The Exorcist (1973) · 43 quotes
2nd most-quoted character in The Exorcist (1973): in 15 of its 43 quotes
Most scenes with: Father Damien Karras (3), Dr. Klein (3), Regan MacNeil (2)
" You're sorry, Jesus Christ 88 Doctors and all you can tell me with all of your bullshit is??!!!"
Chris MacNeil Oh circuits, my ass. He doesn't give a shit...Operator, don't tell me there's no answer, it's the Hotel Excelsior in Rome... Would you try it again please and let it ring...Operator, I've given you the number four times...I've been on this **** line for twenty minutes!
Chris Wait a minute, you need two.
No ya don't. I do it all the time.
Chris Oh yeah. Well let's both play.
...
Chris You really don't want me to play, huh?
No, I do. Captain Howdy said no.
Chris Captain who?
Captain Howdy.
Chris Who's Captain Howdy?
You know, I make the questions and he does the answers.
Chris What made you say that, Regan? Do you know, sweetheart?
Mother? What's wrong with me?
Chris It's just like the doctor said. It's nerves, and that's all. OK? You just take your pills and you'll be fine, really. OK?
It's a symptom of a type of disturbance in the chemical-electrical activity of the brain. In the case of your daughter, in the temporal lobe - it's up here - in the lateral part of the brain. It's rare, but it does cause bizarre hallucinations and usually just before a convulsion...the shaking of the bed. It's doubtless due to muscular spasms.
Chris Oh no. No, no. That was not a spasm. Look. I got on the bed. The whole bed was thumping and rising off the floor and shaking - the whole thing, with me on it!
Mrs. MacNeil, the problem with your daughter is not her bed, it's her brain.
Chris So, uhm, what causes this...?
A lesion. A lesion in the temporal lobe. It's a kind of seizure disorder.
Chris Now look Doc, I really don't understand how her whole personality could change.
The temporal lobe is very common...It could last for days or even weeks. It isn't rare to find destructive, even criminal behavior.
Chris Hey, do me a favor, will ya? Tell me somethin' good.
Don't be alarmed. If it's a lesion, in a way she's fortunate. All we have to do is remove the scar.
Chris Well give me an example, like what specifically did she say?
Specifically Mrs. MacNeil she advised me to keep my fingers away from her goddamned ****.
She's heavily sedated. She'll probably sleep through tomorrow.
Chris What was going on in there? How could she fly off the bed like that?
Pathological states can induce abnormal strength. Accelerated motor performance. Now, for example, say a 90 pound woman sees her child pinned under the wheel of a truck. Runs out and lifts the wheels a half a foot up off the ground - you've heard the story - same thing here. Same principle, I mean.
Chris So what's wrong with her?
We still think the temporal lobe.
Chris Oh what are you talking about, for Christ's sakes? Did you see her or not? She's acting like she's **** out of her mind, psychotic, like a... split personality or ...
There haven't been more than a hundred authentic cases of so-called split personality, Mrs. MacNeil. Now I know the temptation is to leap to psychiatry. But any reasonable psychiatrist would exhaust the somatic possibilities first.
Chris So, what's next?
A pneumoencephalogram, I would think. Pin down that lesion. It will involve another spinal.
Chris Oh, Christ!
What we missed in the EEG and the arteriograms could conceivably turn up there. At least, it would eliminate certain other possibilities.
Chuck I suppose you heard.
Chris Heard what?
Chuck You haven't heard. Burke's dead. He must have been drunk. He fell down from the top of the steps right outside. By the time he hit M Street, he broke his neck.
Dr. Barringer There is one outside chance for a cure. I think of it as shock treatment - as I said, it's a very outside chance...Have you ever heard of exorcism? Well, it's a stylized ritual in which the rabbi or the priest try to drive out the so-called invading spirit. It's been pretty much discarded these days except by the Catholics who keep it in the closet as a sort of an embarrassment, but uh, it has worked. In fact, although not for the reasons they think, of course. It's purely a force of suggestion. The victim's belief in possession is what helped cause it, so in that same way, a belief in the power of exorcism can make it disappear.
Chris You're telling me that I should take my daughter to a witch doctor? Is that it?
Kinderman It's strange. The deceased comes to visit - stays only 20 minutes. And leaves all alone a very sick girl. And speaking plainly, Mrs. MacNeil, it isn't likely he would fall from a window. Besides, a fall wouldn't do to his neck what we found, except maybe one chance in a thousand. Nope, my hunch, my opinion - he was killed by a very powerful man - point one. And the fracturing of his skull - point two. Plus the various other things we mentioned would make it very probable, probable, not certain, that the deceased was killed and then pushed from your daughter's window. But nobody was in the room, except your daughter. So how can this be? It could be one way. If someone came calling between the time Miss Spencer left and the time you returned...
Chris Judas Priest. Just a second.
Chris How do you go about getting an exorcism?
I beg your pardon? Well, the first thing - I'd have to get into a time machine and get back to the 16th century...Well, it just doesn't happen any more, Mrs. MacNeil...since we learned about mental illness, paranoia, schizophrenia...Since the day I joined the Jesuits, I've never met one priest who has performed an exorcism. Not one.
Chris Someone very close to me is probably possessed and needs an exorcism. Father Karras, it's my little girl.
The Catholic Church insists on proof that the devil is really in a person. Then that's all the more reason to forget about exorcism...To begin with, it could make things worse. Secondly, the church before it approves an exorcism conducts an investigation to see if it's warranted. That takes time...I need church approval and that's rarely given. I will see her as a psychiatrist.
Chris Oh, not a psychiatrist. She needs a priest. She's already seen every **** psychiatrist in the world and they sent me to you. Now you're gonna send me back to them? Jesus Christ! Won't somebody help me?...Can't you help her, just help her?
Look, I'm only against the possibility of doing your daughter more harm than good...I can't do it. I need evidence that the church would accept as signs of possession...like her speaking in a language she's never known or studied...Look, your daughter doesn't say she's a demon. She says she's the devil himself. Now if you've seen as many psychotics as I have, you realize that's the same thing as saying you're Napoleon Bonaparte. You asked me what I think is best for your daughter. Six months, under observation, in the best hospital you can find.
Chris I'm telling you that that thing upstairs isn't my daughter. Now I want you to tell me that you know for a fact that there's nothing wrong with my daughter except in her mind. YOU TELL ME YOU KNOW FOR A FACT THAT AN EXORCISM WOULDN'T DO ANY GOOD! YOU TELL ME THAT!
Chris Would you like some bourbon in that, father?
Well, my doctor says I shouldn't but thank God my will is weak.
Chris She doesn't remember any of it.
Father Dyer That's good.
