Elizabeth Tavino quotes from Falling Down (1993)

Hello? [no answer] Hello? [still no answer] Cut the crap, I know it's you. What do you want? It is you, isn't it?

Yeah. Yeah, it's me.

You got to stop calling me.

It's Adele's birthday.

Yes, I know it's her birthday. What do you want?

I'm coming home.

What are you talking about?

I just...I want to let you know that I'm coming home for her birthday.

You're not coming here.

Listen Beth. I got to see you.

No. No you listen to me. This is my house now. I pay the rent. You don't even pay child support. You just can't walk in and out whenever you feel like.

Don't talk like that, Beth. I have to come home. I have to bring her present.

You know you can't come here.

Hey. Hey! [points that Foster is at the phonebooth] It's him! It's him, man!

How's Adele?

This isn't your home anymore.

How is she?

She's doing just fine without you.

Get out of the car!

Angie

Come on, man. It's **** broad daylight, man! This shit ain't worth it!

Get the **** out of the car now! [the gang start loading their weapons as Angie steps out of the car]

And you?

Don't. I'll call the police if I have to.

Go, go, go!

I'm coming home, Beth. I'm coming home. [he hangs up, and the Mexican gang try to shoot Foster, but hits several bystanders instead, missing him].

You sure you don't want something? Coffee, soda, something?

No thank you, ma'am.

I feel kind of stupid about this whole thing.

Better safe than sorry.

Yeah that's what I thought.

You have a restraining order against your husband?

Ex-husband. Yeah, he'd show up on the wrong day, or in the middle of the night pounding on the door, stuff like that. Thing is. He has this horrendous temper and I just didn't know if a restraining order was a good idea and if it'd do more harm than good. But the judge said we should make an example of him. So he can't come within 100 feet of us. Or is it yards? Which is it? Feet or yards?

That's up to the judge.

Really? I thought it was a set thing.

No, it's at his discretion.

That's interesting.

Does he drink?

Oh, I thought you meant the judge. No, I wouldn't say so.

Do drugs?

Oh, no.

But he has a propensity for violence?

Yeah, I think you can say that.

Did he strike the little girl?

Well, no.

Did he strike you?

Not exactly.

Not exactly?

You know, there were times when I thought he was going to. But i just didn't want until he got around to it. It's hard to explain. He could, I think.

You think?

Ma'am, we're gonna take off now.

You are? Really?

It doesn't look like your husband's gonna show. What would probably happen was he came to his senses that he realize he could get into a lot of trouble if he harassed you. What I think you should do is call your lawyer and tell him about it.

Well, it's one of those services. I didn't have much money.

Well, call them. And tell them to call your husband's lawyer. Make it official. In the meantime, lock up. And if anything else happens, give us a call.

Hello?

So who were you talking to a while ago?

You're just trying to scare me.

Am I succeeding?

No, you're not succeeding. So you might as well just stop it. And you're not scaring me out of my own house. And you're not coming here.

Oh, but I am. I'm on my way. You can count on that. I've passed the point of no return, Beth. You know when that is? That's the point in a journey where it's longer to go back to the beginning than it is to continue to the end. It's like...Do you remember when those astronauts got in trouble when they were going to the moon and something went wrong? I don't know, somebody screwed up and they had to get them back to Earth, but they had passed the point of no return. So, they had to go all the way around the moon to get back, and they were out of contact for hours. Everybody waited breathlessly to see if a bunch of dead guys in a can would pop out the other side, and that's me. I'm on the other side of the moon now, out of contact, and everybody's just going to have to wait until I pop out.

The police are here.

Did you know that in certain South American countries it's still legal to kill your wife if she insults you?

They're here right now! I'm looking at one right now!

Put them on the phone. [Elizabeth hangs up instead]