Memorable quotes for
Footloose (1984) More at IMDbPro »

Chuck: I thought only pansies wore neckties.
Ren: See that? I thought only assholes used the word "pansy".
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Ren: [to Willard] Hey, I like that hat, man. They sell men's clothes where you got that?
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Reverend Shaw Moore: If our Lord wasn't testing us, how would you account for the proliferation, these days, of this obscene rock and roll music, with its gospel of easy sexuality and relaxed morality?
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Reverend Shaw Moore: Even if this was not a law, which it is, I'm afraid I would have a lot of difficulty endorsing an enterprise which is as fraught with genuine peril as I believe this one to be. Besides the liquor and the drugs which always seem to accompany such an event the thing that distresses me even more, Ren, is the spiritual corruption that can be involved. These dances and this kind of music can be destructive, and, uh, Ren, I'm afraid you're going to find most of the people in our community are gonna agree with me on this.
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Ren: You like Men At Work?
Willard: what men?
Ren: Men at work.
Willard: well where do they work?
Ren: No, they're a music group.
Willard: well what do they call themselves?
Ren: Oh no! What about the Police?
Willard: What about 'em?
Ren: You ever heard them?
Willard: No, but I seen them.
Ren: Where, in concert?
Willard: No, behind you.
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Ariel: Hey MacCormick! When this hat flies in the air, you better have your butt in gear.
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Wes: Ethel are you sure you're not tired?
Ethel: No, Ren did most of the driving.
Amy: If you ask me, Ren is a total fox.
Lulu: Amy!
Wes: Where did you hear that? Ethel do you see how television and those kinds of books influence children? You see?
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Amy: [dreamily] If you ask me, Ren is a total fox.
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Wes: Seems that a bunch of kids was raising some hell over at Burlington Cranton's property a few days back. Tore up the fields, turned over a tractor and everything. Today someone suggested to me there's been some trouble up at the high school. I think it was drugs. You don't happen to know anything about it do you.
Ren: [Quietly] No.
Wes: What was that, I can't hear you.
Amy: He said no.
Lulu: Amy.
Ren: I said no sir.
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Wes: It seems that a lot of people are pointing the finger in your direction lately.
Ren: And what have they said?
Wes: What I have been telling you about the trouble and the drugs and it just seems like you've had a lot of problems since you moved. And I figured...
Ren: You figured "Where there's smoke there's fire" right?
Wes: Usually works like that. Now Ren, you know that I would never try to take the place of your father...
Ren: Yeah well there's no chance of that!
[Gets up and leaves the house]
Lulu: Ren!
Sarah: [Running over to the window] Uh oh he's taking the car.
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Ren: What are you doing here?
Ariel: Watchin'.
Ren: I thought I was alone.
Ariel: Not in this town. There's eyes everywhere.
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Willard: You know what it is, you've got an attitude problem.
Ren: Oh I've got an attitude problem?
Willard: Yes and I'm not the first one that's noticed it. I mean we're not stuck in the goddamn middle ages here. I mean we've got TV. We've got Family Feud. We're not stuck in Leave It To Beaver land here.
Ren: Well I haven't noticed a wet T-shirt contest in town yet.
Willard: Yeah but I'm waiting. Patiently.
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[last lines]
Ren: Hey, hey! What's this I see? I thought this was a party. LET'S DANCE!
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Andy Beamis: You're the last folks I expected to see around here tonight.
Reverend Shaw Moore: Hi Andy.
Vi Moore: Hi Andy.
Andy Beamis: It was a good thing you did here tonight, Reverend
Reverend Shaw Moore: I'm still not sure it was the right thing to do.
Andy Beamis: Comes pretty close.
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Chuck: [after beating up Ariel] Huh? I was about through with you anyway!
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Willard: People think she's a hellraiser.
Ren: Is she?
Willard: I think she's been kissed a lot.
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Rusty: He's from out of town and don't tell me that doesn't curl your toes because I know it does.
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Reverend Shaw Moore: Were you drinking?
Ariel: No.
Reverend Shaw Moore: Smoking something?
Ariel: No! I wasn't stealing, I wasn't gambling, I wasn't dancing, I wasn't reading books I'm not supposed to! I am late!
Reverend Shaw Moore: Who were you with?
Ariel: Ren McCormick.
Reverend Shaw Moore: I don't want you to see him anymore.
Ariel: Why not?
Reverend Shaw Moore: Because I've heard he's a troublemaker.
Ariel: Just because he hasn't lived in this town for 20 years doesn't make him a troublemaker!
Reverend Shaw Moore: Ariel, I don't know what I'm going to do with you.
Ariel: There ain't nothing to *do* with me, Daddy. You like it or not, this is it. It doesn't get much better.
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Ren: I tell you what I'd like to do - I'd like to fold a Playboy centrefold into every one of Reverend Shaw's hymnbooks!
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Mr. Gurntz: He was trying to teach
[that]
Mr. Gurntz: book.
Mrs. Allyson: Slaughterhouse-Five, isn't that an awful name?
Ren: Yeah it's a classic... Slaughterhouse-Five, it's a classic.
Mr. Gurntz: Tom Sawyer is a classic! Do you read much?
Mrs. Allyson: Maybe in another town it's a classic.
Ren: In *any* town.
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Willard: You won't get any dancing here, it's illegal.
Ren: Jump back!
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Ren: Did you ever get busted for boppin'?
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Reverend Shaw Moore: I think it's Heyden, a chamber piece.
Ariel: And that kind of music's ok?
Reverend Shaw Moore: It doesn't confuse people's minds and bodies.
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Ariel: [to her father, the town preacher] I just don't know that I believe in everything you believe in. But I believe in you.
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Ariel: I'm no saint you know. I'm not even a virgin.
Reverend Shaw Moore: Don't you talk like that here!
Ariel: Why not? Isn't this where I'm supposed to come to confess my sins to my preacher? In CHURCH! I ask to be forgiven! Am I?
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Willard: Hey, I came with this girl.
Fat Cowboy: Well it doesn't look like you're leaving with her.
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Fat Cowboy: Why don't you just flake off, huh.
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Reverend Shaw Moore: It's not that we don't talk, it's just that sometimes people run out of things to say.
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Wes: [after brick is thrown through window] "Burn in Hell?" This says "Burn in Hell"!
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Ariel: I just don't know if I believe in everything that you believe in. But I believe in you.
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Ariel: Do you wanna kiss me?
Ren: Someday.
Ariel: [Gets in Ren's car] What's this "someday" shit?
Ren: Well, it's just I get the feeling you've been kissed a lot, and I'm afraid I'd suffer by comparison.
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Reverend Shaw Moore: I'm standing up here before you today... with a very troubled heart. You see, my friends... You see, my friends... I've always insisted on... taking responsibility for your lives. But, I'm really... like a first-time parent... who makes mistakes... and tries to learn from them. And like that parent... I find myself at that moment when I have to decide. Do I hold on... or do I trust you to yourselves? Let go and hope that you've understood... at least some of my lessons. If we don't start trusting our children... how will they ever become trustworthy?
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Ariel: How come you don't like me?
Ren: What makes you think that I don't like you?
Ariel: You never talk to me at school. You never *look* at me!
Ren: Yeah, well maybe that's because if I did, your boyfriend would remove my lungs with a spoon.
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Ren: [addressing the town council, reading from his notes in the Bible] "From the oldest of times, people danced for a number of reasons. They danced in prayer... or so that their crops would be plentiful... or so their hunt would be good. And they danced to stay physically fit... and show their community spirit. And they danced to celebrate." And that is the dancing we're talking about. Aren't we told in Psalm 149 "Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song. Let them praise His name in the dance"? And it was King David - King David, who we read about in Samuel - and what did David do? What did David do?
[paging frantically through Bible]
Ren: What *did* David do?
[audience laughs]
Ren: "David danced before the Lord with all his might... leaping and dancing before the Lord."
[smacks table in front of Reverend Moore]
Ren: *Leaping* and *dancing*.
[stands up straight]
Ren: Ecclesiastes assures us... that there is a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to laugh... and a time to weep. A time to mourn... and there is a time to dance. And there was a time for this law, but not anymore. See, this is our time to dance. It is our way of celebrating life. It's the way it was in the beginning. It's the way it's always been. It's the way it should be now.
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Reverend Shaw Moore: [discussing Ariel] We're losing her, Vi. Don't you see that?
Vi Moore: No. I see you chasing after her and I see her running from you.
Reverend Shaw Moore: She's become so willful, so obstinate.
Vi Moore: She's like her father. The two of you were so wonderful once. You had so much to talk about. I was almost jealous.
Reverend Shaw Moore: It's not as if we don't talk. It's just that sometimes people run out of things to say.
Vi Moore: [pause] Shaw? It's 20 years now I've been a minister's wife. And I've been quiet, supportive, unobtrusive and after 20 years I still think you're a wonderful, a wonderful preacher. You can lift a congregation up so high they have to look down to see heaven. But it's the one to one where you need a little work.
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Vi Moore: None of this is going to undue one stupid accident.
Reverend Shaw Moore: I'm responsible for the spiritual life of this community.
Vi Moore: Shaw, you can't be a father to everybody. You can't do that.
Reverend Shaw Moore: I thought that at least *you* believed in me.
Vi Moore: [whispering] I never stopped.
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Vi Moore: Shaw? It's years now I've been a minister's wife. And I've been quiet, supportive, unobtrusive and... after twenty years I still think you're a wonderful preacher. You can lift a congregation up so high... they have to look down to see heaven. But it's the one-to-one where you need a little work.
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Ren: I'll tell you, there was this place called the Blue Heaven. It was great. Had to steal IDs to get in, but it was incredible. It was like a huge underground circus, you know. Hot pink neon climbin' up the walls. And astro music. And millions of girls, like from the university mostly. If we could get one to dance, just one, then that was it. We'd get out on the floor and we'd really start to smoke. We'd start cuttin' in, and these girls would stop. - And they'd look.
Willard: They'd look how?
Ren: You know, they'd start to warm up a little. Right? Pretty soon, they'd start buying us beers...
Willard: They're buying you guys beers?
Ren: Oh, yeah. Wait. There was this one. This was the best. Ginger. Listen. We started dancing, right? Slow dancing, like we're stuck to each other. Eventually it's obvious to me that she wants to do more than dance. Right? So we left the place. On the way to the car, she's already got her tongue in my ear. We get to the car. She says we can't go to her place 'cause of her roommate, right? But she says, ''Hey, that's no problem.'' She's got seats in the car that recline back. All the way back. - If you know what I'm saying. - All the way? Would I shit you? Right? She rips my shirt open. She's clawing my chest. She's biting my neck, and I'm trying to get over the stick shift... 'cause we're goin' like a freight train now. All of a sudden, she starts screaming at the top of her lungs... ''Oh, God! Oh, God! Don't stop! Make Ginger pop!''
Willard: Oh, shit, really?
Ren: No!
[laughs]
Ren: But we did dance.
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Chuck: I treated you decent!
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Ren: Up on the roof, oh yeah. 100 proof, oh yeah. I'm feelin' fine, oh yeah. Drink cherry wine, oh yeah.
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Vi Moore: [embracing] Shaw?
Reverend Shaw Moore: What?
Vi Moore: We're almost dancing.
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Reverend Shaw Moore: I'm told that the senior class at the high school... has got use of the warehouse in Bayson... for the purpose of putting on a senior dance. Please... join me to pray to the Lord... to guide them in their endeavors.
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Reverend Shaw Moore: Your mother didn't think you had any money with you.
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