Grand Canyon (1991)
Danny Glover: Simon
Photos
Quotes
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Mack : [while Mack waits for his car to be serviced at a local gas station, he and tow truck driver Simon sit in the parking lot discussing his family and the Grand Canyon]
Simon : [chuckles] Man, get yourself to the Grand Canyon.
Mack : Beautiful, huh?
Simon : Eh, it's pretty, all right, but that's not the thing of it. You can sit right on the edge of it, you know? I-I did that. I did everything: I went down in it, I stayed overnight there. But the thing that got me was sitting on the edge of that big old thing. Those rocks. Yeah, those cliffs and rocks is so old. Took so long for that thing to get to look like that... and it ain't done either, you know? It happens right while you're sitting there watching it. It's happening right now while we're sitting here in this ugly town.
[Simon finishes his soda and throws the can into the dumpster across the parking lot]
Simon : [sighs] When you sit on the edge of that thing, you just realize what a joke we people are. What big heads we got thinking that what we do is gonna matter all that much. Thinking our time here means diddly to those rocks. It's a split second we been here, the whole lot of us. And one of us? That's a piece of time too small to give a name.
Mack : You trying to cheer me up?
Simon : Yeah, those rocks are laughing at me, I could tell. Me and my worries, it's real humorous to that Grand Canyon. Hey, you know what I felt like? I felt like a gnat that lands on the ass of a cow that's chewing its cud next to the road that you ride by on at 70 miles an hour.
Mack : [laughs] That's small.
Simon : Yeah, it's small.
Mack : My name is Mack.
Simon : Simon.
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Simon : I've gotta ask you for a favor. Let me go my way here. This truck's my responsibility, and now that the car's hooked up to it, it's my responsibility too.
Rocstar : Do you think I'm stupid? Just answer that question first.
Simon : Look, I don't know nothing about you; you don't know nothing about me. I don't know if you're stupid, or some kind of genius. All I know is that I need to get out of here, and you got the gun. So I'm asking you, for the second time, let me go my way here.
Rocstar : I'm gonna grant you that favor, and I'm gonna expect you to remember it if we ever meet again. But tell me this, are you asking me as a sign of respect, or are you asking because I've got the gun?
Simon : Man, the world ain't supposed to work like this. I mean, maybe you don't know that yet. I'm supposed to be able to do my job without having to ask you if I can. That dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you ripping him off. Everything is supposed to be different than it is.
Rocstar : So what's your answer?
Simon : You ain't got the gun, we ain't having this conversation.
Rocstar : That's what I thought: no gun, no respect. That's why I always got the gun.
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Simon : My father died last year - 81 years old. It's a long time for a black man to live in this town. He outlived everyone he ever knew. He saw two wives die and three of his children. He had a great ugly old face that looked like a suitcase gone a million miles - all beat up and dented and scuffed and stained. Man, he looked like he walked 80 years on that face. When I used to look at that face and see all - the pain there, all the things he'd lost, all the hurt he had, I wondered why he wanted to go on, why he just didn't lay down and give it up.
Mack : Did you figure it out?
Simon : No. Never figured out much about that guy. I asked him, though.
Mack : What'd he say?
Simon : Habit.
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Simon : You can go swimmin' in the ocean every day and be perfectly cool, you know. Then one day, just one particular day, you bump into the big shark. Now, the big shark don't hate you. He's got no feelin' for you at all. You look like food to him. Hey, you don't hate a hamburger, do you? Yeah. Those boys back there, they got nothin' to lose. If you just happen to be swimmin' along and bump into 'em, well- It might not be worth worryin' about. It's like bein' in a plane crash.
Mack : Well, that's comforting. I'm glad you brought that up. There just seems to be so many ways to buy it. Particularly in this city. I'm amazed at the end of each day that anybody's alive. Then other days I think maybe people aren't so fragile. Things have always been kind of brutal, and people just keep on going.
Simon : You ever been to the Grand Canyon?
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Simon : You got a right to try to figure out what confuses you; but, seems like you're making more of this than it is. The world's a hard place, but sometimes you just get lucky.
Mack : I believe in luck.
Simon : And, of course, sometimes you don't. One thing is for sure is that if you're alive, some terrible shit's gonna happen to you, and maybe some good things too, but you can always count on the terrible. If it doesn't kill you, you're gonna be around to see it come down some other way.
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Simon : So there you go, my friend, sometimes things work.
