Always (1989 film)

Always is a 1989 romantic drama film in which the spirit of a recently deceased expert pilot mentors a newer pilot while watching him fall in love with the girlfriend that he left behind.
 * Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Jerry Belson and Diane Thomas, based on the 1943 film A Guy Named Joe by Dalton Trumbo, Frederick Hazlitt Brennan, Chandler Sprague, and David Boehm.

'''They couldn't hear him. They couldn't see him. But he was there when they needed him... Even after he was gone.'''

Pete Sandich

 * There's something fishy going on here. And I don't think it's the chicken.


 * [Speaking to Dorinda after he's dead] I know now, that the love we hold back is the only pain that follows us here.

Dorinda Durston

 * He's too beautiful. He's too much twisted steel and sex appeal. I can't be with a guy that looks like I won him in a raffle.

Other

 * Hap: I told you, anything you do for yourself is a waste of spirit.

Dialogue

 * Pete: Love! Ain't what it used to be.
 * Al: Oh there's only ever been two kinds: There's lash fires, which are all flame, burn themselves out and leave nothing. Then there's the long burning. That is nature's burn. Even when you think it's out, the forest floor is warm to the touch. That's the kind you and Dorinda got.
 * Pete: You're a poet, Al. You're a really bad poet, but you're a poet.


 * Al: The hell with it. What this place reminds me of is the war in Europe.
 * Pete: This is deep.
 * Al: Which I was personally never at, but think about it. The beer's warm, the dance hall's a Quonset, there's B-26s outside, hotshot pilots inside, an airstrip in the woods... it's England, man! Everything but Glenn Miller! Except we go to burning places and bomb 'em till they stop burning. You see, Pete, there ain't no war here.
 * Pete: What's taking her so long?
 * Al: This is why they don't make movies called 'Night Raid to Boise, Idaho' or 'Firemen Strike at Dawn'. And this is why you ain't exactly a hero for taking these chances you take. You're more of what I would call a dickhead.


 * [after Pete's plane explodes, he finds himself getting a haircut in the woods]
 * Pete: Hap, I don't want you to think that I'm doubting your good faith, I just want to get one thing clear, okay?
 * Hap: Okay.
 * Pete: Am I dead?
 * Hap: That's right.
 * Pete: I'm dead?
 * Hap: Right.
 * Pete: Keep the sideburns. Boy, what a jerk I turned out to be. Dead! And now, I sitting in the woods, getting my haircut.


 * [Ted is hearing Pete's words in his head as his own thoughts]
 * Bartender: What'll it be?
 * Pete: Extra dry vodka martini. Don't forget the olive.
 * Ted: Root beer. Don't forget the olive.


 * Ted: [being serenaded by the other pilots after a botched exercise] This is first place, right?
 * [Al comes roaring up in a jeep, covered in fire retardant; the crowd falls silent]
 * Al: Cute. Now we know how ready you are. We're gonna be coming into fire season soon, and if we get a big one - a real big one - they're gonna be calling guys from all over the place. They're gonna be calling veterans, first-timers, guys from all over the country if they have to. And when they call me, they're gonna say, 'Al, whaddya got?' And I'm gonna tell them I ain't got nothin'. 'Cause you're nothin'! What you did today was nothin'! Hell, you can't even hit a smoking oil drum, and a drum ain't a tree! A tree can explode like a bomb! A tree can go up like a Roman candle! And an oil drum don't have any heat! In a real fire, there's heat! There's heat that can suck you under, flip you over! There's currents that can tie a knot in a windsock! And Baker - Baker, you're on the bus. I'm going to San Diego and when I get back tomorrow, I don't want to see you in here.


 * Al: I miss him too! I miss him too. I miss him every day. I loved him like I've never loved a guy. And I don't love guys. You don't have an excuse, you quit. You quit, you gave up. He never quit on anything until it killed him, and that was his way, and there's much worse ways. And boys you sure found one.
 * Dorinda: I can't live without it.
 * Al: Bullshit.


 * Dorinda: ...so he sees this building on fire and then just outside of town of this reservoir, so what he does is...
 * Ted: He takes a plane, he goes over the reservoir, fills it with water, dumps it, puts the fire out.
 * Dorinda: No! He missed. He hit the post office next door. Knocked it on its butt! It took him three tries. The town was awash; the groceries were burnt. It was fire, flood and famine. If he could have managed plague, it would have been the four horsemen of the apocalypse in one PBY. I mean he was unique.


 * Pete: I don't know what you think you're doing, but turn this plane around. Dorinda, you never would listen to me and you always did just fine, but this isn't the same. This is Ted's mission, and you're not good enough. You're not good enough, and you won't make it! Is that what you want? That's not my girl!
 * Al: [shouting over the radio] Dorinda, God damn it! This is no time to be dickin' around with an airplane!
 * [Dorinda throws her headset off as she flies into the maw of a vast wildfire]
 * Pete: Okay... let's not be rational! Throttle! More throttle! Level out... level out, level out, LEVEL OUT! And you say I flew crazy! What are you trying to do? Dorinda, fly smart! Those guys down there need you!

Cast

 * Richard Dreyfuss as Pete Sandich
 * Holly Hunter as Dorinda Durston
 * John Goodman as Al Yackey
 * Brad Johnson as Ted Baker
 * Audrey Hepburn as Hap (final role)
 * Roberts Blossom as Dave
 * Ed Van Nuys as Nails
 * Marg Helgenberger as Rachel
 * Dale Dye as Don
 * Brian Haley as Alex
 * James Lashly as Charlie
 * Michael Steve Jones as Grey