The Last Unicorn (1982)

Jeff Bridges: Prince Lir

Photos 

Quotes 

• Schmendrick : If we run away then all the unicorns of the world will remain prisoners forever except one. And she will grow old and die.

  Amalthea : Everything dies! I want to die when you die.

  [looks at Lir] 

  Amalthea : I'm no unicorn, no magical creature. I'm a woman, and I love you, Lir. Don't let him change me! Lir, I will not love you when I'm a unicorn.

  Prince Lir : Amalthea, don't...

  Schmendrick : Then let the quest end here! I don't think I could change you back, even if you wished it. Marry the prince, and live happily ever after.

  Amalthea : Yes, that is my wish.

  Prince Lir : No. My lady, I am a hero. Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever. A happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.

  Molly Grue : But what if there isn't a happy ending?

  Schmendrick : There are no happy endings, because nothing ends.

  Molly Grue : Schmendrick, let her stay the way she is. Let her be...

  Schmendrick : That's not in the story. Lir know that, and so does she.

  Molly Grue : You don't care! You don't care what happens to her or to the others, just so you're a real magician at last. You don't care-"

  Schmendrick : Well I wish I didn't care! I wish to God I didn't care about anything but my magic! But I do! I do.

• Prince Lir : Unicorn, mermaid, sorceress... no name you could give her would surprise OR frighten me. I love whom I love.

  Schmendrick : Well, that's a very nice sentiment, but when I change her back into her true self...

  Prince Lir : I love whom I love.

• Prince Lir : [singing]  I've had time to write a book about the way you act and look, / But I haven't got a paragraph. / Words are always getting in my way. / Anyway, I love you. That's all I have to tell you. / That's all I've got to say. / And now I'd like to make a speech about the love that touches each, / But stumbling I would make you laugh. / I feel as though my tongue were made of clay. Anyway, I love you. That's all I have to tell you...

• Prince Lir : I wish you would ask something of me.

  Almathea : Drown out my dreams! Keep me from remembering whatever wants me to remember it!

• Prince Lir : [after the Unicorn brings him back to life]  Father? Father, I had that dream again...

  [holds his head] 

  Prince Lir : No... I was DEAD...

  Unicorn : [standing on a hill looking down at Lir]  I remember you... I remember...

• Prince Lir : Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.

• [Lir is trying to compose a poem] 

  Prince Lir : The lift of longing / The crash of loss / The bitterness of... cross? boss? moss? Damn!