Bang Bang You're Dead (film)

Bang Bang You're Dead is a 2002 American telefilm starring Tom Cavanagh and Ben Foster. It is based on the play Bang Bang You're Dead by William Mastrosimone. The film was initially broadcast on Showtime.

Trevor Adams

• When I am gone, you will all have this to ponder and maybe realize why I did what I did. A little push in front of other kids is a very big deal, particularly when you know it's gonna happen to you every single day, every single day, every single day, you are almost relieved when it actually happens. You are always waiting, waiting for the next attack. They don't just hurt kids, they make you hurt yourself. I can't take two more years of this, and the more they call me the mad bomber, the more they are scaring themselves. They don't know what I'm capable of, they don't know what I can do, and then there's the sanctuary of home sweet home. So, the play, yes. Mr. do-gooder- why does he even bother? Doesn't he know it's already too late? Sometimes I see the way things could've been, I just wish I could be the person she thinks I am. Kids can be the most ruthless people in the world. They can just be supernaturally cruel. You've got to be a man! Be a man! BE A MAN! Sometimes you just wanna cry. Sometimes hate is the only real thing in the world. You can stop loving someone, but hate seems to go on forever. People respect hate. It speaks, it vibrates. Some people don't even need a gun to hurt you. They use words or laughter. They enjoy watching you bleed to death. They get off watching you fighting back the tears, getting a lump in your throat, blushing, wanting to cry, and they give you a name: Trashcan, pizzaface, loser, faggot, loser, weirdo, spaz, retard. You know the name does something to you. It changes who you are, it alters your molecules and one day you wake up and you look in the mirror and you don't recognize yourself anymore, because you believe them. They win, you lose. You wanna cry, please leave me alone, but nobody listens, because nobody cares, because you don't have a name anymore because they took it away, and then one day they say that name and you hear something go snap. You realize what you gotta do, you gotta take back your name and you've gotta do it in front of the whole school because that's where they took your name away from you. You gotta do it so every kid will remember. This is about justice and after a while you can only think of one way: Jonesboro, Springfield, Paducah, Columbine, a gun, a bomb, instant justice, Ba-bang! But what a rush when they roll out that yellow tape, miles and miles of yellow tape. They won't have enough when I'm finished. So when these hallways are flooded with rivers of blood, when these hallways are choked with their corpses in body bags you all say oh what a tragedy, oh what a tragedy, but possibly after viewing my tapes, you won't be so quick to judge. Maybe that's why I was put in this earth. So consider this my last will and testament.
  • Videotaped message

• Sometimes hate can be the only real thing. You can stop loving someone, but hate can last on forever.

• My highs compared to my lows are like, one in a million. Eh, not really, I mean, that's in exaggeration... you know, like one in 500.

Val Duncan

• It's not what's in a kid's backpack that makes him dangerous, it's what's in his heart.

• This play is the best way to know how to look into a kid's heart.

Dialogue

Chief Bud McGee: Why do you bring a video camera to school?

Trevor: The same reason you bring a gun to work. To shoot people.

Val Duncan: Trevor. Just because I cast you as a bad guy doesn't mean you have to play the part.

---

Trevor: Do you even know anything about me?

Jenny Dahlquist: Well kids say some stuff.

Trevor: What stuff?

Jenny Dahlquist: Some crazy stuff about you threating to blow up the football team.

Trevor: [small laugh and smile] It's true.

Jenny Dahlquist: How'd you get to that place?

Trevor: You ever been low?

Jenny Dahlquist: You mean like depressed?

Trevor: [nods]

Jenny Dahlquist: Well I mean sometimes, but I've never thought about blowing up the football team.

Trevor: Jenny, I don't mean depressed like your dog died. I mean where you feel like you've got nothing to lose where you don't, you don't care if you live or die. That kind of depressed. You ever been there?

Jenny Dahlquist: No.

Trevor: Okay, well, I have.

---

Val: It made perfect sense to you last year when you made the bomb threat.

Trevo: I don't know what you mean.

Val: You know exactly what I mean. You made the bomb threat, endangered lots of kids lives, you took the first step toward killing.

Trevor: Did anyone die?

Val: That's beside the point.

Trevor: What's the point?

Val: The point is you took that step.

Trevor: The bomb was empty.

Val Duncan: And perfectly made.

Trevor: Totally harmless.

Val Duncan: But most people don't take that step. You did. And who's to say you won't take the next step?

Trevor: It went no further.

Val Duncan: Josh did. Josh did. Why? Why, Trevor? What do you have that Josh doesn't have? What do you have that Josh doesn't have, Trevor? Fear of punishment, conscience, God, perhaps, Ten Commandments, too chicken. Whatever it is. Let's call it X. Now, tell me, Trevor, what would happen if I were to reach right into your soul and remove X?

Trevor: I'd be Josh.

Val Duncan: Yeah, you'd be Josh.

External links

• Bang Bang You're Dead quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Bang Bang You're Dead at Allmovie