Daily Dialogue — March 2, 2015

SANDECKER (O.S.): Better not hurt my boat!
GIORDINO: Engine two is out! Ward them off, man, what do you wanna do?
PITT: Uh…I think we need to pull a Panama!
GIORDINO: Panama? A Panama?
SANDECKER: Panama?
GIORDINO: You think? Really?
PITT: Yeah! Really!
SANDECKER: Somebody pick up — They’re ignoring…They’re ignoring me! Everybody is ignoring me. Pick up the phone!
GIORDINO: Take it! We’re doing the Pnama!
GUNN: What’s a Panama?
GIORDINO: Navy thing.
GUNN: I didn’t know you were in Panama.
GIORDINO: Weren’t. We were in Nicaragua.
GUNN: Then why do you call it a Panama?
GIORDINO: We thought we were in Panama!
SANDECKER (O.S.): No Panama!
GUNN: What are you looking for?

Boat is straffed by machine gun fire.

GUNN: Al? Al? Al, I’m really confused!
PITT: How are we doing, Al?
GUNN: Go help Dirk!
GUNN: How I use this?
GUNN: Just go!
PITT: Open the engine hatch.
GUNN: Okay!
PITT: Let’s go, Al!
GIORDINO: Got it! (To Gunn) Here, light this!
GUNN: Aren’t these the admiral’s?
GUNN: Just light it!

More boat chase action. Giordino cuts one of the fuel lines.

PITT: Whenever you’re ready, Al!
GIORDINO: Come on!
GUNN: What are we doing?

Giordino places the lit cigar in the leaking gasoline stream.

GUNN: I don’t think we should be doing that!
GIORDINO: Okay! Drop it! (To Pitt) We’re good!
PITT: Yeah! All right, hold on!
GIORDINO: Hold on!
GUNN: Okay!

Pitt swings the boat around heading straight at their pursuers. Giordino jumps ship.

GUNN: Hey, I need a life jacket!

Pitt tackles Gunn and both jump overboard. The empty boat passes between the two pursuers and explodes.

SANDECKER: Crap. He did a Panama. He did a Panama.
GUNN: Cool! Is that how it worked the first time?
PITT: Well, didn’t really work the first time?

— Sahara (2005), screenplay by Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer, John C. Richards, and James V. Hart, novel by Clive Cussler

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Chase. Today’s suggestion by Will King.

Trivia: The ship used to portray the Martha Ann was one of the vessels Bob Ballard used to find the Titanic. It has since been dismantled and sold for scrap.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “The beauty of this dialog is in the ending. The scene builds to a frantic pace full of tension, the good guys escape, then the final line gives the audience a chance to release all that tension through a good laugh.”

If you have any suggestions for this week’s theme, please post in comments — and thanks!