The Stunt Man (1980)

Steve Railsback: Cameron

Photos 

Quotes 

• Cameron : What should I congratulate you for? The fucking scene or for fucking the director?

  Nina : [miffed]  For fucking the director, honey. Didn't you know that's how little girls get into the movies?

• Sam : Was she supposed to be a virgin?

  Cameron : [softly, after a reflective pause]  Yeah.

  Sam : I had a virgin once. I had to fly to Guatemala for her. She was blind in one eye and had a stuffed alligator that said "Welcome to Miami Beach."

• Eli Cross : How tall is King Kong?

  Cameron : [shouting]  Three foot six and that's what you're gonna be if you don't pay my thousand dollars!

  [Eli laughs] 

• Cameron : I knew daredevils, and I ain't got nothin' against them, it's just they're all dead.

• Man watching second unit stunt shot : [after corpse-strewn scene turns out to be faked]  Great, but why do they always use so much blood? Ruins the realism, don't you think?

  Cameron : Asshole.

• Cameron : [after completing stunt]  That was the hardest thousand dollars I ever earned.

  Eli Cross : [Later... Starts to turn away, then turns back]  Thousand dollars? What thousand dollars?

  Cameron : [curt]  The stunt.

  Eli Cross : The stunt pays six-fifty.

  Cameron : [angrily]  No. Chuck said the stunt paid a thousand dollars.

  Eli Cross : [dismissing him]  Chuck could have promised you the Nobel Prize. The stunt pays six-fifty.

  Cameron : [shouting]  The stunt pays a thousand dollars. Chuck told me. You insulted me again.

• Cameron : [after Eli urges him to read how to get out of a sunken car, and avoid Burt's fate of presumed drowning]  Did Burt read this book?

  Eli Cross : Offhand, I'd say no.

• Cameron : If you want to get home for Thanksgiving, you better figure the guy coming at you is trying to kill you. Learned that from the gooks.

  Eli Cross : Gooks? That has a nostalgic ring. You really did call them gooks? I thought that was just Time Magazine.

• Cameron : Why are you trying to save my ass?

  Eli Cross : Because you're almost as crazy as the young man I'm making this film about. Besides, I've fallen madly in love with the dark side of your nature.

• [after Nina falls into the ocean, Cameron carries her in his arms back to shore] 

  Cameron : This is just like in the movies!

  Nina : I *am* the movies.

• Chuck Barton : Done any stuntwork?

  Cameron : Not really.

  Chuck Barton : Not really? You have or you haven't.

  Cameron : I got out of 'Nam in one piece. That's a helluva stunt.

  Chuck Barton : Ancient history.

  Cameron : Seems like yesterday to me.

• Cop #1 : [as Cameron plays a pinball machine]  You're gonna win.

  Cameron : Win what?

  Cop #1 : A free game.

  Cameron : [bitterly]  Just what I need, one more chance to lose.

• Cameron : [after demonstrating a leap for Chuck]  My specialty's the broad jump.

  Chuck Barton : [angrily]  And Burt's specialty was drowning!

• Eli Cross : Well, talking of jail, would you be very upset if I asked just how many policemen are after you?

  Cameron : Me? I don't know what you are talking about.

  Eli Cross : The way you ran from the bridge, and the look on your face, and your charm bracelet. That's what I'm talking about. I suppose care to tell me what it is that you did?

• Eli Cross : I have versions of all sorts. Care to go back and see one? In one version you fly the helicopter and I'm driving the Dusenberg. It's a dilly.

  Cameron : What about the version where I drive off the bridge and drown in the water?

  Eli Cross : What is this? Why would I want to harm you?

• Chuck Barton : You know, one daredevil on this picture was enough! The hell is Eli thinking? Sending me a smartass, cocky, amateur kid when I need a stuntman! A little different when you're running across those roofs and they're pumping tracer bullets over your head.

  Cameron : I was running for 26 months with guys shooting *at* my head, not over my head. I'm here. I'm alive. I knew daredevils, and I ain't got nothing against 'em, it's just they're all dead. So how about giving me break! You putting me on? Huh?

  Chuck Barton : Me? I wouldn't know how to do that.

• Chuck Barton : [indicating distance of about 4 feet]  You think you can jump from there to there?

  Cameron : [wondering if he's joking]  From there to there?

  Chuck Barton : Umm hmm.

  Cameron : [before easily jumping the distance]  Okie dokie.

  Chuck Barton : Oh, very good... except you're dead. Your brains are scattered all over the pavement. You should land in a tuck and then roll.

  Cameron : Show me, Sargeant.