Jerry Maguire Plot summary Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is a 35 year old sports agent working for Sports Management International (SMI). After suffering a nervous breakdown as a result of stress and a guilty conscience, he writes a mission statement about perceived dishonesty in the sports management business and how he believes that it should be operated. He goes to a copy shop early the next morning and distributes copies of it, entitled "The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business" to all of his fellow employees. His co-workers are touched by his honesty and greet him with applause the next business day, but the company's management orders Maguire fired for his actions. The management sends Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr), Maguire's protégé, to fire Maguire. Jerry and Bob then proceed to call all of Jerry's clients to try to convince them to not hire the services of the other. Jerry gets through to Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), one of his clients who is disgruntled by his contract that he believes to be far inferior than that of his teammates. Tidwell tests Jerry's resolve through a very long telephone conversation, which culminates in the famed "Show Me the Money!" telephone yelling match between Rod and Jerry. Meanwhile, Bob Sugar secures most of Jerry's previous clients as his own. Frank Cushman, a superstar football prospect expected to be drafted #1 in the NFL Draft, also ends up staying on with Jerry after he makes a visit to Cushman's home. Leaving the office, Jerry announces he will start his own sports management agency and asks if anyone is willing to join him to which only 26-year-old single mother Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger) agrees. Boyd had previously bumped into Maguire in the airport and told him personally how inspiring she found his "memo." Tom Cruise as Jerry Maguire in "Show me the money!" scene Jerry travels to the NFL Draft with Cushman and convinces Tidwell to come along as well, to give him exposure to representatives of other NFL teams should he later become a free agent. Though Tidwell at first feels neglected compared to the superstar Cushman, Bob Sugar contacts Cushman's dad while Jerry is in the lobby with Tidwell and re-signs Cushman to SMI. Jerry is devastated and turns to his fiancée Avery for support, but she rebukes him and he breaks up with her. He then turns to Dorothy, becoming closer to her young son, Ray, and eventually starts a relationship with her. However, without any commissions coming in to support their business, Dorothy contemplates 1 moving to San Diego as she has a secure job offer there. Jerry concentrates all his efforts on Tidwell, now his only client, who turns out to be a very difficult client to satisfy. Over the next several months, the two direct harsh criticism towards each other with Rod claiming that Jerry is not trying hard enough to get him a contract while Jerry claims that Rod is not proving himself to deserve the money for which he asks. Eventually, Rod's star starts to rise but the two invariably get into an argument and remain estranged. He ends up later marrying Dorothy in order to provide her medical insurance and share expenses to help them both stay afloat financially and to keep her from moving to San Diego. He is emotionally and physically distant during the marriage, but is clearly invested in becoming a father to Ray. Although Dorothy is totally in love with him, she breaks up with him because she believes he does not love her, and married her out of fear of being alone and because he enjoyed playing father to her son. Bob Sugar spots Rod just before the game and attempts to steal him, an attempt rebuked by Rod and Jerry, who travels to the Cardinals game. The two reconcile soon after. Rod plays well but appears to receive a serious injury when catching a touchdown. He recovers, however, and dances for the crowd, which cheers wildly for him. After the game, Jerry and Rod get renewed confidence for a lucrative new contract for Rod. After months of harsh words and criticism directed towards one another, the two embrace in front of other athletes and sports agents and show how their relationship has progressed from a strictly business one to a close personal one, which was one of the points Jerry made in his mission statement. Jerry then flies back home to seek out Dorothy and tell her that he loves her and wants her in his life (the famous "You had me at hello" scene). He also mentions that his business has really picked up. Rod Tidwell later appears on a sports show for an interview. Unbeknownst to him, Jerry has secured him an $11.2 million contract with the Cardinals that will allow him to finish his pro football career in Arizona. The visibly emotional Tidwell proceeds to thank everyone who helped accomplish this success and extends warm gratitude to Jerry for his help. Jerry, who is also on the set of the show, speaks with several other pro athletes, some of whom have read his earlier mission statement and express their positive opinion of it as well as respect for the work he had done with Tidwell. The film ends with Jerry, Dorothy and Ray walking in the park and stumbling across a Little League baseball game. When the ball lands near them, Ray picks it up and throws it back onto the field; a surprised Jerry then comments on his natural 2 throwing ability, much to Dorothy's dismay. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Maguire#Plot taken on Jan. 01, 2010 Movie Review Jerry Maguire BY ROGER EBERT / December 13, 1996 There are a couple of moments in ``Jerry Maguire'' when you want to hug yourself with delight. One comes when a young woman stands up in an office where a man has just been fired because of his ethics, and says, yes, she'll follow him out of the company. The other comes when she stands in her kitchen and tells her older sister that she really, truly, loves a man with her whole heart and soul. Both of those moments involve the actress Renee Zellweger, whose lovability is one of the key elements in a movie that starts out looking cynical and quickly becomes a heartwarmer. The man she follows, and loves, is Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise), a high-powered pro sports agent who has so many clients he can't really care about any of them. He spends most of his time as a road warrior, one of those dogged joggers you see in airports, racking up the frequent flyer miles in pursuit of the excellence they read about in pinbrained best-sellers. One night he has a panic attack in a lonely hotel room, and writes a memo titled ``The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business.'' One of the things he thinks is that agents should be less concerned about money and more concerned about their clients. That gets him a standing ovation in the office, but a few days later, when he's fired, he understands why agents do not say those things they think. Maguire stages a grandstand exit (his decision to take along the office goldfish plays awkwardly, however). But when he asks who's walking out with him, only Dorothy, an accountant he's met just once at the airport, stands up and says she believes in him. Dorothy is a widow with a cute little son (maybe just a mite too cute). She also has an outspoken older sister, played by Bonnie Hunt with her usual exuberance and ironic cheer (she's almost always a delight to watch). The sisters live together in a house where the living room seems to be semipermanently filled by a 3 kvetching self-help group for divorced women, who spend all of their time talking about men. Someone should tell them that resentment is just a way of letting someone else use your mind rent-free. Only one client doesn't dump Maguire when the agency boots him out. That's Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a wide receiver for Arizona, who resents the crappy waterbed commercials Maguire puts him in, but sticks with him anyway. Rod's wife Marcee (Regina King) is her husband's shrewdest defender and biggest fan, and their marriage is a true love story--in contrast to Maguire's failing engagement to the power-mad Avery Bishop (Kelly Preston). Avery is soon out of the picture, Dorothy begins to look less like an accountant and more like the most wonderful woman in the world, and under the influence of his ennobling new feelings, Jerry helps Rod learn to play from the heart and not just from the mind and the pocketbook. And somewhere along in there I began to feel that writer-director Cameron Crowe had bitten off more than he really needed to chew. The screenplay knows enough about sports agents to make that the subject of the whole film, and enough about romance, too, but there are so many subplots that ``Jerry Maguire'' seems too full: Less might have been more. Still, the film is often a delight, especially when Cruise and Zellweger are together on the screen. He plays Maguire with the earnestness of a man who wants to find greatness and happiness in an occupation where only success really counts. She plays a woman who believes in this guy she loves, and reminds us that true love is about idealism. (Remember Franklin McCormick years ago on the all-night radio? ``I love you because of who you are--and who I am when I am with you.'') The actual sports scenes are more predictable (right down to and including the big play that settles the season). But Cuba Gooding Jr., so strong in ``Boyz N the Hood,'' is fine here in a much different role. Finally the movie is about transformation: About two men who learn how to value something more important than money, and about two women who always knew. Source: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19961213/REVIEWS/612 130301/1023 taken on Jan. 01, 2010 Memorable quotes for Jerry Maguire 4 Jerry Maguire: I am out here for you. You don't know what it's like to be ME out here for YOU. It is an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about, ok? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dicky Fox: The key to this business is personal relationships. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: I don't like black people? I am Mister black people. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bob Sugar: It's not "show friends." It's show *business*. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: What are you doing with me, Rod? Rod Tidwell: Why? Jerry Maguire: I'm finished, I'm fucked. Twenty four hours ago, man, I was hot! Now... I'm a cautionary tale. You see this jacket I'm wearing, you like it? Because I don't really need it. Because I'm cloaked in failure! I lost the number one draft picked the night before the draft! Why? Let's recap: Because a hockey player's kid made me feel like a superficial jerk. I ate two slices of bad pizza, went to bed and grew a concience! Rod Tidwell: Well, boo-fucking-hoo -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Laurel: Don't cry at the beginning of a date. Cry at the end, like I do. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dorothy: Look at me Laurel, I'm the oldest 26 year old in the world. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dorothy: On the surface, everything seems fine. I've got this great guy. And he loves my kid. And he sure does like me a lot. And I can't live like that. It's not the way I'm built. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: I got a shelf life of ten years, tops. My next contract's gotta bring me the dollars that'll last me and mine a long time. Shit, I'm out of this sport in 5 years. What's my family gonna live on? Huh? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: Anyone else would have left you by now, but I'm sticking with you. And if I have to ride your ass like Zorro, you're gonna show me the money. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: I'm still sort of moved by your "My word is stronger than oak" thing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------[after Tidwell makes a good play on TV] 5 Tyson Tidwell: Yeah! That's my mo-fo! Marcee Tidwell: [gasps] Tyson Tidwell: [suddenly guilty] Oops. Marcee Tidwell: Uh-uh. Come here. Tyson Tidwell: [does a bit scared] Marcee Tidwell: How about, you be the first man in the family to stop using that phrase and then maybe we'll let you live. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Marcee Tidwell: [upon seeing the fax] 1.5 million? Man, we owe more than that! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Marcee Tidwell: [about everyone being so shocked at her anger] Well, I'm sorry but please remove your dick from my ass! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: I will not rest until I have you holding a Coke, wearing your own shoe, playing a Sega game *featuring you*, while singing your own song in a new commercial, *starring you*, broadcast during the Superbowl, in a game that you are winning, and I will not *sleep* until that happens. I'll give you fifteen minutes to call me back. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Laurel: You fuck this up, I'll kill you! Jerry Maguire: I'm glad we had this talk. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: You are hanging on by a very thin thread and I dig that about you! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ethan: Everybody loves you. Pisses me off. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: I'm not trying to make history here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Rod has just told Jerry he will keep him as his agent] Jerry Maguire: That's, that's great. I'm very... happy. Rod Tidwell: Are you listenin'? Jerry Maguire: Yes! Rod Tidwell: That's what I'm gonna do for you: God bless you, Jerry. But this is what you gonna do for me. You listenin', Jerry? Jerry Maguire: Yeah, what, what, what can I do for you, Rod? You just tell me what can I do for you? Rod Tidwell: It's a very personal, a very important thing. Hell, it's a family motto. Are you ready, Jerry? 6 Jerry Maguire: I'm ready. Rod Tidwell: I wanna make sure you're ready, brother. Here it is: Show me the money. Oh-ho-ho! SHOW! ME! THE! MONEY! A-ha-ha! Jerry, doesn't it make you feel good just to say that! Say it with me one time, Jerry. Jerry Maguire: Show you the money. Rod Tidwell: Oh, no, no. You can do better than that, Jerry! I want you to say it with you, with meaning, brother! Hey, I got Bob Sugar on the other line; I bet you he can say it! Jerry Maguire: Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. Show you the money. Rod Tidwell: No! Not show you! Show me the money! Jerry Maguire: Show me the money! Rod Tidwell: Yeah! Louder! Jerry Maguire: Show me the money! Rod Tidwell: Yes, but, brother, you got to yell that shit! Jerry Maguire: Show me the money! Rod Tidwell: I need to feel you, Jerry! Jerry Maguire: Show me the money! Rod Tidwell: Jerry, you got to yell! Jerry Maguire: [screaming] Show me the money! Show me the money! Rod Tidwell: Do you love this black man! Jerry Maguire: I love the black man! Show me the money! Rod Tidwell: I love black people. Jerry Maguire: I love black people! Rod Tidwell: Who's your motherfucker, Jerry? Jerry Maguire: You're my motherfucker! Rod Tidwell: Whatcha gonna do, Jerry? Jerry Maguire: Show me the money! Rod Tidwell: Unh! Congratulations, you're still my agent. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Laurel: I'm incapable of small talk. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: How's your head? Rod Tidwell: Bubblicious. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Avery Bishop: If you ever want me to be with another woman for you, I'd do it. It's not something I'm interested in. Once, yeah, it seemed normal, but it was just a phase, a college thing, like torn Levi's or law school for you. Would you like something from the kitchen? I'm gonna get some fruit. 7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Copy store clerk: That's how you become great, man. Hang your balls out there! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ray: D'you know that the human head weighs 8 pounds? Jerry Maguire: Did you know that Troy Aikman, in only six years, has passed for 16,303 yards? Ray: D'you know that bees and dogs can smell fear? Jerry Maguire: Did you know that the career record for hits is 4,256 by Pete Rose who is NOT in the Hall of Fame? Ray: D'you know that my next door neighbor has three rabbits? Jerry Maguire: I... I can't compete with that! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Avery Bishop: There is a sensitivity thing that some people have. I don't have it. I don't cry at movies, I don't gush over babies, I don't buy Christmas presents 5 months early, and I DON'T tell the guy who just ruined both our lives, "Oh, poor baby." But I do love you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren't completely embarassed yet, but you glimpse tomorrow's embarrassment? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Avery Bishop: There is no real loyalty, and the first person who taught me that was you. Jerry Maguire: I figure I was trying to sleep with you at the time. Avery Bishop: Well, it worked. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Dorothy enters kitchen, catching Laurel eavesdropping] Laurel: I heard. Dorothy: No kidding. I looked over and saw the shadow of two curious shoes under the kitchen door. Laurel: Dorothy, this guy would go home with a gardening tool if it showed interest. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dorothy: I love him! I love him for the man he wants to be. And I love him for the man he almost is. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dorothy: I just want to be inspired. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dorothy: He's coming over. Laurel: Tonight? 8 Dorothy: He just lost his best client. I invited the guy over. Laurel: Dorothy, this is not a guy. It's a syndrome. Early mid-life. Hanging on to the bottom wrong. "Dear God, don't let me be alone or I call my newly long suffering assistent without medical for company settlement." If now all you still want is him to come over, I'm not saying anything. Dorothy: Honey, he's engaged. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: Who's your motherfucker? Jerry Maguire: You're my motherfucker! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dorothy: I've had three lovers in the past four years, and they all ran a distant second to a good book and a warm bath. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dorothy: Maybe love shouldn't be such hard work. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dicky Fox: If this [points to heart] Dicky Fox: is empty, this [points to head] Dicky Fox: doesn't matter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: You see this jacket I'm wearing, you like it? Because I don't really need it, because I'm cloaked in failure! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: Jump in my nightmare, the water's warm! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: The fuckin zoo is closed, Ray. Ray: You said fuck. Jerry Maguire: Uh... yeah... I... Ray: Don't worry. I won't tell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: What do you want from me? My soul? Dorothy: Why not? I deserve that much. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: This is going to change everything. Dorothy: Promise? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: I won't let you get rid of me. 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: I love you. You... you complete me. And I just... Dorothy: Shut up, just shut up. You had me at "hello". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dorothy: I have this great guy. And he loves my son. And he sure does like me a lot. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: Show me the money! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Marcee Tidwell: [shouting, to Jerry] What do you stand for? Dorothy: How about a little piece of integrity in this world that is so full of greed and a lack of honorability that I don't know what to tell my son! Except, "Here. Have a look at a guy who isn't yelling 'Show me the money." Did you know he's broke? He is broke and working for you for free! Broke. Broke, broke, broke. I'm sorry I'm just not as good at the insults as she is. Marcee Tidwell: No, that was pretty good. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: Show me the money! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: That's more than a dress. That's an Audrey Hepburn movie. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ray: What's wrong, Mommy? Dorothy: First class, that's what's wrong. It used to be a better meal, now it's a better life. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------[last lines] Dicky Fox: Hey, I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: 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? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Looking over an inadequate contract] Jerry Maguire: I'll go back to them. Marcee Tidwell: And say what? "Please remove your dick from my ass"? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Marcee Tidwell: I'm sorry, I'm just a little pregnant here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------10 Dorothy: I was inspired, and I'm an accountant. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Matt Cushman: [to Jerry] What you do have is my whole word, and it's stronger than oak. [shakes Jerry's hand] Matt Cushman: . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: We live in a cynical world. A cynical world. And we work in a business of tough competitors. I love you. You... complete me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: I feel for you, man. But a real man wouldn't shoplift the pootie from a single mom. Jerry Maguire: I didn't shoplift the pootie. [Rod gives him a long Look] Jerry Maguire: All right. I shoplifted the pootie. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dorothy: I'm sorry, I'm just not as good at the insults as she is. Marcee Tidwell: No, that was pretty good. Rod Tidwell: No shit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: I hated myself... no, I hated my place in the world. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Having sex with Jerry Maguire] Avery Bishop: Don't ever stop fucking me! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: Jerry Maguire... How'm I doing? I'm sweating dude! I'm sweatin' my contract! I'm sweating Bob Sugar calling me, telling me I'm missing the big endorsements by being with you! THAT'S how I'm doing - I'm sweating dude! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: I am a valuable commodity! I go across the middle! I see a dude coming at me, trying to kill me, I tell myself "Get killed. Catch the ball!' BOO YA! Touchdown! I make miracles happen! Jerry Maguire: Rod... Rod Tidwell: I'm from Arizona Jerry! I broke Arizona records! I went to Arizona State! I'm a Sun Devil, man! Jerry Maguire: And now you want Arizona dollars? Rod Tidwell: Exaaaacctly! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------11 Jerry Maguire: Don't worry, I'm not gonna do what you all think I'm gonna do, which is, you know, FLIP OUT! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: Ya know! Ya know! We're together on this one! Ya know! Ya know! Jerry Maguire: Oh my god. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: Rod, think about back when you were a little kid. It wasn't about the money, was it? Was it? [Questionably] Jerry Maguire: Was it? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: Help me... help you. Help me, help you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: Thanks for coming. Jerry Maguire: I missed ya. What can I say? You're all I've got. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Jerry and Dorothy are in the elevator and a hearing impaired couple gets on. The man of the couple starts talking with his hands, then they get off] Jerry Maguire: I wonder what he just said. Dorothy: My favorite aunt is hearing impaired. He just said "You complete me". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Avery Bishop: You are Jerry Ma-fucken-guire! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jerry Maguire: I started talking to Dennis Wilburn about your re-negotiation this morning. Rod Tidwell: Talking. Jerry Rice, Andre Reed, Chris Carter... I smell all these fools. They are making the big sweet dollars. They are making the... quan, and you are talking. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: You tell me to eat lima beans, I'll eat lima beans -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: Quit using that word. "Quan", that's my word! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: You're my ambassador of quawn, man. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sign in Locker Room: A positive anything is better than a negative nothing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: Jerry Maguire, my agent. You're my ambassador of Kwan. 12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: Is it my imagination or, didn't we arrive in a limo? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: You bet on me like I bet on you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------[first lines] Jerry Maguire: So this is the world, and there are almost six billion people on it. When I was a kid, there were three. It's hard to keep up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Jerry Maguire is lying in bed one morning when suddenly the radio comes on and wakes him up with a jolt] [flash to Dickey Fox in his office] Dicky Fox: I love the mornings! I clap my hands every morning and say, 'This is gonna be a great day!' [flash back to Jerry Maguire who accidentally steps on a toy] Jerry Maguire: [mutters] I don't believe this. How'd I get myself into this? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: Maybe you don't. Because it's not just the money I deserve. It's not just the "coin." It's the... - "the kwan". Jerry Maguire: That's your word? Rod Tidwell: Yeah, man, it means love, respect, community... and the dollars too. The package. The kwan. Jerry Maguire: But how did you get "kwan?" Rod Tidwell: I got there from "coin," dude. Coin, coin... kwaaaan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rod Tidwell: No, I air-dry. Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116695/quotes taken on Jan. 01, 2010 13