Daily Dialogue — September 24, 2013
EXT. COURTHOUSE — NEXT MORNING
Will emerges from the courthouse. Chuckie is waiting for him in the Cadillac with two cups of DUNKIN’ DOUGHNUTS coffee. He hands one of them to Will. This feels routine.
CHUCKIE: When’s the arraignment?
WILL: Next week.
Chuckie pulls away.
EXT. M.I.T. CAMPUS, ESTABLISHING SHOT — MORNING
Students walk to class, carrying bags. More than any other, students seem to be heading into one PARTICULAR CLASSROOM.
INT. M.I.T. CLASSROOM — MORNING
The classroom is even more crowded than last we saw it. Tom takes notes as Lambeau plays along with the excited environment with mock pomposity and good humor.
LAMBEAU: Is it my imagination, or has my class grown considerably?
Laughter.
LAMBEAU: I look around and see young people who are my students, young people who are not my students as well as some of my colleagues. And by no stretch of my imagination do I think you’ve all come to hear me lecture.
More laughter.
LAMBEAU: But rather to ascertain the identity of who our esteemed “The Tech” has come to call “The Mystery Math Magician.”
He holds up the M.I.T. Tech featuring a silhouetted figure, emblazoned with a large, white question mark. The headline reads “Mystery Math Magician strikes again.”
LAMBEAU: Whoever you are, you’ve solved four of the most difficult theorems I’ve ever given a class. So without further ado, come forward silent rogue, and receive thy prize.
The class waits in breathless anticipation. A STUDENT shifts his weight in his chair, making a noise.
LAMBEAU: Well, I’m sorry to disappoint my spectators, but it appears there will be no unmasking here today. I’m going to have to ask those of you not enrolled in the class to make your escape now or, for the next three hours be subjected to the mundities of eigenvectors.
People start to gather their things and go. Lambeau picks up a piece of chalk and starts writing on the board.
LAMBEAU: However, my colleagues and I have conferred. There is a problem on the board, right now, that took us two years to prove. So let this be said; the gauntlet has been thrown down. But the faculty have answered the challenge and answered with vigor.
INT. M.I.T. HALLWAY — NIGHT
Lambeau comes out of his office with Tom and locks the door. As he turns to walk down the hallway, he stops. A faint TICKING SOUND can be heard. He turns and walks down the hall.
Lambeau and Tom come around a corner. His P.O.V. reveals a figure in silhouette blazing through the proof on the chalkboard. There is a mop and a bucket beside him. As Lambeau draws closer, reveal that the figure is Will, in his janitor’s uniform. There is a look of intense concentration in his eyes.
LAMBEAU: Excuse me!
Will looks up, immediately starts to shuffle off.
WILL: Oh, I’m sorry.
LAMBEAU: What’re you doing?
WILL: (walking away) I’m sorry.
Lambeau follows Will down the hall.
LAMBEAU: What’s your name? (beat) Don’t you walk away from me. This is people’s work, you can’t graffiti here.
WILL: Hey, fuck you.
LAMBEAU: (flustered) Well… I’ll be speaking to your supervisor.
Will walks out. Lambeau goes to “fix” the proof, scanning the blackboard for whatever damage Will caused. He stops, scans the board again. Amazement registers on his face.
LAMBEAU: My God.
Down the hall, we hear the DOOR CLOSE. He turns to look for Will, who is gone.
— Good Will Hunting (1997), written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is science, suggested by plinytheelder_t who also suggested Good Will Hunting.
Trivia: At a WGA seminar in 2003, William Goldman denied the persistent rumor that he was the actual writer of Good Will Hunting: “I would love to say that I wrote it. Here is the truth. In my obit it will say that I wrote it. People don’t want to think those two cute guys wrote it. What happened was, they had the script. It was their script. They gave it to Rob [Reiner] to read, and there was a great deal of stuff in the script dealing with the F.B.I. trying to use Matt Damon for spy work because he was so brilliant in math. Rob said, “Get rid of it.” They then sent them in to see me for a day — I met with them in New York — and all I said to them was, “Rob’s right. Get rid of the F.B.I. stuff. Go with the family, go with Boston, go with all that wonderful stuff.” And they did. I think people refuse to admit it because their careers have been so far from writing, and I think it’s too bad. I’ll tell you who wrote a marvelous script once, Sylvester Stallone. Rocky’s a marvelous script. God, read it, it’s wonderful. It’s just got marvelous stuff. And then he stopped suddenly because it’s easier being a movie star and making all that money than going in your pit and writing a script. But I did not write [Good Will Hunting], alas. I would not have written the “It’s not your fault” scene. I’m going to assume that 148 percent of the people in this room have seen a therapist. I certainly have, for a long time. Hollywood always has this idea that it’s this shrink with only one patient. I mean, that scene with Robin Williams gushing and Matt Damon and they’re hugging, “It’s not your fault, it’s not your fault.” I thought, Oh God, Freud is so agonized over this scene. But Hollywood tends to do that with therapists.” As of 2009, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have both co-written one other script each, although not with each other; Damon co-wrote Gerry with Gus Van Sant and Ben’s brother Casey Affleck, and Ben Affleck directed and co-wrote (with his childhood friend Aaron Stockard) the script for Gone Baby Gone. In 2010, Ben Affleck directed The Town, for which he had also co-written the screenplay.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Here is a great example of a tease. The identity of the “Mystery Math Magician” gets revealed, yet Lambeau still doesn’t know his name. As opposed to playing that out here in this scene, Damon and Affleck teased it, saving the intersection between Lambeau and Will for a later scene.
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