Early Edition

Gary Hobson:
Sometimes that's all a hero is, Chuck - the guy who's there.

Chuck:
Some dances you sit out. Others, you change partners. The important thing is, you never stop dancing.

Chuck Fishman:
[voice over] The trick is to assume your life is going to work out. Of course, it never does, so you do the next best thing: you take it one disaster at a time.

Gary Hobson:
Marissa, what do you say I make us both dinner?

Marissa Clark:
Sure, why not.

[Spike barks]

Gary Hobson:
The three of us. [the cat meows] All right, dinner for four.

Chuck Fishman:
[voice over] So maybe that's the secret, when you get right down to it: treat every day like it was your last, or your best.

Chuck Fishman:
[voice over] It's easy to be cynical. Especially today, when it looks like all our heroes are crooks, our role models frauds. Every now and again, however, when you least expect it, the real thing comes along: someone who can find the heart inside the cynic and give those who hold nothing sacred something to believe in. It's not always easy telling the good from the bad, even if you do get tomorrow's paper today. Why, is why. Sometimes, to find the answers, you have to look in your heart.

Chuck Fishman:
[voice over] There's all kind of courage out there. Hey, that person standing next to you on the subway car, in the supermarket, take a closer look next time. Who knows, it might be you're standing next to a hero.

Chuck Fishman:
You know, that's just like you. Heaven passes right under your nose and you don't even blink.

Chuck Fishman:
See, I have this thing about snakes. It"s called 'fear of death."

Chuck Fishman:
But you get tomorrow's newspaper, which, may I add, is a real ice-breaker.

Gary:
I can baby-sit or whatever it is you do with an eight year old.

Marissa:
Gary, you don't even like kids.

Gary:
I do too like kids. From a distance, they're all right.

Gary:
You know, sometimes when people get older, they lose a little faith.

Henry:
But, if you lose it, can they get it back?

Gary:
I'm working on it, kid.

Seller:
Sun-Times! Get your Sun-Times here!

[Gary walks past]

Seller:
Hey, Mister! Latest edition!

Gary:
That's what you think kid.

Gary:
[yelling at the cat] What is this, huh? I come in down here to turn off one lousy circuit breaker, the next thing I know I'm in 1929. There's gangsters running around. They're trying to kill me. And don't think I don't know you're involved in this! I tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna turn this lamp off, do you hear me? I'm gonna turn this lamp off and when I turn it back on, I want to be in my own time. Do we understand each other?"

[Gary turns lamp off]

Cat:
Meow.

[Gary turns lamp on and nothing has changed]

Cat:
Purrrrr.

Gary:
Well, that's just great!

Gary:
Opportunity doesn't knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.

Gary:
Howzat?

Lucius Snow:
Count the living, not the dead, Gary.

Detective Toni Brigatti:
Come on Paul, this is Gary Hobson we're talking about. He's more peanut butter and jelly than Jekyll and Hyde.

Gary:
Well that's because you always tell me that you don't wanna know what I know that I'm not supposed to know.

Gary:
Look, isn't there any way you can just stamp me as not crazy and let me get outta here?

Chuck:
Why are we here? I hated college. Deadlines, term papers, cram study sessions, stupid touch football games, dorms, ugh, communal showers, toilets with no doors, waking up in the middle of the night, drunk, in the parking lot, naked.

Gary:
I don't remember that.

Chuck:
You know what? Since we have graduated, I do not even remotely miss anything about college.

[a pretty girl walks by and looks at them]

Chuck:
I stand corrected.

Detective Toni Brigatti:
I put two and two together and I got Hobson.

Chuck:
Better safe than. Ahhhhh... What-ever!

Chuck:
They say things happen for a reason, but that reason may not always be clear. In time, with faith, the meaning may emerge. What was, what is, what shall be. Pieces of a puzzle, falling into place.

[Gary keeps trying to stop a wedding]

F.B.I. Agent:
You take one step into that church and you're going to jail.

Gary:
For what?

F.B.I. Agent:
For being pathetic.

Lois Hobson:
Chuck, I have this condition; the doctors call it 'Crap Intolerance'. I can only take so much BS before I explode.

Cat:
MEOwwwwwwwww. [sound of paper landing on floor outside door]

Marissa Clark:
What were we saying? Oh, yeah. Kids.

Gary Hobson:
Yeah, kids. How can she not want kids?

Marissa Clark:
Uh, wild guess. Because she doesn't.

Gary Hobson:
Well, she did when we met.

Marissa Clark:
She said that?

Gary Hobson:
No, not in so many words, but a guy just figures that. Then she gets the job at the law firm. No, no.

Marissa Clark:
Well, you know, Gary, people change. I mean, look at you.

Gary Hobson:
Oh, yeah. A lot of people have families. Instead, I get a cat.

Marissa Clark:
Heroes never have it easy.

Gary Hobson:
Well, the only reason anyone ever called me a hero is because I get this paper. [gives milk to the cat] Here.

Marissa Clark:
Maybe you get that paper because you're a hero.

Chuck:
Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't. Whether or not you have a crystal ball, life is a search for answers and everybody's looking all at the same time, in the same general place which is probably why we keep tripping over each other. So here's to life. The ups, the downs, the twists, the turns, the whole mixed up unpredictable mess of it. Just remember to keep your spirits up and your eyes wide open, and remember, there's always tomorrow.

Bernie Hobson:
Men run with the wolves, they don't walk with the duckies!

Marissa Clark:
Maybe one person can't change the world. But one person can give it a nudge. And, you know, sometimes that's enough.

Marissa Clark:
You never know where tomorrow's going to take you. From the seats of power to a seat in the tattoo parlor. It's all part of the package when you get tomorrow's newspaper today.

Gary Hobson:
Well, Henry, I'm, I'm just a regular guy who just happens to get tomorrow's paper, okay? Don't ask me why, 'cause I don't know, buddy. I can't save the world. And if I tried, you... I couldn't.

Henry Paget:
Why not?

Gary Hobson:
Because world peace is a little bit out of my league.

Chuck Fishman:
[Opening narration] What if you knew, beyond a doubt, what was going to happen tomorrow? Sure, I know it's crazy... but what if you did? Whether you'd be rich or poor, a hero or a loser, lucky in love, unlucky in life, what would you do? What if, by some magic, you found the power to really change things: people, events... maybe even your life? Would you even know where to start? Maybe you can't know... until it happens.

[Discussing the newspaper]

Gary Hobson:
And that's about it. It comes every day, like it or not.

Marissa Clark:
Which you don't.

Gary Hobson:
You got it

Marissa Clark:
Where's it coming from?

Gary Hobson:
The hallway.

Gary Hobson:
That's not what I mean. Could you, um...?

Marissa Clark:
Maybe it comes from God.

Gary Hobson:
Oh, right, yeah. Yeah. God's a cosmic paperboy.

Marissa Clark:
Welcome back. So, you like your food lukewarm or cold?

Gary Hobson:
What, am I supposed to run around in a little red cape and save the world?

Marissa Clark:
You might look good in a cape.

Judge A. Harding Joseph:
The law is technicality, Mr. Brown. An entire code of technicalities.

Gary Hobson:
Listen, lady, I don't have time for your little act, your hocus pocus, or whatever.

Princess Sibella:
The best part of my visit to Chicago was the people. Their warmth, their kindness, the way they welcomed me into their lives, 'tis something I would cherish forever. If circumstances were different, it is the kind of city that I could happily spend the rest of my life. Thank you.

Chuck Fishman:
[voice over] Fairy tales do come true, if only for a day. But you know, sometimes that day is enough to last a lifetime.

Eddie:
So you wanted to talk? Talk.

Megan Clark:
Eddie...

Eddie:
What? You want to apologize?

Megan Clark:
Apologize?

Megan Clark:
Yeah. For showing me up a little while ago.

Megan Clark:
No, I don't want to apologize. I want to talk about us.

Eddie:
What?

Megan Clark:
I think it's time for a little break.

Eddie:
Break? What are you talking about?

Megan Clark:
From each other. I was talking to that new student teacher Mr. Quinn.

Eddie:
What are you talking to that loser for?

Megan Clark:
He's not a loser Eddie.

Eddie:
Yeah. He is.

Megan Clark:
You think that all my friends are losers don't you?

Eddie:
They are.

Megan Clark:
No, they're not.

Eddie:
[Eddie starts to walk away] Where are you going Eddie? I'm talking to you.

Eddie:
I'll see you after school.

Megan Clark:
No you won't. And You won't see me tomorrow either.

Chuck Fishman:
The greatest boon to mankind since nontaxable income, and who does it come to? A guy who buys lottery tickets and doesn't cheat.

Chuck Fishman:
There are sure-fire ways to get out of jury duty.

Gary Hobson:
Alright, well, what are they?

Chuck Fishman:
One, you have an incurable disease, with less than a year to live.

Gary Hobson:
Go on.

Chuck Fishman:
You're self-employed, and you have a wife and four kids to support.

Gary Hobson:
Next.

Chuck Fishman:
You believe every man is guilty until proven innocent. It works every time!

Chuck Fishman:
[voiceover] Life doesn't always come with a set of instructions. In fact, most of the time, it just comes. Every morning, like clockwork. It's there when you open your eyes, and it's still there even when you don't. Take my friend Gary, a regular guy. At least he was 'til the day life showed up at his doorstop, in spades. Now he spends half his time figuring out where the heck it all came from, and the other half wondering where it all goes. Face it, it's not necessarily all it's cracked up to be, having the jump on the rest of the world. Still, you go with what you got, and when what you got is tomorrow's news, well it's gotta be one of two things: either you're a day ahead, or everyone else is a day behind.

Molly Greene:
In the end, this isn't a story about a traffic light, or how cynicism can blind you or how politics can make you cynical. Or how somebody with nothing but good intent can triumph over insurmountable odds. Or how you're never too old for redemption. No, what this story is about is how a city can have a soul like any other living thing. And how that soul is kept alive by the people in the neighborhoods, in the stores, the churches, the bars, the backrooms, meeting halls and anywhere we gather together to get something done. And that, as they say, is all she wrote.