Misery (film)

Misery is a 1990 American psychological thriller film about a novelist who is saved from a car wreckage and trapped by a maniacal fan who forces him to write a novel for her.

Directed by Rob Reiner. Wriiten by William Goldman, based on the novel by Stephen King.

Paul Sheldon used to write for a living. Now he's writing to stay alive.

Paul Sheldon

• Here you want it, you want it?! Eat it! Eat it till ya choke, you sick, twisted fuck!

Annie Wilkes

• Anyway, my favorite was Rocketman, and once it was a no-breaks chapter. The bad guy stuck him in a car on a mountain road and knocked him out and welded the door shut and tore out the brakes and started him to his death, and he woke up and tried to steer and tried to get out but the car went off a cliff before he could escape! And it crashed and burned and I was so upset and excited, and the next week, you better believe I was first in line. And they always start with the end of the last week. And there was Rocketman, trying to get out, and here comes the cliff, and just before the car went off the cliff, he jumped free! And all the kids cheered, but I didn't cheer. I stood right up and started shouting, "This isn't what happened last week! Have you all got amnesia? They just cheated us! This isn't fair! He didn't get out of the cock-a-doodie car!"
• [to Paul Sheldon] I am your number one fan. There is nothing to worry about. You are going to be just fine. I am your number one fan.
• [last words] I'M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU LYING COCKSUCKER!

Dialogue

Annie Wilkes: I know I'm only 40 pages into your book, but...

Paul Sheldon: But what?

Annie: [shaking her head] Nothing.

Paul: No, what is it?

Annie: Well, it's ridiculous! Who am I to make a criticism to someone like you?

Paul: It's all right. I can take it.

Annie: Well, it's brilliantly written, but then, everything you write is brilliant.

Paul: Any rough stuff?

Annie: The swearing, Paul. There, I said it.

Paul: The, uh, profanity bothers you?

Annie: It has no nobility.

Paul: These are slum kids, I was a slum kid. Everybody talks like that.

Annie: They do not! What do you think I say when I go to the feedstore in town? "Oh, now Wally, give me a bag of that F-in' pig feed, and ten pounds of that bitchly cow corn"? And at the bank, do I tell Mrs. Bollinger, "Oh, here's one big bastard of a check, give me some of your Christ-ing money?" [spills soup on Paul's bed] There! Look there! See what you made me do? I'm sorry.

---

Annie Wilkes: You— You dirty bird, how could you?

Paul Sheldon: What?

Annie: She can't be dead! Misery Chastain cannot be dead!

Paul: Annie, in 1871 women often died during childbirth. But her spirit is the important thing, and Misery's spirit is still alive.

Annie: [shaking Paul's bed violently] I didn't want her spirit! I want her, and you murdered her!

Paul: No I didn't.

Annie: Who did?

Paul: No one, she— she died. She just slipped away.

Annie: Slipped away? Slipped away? She didn't just slip away! You did it! [grabbing a bedstand and raising it over Paul] You did it! You did it! You did it! You did it! You murdered my Misery!

Paul: Annie! Annie!

Annie: [smashing the bedstand against the wall] I thought you were good, Paul, but you're not good, you're just a lying ol' dirty birdy. And I don't think I better be around you for a while. And don't even think about anybody coming for you. Not the doctors. Not your agent. Not your family, because I never called them. Nobody knows you're here. And you better hope nothing happens to me, because if I die, you die.

---

Annie Wilkes: Here's your pills.

Paul Sheldon: Annie? Annie, what is it?

Annie: The rain. Sometimes it gives me the blues. When you first came here, I only loved the writer part of Paul Sheldon. Now I know I love the rest of him, too. I know you don't love me. Don't say you do. You're beautiful, brilliant, a famous man of the world and I'm not a movie star type. You'll never know the fear of losing someone like you if you're someone like me.

Paul: Why would you lose me?

Annie: Book's almost finished. Your legs are getting better. Soon you'll be wanting to leave.

Paul: Why would I leave? I like it here.

Annie: That's very kind of you, but I'll bet it's not all together true. [pulls out a gun] I have this gun. [pulls the trigger] Sometimes I think about using it. [looks at Paul] I'd better go now. I might put bullets in it.

---

Paul: Remember how, for all those years, nobody knew who Misery's real father was? Or if they'd ever be reunited? It's all right here. Does she finally marry Ian, or will it be Winthorne? It's all right here.

Annie: Paul, you can't!

Paul: Why not? I learned it from you.

Cast

• James Caan as Paul Sheldon
• Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes
• Richard Farnsworth as Buster
• Frances Sternhagen as Virginia
• Lauren Bacall as Marcia Sindell
• Graham Jarvis as Libby
• Jerry Potter as Pete
• Rob Reiner as Helicopter pilot
• J.T. Walsh (uncredited) as State Trooper Sherman Douglas

External links

• Misery quotes at the Internet Movie Database