The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Willem Dafoe: Jesus

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Quotes 

• Jesus : You think God belongs only to you? He doesn't. God is an immortal spirit who belongs to everybody, to the whole world. You think you're special? God is not an Israelite!

• Jesus : If I was a woodcutter, I'd cut. If I was a fire, I'd burn. But I'm a heart and I love. That's the only thing I can do.

• Pontius Pilate : It's one thing to want to change the way people live; but, you want to change how they think, how they feel.

  Jesus : All I'm saying is that change will happen with love, not with killing.

  Pontius Pilate : Either way, it's dangerous. It's against Rome. It's against the way the world is. And killing or loving, it's all the same. It simply doesn't matter how you want to change things. We don't want them changed.

• Jesus : [cried out on the cross]  Father, why have you forsaken me?

• Judas : You're a disgrace! Romans can't find anyone to make crosses, except for you! You do it! You're worse than them! You're a Jew killing Jews. You're a coward! How will you ever pay for your sins?

  Jesus : With my life, Judas. With my life. I don't have anything else.

• [last lines] 

  Jesus : It is accomplished! It is accomplished.

• Jesus : God loves me. I know he loves me. I want him to stop. I can't take the pain. The voices and the pain. I want him to hate me. I fight him. I make crosses so he'll hate me. I want him to find somebody else.

• Jesus : [is drawing a circle in the earth while he speaks to God]  I'm not going to leave this circle, I'm not going to leave until you speak to me. No signs, no pain, just speak to me in human words. Whatever path you want, I'll take. Love, or the axe, or anything else. Now if you want me to stay here and die, I'll do that too, but you have to tell me.

• Jesus : I wish there was another way, but there isn't. I have to die on the cross.

  Judas : I won't let you die.

  Jesus : You don't have a choice. Neither do I. Remember, we're bringing God and man together. They'll never be together unless I die. I'm the sacrifice... Forget everything else, understand that.

• Jesus : You're here to trick me.

  The Cobra/Satan : Trick you? To love and care for a woman, to have a family? This is a trick? Why are you trying to save the world? Aren't your own sins enough for you? What arrogance to think you can save the world. The world doesn't have to be saved: save yourself. Find love

  Jesus : I have love.

• The Snake : I feel sorry for you. You were lonely. You cried, so I came.

  Jesus : [wary]  I didn't call for you. Who are you?

  The Snake : Your spirit.

• Jerobeam : God took you by the hand and brought you here.

  Jesus : You think it's a blessing to know what God wants? I'll tell you what he wants. He wants to *push* me over! Can't you see what's inside of me? All my sins.

  Jerobeam : We all sin.

  Jesus : Not my sins. I'm a liar. A hypocrite. I'm afraid of everything. I don't ever tell the truth. I don't have the courage. When I see a woman, I blush and look away. I want her; but, I take her, for God, and that makes me proud. And then my pride ruins Magdalene. I don't steal. I don't fight. I don't kill. Not because I don't want to but because I'm afraid. I want to rebel against you, against everything, against God! But, I'm afraid. You want to know who my mother and father are? You want to know who my God is? Fear. You look inside me and that's all you'll find.

  Jerobeam : But the more devils we have inside us the more chance we have to repent.

  Jesus : Lucifer is inside me. He says to me, "You're not the Son of King David. You're not a man. You're the Son of Man. And more, the Son of God. And more than that, God." Do you want to ask me anything else?

• Jesus : I'm struggling.

  Judas : No. No. I struggle, you collaborate.

• Jesus : [stares at the heavens]  Father, will you listen to me? Are you still there? Will you listen to a selfish, unfaithful son? I fought you when you called, I resisted! I thought of no more. I didn't want to be your son! Can you forgive me?

• Peter, Apostle : Don't you have any respect?

  Judas : For him?

  Jesus : [feebly]  You don't understand...

  Judas : Understand? Rabbi, you broke my heart. Sometimes I curse the day I ever met you! We held the world in our hands. Remember what you told me? You took me in your arms, do you remember? And you begged me, "Betray me, betray me, I have to be crucified..."

• Jesus : Brothers, my old friends! Listen to me! It's me the prophets preached about. God talked to me in the desert; he gave me a secret and told me to bring it to you. Didn't you hear me coming? I ran here to Nazareth, where I grew up, to bring you the news. The word of God is here now.

  Voice in Crowd : You work miracles. Make a miracle for us. Make us believe in you. Otherwise, go away.

  Jesus : The Messiah doesn't need miracles. He is the miracle. Now he's here. Are you ready for me? I'm here to tear down everything around you, and you know what I'm going to replace it with? Something new: God. The World of God. So take your bread and give it to the poor. What difference does it matter what you own? You have gold and silver? It's going to rot, and that rot is going to eat away your heart. All of you! There will be a flood, and there will be a fire. Everything will be destroyed. But there will be a new ark riding on that fire, and I hold the keys and I open the door, and I decide who goes in and who doesn't. You're my brothers from Nazareth, and you're the first I invite on the ark. Don't wait. Don't waste your life. Come with me.

• Jesus : Judas, my brother, I have something to tell you. I have a terrible secret from God. You know why I came to Jerusalem?

  Judas : Yes. This is where the revolution is going to begin.

  Jesus : Last night, Isaiah came to me. He had a prophecy, I saw it written. It said, "He has borne our faults; he was wounded for our transgressions, yet he opened now his mouth. Despised and rejected by all, he went forward without resisting, like a lamb led to the slaughter."

  Judas : I don't understand.

  Jesus : Judas, I am the lamb. I'm the one who's going to do.

  Judas : Die? You mean you're not the Messiah?

  Jesus : I Am.

  Judas : That can't be. If you're the Messiah, why do you have to die?

  Jesus : Listen, at first, I didn't understand myself...

  Judas : No, *you* listen. Every day, you have a different plan. First it's love, then the ax, and now you have to die. What good could that do?

  Jesus : God only talks to me a little at a time and tells me as much as I need to know.

  Judas : We need you alive!

  Jesus : Now I finally understand! All my life-all my life, I've been followed by voices, by footsteps, by shadows. And do you know what that shadow is? The cross. I have to die on the cross, and I have to die willingly. We have to go back to the temple.

  Judas : And after you die on the cross, what happens then?

  Jesus : I come back to judge the living and the dead.

  Judas : I don't believe you.

  Jesus : You have to.

• Jesus : [Opening lines]  The feeling begins. Very tender, very loving. Then the pain starts. Claws slip underneath the skin and tear their way up. Just before they reach my eyes, they dig in. And I remember. First I fasted for three months. I even whipped myself before I went to sleep. At first it worked. Then the pain came back. And the voices. They call me by name. Jesus.

• Jesus : If I could touch every stone, if I could breathe on every branch, they'd get up and follow me. So what's wrong with you?

• Jesus : I didn't say death! I said love! I said love!

• Jesus : The pain begins. It slides up my back and just before it gets to my eyes, it digs in its claws.

• Jesus : [holds up two rocks on display to the crowd]  Who has never sinned? Who? Which one of you people has never sinned? Whoever that is, come up here! And throw these!

• Rabbi : That is blasphemy.

  Jesus : Didn't they tell you? I am the saint of blasphemy. Don't make any mistakes, I didn't come here to bring peace, I came to bring a sword!

  Rabbi : Talking like that will get you killed.

  Jesus : Me, killed? Listen to me. This temple will be torn down in three days, torn down to the ground!

• Jesus : [men are grabbing him, demanding a miracle]  Don't touch me! You're filled with hate, get away! God won't help you!

• Jesus : Today and tomorrow I cast out demons and work cures. On the third day, I will be perfected.

• Jesus : I'm not gonna leave here until you speak to me!

• Jesus : In the desert, the baptist warned us, God is coming. Well, I'm telling you it's too late! He's already here. I'm here! And I'm going to baptize everybody... with fire!

• Jesus : Do you think that God belongs only to you? He doesn't: God's an immortal spirit who belongs to everybody! To the whole world! You think, you are special? God is not an Israelite!

• Jesus : Why has it changed so much?

  Girl Angel : It hasn't changed. You have. Now you can see its real beauty.

• Mary, Mother of Jesus : You're sure it's God and not the Devil? If it's the Devil, the Devil can be driven out.

  Jesus : What if it is God? You can't drive out God, can you?

• Jesus : Is that you?

• Jesus : God is inside every one of us. The Devil is outside of us all around us in the World. In the sick and the rich.

• Jesus : You think it's a blessing to know what God wants? I'll tell you what he wants! He wants to push me over!

• Jesus : [speaking to God]  Father, will you listen to me? Are you still there? Will you listen to a selfish, unfaithful son? I fought you when you called, I resisted! I thought of no more. I didn't want to be your son! Can you forgive me? I didn't fight hard enough. Father, give me Your hand. I want to bring salvation! Father, take me back! Make a feast! Welcome me home! I want to be Your son! I want to pay the price! I want to be crucified and rise again! I WANT TO BE THE MESSIAH!

• Jesus : Oh, please, Father. I've been with you for so long. I never asked you to choose me. I always did as you said. You made many miracles for others. You opened the Red Sea for Moses. You saved Noah. You took Elijah to heaven in a fiery chariot and now you're asking me to be crucified. Can I ask you - one last time? Do I have to die? Is there any other way? You're offering me a cup and I don't want to drink what's in it. Please, take it away. Please, stop. Please, Father. Father. Please.

• Jesus : God talks to me. He tells me he loves me. I want him to stop.

• Jesus : I'm not inviting you to a celebration. I'm inviting you to a war.

  [he pulls his heart out of his chest] 

  Jesus : This is my heart. Take it. God is inside of us. The devil is outside us, in the world all around us. We'll pick up an axe, and cut the devil's throat. We'll fight him wherever he is. In the sick... in the rich... even in the temple. I'll lead you. If you have sheep, give them away. If you have a family, leave them. I believed in love.

  [he picks up an axe, and raises it] 

  Jesus : Now I believe in this! Who's with me?

• Jesus : Thank you, Lord, for bringing me where I did not want to go.

• Jesus : Who is it? Who are you? Why are you following me?

• Jesus : Maybe God didn't send you here to kill me. Maybe he sent you here to follow me.

• Judas : What are you? What kind of a man are you?

  Jesus : What you want, I want. That's why he brought us together, it's God's plan.

  Judas : I come to kill you and you help me, that's God's plan?

• Jesus : Everything is from God. Everything has two meanings.

• Judas : You're not afraid of dying?

  Jesus : Why should I be? Death isn't a door that closes, it opens. It opens and you go through it.

• Judas : Is there some secret? Tell me your secret.

  Jesus : Pity.

  Judas : Pity for who? Yourself?

  Jesus : Pity for men.

  Judas : Our enemies are men.

  Jesus : I feel pity for everything. Donkeys, grass, sparrows.

  Judas : What about ants? Do you feel pity for them, too?

  Jesus : Yes. Everything's a part of God. When I see an ant, when I look at his shiny black eye, you know what I see? I see the face of God.

• John The Baptist : On the day of the Lord, blood will flow from wood. The stones of the houses will come alive and kill their owners. That day is here. He gave me the axe. Now, I give it to you.

  Jesus : That's not the answer.

  John The Baptist : Then what is the answer?

  Jesus : I don't know.

• Jesus : You're thirsty for justice! For people to treat you fairly, for people to treat you with respect. What I'm telling you is, whoever's hungry for justice, they are the ones who'll be blessed. They'll be filled with bread. They'll never be hungry again. They'll have the real value, the value of love. To love, share and comfort. They'll have the courage to do the good. And you, you're mourning. Mourners will be blessed. You'll have God to comfort you. You won't need men to do it. And the meek. They're the ones who'll be blessed. And the suffering, they'll be blessed, too. And the peacemakers and the merciful and the sick, and the poor, and the outcasts, you'll all be blessed because heaven is yours! And believe me, believe me, those who are laughing now, will be crying later.

• Jesus : I'm sorry, but, the easiest way to make myself clear is to tell you a story. A farmer was planting in his field. Some seed fell on the ground and the birds ate it. Some seed fell on rocks and dried up. But some seed. Some seed fell on rich soil and grew into enough wheat to feed a whole nation. Can you hear me?

• Jesus : I've talked too much already. Silence is better.

• Jesus : John baptized with water and they killed him. Now I baptize with fire.

• Jesus : You don't know how good this tastes. Some more wine, please.

• Jesus : Who are you?

  Mary, Mother of Jesus : Your mother.

  Jesus : I don't have a mother. I don't have any family. I have a Father, in heaven.

  Mary, Mother of Jesus : Don't say that to me.

  Jesus : Who are you? I mean, really. Who are you?

• Jesus : Come with me to Jerusalem! Jerusalem is falling! I feel it. I know it.

• Jesus : When was he buried?

  Mary, Sister of Lazarus : Three days ago.

  Jesus : Roll away the stone.

• Jesus : Let me explain something to you. What do you think heaven's like? It's like a wedding. God's the bridegroom and man's spirit's the bride. The wedding takes place in heaven and everyone's invited. God's world is big enough for everyone.

• Jesus : You see these people? They're poor. They're blind. They're crippled. They're going to be our army.

  Judas : We're going to need better men than this.

  Jesus : God will give them to me. We're going to build a new Jerusalem.

• Jesus : I'm the end of the old law and the beginning of the new one.

• Jesus : I'm throwing away the law. I have a new law and a new hope.

• Jesus : Father in heaven. Father on earth. The world that you've created, that we can see, is beautiful. But the world that you've created, that we can't see, is beautiful, too. I don't know. I'm sorry, Father. I don't know which is more beautiful.

• Jesus : Listen to me. Take this bread. Share it together. This bread is my body. Now drink this wine. Pass the cup. This wine is my blood. Do this to remember me.

• Jesus : Mother, I'm sorry for being a bad son.

• Jesus : I know you, Nathaniel. You were the best shepherd because you had no sheep.

• Pontius Pilate : So, you are the King of the Jews?

  Jesus : "King" is your word.