 1863 through to pre-9/11 while U2's Hands That Built America played. |
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The Hours (2002)
In the concluding scene after learning of her grown AIDS-stricken son's suicide, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) recalled to New Yorker Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) how in the 1950s, she was a troubled Los Angeles housewife who made a choice to escape from an unhappy marriage. Thinking that she would at first commit suicide, she then made a conscious decision (she had "no choice") to abandon her family after her second child (a daughter) was born, in order to maintain her sanity:
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The Laramie Project (2002)
In the trial courtroom, father Dennis Shepard (Terry Kinney) read a tribute to his dead son Matthew Shepard, who in 1998 was brutally kidnapped, beaten and tied to a fence post in Laramie, Wyoming, and left to die. He waived the death penalty for the perpetrators, claiming it was "the time to begin the healing process":
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The Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Smeagol (aka Gollum) (Andy Serkis) - originally a Hobbit, was a withered and piteous creature living in the caves beneath the Misty Mountains, who was driven mad and twisted by his loss of the One Ring (his 'precious') decades earlier in Middle-Earth. He found the Ring in Frodo Baggins's (Elijah Wood) possession and became his guide to return the ring to Mordor (to be placed in the fires of Mount Doom where it was forged). In a nighttime scene while the two Hobbits Frodo (with the ring in his possession) and Sam (Sean Astin) were asleep, Gollum/Smeagol crouched nearby and talked to his original, sweet alter-ego Smeagol, who eventually banished his evil half - Gollum - from his personality:
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The Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
On a quest to destroy the One Ring at Mordor with hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) who was ready to give up, his loyal companion Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) reflected on how their story might have a happy ending, even though they had already faced so much adversity. He insisted that they must continue and hold onto what they were fighting for:
Frodo asked: "What are we holdin' onto, Sam?" to which Sam replied:
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Minority Report (2002)
Precog Agatha (Samantha Morton) gave a heartbreaking and beautiful description of the possible life for Chief John Anderton's (Tom Cruise) son named Sean, while she smiled and cried at the same time:
Anderton responded to the touching vision, sobbing: "I want him back so bad." Agatha replied with reference to her deceased mother Anne Lively (Jessica Harper), who had sold Agatha as a young girl to Pre-Crime in order to pay for her drug-addiction, and then had a change of heart and "wanted her little girl back." [Later, it was revealed that Anne had been murdered (by drowning) by the founder of the Pre-Crime unit Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow) who refused to allow Agatha's release because it would destroy Pre-Crime.]:
Before answering, she had another warning - the imminent assault by Pre-Crime cops: "I'm sorry, John, but you're gonna have to run again...RUN!" |
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One Hour Photo (2002)
As the film opened, lonely, pride-filled, dedicated and creepily-dangerous psychopath Seymour "Sy" Parrish (Robin Williams) was interrogated in a white walled room, after pictures ("evidence") were found in his possession. As Yorkin family photos at young son Jake's (Dylan Smith) birthday party were being taken by his parents Will (Michael Vartan) and Nina (Connie Nielsen), he delivered a dead-pan, voice-over description of his fantasy views on picture-taking of idyllic family occasions:
During his typical workday - in voice-over - he also described the importance of his 20 year-plus job at a Savmart photo finishing mini-lab:
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The Rules of Attraction (2002)
In one of the lengthiest, and most rapid-fire monologues ever recorded, Victor (Kip Pardue), a drama major at Camden College (fictional) on the East Coast (New Hampshire), and the shallow boyfriend of Lauren Hynde (Shannyn Sossamon), hurriedly described his summer back-packing European vacation (in voice-over) - a complete drug and sex-fest:
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25th Hour (2002)
Brooklyn drug dealer Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) gave a profanity-rich bathroom mirror monologue - a long tirade and rant against everybody and everything - in front of a mirror with "F--k You!" written on it. It was delivered during his last day of freedom before a 7-year prison term for pushing heroin:
After pausing, he included himself as the most major f--k-up of all:
He attempted to rub away the "F--K YOU" written on the mirror.
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We Were Soldiers (2002)
Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) vowed to his 7th Cavalry Regiment in a speech delivered in an outdoor high school football stadium. Just before being shipped out to Vietnam for combat in 1965, Moore promised that he would proudly stand by his men and bring everyone home, one way or the other:
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Film Title/Year and Description of Film Speech/Monologue |
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Down With Love (2003)
In this long, single-shot monologue, early 1960s female empowerment book author (Down with Love) Barbara Novak (Renee Zellweger) gave a long convoluted explanation to lothario playboy Catcher Block (Ewan McGregor), a star reporter for Know, a men's lifestyle magazine, about her long quest to grab his attention and succeed with her own agenda. Meanwhile, Block had created a false alias as NASA astronaut Major Zip Martin in order to expose her fraudulent hypocrisy and humiliate her - and to seduce her. In her monologue, after Martin revealed that he was Catcher Block and not Zip Martin, she one-upped him. She revealed that she was not Barbara Novak, but Nancy Brown, one of Catcher's former secretaries. While she had worked in the offices of Know for almost a month, she admitted that she had fallen in love with him. She refused a date with him when asked out, because she didn't want to be added to his long list of conquests. She then posed as Barbara Novak to gain his respect and prove to him that he had met his match:
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Finding Nemo (2003)
Forgetful blue surgeon-fish Dory (voice of Ellen DeGeneres) begged not to be left by despairing clownfish Marlin (voice of Albert Brooks) from the Great Barrier reef, who was giving up the search for his abducted son Nemo (voice of Alexander Gould) in Sydney, Australia. Marlin feared that they were too late in rescuing Nemo, and he was returning home:
Marlin sorrowfully replied: "I'm sorry, Dory, but I
do." |
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Gigli (2003)
Ricki (Jennifer Lopez) - a lesbian-leaning ("clam-licker") hitwoman, compared the relative merits and attractiveness of the male and female sex organs during a three-minute debate-argument with dim-witted chauvinistic mobster Larry Gigli (Ben Affleck), while she performed yoga in blue spandex shorts. She offered a monologue of her description of the real power in the world (her vagina) when she told him the penis was overvalued:
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Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
One of the elite assassins in Bill's (David Carradine) Deadly Vipers Assassination Squad (DVAS), O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), assumed power as the head of the bosses in Tokyo's underworld, a personal army called the Crazy 88. After being insulted by crime council member Boss Tanaka (Jun Kunimura) about her mixed Japanese-Chinese American nationality (calling her a "half-breed bitch" and a "perversion"), she severed the man's head with one swift sword swipe. Then she addressed the remaining council members:
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Love Actually (2003, UK)
The British Prime Minister (Hugh Grant), in a voice-over credits prologue, spoke about how "love is everywhere," with views of the arrivals terminal at London's Heathrow Airport where people were greeting each other, hugging and kissing:
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The Matrix Reloaded
(2003)
Nebuchadnezzar hovercraft Commander Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) believed in the power of messianic hero Neo (Keanu Reeves) and the Oracle rather than a military solution. He delivered a rousing, foreboding speech to the inhabitants of Zion, the last free city of mankind located underground, that was imminently threatened by Sentinel attack. Morpheus addressed the persistence of rumors and threats at the temple gathering:
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Monster (2003)
After the film's opening title screen "Based On A True Story," female serial killer Aileen Wuornos (Charlize Theron) spoke in voice-over about her dreams of being a "big star" ever since she was a young girl. The victim of sexual abuse as a child, she turned to prostitution at the age of 13:
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Mystic River (2003)
In a moving scene set on his Boston-area porch, ex-con Jimmy Markum (Sean Penn) spoke to blue-collar worker friend Dave (Tim Robbins) about how he couldn't cry over the death of his murdered 19 year-old daughter Katie (Emmy Rossum):
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Pirates of
the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
(2003)
Cursed Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) gave a vivid explanation of his acquisition of the Aztec gold coins/treasure to his captive Elizabeth Swann/"Turner" (Keira Knightley) on his pirate ship the Black Pearl:
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Pirates of
the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
(2003)
After stabbing Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) unsuccessfully in the heart and trying to escape from his ship, prisoner Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) was seized and forced to look at the skeletal forms of the Captain's crew of 'undead' pirates in the moonlight:
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The Alamo (2004)
David (Davy) Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton) presented a demythologizing description of his 1813 participation in the Creek Indian War (the Battle of Tallushatchee, or the Red Stick War) with Tennessee militia in Alabama, when burned Indian flesh was combined with potatoes. He reasoned why he was passing on the taters:
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Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
(2004)
San Diego KVWN's over-sexed, narcissistic, lead field TV news reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) introduced himself as part of the news team:
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Before Sunset (2004)
33 year-old successful book author Jesse Wallace (Ethan Hawke) made a 5:30 pm Shakespeare & Company in-store Parisian appearance (his final stop) for a reading, book signing, and Q&A session. His just-published book This Time, was a fictionalized account of his night nine years earlier with French girl Celine (Julie Delpy) from the previous film Before Sunrise (1995). A journalist asked him: "Do you consider the book to be autobiographical?", and he evasively answered the question:
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Before Sunset (2004)
During a car ride, Celine (Julie Delpy) explained to Jesse (Ethan Hawke) how miserable her love life had become:
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Downfall (2004, Germ.) (aka Der Untergang)
Nazi Germany's Fuehrer Adolf Hitler's (Bruno Ganz) sputtering, psychotic tirade at his military officers during the final days in his bunker in 1945 at the conclusion of WWII. He was unable to believe his forces were depleted and didn't attack as he had ordered:
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Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Although innocent, Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), charged as a murderer, had been captured (and was held in the topmost cell of the Dark Tower) and the Dementors were preparing to "suck out his soul." Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) suggested that young student Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) use her Time-Turning necklace device (turned three times) to spare "more than one innocent life" - she and Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) would retrace their steps by going back three hours in time to repeat the events of the night and positively alter them:
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The Incredibles (2004)
Embittered enemy Syndrome's (voice of Jason Lee) long-winded rant about his egomaniacal plans to super-hero Mr. Incredible (voice of Craig T. Nelson) (who became trapped with a zero-point energy ray) - when Syndrome suddenly realized that he was delivering a monologue:
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Kill Bill, Vol. 2
(2004)
There was a final confrontation-showdown between revenge-seeking assassinatrix Bride (Uma Thurman), aka Beatrix Kiddo, and Bill (David Carradine) - her former boss/lover and father of her 4 year-old daughter B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine). He shot her in the leg with truth serum, and then unhurriedly mused about comparisons between Superman and Spider-Man. He expressed his admiration for her as one of his "natural born killers" - as a member of his Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, before she had deserted him and chosen to secretly take her unborn baby away from him:
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Mean Girls (2004)
Home-schooled Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan), a new girl at North Shore High School, was instructed by tough-girl Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) about the various cliques in the school cafeteria. She was given a map of the lunchroom showing where each stereotyped group sat. She was specifically warned about not sitting with the A-list clique of Plastics, composed of gossipy brunette Gretchen (Lacey Chabert), innocent ditzy blonde follower Karen (Amanda Seyfried), and bitchy blonde Regina (Rachel McAdams):
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Million Dollar Baby
(2004)
Even with a life of hardship, scrappy white-trash waitress Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) insisted to her reluctant trainer Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood), on her 32nd birthday, that she had the fortitude to box. Finally, Frankie agreed to take her on and train her, beginning on her birthday:
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Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Local martial arts instructor Rex (Diedrich Bader), dressed in a red-white-blue flag outfit - matching American flag pants and bandana, spoke to his students:
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The Notebook (2004)
Facing a big life decision about their future together in the 1940s, Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) claimed that his sweetheart Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) was bored with her life, and shouldn't marry her fiancee Lon Hammond (James Marsden) only for his money and for security. He believed that there was "something missing" in her life with Lon. He also asserted that fighting between them was very real, because having a long-term relationship was "gonna be really hard":
When she responded: "What easy way? There is no easy way, no matter what I do, somebody gets hurt," he yelled back at her:
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The Notebook (2004)
A thoroughly distraught and conflicted Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) drove away from the house of sweetheart Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) after an argument between them. She read a goodbye letter he had written to her where he described his idea of "the best love" - heard in voice-over:
As the camera panned up as she finished the letter, it was revealed to be in the present day, where elderly Noah (James Garner) was reading the notebook account of their own love affair years earler, to his dementia-suffering life partner Allie Calhoun (Gena Rowlands). |
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The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
The masked Phantom (Gerard Butler), a disfigured musical genius, sang to his beautiful young soprano protege Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum) on stage during a performance of Don Juan Triumphant:
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Spider-Man 2
(2004)
After Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) had suffered a series of personal setbacks, including the loss of his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) to another man, estrangement from best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco), and the sudden loss of his own superhero powers, he decided to live his own life and give up being crime-fighting Spider-Man. His Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) encouraged him to reconsider, reminding him about the importance of heroes in life, especially since young neighbor boy Henry Jackson (Jason Fiore-Ortiz) had become sad about Spider-Man's disappearance:
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Be Cool (2005)
Gangster/record producer Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer) pointed a gun at Russian Mafia head Roman Bulkin (Alex Kubik) who offensively used the racist N-word, as he spouted off on all the positive contributions of African-Americans to culture and society:
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Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Play clip (excerpt): At the end of a fishing trip together, rodeo cowboy Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) was speaking to his gay lover ranch-hand Ennis del Mar (Heath Ledger) - the two had fallen in love at Brokeback Mountain (Wyoming) years earlier in 1963. Ennis dealt harshly with his former lover:
Twist responded that he was sexually frustrated that they weren't seeing each other very much:
Ennis responded, while crying, telling Jack that he was the source of his conflicted emotions:
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The Girl in the Cafe (2005, UK) (TV)
Free-spirited, idealistic, undiplomatic young female Gina (Kelly Macdonald) contradicted the Prime Minister's (Corin Redgrave) assertion, during a dinner speech at the G8 Economic Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland that they were effectively combating the "extreme curses of poverty" in the world. She accused them of "ignoring the poor" by denying enormous financial aid - and reflected how she would probably be thrown out for "heckling" - so she opted to immediately speak out about the issue:
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Good Night, and Good Luck.
(2005)
In a powerful speech spoken directly into the camera on his television show See It Now, legendary reporter Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) attacked Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy's (Himself) methods:
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Good Night, and Good Luck.
(2005)
Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) also delivered a speech on October 25, 1958, to RTNDA (Radio-Television News Directors Association) - news professionals who were honoring his notable career, about the positive good of television:
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Good Night, and Good Luck.
(2005)
The film concluded with the second part of Murrow's (David Strathairn) speech to the news professionals:
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Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire (2005)
The resurrected Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) confronted his long-time famous nemesis Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), "the boy who lived." He spoke of the legend of Harry's parents' death that occurred thirteen years earlier, when he truly lost his powers, due to the protective sacrifice of Harry's "dear sweet" mother Lily:
Voldemort challenged Harry to a duel of wills and wands and threatened death:
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
(2005)
The humorous speech by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - known as the Book, the Narrator or The Guide (voice of Stephen Fry) regarding how the orbiting spaceship Heart of Gold, powered by the Infinite Probability Drive, suddenly transformed two nuclear missiles into a giant sperm whale and a bowl of petunias. As the sperm whale fell out of orbit through the Magrathean atmosphere toward the alien planet, its thought processes were described:
The sperm whale crashed into the ground, viewed from a distance with a rising plume of ice/snow.
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Pride & Prejudice (2005, UK)
Reluctant at first to fall in love with spirited, lower-ranked Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley), the arrogant and conceited Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen) - for the second time - declared his love to her on the moors at dawn:
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Away From Her (2006, Can./UK/US)
Suffering from declining health due to dementia, Alzheimer's-stricken wife Fiona Anderson (Julie Christie) spoke to her husband Grant (Gordon Pinsent) on their drive to a nursing facility, realizing that her memory was fading ("I'm not all gone...just going"), and acknowledging that he had been unfaithful in the past, as a former university professor. During a 44 year marital union, and even though their life had its ups and downs, they didn't separate ("You never left me"). He had promised her a "new life" start twenty years earlier and they had retired to Ontario, Canada:
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The Devil Wears Prada
(2006)
While deciding between two belts for an outfit, recent college grad and co-assistant Andrea "Andy" Sachs (Anne Hathaway) mentioned that they both looked exactly the same and that she was still learning about "this stuff." Ruthless, powerful, demanding and cynical fashion magazine Runway editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) responded to directly humiliate her:
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Flags Of Our Fathers
(2006)
Book author James Bradley (Tom McCarthy), the son of one of the six famously-immortalized flag-raisers during World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima, offered closing last lines - an epistemological conclusion about revering the dead as heroes - the term he was labeled with. He mused that the men admired their fallen buddies the most and were "uncomfortable being called heroes." He had just spoken to his aging father (Harve Presnell) on his death bed in 1994, who told him about the aftermath of the flag-raising. The ending scene was of the men stripping down on a beach and swimming in the ocean after raising the flag in 1945, as Captain Severance (Neal McDonough) looked on:
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Letters From Iwo Jima
(2006)
Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) delivered a grim pre-battle speech to his doomed soldiers:
He removed his cap and bowed.
He raised both arms in a rousing salute with his
troops. |
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Notes on a Scandal
(2006)
Spinster and veteran high school teacher Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) in London had befriended younger art teacher Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett) while she was having an affair with Steven Connolly (Andrew Simpson), one of her 15-year-old students. Barbara promised that she wouldn't reveal anything - if Sheba promised to end the relationship. But then Sheba didn't end things as she had vowed, and Barbara (with veiled feelings of her own) lashed out at her:
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The Queen (2006, UK/It./Fr.)
Toward his mocking staff, UK Labour Party's Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) gave an angry defense of the royals - and Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren). He spoke out when his director of communications Alastair Campbell (Mark Bazeley) begrudged: "The old bat's finally agreed to visit Diana's coffin":
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Rocky Balboa
(2006)
60-ish year-old widower and ex-boxer Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) was struggling to keep up a relationship with his disconnected son Robert (Milo Ventimiglia), a struggling corporate employee. Later in the film, outside his Italian restaurant, Rocky spoke to Robert about his upcoming fight - something Robert discouraged him from doing. He understood the problems of growing up under Rocky's celebrity shadow ("People see me but they think of you...This is only gonna end up bad for you, and it's gonna end up bad for me"). Rocky realized his son blamed all his hardships and personal problems on him: "And when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow." Rocky rebuked his son and told him how to win and succeed in life, and not be cowardly:
Rocky ended by expressing his love for his son, and urging him to believe in himself to begin truly living. He ended his words about a grave visit: "Don't forget to visit your mother." |
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Stranger Than Fiction
(2006) In the film's opening, blocked writer Karen "Kay" Eiffel's (Emma Thompson) described neurotic, obsessive-compulsive, regimented, numbers-infatuated IRS auditor Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) in her soon-to-be-completed novel, accompanied by on-screen numbers:
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Stranger Than Fiction
(2006)
The film's ending gave the last poignant, narrated words of Karen Eiffel's typewritten novel about the importance of the small things in life. After Harold had been struck by a bus (he pushed a little boy away to avoid getting hit) and luckily survived, he found out his continued existence was solely due to a piece of shard metal from his wristwatch which had obstructed a severed artery in his right arm and prevented him from bleeding to death. Her voice-over was accompanied by a montage of scenes of the film's cast of characters (both major and minor):
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Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
(2006) Low brow Southern NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) humorously offered grace at the family dinner table over a spread of Domino's Pizza, KFC, Wonder Bread, Coca-Cola and beer. He was interrupted by his wife Carley (Leslie Bibb), who interjected and argued with him about which Jesus to pray to:
During the latter part of the prayer, Ricky's best friend Cal (John C. Reilly) inserted his own views on which type of Jesus he preferred:
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300 (2006)
While the three-day long Battle at Thermopylae raged, Spartan Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) delivered a "moving" and "eloquent" speech to the Spartan Council, attempting to unite them and rally support for sending reinforcements to her husband King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), who was leading 300 Spartans (and other Greeks) against Persian King Xerxes:
Her enemy on the skeptical council, the devious Theron (Dominic West), had just forced her to sleep with him in exchange for his support. At the meeting, he first applauded her speech, but then became accusatory ("Moving, eloquent, passionate, but it doesn't change the fact that your husband has brought war upon us."). He personally accused her of adultery ("You speak of Honor, Duty, and Glory, but what of adultery?...She is a trickster in true form. Do not play with the members of this sacred chamber, my Queen. Just hours ago, you offered yourself to me. Were I a weaker man, I would have her scent on me still") - a "bribe of the flesh," and even called her "my little whore queen." She drew a sword and stabbed the traitor (Persian gold coins fell from his robe) and then used the same words he had said to her before sex:
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300 (2006)
In the film's final lines, Spartan soldier Dilios (David Wenham) delivered a stirring motivational speech to his warriors before the Battle of Plataea against Persian King Xerxes' hordes. He recalled how the Persian army was now gripped by fear, and that they had suffered heavy casualties at the hands of only 300 Spartans at the earlier Battle of Thermopylae. Now, although still outnumbered 3-1, 10,000 Spartans were leading 30,000 free Greeks to face the Persians - he predicted that the Greeks would again be victorious:
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V for Vendetta (2006)
Mysterious "man in a mask" vigilante and anarchistic freedom fighter V (Hugo Weaving) gave a verbose introduction of himself to rescued Evey ("E-V") Hammond (Natalie Portman) after a rape attempt by police agents. His speech included about 50 words starting with the letter V:
V carved a V into a poster on the wall.
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V for Vendetta (2006)
Bold, anarchistic freedom fighter V (Hugo Weaving) took over the state television broadcast a day after destroying the Old Bailey. He offered the people of London in the UK reasons to ignite a revolution against oppressive, totalitarian (fascist) government. He urged the people of Britain to rise up and meet him on November 5th one year later outside the gates of Parliament, which he promised would also be destroyed:
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We Are Marshall (2006)
New coach Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) delivered a graveyard site eulogy and pre-game pep talk to a new squad of members of the Marshall University football team (the "Thundering Herd"), after the original team died in a plane crash November 14, 1970:
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Atonement (2007,
UK/US) In voice-over, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) spoke of his love for Cecilia Tallis (Keira Knightley), and promised to return after serving in the British Army during WWII. He had been sent to prison and then forced into the Army due to a misunderstanding and vicious untrue rumor spread by Cecilia's younger sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan):
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Gone Baby Gone (2007) In the film's opening voice-over narration during the credits, private investigator Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) spoke about how his job was to find missing people because of his connections in the tough neighborhood where he grew up (in the working class area of Dorchester near Boston).
He was hired by Aunt Beatrice McCready (Amy Madigan) to find the missing and abducted 4 year-old daughter Amanda (Madeline O'Brien) of slutty, cocaine-addicted, ignorant and neglectful mother Helene McCready (Amy Ryan). He assisted other police detectives including veteran Remy Bressant (Ed Harris), and was joined by his own girlfriend/partner Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) as they entered a world of gangs, drug dealers, murderous child-molesting pedophiles, and a web of corrupt cops. As it turned out, Amanda's kidnapping (and her murder) had been faked and she was found living happily with police Captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) and his wife, who reasoned that the child was better off with them (they had also suffered their own daughter being kidnapped and murdered years earlier). There were many unsettling and unresolved ramifications of Doyle's arrest and the discovery of Amanda, including Patrick's breakup with Angie, and Amanda's return to her irresponsible and negligent mother. |
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Michael Clayton (2007) Attorney and "fixer" Michael Clayton's (George Clooney) associate, a leading attorney in his firm named Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), was suffering from a nervous breakdown while representing a chemical company client named U-North during a multi-million dollar class-action suit. Diagnosed with bi-polar disorder (manic-depression), he went off his medications after discovering duplicity - that the company was manufacturing a carcinogenic weed-killer. His rambling and bizarre voice-over dialogue was heard in the film's opening lines under the credits and views of the interior of the law firm of Kenner, Bach, and Ledeen late at night, before a flashback told the story:
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No Country For Old Men
(2007) Old-time Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) gave his weary observation (in voice-over) about the lack of value of human life during the opening images of the film:
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No Country For Old Men
(2007)
Retired Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) also sorrowfully recollected his dreams about his father to his wife Loretta (Tess Harper) at the conclusion of the film. The second dream was a metaphor for mortality in life, shortly after the brutal and senseless deaths of his Vietnam vet friend Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) and Moss' innocent wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald) by psycho-killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem):
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Pirates
of the Caribbean: At World's End
(2007) Newly-appointed pirate captain of the Black Pearl, Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), faced insurmountable odds in the upcoming sea battle between the British fleet (led by dastardly Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander)) - with support from tentacle-faced Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), and her small motley pirate crew on a few bedraggled ships. However, she rallied her pirate forces with stirring heroic words to "hoist the colors," as she stood on the side railing of the ship:
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Ratatouille (2007) French chef country rat Remy (voice of Patton Oswalt), an aspiring gourmet chef with a highly developed sense of taste and smell, watched his recently-deceased idol, chef Auguste Gusteau on TV, and then experienced food as colors, shapes, and sounds:
Later in Paris, he spoke to his older brother Emile (voice of Peter Sohn) who was eating garbage, and attempted to get him to savor his food without gulping it down, and discover different taste combinations:
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Ratatouille (2007) Snobbish, hard-to-please and harsh food critic Anton Ego (voice of Peter O'Toole) gave a glowing, self-actualizing review, published the following day, about restaurant Gusteau's cuisine (serving the traditional dish of ratatouille), after learning it had been prepared by blue French chef country rat Remy (voice of Patton Oswalt):
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Reign Over Me (2007)
Five years after 9/11, withdrawn and grieving Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler) told his old college roommate, Manhattan dentist Dr. Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) about his tragic loss of his three young daughters (Geena, Jenny, and Julie) and his wife Doreen:
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The Simpsons Movie
(2007) Disappointed, gravel-voiced Marge Simpson (voice of Julie Kavner) video-taped an anguished message to oafish, self-centered husband Homer (voice of Dan Castellaneta) about leaving with the kids and never returning to him:
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There Will Be Blood
(2007)
As he got drunk from a flask, oil prospector Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) spoke to his alleged half-brother Henry (Kevin J. O'Connor):
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There Will Be Blood
(2007) In his California mansion's two-lane bowling alley, turn of the century oil tycoon Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) famously over-exaggerated when berating and presenting mocking humiliation toward financially-strapped, deal-making evangelist preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) of the Church of the Third Revelation. Plainview forced the preacher to repeatedly confess: "I am a false prophet. God is a superstition," before telling him he had already sucked the Bandy tract land dry of oil by drainage, with the famous phrase: "I drink your milkshake, I drink it up!"
When Eli responded: "Don't bully me, Daniel!", Daniel threw him down the bowling alley, while shouting after him:
Plainview then bloodily murdered Eli with bludgeoning blows from a bowling pin, leaving him to die on the alley, as he told his butler:
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2 Days in Paris (2007)
French-born photographer Marion (Julie Delpy), living in NYC but traveling in Europe and staying in Paris for two days, wrestled with her feelings about love and relationships. In voice-over in the film's conclusion, she mused about her difficult relationship with heavily-tattooed boyfriend of two years, Jack (Adam Goldberg), who was in her company. When he told her: "I don't know you" - she responded with her thoughts:
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The Dark Knight
(2008) Play clip (excerpt): A few times in the film, the grotesque Joker (Heath Ledger) recited similar but conflicting origin stories about his hideous facial scars. In the first major instance, the Joker cleverly infiltrated into the gang of African-American Gambol (Michael Jai White) in a pool hall. He threateningly told the boss about the origin of his scars (and his perpetual smile), and then killed Gambol - and took over his operation:
Later, the Joker also repeated a similar, intimidating rant to beautiful Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal) - "Harvey's squeeze" - while brandishing a knife at her as the camera circled around them disorientingly:
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Doubt (2008)
In the mid-1960s, strict Bronx Catholic School Principal, Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) expressed her concern about Donald, a 12 year-old student - the school's only black student, and one of the altar boys (who was punished when caught drinking wine). She suspected that the boy was also a victim of sexual abuse ("an improper relationship") by Catholic Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman). She spoke to Donald's mother Mrs. Miller (Viola Davis) about her suspicions, even questioning the mother's integrity ("What kind of mother are you?") when she appeared to accept what was happening. Mrs. Miller stated to shocked Sister Beauvier that the matter shouldn't be pursued any further, and that Donald just had to make it to the end of the school year before entering high school. She also hinted that Donald was homosexual, and that his father had beaten him because of his "nature" - but that Father Flynn was a good and kind influence on her son:
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Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
Annoyed, bitter, and misogynistic Axle School of Motoring driving instructor Scott (Eddie Marsan) was jealously angered by his driving pupil, English primary schoolteacher Pauline "Poppy" Cross (Sally Hawkins) - an optimistic free spirit. In a rambling dialogue of dislike, he revealed his own feelings for her while raging at her for seducing him:
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Milk (2008)
Gay activist and San Francisco's City Supervisor and community organizer Harvey Milk (Oscar-winning Best Actor Sean Penn) delivered two speeches in his war against Proposition 6 (aka The Briggs Initiative) on the ballot in California that proposed to fire and bar gay teachers from jobs in California's public schools. The first speech was at the Gay Freedom Day Parade in SF in late June 1978:
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Milk (2008)
The second speech in the biopic was pioneering gay politician Harvey Milk's victory speech after the defeat of Proposition 6 in California in 1978, on the eve of his own assassination:
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Nothing But the Truth (2008)
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Synecdoche, New York (2008)
The Minister (Mark Lotito) - an actor playing a priest at a staged funeral, delivered a eulogy ending with "Well, f--k everybody" - in which he described how most human beings spend their time basically being miserable, dead or not yet born:
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The Wrestler (2008)
Aging pro wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) spoke to his estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood), admitting his failure as a father when he abandoned her as a child - but he kept on failing by missing their dinner appointment:
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The Wrestler (2008)
Aged, washed-up pro wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) had retired from wrestling due to a heart attack (and bypass surgery). But he returned to the ring and just moments before his 20th anniversary (and fatal) rematch with the Ayatollah (Ernest Miller), he gave an emotional, uplifting speech to his devoted wrestling fans:
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The Blind Side (2009)
In the film's opening lines, strong-minded Memphis mother Leigh Anne Touhy (Oscar-winning Sandra Bullock) narrated these words during a video replay of one shocking and unforgettable play during a football game held in Washington, D.C on November 18, 1985 (Monday night), between the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants. During a blitz, defensive linebacker Lawrence Taylor (and others) sacked Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann during a 'flea-flicker,' causing a compound fracture of Theismann's lower right leg. As a result, the highest paid football player, after the quarterback, is the left tackle, who protects the quarterback's 'blind side':
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Brief Interviews With Hideous Men
(2009)
Ryan (John Krasinski) (aka subject # 20) was the last to be interviewed by anthropology doctoral candidate Sara Quinn (Julianne Nicholson) who was investigating the effects of the "feminist movement" on the contemporary male. During her research, revealed in the film's final moments, she was also attempting to understand her harsh break-up in her own romance with her nasty ex, Ryan:
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(500) Days of Summer (2009)
In this non-linear romantic comedy, a Narrator (Richard McGonagle) explained - in voice-over - in the film's pre-credits opening, the background to the film's plot. It concerned a 500 day relationship between aspiring architect and greeting card writer Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his boss' beautiful new secretary, Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) that began on January 8th - with brief flashbacks to their past as youngsters:
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The Hangover (2009)
Once they had arrived in Las Vegas and acquired a villa at Caesar's Palace Casino/Hotel, groom-to-be Doug (Justin Bartha) and his three groomsmen went to the rooftop to drunkenly make toasts. Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis) offered these words, claiming they were 'blood' brothers:
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Inglourious Basterds (2009)
In 1941, SS Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), with the unofficial title "The Jew Hunter," spoke to pipe-smoking French dairy farmer Perrier LaPadite (Denis Menochet) about his goal of searching for Jews, suspecting that the farmer was sheltering enemies of the state by hiding the Jewish Dreyfus family somewhere on his property:
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Inglourious Basterds (2009)
In 1944 during the war, First Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) spoke to his special team of 'take-no-prisoners' Basterds - eight Jewish-American soldiers on a mission as a "bushwhackin' guerrilla army" to go behind Nazi enemy lines:
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Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
(2009)
Social Worker Mrs. Weiss (Mariah Carey) asked to be informed about details of the "actual act of physical and sexual abuse" that 16 year-old obese daughter Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) had experienced in the household from her dysfunctional and abusive mother Mary Lee Johnston (Mo'Nique). The mother was asked: "when it first began, where it happened, and how did you respond?" The pathologically damaged, inner-city dwelling Mary delivered a heart-breaking dialogue about how she had let her husband Carl emotionally, physically, and sexually abuse Precious since she was three years old, and how she had become jealous over Precious taking away her man:
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Up in the Air (2009)
Corporate downsizer Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) gave his philosophy of life in motivational speeches throughout the film, first in the lobby of a Hampton Inn in Columbus, Ohio, and then continuing in Miami where he had last left off. In the first talk, he asked his audience to "try to walk" with their backpacks full of stuff, and then suggested they should burn their backpacks. In the second talk, he asked everyone to fill their backpacks with people. Bingham believed one should live an isolated, ever-moving life without emotional ties. He extolled the virtues of a life free of burdensome relationships with people as well as things:
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Watchmen (2009)
After an extensive five-minute backstory credits sequence (to the tune of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'") and a fight scene, in voice-over, masked, trench-coated vigilante Rorschach/Walter Kovacs (Jackie Earle Haley) read from his journal, in the gritty alternate year of 1985:
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127 Hours (2010)
While his right arm was trapped under a huge boulder when canyoning solo in a remote and narrow sandstone cavern crevice near Moab, Utah (based upon a real-life incident in 2003), mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco) began to get closer to death. On the Tuesday of his 127 hour ordeal, he pretended he was a TV morning show announcer with his camcorder, interviewing himself about being trapped without notifying anyone about his whereabouts, and then he more poignantly addressed his parents:
As he became more and more dehydrated and delusional, he introspectively chronicled his own demise, while experiencing a life-altering revelation about entrapment and engagement:
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The Other Guys (2010)
Two mismatched NYPD detectives, dim-witted Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) and pencil-pushing, mild-mannered desk cop Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) obviously do not get along. Terry started off an argument between them - face-to-face:
Emasculated Allen responded with a logical counter-argument against his loose-cannon, hot-headed partner:
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