The Truman Show Quotes
An insurance salesman/adjuster discovers his entire life is actually a T.V. show.
[Truman attempts to leave his town and a convoy of cars pulls in front of him to block his exit]
Truman Burbank: Blocked at every turn. Beautifully synchronized, don't you agree?
Meryl: You're blaming me for the traffic?
Truman Burbank: Should I?
Meryl: Truman, let's go home.
Truman Burbank: You're right. We could be stuck here for hours. It could be like this all the way to Atlantic City. Let's go back. I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me.
Meryl: Truman, can you slow down?
Truman Burbank: Yes, I can.
Meryl: Truman. Truman, that's our turnoff.
Truman Burbank: I changed my mind. What's New Orleans like this time of year? Mardi Gras, woooooo! Ha ha ha ha ha! Hoo hoo hoo! Whoooohoo! Look, Meryl! Same road, no cars. It's magic! Hahaha!
Meryl: You let me out, Truman. You're not right in the head. You want to destroy yourself you do it on your own.
Truman Burbank: I think I'd like a little company.
Truman Burbank: Blocked at every turn. Beautifully synchronized, don't you agree?
Meryl: You're blaming me for the traffic?
Truman Burbank: Should I?
Meryl: Truman, let's go home.
Truman Burbank: You're right. We could be stuck here for hours. It could be like this all the way to Atlantic City. Let's go back. I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me.
Meryl: Truman, can you slow down?
Truman Burbank: Yes, I can.
Meryl: Truman. Truman, that's our turnoff.
Truman Burbank: I changed my mind. What's New Orleans like this time of year? Mardi Gras, woooooo! Ha ha ha ha ha! Hoo hoo hoo! Whoooohoo! Look, Meryl! Same road, no cars. It's magic! Hahaha!
Meryl: You let me out, Truman. You're not right in the head. You want to destroy yourself you do it on your own.
Truman Burbank: I think I'd like a little company.
[first lines]
Christof: We've become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions. We are tired of pyrotechnics and special effects. While the world he inhabits is, in some respects, counterfeit, there's nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts, no cue cards. It isn't always Shakespeare, but it's genuine. It's a life.
Christof: We've become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions. We are tired of pyrotechnics and special effects. While the world he inhabits is, in some respects, counterfeit, there's nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts, no cue cards. It isn't always Shakespeare, but it's genuine. It's a life.
Mike Michaelson: The Hague for Christof. Hello? The Hague? All right, we've lost that call, let's go to Hollywood, California. You're on Trutalk.
Sylvia: Hi, Christof, I'd just like to say one thing, you're a liar and a manipulator and what you've done to Truman is sick!
Christof: Well. We remember this voice, don't we? How could we forget?
Mike Michaelson: Uh, let's go to another call, what do we have...
Christof: No. No, no, no, no, no, it's fine, it's fine, Mike. I love to reminisce with former members of the cast. Sylvia, as you announced so melodramatically to the world, do you think because you batted your eyes at Truman once, flirted with him, stole a few minutes of airtime with him to thrust yourself and your politics into the limelight, that you know him? That you know what's right for him? You really think you're in a position to judge him?
Sylvia: What right do you have to take a baby and turn his life into some kind of mockery? Don't you ever feel guilty?
Christof: I have given Truman the chance to lead a normal life. The world, the place you live in, is the sick place. Seahaven is the way the world should be.
Sylvia: He's not a performer, he's a prisoner. Look at him, look at what you've done to him!
Christof: He could leave at any time. If his was more than just a vague ambition, if he was absolutely determined to discover the truth, there's no way we could prevent him. I think what distresses you, really, caller, is that ultimately Truman prefers his cell, as you call it.
Sylvia: Well, that's where you're wrong. You're so wrong! And he'll prove you wrong!
Sylvia: Hi, Christof, I'd just like to say one thing, you're a liar and a manipulator and what you've done to Truman is sick!
Christof: Well. We remember this voice, don't we? How could we forget?
Mike Michaelson: Uh, let's go to another call, what do we have...
Christof: No. No, no, no, no, no, it's fine, it's fine, Mike. I love to reminisce with former members of the cast. Sylvia, as you announced so melodramatically to the world, do you think because you batted your eyes at Truman once, flirted with him, stole a few minutes of airtime with him to thrust yourself and your politics into the limelight, that you know him? That you know what's right for him? You really think you're in a position to judge him?
Sylvia: What right do you have to take a baby and turn his life into some kind of mockery? Don't you ever feel guilty?
Christof: I have given Truman the chance to lead a normal life. The world, the place you live in, is the sick place. Seahaven is the way the world should be.
Sylvia: He's not a performer, he's a prisoner. Look at him, look at what you've done to him!
Christof: He could leave at any time. If his was more than just a vague ambition, if he was absolutely determined to discover the truth, there's no way we could prevent him. I think what distresses you, really, caller, is that ultimately Truman prefers his cell, as you call it.
Sylvia: Well, that's where you're wrong. You're so wrong! And he'll prove you wrong!
Meryl: [holding up a jar of cocoa, slipping into advertising mode] Why don't you let me fix you some of this Mococoa drink? All natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua. No artificial sweeteners.
Truman: [looking around] What the hell are you talking about? Who are you talking to?
Meryl: I've tasted other cocoas. This is the best.
Truman: [looking around] What the hell are you talking about? Who are you talking to?
Meryl: I've tasted other cocoas. This is the best.
Truman: [Sailing in the artificially-roughened winds and seas - he shouts to the sky] Is that the best you can do?
[Christof, in the "moon room", whips around to face the screen, shocked]
Truman: You're gonna have to kill me!
[sings]
Truman: What do ya do with a drunken sailor? What do ya do with a drunken sailor? What do ya do with a drunken sailor ear-lye in the mor-nin'!
[Christof, in the "moon room", whips around to face the screen, shocked]
Truman: You're gonna have to kill me!
[sings]
Truman: What do ya do with a drunken sailor? What do ya do with a drunken sailor? What do ya do with a drunken sailor ear-lye in the mor-nin'!
Network Executive: Christof, what's going on? Do you know that there's a rumor circulating that he's dead? You hear me? The media is having a feeding frenzy with this, all the phone lines are jammed, and every network has a pirated shot of Marlon making an ass of himself in front of the cameras!
Network Executive: The sponsors are threatening to rip up their contracts.
Christof: [pointing at the "Technical fault. Please stand by" graphic] Why? We're getting higher ratings with this graphic than we've ever had on this show.
Network Executive: The sponsors are threatening to rip up their contracts.
Christof: [pointing at the "Technical fault. Please stand by" graphic] Why? We're getting higher ratings with this graphic than we've ever had on this show.
Truman Burbank: It was Dad. I swear! Dressed like a homeless man. And you know what else was strange? A business man and a woman with a little dog came out of nowhere and forced him onto a bus.
Truman's Mother: Well! It's about time they cleaned up the trash downtown before we become just like the rest of the country.
Truman's Mother: Well! It's about time they cleaned up the trash downtown before we become just like the rest of the country.
Mike Michaelson: The show has generated enormous revenues now equivalent to the gross national product of a small country.
Christof: People forget it takes the population of an entire country to keep the show running.
Mike Michaelson: Since the show is on 24 hours a day without commercial interruption, all those staggering revenues are generated by product placement.
Christof: That's true. Everything on the show is for sale. From the actors' wardrobe, food products, to the very homes they live in.
Mike Michaelson: And of course, all of it available in the Truman catalogue and operators are standing by.
Christof: People forget it takes the population of an entire country to keep the show running.
Mike Michaelson: Since the show is on 24 hours a day without commercial interruption, all those staggering revenues are generated by product placement.
Christof: That's true. Everything on the show is for sale. From the actors' wardrobe, food products, to the very homes they live in.
Mike Michaelson: And of course, all of it available in the Truman catalogue and operators are standing by.
Truman: I figure we can scrape together $8,000...
Meryl: Every time you and Marlon get together...
Truman: We can bum around the world for a year on that!
Meryl: And then what, Truman? We'd be where we were five years ago. You're talking like a teenager.
Truman: Well, maybe I feel like a teenager.
Meryl: We have mortgage payments, Truman.
[He sighs]
Meryl: We have car payments. What, we're going to just walk away from our financial obligations?
Truman: [He stands, whirls around, bends pleadingly, his hands reaching as though to grab the world] It would be an adventure!
Meryl: I thought we were gonna try for a baby.
[He turns away and rubs the back of his neck]
Meryl: Isn't that enough of an adventure?
Truman: [Truman turns back, waves his arms dramatically] That can wait. I want to get away, see some of the world! Explore!
Meryl: [teasing him] Honey, you wanna be an explorer.
[She rises, goes to him, strokes his cheek]
Meryl: This'll pass. We all think like this now and then.
Meryl: Every time you and Marlon get together...
Truman: We can bum around the world for a year on that!
Meryl: And then what, Truman? We'd be where we were five years ago. You're talking like a teenager.
Truman: Well, maybe I feel like a teenager.
Meryl: We have mortgage payments, Truman.
[He sighs]
Meryl: We have car payments. What, we're going to just walk away from our financial obligations?
Truman: [He stands, whirls around, bends pleadingly, his hands reaching as though to grab the world] It would be an adventure!
Meryl: I thought we were gonna try for a baby.
[He turns away and rubs the back of his neck]
Meryl: Isn't that enough of an adventure?
Truman: [Truman turns back, waves his arms dramatically] That can wait. I want to get away, see some of the world! Explore!
Meryl: [teasing him] Honey, you wanna be an explorer.
[She rises, goes to him, strokes his cheek]
Meryl: This'll pass. We all think like this now and then.
Truman's Mother: [looking through a photo album] Here's us at Mount Rushmore. Do you remember, Truman? When Dad was still with us? That was quite a drive, you slept the whole way there.
Truman: [looking closer at the old photo of himself as a boy with his parents in front of an inaccurate mock-up of Mount Rushmore] It looks so small.
Truman's Mother: [quickly turning the page] Things always do when you look back, darling.
Truman: [looking closer at the old photo of himself as a boy with his parents in front of an inaccurate mock-up of Mount Rushmore] It looks so small.
Truman's Mother: [quickly turning the page] Things always do when you look back, darling.
TV Announcer: 1.7 billion were there for his birth. 220 countries tuned in for his first step. The world stood still for that stolen kiss. And as he grew, so did the technology. An entire human life recorded on an intricate network of hidden cameras, and broadcast live and unedited, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to an audience around the globe. Coming to you now from Seahaven Island, enclosed in the largest studio ever constructed, and along with the Great Wall of China one of only two man-made structures visible from space, now in its 30th great year... It's The Truman Show!
Talk Show Caller: Hi, Christof. I was just wondering how many cameras you got there in that town.
Christof: Somewhere in the vicinity of 5000.
Talk Show Caller: That's a lot of cameras.
Christof: Remember, we started with just one.
[as he speaks, clips of a foetus, newborn babies in a hospital, a toddler walking along a beach and a toddler looking up at a mobile with a camera attached to it are shown]
Christof: He was curious from birth. Premature by two weeks. It was almost as if he couldn't wait to get started.
Mike Michaelson: And of course his eagerness to leave his mother's womb was the very reason he the one who was selected.
Christof: In competition with five other unwanted pregnancies, the casting of a show determined by an airdate, Truman was the one who arrived on cue.
Mike Michaelson: Incidentally, I believe Truman is the first child to have been legally adopted by a corporation?
Christof: That's correct.
Christof: Somewhere in the vicinity of 5000.
Talk Show Caller: That's a lot of cameras.
Christof: Remember, we started with just one.
[as he speaks, clips of a foetus, newborn babies in a hospital, a toddler walking along a beach and a toddler looking up at a mobile with a camera attached to it are shown]
Christof: He was curious from birth. Premature by two weeks. It was almost as if he couldn't wait to get started.
Mike Michaelson: And of course his eagerness to leave his mother's womb was the very reason he the one who was selected.
Christof: In competition with five other unwanted pregnancies, the casting of a show determined by an airdate, Truman was the one who arrived on cue.
Mike Michaelson: Incidentally, I believe Truman is the first child to have been legally adopted by a corporation?
Christof: That's correct.
[Truman is trying to leave town in his car, with Meryl. He's gone through various obstacles including traffic jams and a forest fire. Now he's hearing a warning siren]
Truman: [suspiciously] What now?
[they're coming up to Seahaven Nuclear Power Station. Police, firemen and men in radiation suits are blocking the road]
Meryl: Truman, it looks like a leak at the plant.
Policeman at Power Plant: [walking up to the car window] Back up, back up. Leak at the plant. We had to shut her down.
Truman: Is there any way around?
Policeman at Power Plant: [shakes head] Whole area's been evacuated.
Meryl: Is there anything I can do?
Policeman at Power Plant: No, ma'am.
Truman: [sighs] Thank you for your help.
Policeman at Power Plant: You're welcome, Truman.
Truman: [stunned whisper] Truman?
Truman: [suspiciously] What now?
[they're coming up to Seahaven Nuclear Power Station. Police, firemen and men in radiation suits are blocking the road]
Meryl: Truman, it looks like a leak at the plant.
Policeman at Power Plant: [walking up to the car window] Back up, back up. Leak at the plant. We had to shut her down.
Truman: Is there any way around?
Policeman at Power Plant: [shakes head] Whole area's been evacuated.
Meryl: Is there anything I can do?
Policeman at Power Plant: No, ma'am.
Truman: [sighs] Thank you for your help.
Policeman at Power Plant: You're welcome, Truman.
Truman: [stunned whisper] Truman?
