- Mike Rettig: [softly] Tomorrow, when we leave here, I want you to come with me.
- Elizabeth Brandon: [clearly surprised at the request] Come with you?
- Mike Rettig: Yes.
- Elizabeth Brandon: [she makes some low sounds, and he moves toward her] Do you always offer so much more than you're asked for?
- Mike Rettig: Only to those who ask so much less than they want.
- V. John Brandon: What I don't understand is, why you do this thing at all.
- Joe Browdy: To me, it's a business.
- V. John Brandon: And you, Mr. Rettig? What's it to you? If you don't mind my asking.
- Mike Rettig: I had a friend in the Army, a sergeant, a parachutist for about twenty years. He used to say that jumping was not only a way to live, but also a way to die. Damn few things are.
- Joe Browdy: We'll be jumping from a Howard DGA-15. "DGA": that stands for "Damn Good Airplane", which if course it is. Very tricky to land though. Heh heh. You're much better off jumping out if it than you are taking a chance on landing in it. This one's in good shape.
- Malcolm Webson: To Browdy, a airplane is in good shape if it has wings and a prop.
- [last lines]
- Elizabeth Brandon: [about Mike] He wanted me to go with him.
- V. John Brandon: Did he?
- Elizabeth Brandon: [long pause] The thought terrified me.
- V. John Brandon: And me...
- Malcolm Webson: Remember what you always said when I first started with you? "Be careful." That's what you always said. "That's what's important in this business kid. BE careful."
- Mike Rettig: Is that what I always said?
- Malcolm Webson: Why are you taking so many chances now? What are you trying to prove?
- Elizabeth Brandon: I imagine you're the sort of man who always manages to find the best and rightest reasons for everything you do. Do you think that's possible for everyone?
- Mike Rettig: I'm always hopeful.
- Joe Browdy: Look, kid, this is a business. They don't pay to watch us walk across the street. Now, when are yuh gonna get that through your head? If you're so concerned with Rettig doing the jump, I mean, you can learn it yourself. Then you wouldn't have to worry about him.
- Malcolm Webson: I have a better idea. Why don't you do it?
- Joe Browdy: Because I recognize my limitations. It's the secret to my success in life.
- V. John Brandon: We have a college. We have a college and a missile base - typical little American town.
- Malcolm Webson: [Browdy has dropped Malcolm off at the train station] What are you going to do, Browdy?
- Joe Browdy: Well, I thought I might head west. I've been thinking about that a lot lately... I think I might just head west. But you never can tell what might turn up. Right?
- Malcolm Webson: You don't mind my not staying, do you? For tomorrow? I...
- Joe Browdy: Get lost, will ya'?
- [Malcolm turns and heads into the station]
- Joe Browdy: Hey, kid? Next time you get in an airplane, make sure it's got a door on it.
- [Browdy grins and drives off]
- Elizabeth Brandon: [talking about the upcoming parachute performance] It really does sound very exciting.
- Mike Rettig: You said it was terrifying.
- Elizabeth Brandon: Yes... Well, I suppose in a way that's what makes it exciting, isn't it?
- Elizabeth Brandon: [Rettig remains silent as she continues] Most ordinary people can't help but respond to the idea of some excitement in their lives, you know?
- Mike Rettig: Even if it terrifies them?
- Elizabeth Brandon: Yes. Exactly.
- Malcolm Webson: [having listened to her practicing the piano] You play very well.
- Annie Burke: Thank you. But, you're either very kind, or you know nothing at all about playing the piano.
- Malcolm Webson: No, I don't know very much about it. But I do know when it sounds good.
- Malcolm Webson: You came *too* damned close before you opened your chute!
- Mike Rettig: [gestures to the lively crowd in the bleachers] They came for a show. Listen to 'em, kid!
- Malcolm Webson: They'll settle for a lot less than you're giving them.
- Mike Rettig: You never can tell *what* they'll settle for - until you've tried it!
- Elizabeth Brandon: How do you come to have this wonderful freedom of choice?
- Mike Rettig: You take it.
- Elizabeth Brandon: From whom?
- Mike Rettig: From anyone who says it isn't yours to take it.
- Elizabeth Brandon: Oh, I envy you
- Mike Rettig: Don't envy me - join me.
- Joe Browdy: You just describe what you see and add a little color. Use your imagination.
- Dick Donford: [from the local radio station] All right. I've done a lot of sports events, you know, basketball games - that sort of stuff.
- Joe Browdy: That's right, just call it like a basketball game.
- Joe Browdy: [over the public address system about his costume which fell off during a skydive] Oh, uh, incidentally, there's a reward for that, uh, jump suit. Anybody finding that jump suit gets a free parachute jump.
- [there are groans and chuckles from the crowd]
- V. John Brandon: Pays well, then, this sort of thing?
- Joe Browdy: If we make it interesting enough.
- Elizabeth Brandon: Oh? How do you do that?
- Joe Browdy: Make it interesting?
- Elizabeth Brandon: Yes, I mean, I shouldn't think you'd have to do anything in particular to make it more interesting than it is to begin with.
- Mike Rettig: What Browdy means is the closer we come to the ground - the more interesting it is for the customers. And for us too, of course.
- Elizabeth Brandon: [pause] How terrifying.
- V. John Brandon: Are you a religious man, Mr. Browdy?
- Joe Browdy: What's religion have to do with it?
- V. John Brandon: "He is at liberty to die, who does not wish to live."
- Mike Rettig: Do you believe that?
- Joe Browdy: That's dead wrong.
- Elizabeth Brandon: You're very direct, aren't you?
- Mike Rettig: Not very subtle, you mean.
- Elizabeth Brandon: No, I didn't say that. I think you are subtle, but in a direct sort of way.
- Joe Browdy: What is your name?
- Waitress: Mary.
- Joe Browdy: You're kidding?
- Waitress: No. And if you say anything about my being contrary or how my garden grows, I scream.
- Joe Browdy: I love her, I really do. Will you marry me?
- Malcolm Webson: Maybe you'll forget the cape stunt tomorrow, huh?
- Mike Rettig: Might not be a bad day for it, if the air is damp, heavier. A slower descent.
- Malcolm Webson: By how much? A couple of seconds? What does that matter? You can only stay up so long. Then you have to come down, right?
- Mike Rettig: That's right.
- Malcolm Webson: Sometimes I think you hate to come back to the ground at all.
- Elizabeth Brandon: The merciful stranger come to save me from the terrible boredom and lovelessness of my life. Is that what you think you are?
- Mike Rettig: I'm only offering you a way out.
- Elizabeth Brandon: I don't want a way out!
- Mike Rettig: Well, then, that's the difference. You have to want it.