Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Tom Hanks: Sam Baldwin

Photos 

Quotes 

• Doctor Marcia Fieldstone : People who truly loved once are far more likely to love again. Sam, do you think there's someone out there you could love as much as your wife?

  Sam Baldwin : Well, Dr. Marcia Fieldstone, that's hard to imagine.

  Doctor Marcia Fieldstone : What are you going to do?

  Sam Baldwin : Well, I'm gonna get out of bed every morning... breathe in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won't have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breathe in and out... and, then after a while, I won't have to think about how I had it great and perfect for a while.

  Doctor Marcia Fieldstone : Tell me what was so special about your wife?

  Sam Baldwin : Well, how long is your program? Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together... and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home... only to no home I'd ever known... I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like... magic.

• Sam Baldwin : There is no way that we are going on a plane to meet some woman who be a crazy, sick lunatic! Didn't you see "Fatal Attraction"?

  Jonah Baldwin : You wouldn't let me!

  Sam Baldwin : Well, I saw it, and it scared the shit out of me! It scared the shit out of every man in America!

• Sam Baldwin : She wants to meet me at the top of the Empire State Building. On Valentine's Day.

  Suzy : It's like that movie.

  Sam Baldwin : What movie?

  Suzy : An Affair To Remember. Did you ever see it?Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. She's gonna meet him at the top of the Empire State Building... only she got hit by a taxi. And he waited and waited. And it was raining, I think. And then... she's too proud to tell him... that she's, uh...

  [starts to cry] 

  Suzy : crippled. And he's too proud to find out why she doesn't come. But he comes to see her anyway. I forget why, but, oh... Oh, it's so amazing when he comes to see her because...

  [crying more] 

  Suzy : he doesn't even notice that she doesn't get up to say hello. And he's very bitter. And you think that he's just gonna walk out the door... and never know why she's just lying there, you know, on the couch... with this blanket over her shriveled little legs.

  [sobbing] 

  Suzy : Are you all right? - She's fine. Suddenly he goes, "I already sold the painting." And he like goes to the bedroom... and he looks and he comes out and he looks at her and he kind of just... They know and then they hug. And it's so...

  [trails off crying] 

• Sam Baldwin : Well, I'm not looking for a mail-order bride. I just want somebody I can have a decent conversation with over dinner, without it falling down into weepy tears over some movie.

  Greg : She's, as you just saw, very emotional.

  Sam Baldwin : Although I cried at the end of "The Dirty Dozen".

  Greg : Well, who didn't?

  Sam Baldwin : Jim Brown was throwing these hand grenades down these airshafts. And Richard Jaeckel and Lee Marvin...

  [pretends to start crying] 

  Sam Baldwin : ... were sitting on top of this armored personnel carrier, dressed up like Nazis...

  Greg : [also pretending to cry]  Oh, God, stop it!

  Sam Baldwin : And Trini Lopez...

  Greg : Trini Lopez!

  Sam Baldwin : He busted his neck while they were parachuting down behind the Nazi lines.

  Greg : [sobs dramatically]  Stop it!

  Sam Baldwin : And Richard Jaeckel, at the beginning he had on this shiny helmet 'cause he was the MP...

  Greg : Please, no more! Oh, God, I loved that movie.

• Jay : Tiramisu.

  Sam Baldwin : What is "tiramisu"?

  Jay : You'll find out.

  Sam Baldwin : Well, what is it?

  Jay : You'll see.

  Sam Baldwin : Some woman is gonna want me to do it to her and I'm not gonna know what it is!

  Jay : You'll love it.

• Jay : Well, this is fate! She's divorced, we don't want to redo the cabinets, and you need a wife. What do they call it when everything intersects?

  Sam Baldwin : The Bermuda Triangle.

• Sam Baldwin : [looking at a photograph]  She looks like my third grade teacher, and I hated my third grade teacher... wait a minute, she IS my third grade teacher!

• Jonah Baldwin : If you get a new wife, I guess you'll have sex with her, huh?

  Sam Baldwin : I certainly hope so.

  Jonah Baldwin : Will she scratch up your back?

  Sam Baldwin : [shocked]  What?

  Jonah Baldwin : In the movies, women are always scratching up the men's back and screaming and stuff when they're having sex.

  Sam Baldwin : How do you know this?

  Jonah Baldwin : Jed's got cable.

  Sam Baldwin : Oh.

• Jonah Baldwin : Talk to her, dad. She's a doctor.

  Sam Baldwin : Of what? Her first name could be Doctor.

• [Jonah is missing] 

  Jessica's Father : Jessica, this is your father. Tell us where he is, right this minute!

  Jessica : "N.Y."

  Sam Baldwin : What's that?

  Jessica's Father : "No way."

  Sam Baldwin : That's "N.W."!

  Jessica : New York. He's on his way to New York.

  Jessica's Mother : What? How?

  Jessica : United, Flight 597.

• Jay : That's what I'm trying to tell you, what women are looking for: pecs and a cute butt.

  Sam Baldwin : You mean like, "He has the cutest butt"?

  Jay : Yeah.

  Sam Baldwin : Where did I hear that recently?

  Jay : Everywhere. You can't even turn on the news nowadays without hearing about how some babe thought some guy's butt was cute. Who the first woman to say this was, I don't know, but somehow it caught on.

  Sam Baldwin : So how's my butt?

  [Jay stops walking, examines Sam's backside] 

  Jay : Not bad.

  Sam Baldwin : Really?

  Jay : Yeah.

  Sam Baldwin : Is it cute, though?

  Jay : I don't know. Are we grading on a curve?

• Sam Baldwin : Jonah, listen to me. You don't know Victoria. I hardly know her myself. She is a fat mystery to me. She tosses her hair a lot. Why does she do this? I have no idea. Is it a twitch? Does she need a haircut? Should she use a barrette to keep her hair out of her face? These are things I'm willing to get to the bottom of. And that is why... I am DATING her. That's all I'm doing. I'm not living with her. I'm not marrying her. Can you appreciate the difference? This is what single people do. They try other people on and see how they fit. But everybody's an adjustment. Nobody's perfect. There's no such thing as a perfect...

  [Annie walks in. Sam sees her for the first time, loses his train of thought, and stops talking] 

• Sam Baldwin : I'll tell you what I'm doing this weekend, I'm getting laid. It's the 1990's and nobody's getting laid. I'm the only man in America who's getting laid this weekend and I haven't been laid that much. Six girls in college, maybe seven.

  [sees Jonah standing in the doorway] 

  Sam Baldwin : How long have you been standing there?

  Jonah Baldwin : Forever.

  Sam Baldwin : What did you just hear me say?

  Jonah Baldwin : Six girls in college, maybe seven.

  Sam Baldwin : Seven... EIGHT! Mary Kelly.

  Jonah Baldwin : [holds Annie's letter]  This is the one I like!

• Jonah Baldwin : What do you think happens to someone after they die?

  Sam Baldwin : I don't know.

  Jonah Baldwin : Like... do you believe in Heaven?

  Sam Baldwin : [hesitates]  I never did. I mean, the whole idea of an afterlife... But now, I don't know. 'Cause I have these dreams. About your mom. And we have these long talks about you and how you're doing, which she sort of knows, but I tell her anyway. So what is that? That's sort of an afterlife, isn't it?

• [first lines] 

  Sam Baldwin : Mommy got sick. And it happened just like that. There's nothing anybody could do. It isn't fair. There's no reason. But if we start asking why, we'll go crazy.

• Rob : [hands Sam a business card]  Here. My shrink. Call him.

  [Sam stares blankly, then reaches into his briefcase and pulls out a stack of business cards] 

  Sam Baldwin : Loss of Spouse Support Group. Chicago Cancer Family Network. Parents Without Partners. Partners Without Parents. Hug Yourself. Hug a Friend. Hug a Shrink. Or work. Work hard. Work will save you. Work is the only thing that will see you through this.

  [pause] 

  Sam Baldwin : Don't mind him. He's just a guy who's lost his wife.

• Sam Baldwin : I am NOT going to New York to meet some woman who could be a crazy, sick lunatic! Didn't you see Fatal Attraction?

• Sam Baldwin : Oh, babe. I miss you so much it hurts.

• Jay : When's the last time you were out there?

  Sam Baldwin : Uh... uh, uh, Jimmy Carter, 1978.

  Jay : Things are a little different now. First, you have to be friends. You have to like each other. Then you neck. This could go on for years. Then you have tests, and then you get to do it with a condom. The good news is, you split the check.

  Sam Baldwin : I don't think I could let a woman pay for dinner.

  Jay : Great! They'll throw a parade in your honor. You'll be Man of the Year in "Seattle Magazine".

• Sam Baldwin : I'd much rather just see someone I like and get a feeling about them, and ask them if they want to have a drink.

  Jonah Baldwin : Or a slice of pizza.

  Sam Baldwin : Not dinner. Not necessarily on the first date, because halfway through dinner you could be really sorry you asked them to dinner. Whereas if it's just a drink, if you like them you can always ask them to dinner, but if not you can just say, "Well, that was great," and then you go home, if you see what I mean.

  [pause] 

  Sam Baldwin : I wonder if it still works this way.

  Jonah Baldwin : It doesn't. They ask you.

  Sam Baldwin : I'm starting to notice that.

• Victoria : Can I bring something back for you? A souvenir? Does he like snow globes? You shake them up and then the snow floats down.

  Jonah Baldwin : [with extreme politeness]  Sure. I'd really like that. Thank you so much.

  [Victoria looks up at Sam] 

  Sam Baldwin : He's 8.

  Victoria : He's good at it.