In Part 3 of our look at dialogue and the power of the unspoken word, here is another scene from the script Jerry Maguire, written by Cameron Crowe:

Next let’s look at the scene where Jerry leaves SMI, defeated in battle by Sugar, but leaving his job with a burst of bravura – and taking a few friends along with him, including DOROTHY (Renee Zellweger), a character Jerry met about 15 pages back.

EXT. CORNER OFFICE — NIGHT

Bam. Jerry’s door opens. He exits his office with a box. He is now in a state of advancing melancholy, slightly unhinged. Many of the other agents now try not to watch him leaving.

JERRY
Well, don’t worry! I’m not going to do what
you think I’m going to do, which is FLIP OUT!

Jerry goes to a water dispenser, calming himself, and fills a small Dixie cup. Downs it and fills it again, rubbing his face.

JERRY
(continuing)
But let me just say, as I ease out of the office I
helped build — sorry, but it’s a fact –

ON DOROTHY — WATCHING

from her cubicle.

JERRY
– that there is such a thing as manners. A way of
treating people…

He notices the fish tank nearby. He attempts to be profound.

JERRY
(continuing)
These fish have manners! They have manners.
And now Jerry feels bravado, mixed with a wave of anger. Another cup of water as he finds power.

JERRY
(continuing)
In fact. They’re coming with me! I’m starting a
new company, and the fish will come with me and…
you can call me sentimental.

He begins dipping into the tank, grabbing the one exotic fish that failed to escape his cup. It’s a fire-tailed Peruvian beauty. He grabs a baggie from an assistant’s desk, shakes out some crumbs, and dumps the fish inside.

JERRY
(continuing; to fish)
It’s okay… it’s okay…

Nearby, a Xerox Repair Guy watches the human train wreck.

JERRY
(continuing)
But if anybody else wants to come with me, this
moment will be the ground floor of something real
and fun and inspiring and true in this godforsaken
business and we will do it together! Who’s coming
with me besides… “Flipper” here?

But clearly even Flipper is not happy with the new arrangement. Panicked, he whips around the small baggie.

JERRY
(continuing)
Anybody going with me?

Silence, someone coughs, as agents and office personnel look on with equal parts pity and embarrassment. Jerry downs another small cup of water. His lid is blowing off with each second.

JERRY
(continuing)
Wendy? Shall we?

Assistant Wendy looks at Maguire. Painfully polite:

WENDY
I’m three months away from the pay increase, Jerry.
I have to, uh… you know, stay.

Jerry absorbs the blow, and takes the keys from the top of her desk. She can’t look at him. Jerry stands alone, the blue Mission Statement on Wendy’s desk sits accusingly in frame. There is only silence now, the loudest kind.

JERRY
Okay, anybody else?

ON DOROTHY

She looks around. Doesn’t anybody believe in the very thing they were applauding three days ago? She has an odd reaction, a muscle twitch of the soul. Before she knows it, she stands boldly, unfortunately knocking a cup of coffee onto herself in the process.

DOROTHY
I’ll go with you.
(quietly, on her coffee mess)
Wonderful…

She dabs at her pants. Next to her, Cleo looks on sadly.

ON JERRY

halfway across the office.

JERRY
Dorothy Boyd! Thank you!

She gathers her things, increasingly aware of what she’s done.

JERRY
(continuing)
We will see you all again. Sleep tight!

He walks to Dorothy, and together they exit down the hallway corridor, past the framed posters and awards.

WIDE-SHOT

rising over the huge office. For the first time, we see the full expanse of the huge SMI headquarters. And down in the corner of the frame, two small figures leave carrying boxes.

JERRY
(to Dorothy)
Let’s see how they do without us.

A beat of silence, then noise returns to its normal commercial roar. A couple of fleas have been swatted off the carcass of an immense beast.

INT. ELEVATOR — NIGHT

The tragic-sounding beep of the elevator passing floors. Jerry Maguire stands with Dorothy, both still charged with adrenalin. And then the first pangs of dread. There is silence.

The elevator stops. A young, amorous Couple enters. Both are about 24, and the Guy presses a number five flights down. In a moment, we realize they are deaf. They sign to each other, murmuring noises of love. And then the Guy signs something, obviously powerful, because the Girl emits a delighted gasp, as does Dorothy. The Couple are truly in their own world. They kiss before exiting on their floor. And suddenly the elevator seems empty without them.

JERRY
Wonder what he said.

DOROTHY
My favorite aunt is hearing impaired. He said “you
complete me.”

How does the Protagonist connect to the Plotline in this scene sequence? It is about Jerry literally being ushered out of his Old World into the New World, the beginning of his Deconstruction process. How does he connect to the Themeline here? Jerry desperately struggles to identify the humanity of his circumstance, tossing off a line about manners and “a way of treating people.” Yes, that will be an important lesson for Jerry to learn, however, at this nascent stage of his transformation, he uses the line to simply score some points by making people feel guilty, then immediately bonds with – a fish. A nice visual symbol of how far Jerry needs to evolve, how his journey will force him to crawl up on land, learn to breathe, to stand, to walk, to run. In short, at the end of Act I, Jerry is a long way removed from discovering his genuine humanness.

What about subtext? While his words are sadly poignant, they are also largely about putting on a show. Notice how he exits his office and enters the main room – with a “bam,” an attention getter, putting him square in the spotlight. His actions are strangely stage-like: Drinking water again and again, rubbing his face, snaring a fish to “come with me,” calling out to someone, anyone to join him in his spur-of-the-moment “new company.” While the text might sound noble, what is communicated underneath the words is something entirely different: a desperate act, trying to save face, losing his mind.

Then what does Crowe do? He has Dorothy, the story’s Attractor character, spontaneously stand and join Jerry. She takes Jerry at his word (text), does not get at all the subtext of what is really going on. Prepped by reading his “Mission Statement,” which moved her deeply, she becomes Jerry’s first disciple; unfortunately, Jerry is not yet ready to believe in himself, let alone take care of another human being. And that dynamic, which takes root in the 1^st half of Act II, begins right here.

And yes, there is silence at work in this scene sequence as well:

· After Jerry’s first attempt to find people to follow him (“Silence, someone coughs, as agents and office personnel look on with equal parts pity and embarrassment.”)

· After his assistant, Wendy, turns him down point blank (“There is only silence now, the loudest kind.”)

· Directly after Jerry and Dorothy depart, following Jerry’s line to her, “Let’s see how they do without us.” (“A beat of silence, then noise returns to its normal commercial roar. A couple of fleas have been swatted off the carcass of an immense beast.”)

The first silence highlights the level of awkwardness Jerry’s actions have created. The second one underscores the fickle nature of human support. The third silence sets up the punch line, that despite all of Jerry’s histrionics, his words are consumed in a corporate millisecond.

But the best silence is in the elevator, what at first seems like an entirely arbitrary moment with the young, deaf couple, signing to each other. Here Crowe slips in under the radar screen (nearly lost amidst the previous hubbub) one of the most important lines in the movie – “You complete me.” Plus, the stark visual contrast between the pair of young lovers, “truly in their own world,” compared to Jerry and Dorothy, who are just now taking the first step on their journey. And this Dorothy, like one who followed a yellow brick road, is in for a messy trip (witness the fact that when she stands up to join Jerry, she immediately spills coffee on herself), forced to put up with Jerry’s meandering trek to find his own humanity.

For a PDF of the screenplay to Jerry Maguire, you can go here at my PDFscripts.com.

Tomorrow Part 4 – and another scene from Jerry Maguire.