Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

April Wheeler: If being crazy means - living life as if it matters, then I don't care if we're completely insane. Do you?

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

April Wheeler: So now I'm crazy because I don't love you, right? Is that the point?
Frank Wheeler: No! Wrong! You're not crazy, and you do love me. That's the point, April.
April Wheeler: But I don't. I hate you. You were just some boy who made me laugh at a party once, and now I loathe the sight of you. In fact, if you come any

closer, if you touch me or anything, I think I'll scream.
Frank Wheeler: Oh, come on, stop this April.
[He touches her for an instant and she screams at the top of her lungs before walking away. He chases after her]
Frank Wheeler: Fuck you, April! Fuck you and all your hateful, goddamn...
[He breaks a chair against a wall]

April Wheeler: What are you going to do now? Are you going to hit me? To show me how much you love me?
Frank Wheeler: Don't worry, I can't be bothered! You're not worth the trouble it would take to hit you! You're not worth the powder it would take to blow you up. You are an empty, empty, hollow shell of a woman. I mean, what the hell are you doing in my

house if you hate me so much? Why the hell are you married to me? What the hell are you doing carrying my child? I mean, why didn't you just get rid of it when you had the chance? Because listen to me, listen to me, I got news for you - I wish to God that you had!

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

April Wheeler: Tell me the truth, Frank, remember that? We used to live by it. And you know what's so good about the truth? Everyone knows what it is however long they've lived without it. No one forgets the truth, Frank, they just get better at lying.

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

Frank Wheeler: [Speaking into a dictophone] Knowing what you've got - comma - knowing what you need - comma - knowing what you can do without - dash - That's inventory control.

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

John Givings: The hopeless emptiness? Now, you've said it. Plenty of people are on to the emptiness; but, it takes real guts to see the hopelessness. Wow.

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

John Givings: You want to play house you got to have a job. You want to play very nice house, very sweeeeeet house; then, you got to have a job you don't like! Anyone comes along and says, "What do you do it for?" he's probably on a four-hour pass from the state funny farm. All agreed?

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

Frank Wheeler: I've been with a girl a few times. In the city. A girl I hardly even know, who is nothing to me. But it's over now, really over. And if I weren't sure of that, then I guess I could never have told you about it.
April Wheeler: Why did you?
Frank Wheeler: Baby, I don't know... I guess it's a simple case of wanting to be

a man again after all that abortion business, some kind of neurotic, irrational need to prove something...
April Wheeler: No. I don't mean why did you have the girl, I mean, why did you tell me about it?
Frank Wheeler: What do you mean?
April Wheeler: I mean, what's the point? Is it supposed to make me jealous or something? Is

it supposed to make me fall in love with you or back into bed with you or what? What would you like me to say Frank?
Frank Wheeler: Why don't you say what you feel, April?
April Wheeler: I don't feel anything.
Frank Wheeler: In other words, you don't care what I do, or who I fuck or anything, hum?
April

Wheeler: No, I guess that's right, I don't. Fuck who you like.

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

April Wheeler: Don't you see? That's the whole idea! You'll be able to do what you should have been allowed to do seven years ago, you'll have the time. For the first time in your life, you'll have the time to find out what it is you actually want to do. And when you figure it out, you'll have the time and the freedom, to start doing.
Frank Wheeler: This

doesn't seem very realistic.
April Wheeler: No, Frank. This is what's unrealistic. It's unrealistic for a man with a fine mind to go on working year after year at a job he can't stand. Coming home to a place he can't stand, to a wife who's equally unable to stand the same things. And you know what the worst part of it is? Our whole existence here is based on this great

premise that we're special. They we're superior to the whole thing. But we're not. We're just like everyone else! We bought into the same, ridiculous delusion. That we have to resign from life and settle down the moment we have children. And we've been punishing each other for it.

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

Shep Campbell: You just... wanted out, huh?
April Wheeler: I wanted *in*. I just... I just wanted us to live again. For years I thought we've shared this secret... that we would be wonderful in the world. I didn't exactly know how, but just... just the possibility kept me hoping.
[takes a cigarette cush]
April Wheeler: How

pathetic is that? So stupid. To put all your hopes in... in a promise that was never made. See, Frank knows. He knows what he wants. He's found his place. He's just fine. Married, two kids. It should be enough.
[takes a sip of martini]
April Wheeler: It is for him. And he's right. We were never special or destined or anything at all.

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

Bart Pollock: Frank, let me tell you something my father told me. A man gets only a couple of chances in life. If he doesn't grab'em by the balls, it won't take long for he's sitting around wondering why he got to be second rate.

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

April Wheeler: Who made these rules anyway?

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

April Wheeler: I saw a whole other future. I can't stop seeing it.

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

April Wheeler: Just because you've got me safe in this little trap, you think you can bully me into feeling whatever you want me to feel!

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

Frank Wheeler: All I know April is, I want to feel things. Really - feel them, you know. How's that for an ambition?

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

Frank Wheeler: How do I know you didn't try to flush our entire fucking family down the toilet?

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

[first lines]
Frank Wheeler: So, what do you do?
April Wheeler: I'm studying to be an actress. You?
Frank Wheeler: I'm a longshoreman.
April Wheeler: No, I mean, really.
Frank Wheeler: I mean really, too. Although starting next Monday I'm doing something a little more glamorous.


April Wheeler: What's that?
Frank Wheeler: Night cashier at a cafeteria.
April Wheeler: I don't mean how you make money. I mean, what are you interested in?
Frank Wheeler: Honey, if I had the answer to that one, I bet I'd bore us both to death in half an hour.

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

Mrs. Helen Givings: April, I'm sorry. I'm *so* sorry.
John Givings: Oh, right! Sorry. Sorry! Sorry! Oh-oh! Oh mom, have I said I'm sorry enough times, damn? I am sorry, too. I'm just about the sorriest bastard I know. But get right down to it, I don't have a whole hell of a lot to be glad about, do I?
John Givings: [to a pregnant

April] Oh but hey, you know what? I am glad about one thing. You wanna know what I'm glad about? I'm glad I'm not gonna be that kid.

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

Frank Wheeler: Actually, there's been a change in plans. I thought maybe it was obvious. April, here is pregnant.
Mr. Howard Givings: Congratulations!
Mrs. Helen Givings: Oh, April, I can't tell you how pleased I am! Oh, but I expect you'll be needing a bigger house now. Won't you?
John Givings: Hold on a

second now Mom. Hold on a second, Mom. I-I don't get this? I mean, what's so obvious about it? I mean, okay, she's pregnant. So what? Don't people have babies in Europe?
Frank Wheeler: Suppose we just say that people anywhere aren't very well advised to have babies unless they can afford it.
John Givings: Okay. Okay, it's a question of money. Money's

a good reason. But, its hardly ever the *real* reason. What's the real reason? Wife talk you out of it or what? Little woman, decides she isn't quite ready to playing house? No. No, that's not it. I can tell. She looks too tough and mad as hell. Okay, then, it must have been you! What happened?
Mrs. Helen Givings: John, please. You're being very rude.
John

Givings: No, no. What happened, Frank? You get cold feet? You decide - you're better off here, after all? You figure, it's more - comfy here in the old hopelessness emptiness, after all? Well, that did it! Look at his face. What's a matter, Wheeler? Am I gettin' warm?

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

John Givings: You a lawyer, Frank?
Frank Wheeler: No, I'm not.
John Givings: I could use a lawyer...
Mr. Howard Givings: John, let's not get started again about the lawyer.
John Givings: Pop, couldn't you just sit there and eat your wonderful egg salad, and quit horning in?

[Returns his attention to Frank]
John Givings: See, I've got a good many questions to ask and I'm willing to pay for the answers... Now, I don't need to be told that a man who goes after his mother with a coffee table is putting himself in a weak position, legally; that's obvious.
Mrs. Helen Givings: John, come and have a look out this fabulous

picture window.
[She walks to the window]
John Givings: If he hits her with it and kills her, that's a criminal case...
Mrs. Helen Givings: Oh, look, the sun's coming out!
John Givings: If all he does is break the coffee table and give her a certain amount of aggravation and she decides to go to court over it, that's a

civil case...
Mrs. Helen Givings: Maybe we'll see a rainbow! John, come have a look...
John Givings: Ma, how about doing everybody a favor? How about shutting up?

Revolutionary Road
Revolutionary Road

John Givings: You know something? I wouldn't be surprised if he knocked her up on purpose just so he could spend the rest of his life hiding behind a maternity dress. That way he'd never have to find out what he's really made of!