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Some Key Lines & Scenes from Stand By Me
Check out these 22 important scenes & quotations from the movie.
1. Opening Lines The Writer: I was twelve, going on thirteen, the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of nineteen fifty-nine, a long time ago—but only if you measure in terms of years.
2. Introducing Teddy DuChamp The Writer: Teddy DuChamp was the craziest guy we hung around with. He didn't have much of a chance in life. His dad was given fits of a rage. One time he held Teddy's ear to a stove and almost burned it off.
3. Introducing Chris Chambers The Writer: Chris Chambers was the leader of our gang and my best friend. He came from a bad family, and everyone just knew he'd turn out bad. Including Chris.
4. To Tell the Cops or Not? Charlie: I think we should tell the cops. Billy: You don't go squawking to the cops after you boosted a car, you idiot. They’re gonna wanna know how the hell we got way on the Back Harlow road. Now they know we don't got no car! It's best we just keep our mouths shut. Then they can't touch us. Charlie: I agree, but we could make an anonymous call. Billy: They trace those calls, stupid. I seen that on Highway Patrol and on Dragnet. Charlie: All right. I just wish we never boosted that goddamn Dodge. I wish Ace had been with us. He could tell the cops we was in his car. Billy: Well, he wasn't. Charlie: We're going to tell him? Billy: We ain't gonna tell nobody. Nobody never. You dig me?
5. A Quest for Fame & Glory! Chris: Hey, guys! I bet you anything that if we find him, we'll get our pictures in the paper! Teddy: Yeah, we'd even be on TV.... We'll be heroes! Gordie: .... They’ll probably pin a medal on you, Vern. Vern: Yeah? You think so? Gordie: Sure!
6. Fatherly Disapproval The Writer: In April, my older brother Dennis had been killed in a Jeep accident. Four months had passed, but my parents still hadn't been able to put the pieces back together again.... Dad: You found it. Gordie: Huh? Dad: You found it. Gordie: Yeah. Dad: Why can't you have friends like Dennis? Gordie: Dad, they're okay. Dad: ( sarcastically ) Sure they are. A thief and two feebs. Gordie: Chris isn't a thief. Dad: He stole the milk-money at school. He's a thief in my book.
7. Teddy’s Train-Dodge & Chris’ Intervention Chris: Get the hell off the tracks, Teddy! You wanna get yourself killed? Teddy: Just like the beach in Normandy. ( Teddy makes machine-gun noises. ) Chris: Come on, man. Come on. ( Chris wrestles Teddy off the tracks just before the train roars by; Gordie and Vern help restrain Teddy until the train has passed while Teddy shouts at Chris. ) Teddy: Don't need no babysitter. Chris: You do, too. ( Chris holds out his hand .) Skin it. Teddy: Could have dodged it. Chris: Listen, Teddy, you can dodge it on the way back, man. Peace. Skin it. ( Teddy grudgingly “skins” palms with Chris .) ........ Chris: ( aside to Gordie ) Teddy's crazy. Teddy: ( pretending to be in the military ) Come on men! Move it out! Gordie: Yeah. Chris: He won't live to be twenty, I bet. Gordie: Remember the time you saved him in the tree? Chris: Yeah. You know I dream about that sometimes. Except in the dream, I always miss him. I just get a couple of his hairs, and down he goes. It's weird. Gordie: Yeah, that's weird. You didn't miss him. Chris Chambers never misses, does he?
8. Good Times in the Junkyard Vern: This is really a good time. Chris: The most. Teddy: A blast. The Writer: Vern didn't just mean being off limits inside the junkyard or fudging on our folks or going on a hike up the railroad tracks to Harlow. He meant those things, but it seems to me now there was more and that we all knew it. Everything was there. And around us. We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going. It was grand.
9. The First “Gatekeeper” – The Grocer Knows Gordie’s Pain Grocer: Ain't you Denny LaChance's brother? Gordie: Yes, sir. Grocer: Shame what happened to him. The Bible says, “In the midst of life we are in death.” Did you know that? I lost a brother in Korea. You look like your brother Denny. People ever tell you that? Gordie: Sometimes. Grocer: I remember the year he was All-Conference. Quarterback he played. Boy, could he throw. Father God and Sonny Jesus! Do you play football? Gordie: Hm? Grocer: Do you play football? Gordie: No. Grocer: What do you do? Gordie: I don't know.
10. Myth, Reality, & the Dreaded Chopper Writer: Chopper was my first lesson in the vast difference between myth and reality.
11. The Second “Gatekeeper” – The Junkman Knows Teddy’s Pain Writer: I wondered how Teddy could care so much for his dad who practically killed him. And I couldn't give a shit about my own dad who hadn't laid a hand on me since I was three, and that was eating bleach from under the sink.
15. Two Friends Get Real – Pt.
Gordie: Maybe you could go into the college courses with me. Chris: That'll be the day. Gordie: Why not? You're smart enough. Chris: They won't let me. Gordie: What do you mean? Chris: It's the way people think of my family in this town. It's the way they think of me. Just one of those lowlife Chambers-kids. Gordie: That's not true. Chris: Oh it is. No one even asked me if I took the milk money that time. I just got a three-day vacation.
16. Becoming an Obsession The Writer: The reality of Ray Brower was growing and kept us moving despite the heat. For me, the idea of seeing that kid's dead body was starting to become an obsession.... At the time, I didn't know why I needed to see that body so badly. Even if no one had followed me, I would have gone on alone.
17. Playing Chicken against Ace ( Ace Merrill tries to pass the car driven by Charlie and drives in the left lane, alongside Vince’s car. Vince speeds up and refuses to let Ace pass .) Vince: No way, Ace! Not this time! No way! I got him! I got him! ( A large truck is coming directly toward Ace’s car and is getting closer. Charlie, in the passenger seat next to Ace, looks terrified.) Charlie: Fall back, Ace. Come on! Jesus Christ, Ace, fall back, man! ( His face determined, Ace says nothing and refuses to alter his path, continuing to drive straight at the oncoming truck.) Vince: Shit, man, shit! ( At the last second, the oncoming truck swerves off the road, its load of wood tumbling out onto the roadway. Vince slows his car, and Ace finishes passing him. The roadway is covered in wood from the oncoming truck, whose driver has steered it off the road into a field. ) Ace: I won.
18. Face-to-Face with Ray Brower’s Body Vern: There he is! I see him! Look! Look over there! I see him! I see him! The Writer: None of us could breathe. Somewhere under those bushes was the rest of Ray Brower. The train had knocked Ray Brower out of his Keds just like it had knocked the life out of his body. Chris: Jesus. The Writer: The kid wasn't sick. The kid wasn't sleeping. The kid was dead. Gordie: ( Gordie seems to be talking to Roy Brower’s body. ) Why did you have to die? Vern: ( aside to Chris ) What's the matter with Gordie? Chris: ( aside to Vern ) Nothing. Why don't you guys just go for some long branches, okay? ( Chris approaches Gordie and sits next to him .) Gordie: Why did he have to die, Chris? Why did Denny have to die? Why? Chris: I don't know. Gordie: It should have been me. ( Gordie begins to weep .) Chris: Don't say that. Gordie: It should have been me. Chris: Don't say that, man. Gordie: I'm no good. My dad said it; I'm no good. ( The more Gordie speaks, he becomes progressively more upset .) Chris: He doesn't know you. Gordie: He hates me. Chris: He doesn't hate you. Gordie: He hates me.
Chris: No, he just doesn't know you. Gordie: He hates me. My dad hates me. He hates me, oh, oh God. Chris: You’re gonna be a great writer someday, Gordie. You might even write about us guys if you ever get hard up for material. Gordie: ( Gordie begins to settle down .) Guess I'd have to be really hard up, huh?
19. No Fame? No Glory?
The Writer: Ray Brower's body was found, but neither our gang nor their gang got the credit. In the end, we decided that an anonymous phone call was the best thing to do. We headed home, and although many thoughts raced through our minds, we barely spoke. We walked through the night and made it back to Castle Rock a little past five o’clock on Sunday morning, the day before Labor Day. We’d only been gone two days, but somehow the town seemed different. Smaller.
20. Friends Who Drift Apart – What Becomes of Teddy & Vern
Writer: As time went on, we saw less and less of Teddy and Vern until eventually they became just two more faces in the halls. That happens sometimes. Friends come in and out of your life like busboys in a restaurant. I heard that Vern got married out of high school, had four kids, and is now the forklift operator at the Arsenal Lumberyard. Teddy tried several times to get into the Army, but his eyes and his ear kept him out. The last I heard, he'd spent some time in jail. He was now doing odd jobs around Castle Rock.
21. What Becomes of Chris
Chris: I'm never gonna get out of this town, am I, Gordie? Gordie: You can do anything you want, man. Chris: Yeah, sure. Gimme some skin. Gordie: I'll see you. Chris: Not if I see you first.
The Writer: Chris did get out. He enrolled in the college courses with me. And although it was hard, he gutted it out like he always did. He went on to college and eventually became a lawyer. Last week he entered a fast food restaurant. Just ahead of him, two men got into an argument. One of them pulled a knife. Chris, who would always make the best peace, tried to break it up. He was stabbed in the throat. He died almost instantly.
22. Closing Lines – Missing a Best Friend
The Writer: Although I haven't seen him in more than ten years, I know I'll miss him forever. I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anybody?
