Field of Dreams

Ray Kinsella:
It's okay, honey. I... I was just talking to the cornfield.

Annie Kinsella:
Hey, what if the Voice calls while you're gone?

Ray Kinsella:
Take a message.

Ray Kinsella:
Don't we need a catcher?

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
Not if you get it near the plate we don't.

Terence Mann:
Peace, love, dope. Now get the hell out of here.

The Voice:
If you build it, he will come.

Ray Kinsella:
What are you grinning at, you ghost?

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
If you build it...

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
... HE will come.

Annie Kinsella:
If you build what, who will come?

Ray Kinsella:
He didn't say.

Terence Mann:
Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

Ray Kinsella:
It was you...

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
No, Ray. It was YOU.

Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham:
This is my most special place in all the world, Ray. Once a place touches you like this, the wind nevers blows so cold again. You feel for it, like it was your child.

Ray Kinsella:
This is my corn. You people are guests in my corn.

Terence Mann:
Oh my God.

Ray Kinsella:
What?

Terence Mann:
You're from the Sixties.

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
Is this heaven?

Ray Kinsella:
No, it's Iowa.

Archie Graham:
Hey ump, how 'bout a warning?

Clean-shaven Umpire:
Sure, kid. Watch out you don't get killed.

Ray Kinsella:
The Voice is back.

Annie Kinsella:
Oh, Lord. You're supposed to build a football field now?

Ray Kinsella:
Don't you miss being involved?

Terence Mann:
I was the East Coast distributor of "involved." I ate it, drank it, and breathed it... Then they killed Martin, Bobby, and they elected Tricky Dick twice, and people like you must think I'm miserable because I'm not involved anymore. Well, I've got news for you. I spent all my misery years ago. I have no more pain for anything. I gave at the office.

Ray Kinsella:
So what do you want?

Terence Mann:
I want them to stop looking to me for answers, begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves. I want my privacy.

Ray Kinsella:
No, I mean, what do you WANT?

Terence Mann:
Oh. Dog and a beer.

Ray Kinsella:
Are you Moonlight Graham?

Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham:
No one's called me Moonlight Graham in fifty years.

Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham:
Well, you know I... I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases - stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That's my wish, Ray Kinsella. That's my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?

Ray Kinsella:
Fifty years ago, for five minutes you came within... y-you came this close. It would KILL some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they'd consider it a tragedy.

Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham:
Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... now that would have been a tragedy.

Ray Kinsella:
Where'd they come from?

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
Where did WE come from? You wouldn't believe how many guys wanted to play here. We had to beat 'em off with a stick.

Archie Graham:
Hey, that's Smokey Joe Wood. And Mel Ott. And Gil Hodges!

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
Ty Cobb wanted to play, but none of us could stand the son-of-a-b*tch when we were alive, so we told him to stick it!

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
The first two were high and tight, so where do you think the next one's gonna be?

Archie Graham:
Well, either low and away, or in my ear.

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
He's not gonna wanna load the bases, so look low and away.

Archie Graham:
Right.

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
But watch out for in your ear.

Mark:
You build a baseball field, and you sit here, and stare at NOTHING.

John Kinsella:
Is this heaven?

Ray Kinsella:
It's Iowa.

John Kinsella:
Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven.

Ray Kinsella:
Is there a heaven?

John Kinsella:
Oh yeah. It's the place where dreams come true.

Ray Kinsella:
Maybe this is heaven.

Ray Kinsella:
The only thing we had in common was that she was from Iowa, and I had once heard of Iowa.

Eddie Cicotte:
I'm melting. I'm melting.

Ray Kinsella:
That is so cool.

Ray Kinsella:
What you grinning at, you ghost?

Ray Kinsella:
I'm 36 years old, I love my family, I love baseball and I'm about to become a farmer. But until I heard the voice, I'd never done a crazy thing in my whole life.

Annie Kinsella:
At least he is not a book burner, you Nazi cow.

Ray Kinsella:
We're keeping this field.

Annie Kinsella:
All right, Beulah, do you want to step outside?

Ray Kinsella:
I bet it's good to be playing again, huh?

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
Getting thrown out of baseball was like having part of me amputated. I've heard that old men wake up and scratch itchy legs that been dust for over fifty years. That was me. I'd wake up at night with the smell of the ball park in my nose, the cool of the grass on my feet... The thrill of the grass.

Ray Kinsella:
I'm pitching to Shoeless Joe Jackson...

Ray Kinsella:
See if you can hit my curve.

Ray Kinsella:
Yeah. Yeah, you can hit the curve ball.

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
Man, I did love this game. I'd have played for food money. It was the game... The sounds, the smells. Did you ever hold a ball or a glove to your face?

Ray Kinsella:
Yeah.

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
I used to love travelling on the trains from town to town. The hotels... brass spittoons in the lobbies, brass beds in the rooms. It was the crowd, rising to their feet when the ball was hit deep. Shoot, I'd play for nothing!

Ray Kinsella:
The man wrote the best books of his generation. And he was a pioneer of the Civil Rights and the anti-war movement. I mean, he made the cover of Newsweek. He knew everybody. He did everything. And he helped shape his time. I mean, the guy hung out with The Beatles! But in the end, it wasn't enough. What he missed was baseball.

Annie Kinsella:
Oh, my God!

Ray Kinsella:
What?

Annie Kinsella:
As a small boy, he had a bat named Rosebud.

Ray Kinsella:
My name's Ray Kinsella. You used my father's name in one of your stories: John Kinsella.

Terence Mann:
You're seeing a whole team of psychiatrists, aren't you?

Ray Kinsella:
Hey, Annie. Guess what? I'm with Terence Mann!

Annie Kinsella:
Oh, my God! You kidnapped him!

Terence Mann:
Ray, there was a reason they chose me, just as there was a reason they chose you and this field.

Ray Kinsella:
Why?

Terence Mann:
I gave an interview.

Ray Kinsella:
What interview? What are you talking about?

Terence Mann:
The one about Ebbets Field. The one that charged you up and sent you all the way out to Boston to find me.

Ray Kinsella:
You lied to me.

Terence Mann:
Well, you were kidnapping me at the time, you big jerk!

Ray Kinsella:
Well, you lied to me!

Terence Mann:
You said your finger was a gun!

Ray Kinsella:
That's a good point.

Terence Mann:
Ray. Ray. Listen to me, Ray. Listen to me. There is something out there, Ray, and if I have the courage to go through with this, what a story it'll make: "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa".

Ray Kinsella:
I did it all. I listened to the voices, I did what they told me, and not once did I ask what's in it for me.

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
What are you saying, Ray?

Ray Kinsella:
I'm saying? what's in it for me?

Mark:
You're going to lose your farm, pal.

Ray Kinsella:
Come on, it's so big - I mean, how can you lose something so big?

Annie Kinsella:
He misplaced the house once.

Ray Kinsella:
Yeah, but it turned up two days later, didn't it?

Annie Kinsella:
They're talking about banning books again! Really subversive books, like "The Wizard of Oz"..."the Diary of Anne Frank"...

Dr. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham:
You know we just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening. Back then I thought, well, there'll be other days. I didn't realize that that was the only day.

Ray:
I bet it's good to be playing again, huh?

Shoeless Joe:
Getting thrown out of baseball was like having part of me amputated. I've heard that old men wake up and scratch itchy legs that have been dust for over fifty years. That was me. I'd wake up at night with the smell of the ball park in my nose, the cool of the grass on my feet... The thrill of the grass.

...

Shoeless Joe:
Man, I did love this game. I'd have played for food money. It was the game... The sounds, the smells. Did you ever hold a ball or a glove to your face?

Ray:
Yeah.

Shoeless Joe:
I used to love travelling on the trains from town to town. The hotels... brass spittoons in the lobbies, brass beds in the rooms. It was the crowd, rising to their feet when the ball was hit deep. Shoot, I'd play for nothing!

Annie Kinsella:
Terence Mann was a voice of reason during a time of great madness. He coined the phrase, "Make love, not war". Where others were chanting, "Burn, baby burn", he talked about love, and peace and understanding. I cherished every one of his books, and I dearly wish he had written some more. And I think that if you had experienced even a little bit of the Sixties, you might feel the same way too.

Pro-censorship woman:
I experienced the Sixties.

Annie Kinsella:
No, I think you had two '50's and moved right in to the '70's.

...

Annie Kinsella:
Who's for Eva Braun here? Who wants to burn books? Who wants to spit on the Constitution of the United States of America, anybody? Now who's for the Bill of Rights? Who thinks that freedom is a pretty darn good thing? Who thinks that we have to stand up to the kind of censorship that they had under Stalin?

Terence Mann:
I was the East Coast distributor of 'involved'. I ate it, drank it, and breathed it. Then they killed Martin, they killed Bobby, they elected Tricky Dick twice. And people like you think I must be miserable because I'm not involved anymore. Well, I've got news for you. I spent all my misery years ago. I have no more pain for anything. I gave at the office.

Ray Kinsella:
So, what do you want?

Terence Mann:
I want them to stop looking to me for answers, begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves. I want my privacy.

Ray Kinsella:
I mean, what do you want? [Gestures toward concession stand.]

Terence Mann:
Oh. Dog and a beer.

Ray Kinsella:
Two of those.

Concession stand worker:
Seven bucks.

Dr. Graham:
It was like coming this close to your dreams and then watch them brush past you like a stranger in a crowd. At the time, you don't think much of it. You know, we just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening. Back then I thought, 'Well, there'll be other days.' I didn't realize that that was the only day. And now, Ray Kinsella, I want to ask you a question. What's so interesting about a half an inning that would make you come all the way from Iowa to talk to me about it 50 years after it happened?

Ray Kinsella:
I really didn't know till just now, but I think it's to ask you if you could do anything you wanted, if you could have a-a wish.

Dr. Graham:
And that you're the kind of a man who could grant me that wish?

Ray Kinsella:
I don't know. I'm just asking.

Dr. Graham:
Well, you know, I-I never got to bat in the major leagues. I'd have liked to have had that chance just once, to stare down a big-league pitcher. To stare him down, then just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. The chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingle in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases, stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That's my wish, Ray Kinsella. That's my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?

Ray Kinsella:
What would you say if I said yes?

Dr. Graham:
I think I'd actually believe you.

Ray Kinsella:
Well, sir, there's a place where things like that happen, and if you want to go, I can take you.

Dr. Graham:
This is my most special place in all the world, Ray. Once a place touches you like this, the wind never blows so cold again. You feel for it, like it was your child. I can't leave Chisholm.

...

Ray Kinsella:
Fifty years ago, for five minutes you came within... y-you came this close. It would kill some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they'd consider it a tragedy.

Dr. Graham:
Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... now that would have been a tragedy.

Ray Kinsella:
By the time I was ten, playing baseball got to be like eating vegetables or taking out the garbage. So when I was fourteen I started refusing. Can you believe that? An American boy refusing to have a catch with his father.

Terence Mann:
Why fourteen?

Ray Kinsella:
That's when I read "The Boat Rocker", by Terence Mann.

Terence Mann:
Oh, God.

Ray Kinsella:
Never played catch with him again.

Terence Mann:
You see? That's the kind of crap people are always trying to lay on me. It's not my fault you wouldn't play catch with your father!

[Shoeless Joe Jackson has asked Terence Mann to come with them to the cornfield, but Ray is upset because he wasn't invited]

Ray Kinsella:
I did it all, I listened to the voices, I did what they told me, and not once did I ask what's in it for me!

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
What are you saying, Ray?

Ray Kinsella:
I'm saying... what's in it for me?

Shoeless Joe Jackson:
Is that why you did this? For you? I think you better stay here, Ray.

...

Ray Kinsella:
What are you grinning at, you ghost?

Shoeless Joe:
"If you build it -" [gestures toward catcher, who is Ray's father, John Kinsella] "- he will come."

Ray:
"Ease his pain. Go the distance." It was him!

Shoeless Joe:
No, Ray. It was you.

John Kinsella:
Is this heaven?

Ray Kinsella:
It's — it's Iowa.

John Kinsella:
I could have sworn it was heaven.

Ray:
Is there a heaven?

John Kinsella:
Oh, yeah. It's the place where dreams come true.

Ray:
Maybe this is heaven.

John Kinsella:
Well, good night Ray.

Ray Kinsella:
Good night, John.

[They shake hands and John begins to walk away]

Ray Kinsella:
Hey... Dad?

[John turns]

Ray Kinsella:
[choked up] You wanna have a catch?

John Kinsella:
I'd like that. Very much.

"I could never respect a man whose hero was a criminal (Shoeless Joe Jackson!"

Terence Mann:
What was the awful thing you said?

Ray Kinsella:
I said I could never respect a man whose hero was a criminal.

Terence Mann:
Who was his hero?

Ray Kinsella:
Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Terence Mann:
You knew he wasn't a criminal. [Ray nods.] Then why did you say it?

Ray Kinsella:
I was seventeen. [Terence nods.]

Terence Mann:
So this is your penance.

Ray Kinsella:
I know. I can't bring my father back...

Terence Mann:
...so the least you can do is bring back his hero.

Ray Kinsella:
What are you grinning at, you ghost?

Shoeless Joe:
"If you build it -" [gestures toward catcher, who is Ray's father, John Kinsella] "- he will come."

Ray:
"Ease his pain. Go the distance." It was him!

Shoeless Joe:
No, Ray. It was you.