Director: Cameron Crowe
Writter: Cameron Crowe
Tom Plays: Jerry Maguire
Status:ON DVD

Plot

When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent with the only athlete who stays with him.

Media:

Photos | Videos

Goofs

Continuity: The lamp on the floor while Jerry is doing the handstand switches itself off.

Factual errors: The Arizona Cardinals play Pittsburgh and Indianapolis in the same season twice. This is impossible in accordance to NFL scheduling, as a team from the NFC (Arizona) cannot play two AFC teams from different divisions (Pittsburgh & Indianapolis).

Anachronisms: 1996 Philadelphia Eagles logo visible, but players on the field have the old uniforms.

Continuity: When the Arizona Cardinals play the Philadelphia Eagles, they first show the game from the press box in Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium, a field with AstroTurf. Later in the sequence they show the same teams playing the same game on grass.

Continuity: When Jerry arrives at the Cushman house, he’s driving a Dodge Intrepid. When he leaves, he’s driving a Pontiac Grand Prix.

Continuity: Jerry’s cut disappears during the sex scene.

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The song played during Jerry and Dorothy’s romance scene is “Haitian Fight Song” by Charles Mingus, not either Miles Davis or John Coltrane as Chad the Nanny says.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Rod and Jerry are sitting in the airport and Jerry is complaining about his life, there is a red van visible in the window behind Jerry, but when the camera turns to Rod and back to Jerry the van is gone. As the camera goes to Rod one more time and then back to Jerry the van suddenly reappears, as if by magic!

Miscellaneous: When Jerry, Dorothy, Rod, and Marcie are in the beach house discussing his proposed contract, the camera is on Dorothy while she is standing in front of the window. On the distant shoreline, a white utility truck is seen driving by, appearing to be driving on the “beach.”

Continuity: Books in the shelf behind the two lovers change more than once during the sex scene.

Crew or equipment visible: During Rod’s celebration, camera tracks are visible.

Continuity: Jerry’s shirt buttons when in the kitchen.

Continuity: When Rod Tidwell catches the ball in the end zone and flips over, we see a shot of him from the television camera holding on to the ball with his left hand; when they show him later with the trainers, Rod is holding it with his right.

Continuity: When Marcee is going to get her baby and they leave the restaurant, Rod catches Ray and his son, one under each arm, and runs out of the restaurant. Two seconds later the boys have switched places.

Continuity: The box of stuff that Jerry carries out of his office before “not flipping out” doesn’t make it into the elevator when he leaves.

Continuity: After Jerry takes the fish from the water tank, the level of water in the bag changes several times in the following scenes.

Continuity: When Jerry is removing the goldfish from the tank, Bob Sugar disappears from behind the tank between shots and is replaced by a completely different group of coworkers.

Continuity: As Jerry prepares to leave the office after he gets fired, his jacket jumps from buttoned to unbuttoned and back again between shots.

Crew or equipment visible: When Dorothy and Jerry are in Jerry’s office, there is a hand reflection visible on the far left of the screen when the camera is on Dorothy. Dorothy’s hands were in front of her and Jerry was holding papers, so it was most likely a crew members hand.

Continuity: When the group is watching the home video of Rod singing at the wedding, Rod begins to turn in the middle of a lyric and there is a jump cut to him turned the other direction, though his soundtrack is continuous.

Revealing mistakes: When Jerry is kissing Dorothy on the front porch after their date, he accidentally unties her dress and then reties it in a messy knot. This knot can continue to be seen in the shots from the back throughout the scene, but in the shots from the side, the straps of the dress are clearly tied in a bow.

Continuity: In the final scene, after Ray throws the baseball over the fence, you see the little leaguers comment on the throw and then turn and run back towards the field. When the camera later returns to that view (an aerial view), you see them beginning to run away from the fence again. By that time, the boys should have been out of the view of the camera.

Continuity: When Dorothy is about to go out with Jerry, she alternately has/doesn’t have curly hair on the side of her face.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Jerry and Dorothy are having dinner and the guys with the sombreros start playing for them, the one playing the violin all of a sudden stops playing the violin and starts singing, although you can clearly hear a violin tune.

Continuity: When Jerry and Rod are in the locker room (I believe after trying out for Arizona), Rod puts deodorant under one underarm and then you finally see him reach on the shelf for the deodorant to put it on.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: In Tidwell’s final game against the Dallas Cowboys the announcer states that it is second down and one. In the background the down marker is 1. It should read a 2 if it is second down.

Continuity: When Jerry comes over to Dorothy’s house for the first time, while Dorothy’s pouring beer in the kitchen her sister corrects her and gives her the frosted mugs from the freezer to use, but when Jerry receives the beer it is in a regular mug.

Quotes

Jerry Maguire: I am out here for you. You don’t know what it’s like to be ME out here for YOU. It is an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about, ok?

Jerry Maguire: I don’t like black people? I am Mister black people.

Jerry Maguire: I lost the number one draft pick the night before the draft!
Rod Tidwell: Well, boo-fucking-hoo.

Jerry Maguire: I’m still sort of moved by your “My word is stronger than oak” thing.

Jerry Maguire: I will not rest until I have you holding a Coke, wearing your own shoe, playing a Sega game *featuring you*, while singing your own song in a new commercial, *starring you*, broadcast during the Superbowl, in a game that you are winning, and I will not *sleep* until that happens. I’ll give you fifteen minutes to call me back.

Laurel: You fuck this up, I’ll kill you!
Jerry Maguire: I’m glad we had this talk.

Jerry Maguire: I’m not trying to make history here.

[Rod has just told Jerry he will keep him as his agent] Jerry Maguire: That’s great. I’m very… happy.
Rod Tidwell: That’s what I’m gonna do for you. God bless you, Jerry. Now this is what you’re gonna do for me. You listening?
Jerry Maguire: Yeah, yeah, what can I do for YOU, Rod?
Rod Tidwell: It’s a very personal, very important thing. Hell, it’s a family motto. Now are you ready? Just checking to make sure you’re ready (Rod turns his boom box real low) here it is – show me the money. (He now blasts the boom box at full level) OHHH! SHOW! ME! THE! MONEY! Doesn’t it make you feel good just to say that, Jerry? Say it with me one time brother!
Jerry Maguire: …Show you the money.
Rod Tidwell: Oh, come on, you can do better than that! I want you to say it brother with meaning! Hey, I got Bob Sugar on the other line I better hear you say it!
Jerry Maguire: Yeah, ye – no, show you the money!
Rod Tidwell: AH! Not show YOU! Show ME the money!
Jerry Maguire: Show me the money!
Rod Tidwell: Yeah, that’s it brother but you got to yell that shit!
Jerry Maguire: Show me the money!
Rod Tidwell: Louder!
Jerry Maguire: Show me the money!

Jerry Maguire: How’s your head?
Rod Tidwell: Bubblicious.

Ray: D’you know that the human head weighs 8 pounds?
Jerry Maguire: Did you know that Troy Aikman, in only six years, has passed for 16,303 yards?
Ray: D’you know that bees and dogs can smell fear?
Jerry Maguire: Did you know that the career record for hits is 4,256 by Pete Rose who is NOT in the Hall of Fame?
Ray: D’you know that my next door neighbor has three rabbits?
Jerry Maguire: I… I can’t compete with that!

Jerry Maguire: Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren’t completely embarassed yet, but you glimpse tomorrow’s embarrassment?

Avery Bishop: There is no real loyalty, and the first person who taught me that was you.
Jerry Maguire: I figure I was trying to sleep with you at the time.
Avery Bishop: Well, it worked.

Rod Tidwell: Who’s your motherfucker?
Jerry Maguire: You’re my motherfucker!

Jerry Maguire: Do you want this jacket? I don’t need it. I’m cloaked in failure!

Jerry Maguire: Jump in my nightmare, the water’s warm!

Jerry Maguire: The fuckin zoo is closed, Ray.
Ray: You said fuck.
Jerry Maguire: Uh… yeah… I…
Ray: Don’t worry. I won’t tell.

Jerry Maguire: What do you want from me? My soul?
Dorothy: Why not? I deserve that much.

Jerry Maguire: This is going to change everything.
Dorothy: Promise?

Jerry Maguire: Im not letting you get rid of me. how about that? tonight our company, our little buisness had a very big night, but it wasnt complete. it wasnt even close to being in the same vacinity as complete, because i couldnt share it with you. i couldnt laugh about it with you. im miss… i miss my wife.

Jerry Maguire: I love you. You… complete me.
Dorothy: Shut up. Just shut up. You had me at “hello.”

Jerry Maguire: Show me the money!

Jerry Maguire: That’s more than a dress. That’s an Audrey Hepburn movie.

Jerry Maguire: But if anybody else wants to come with me, this moment will be the ground floor of something real and fun and inspiring and true in this godforsaken business and we will do it together! Who’s coming with me besides…”Flipper” here?

[Looking over an inadequate contract] Jerry Maguire: I’ll go back to them.
Marcee Tidwell: And say what? “Please remove your dick from my ass”?

Jerry Maguire: We live in a cynical world. A cynical world. And we work in a business of tough competitors. I love you. You… complete me.

Rod Tidwell: I feel for you, man. But a real man wouldn’t shoplift the pootie from a single mom.
Jerry Maguire: I didn’t shoplift the pootie.
[Rod gives him a long Look] Jerry Maguire: All right. I shoplifted the pootie.

Jerry Maguire: I hated myself… no, I hated my place in the world.

Rod Tidwell: I am a valuable commodity! I go across the middle! I see a dude coming at me, trying to kill me, I tell myself “Get killed. Catch the ball!’ BOO YA! Touchdown! I make miracles happen!
Jerry Maguire: Rod…
Rod Tidwell: I’m from Arizona Jerry! I broke Arizona records! I went to Arizona State! I’m a Sun Devil, man!
Jerry Maguire: And now you want Arizona dollars?
Rod Tidwell: Exaaaacctly!

Jerry Maguire: Don’t worry, I’m not gonna do what you all think I’m gonna do, which is, you know, FLIP OUT!

Rod Tidwell: Ya know! Ya know! We’re together on this one! Ya know! Ya know!
Jerry Maguire: Oh my god.

Jerry Maguire: Rod, think about back when you were a little kid. It wasn’t about the money, was it? Was it?
[Questionably] Jerry Maguire: Was it?

Jerry Maguire: Help me… help you. Help me, help you.

Rod Tidwell: Thanks for coming.
Jerry Maguire: I missed ya. What can I say? You’re all I’ve got.

[Jerry and Dorothy are in the elevator and a hearing impaired couple gets on. The man of the couple starts talking with his hands, then they get off] Jerry Maguire: I wonder what he just said.
Dorothy: My favorite aunt is hearing impaired. He just said “You complete me”.

Jerry Maguire: I started talking to Dennis Wilburn about your re-negotiation this morning.
Rod Tidwell: Talking. Jerry Rice, Andre Reed, Chris Carter… I smell all these fools. They are making the big sweet dollars. They are making the… quan, and you are talking.

Trivia

The title role was written for Tom Hanks.

Eric Stoltz’s character in this film is Ethan Valhere. Stoltz also played a character named Valhere in Say Anything…, also directed by Cameron Crowe.

Jann Wenner, who plays the character Scully, is the publisher of Rolling Stone Magazine, for which writer-director Cameron Crowe once worked.

When Jerry is helping Dorothy move, one of the boxes has the game Risk. In Almost Famous, another Cameron Crowe movie, a box Anita’s boyfriend is carrying when he is helping her move also has the game Risk.

Shortly before the movie’s release, Detroit Lions head coach Wayne Fontes was fired. His brief role was not cut from the final edit of the film.

This was Tom Cruise’s fifth consecutive $100-million-plus film, a new record.

The scene in which Jerry and Ray are talking in the living room for the first time, was completely adlibbed. Director Cameron Crowe wanted to create a genuine “feel” between the two and did so by not having a written dialogue for that particular scene.

Cameron Crowe has stated that Jerry’s memo/mission statement was directly influenced by Jeffrey Katzenberg’s tirade after leaving Disney.

Cameron Crowe wanted his hero, legendary film director Billy Wilder, to play Dicky Fox. Wilder had agreed to think about it, but on the first day of filming, Wilder refused to play the role. So Crowe took Tom Cruise to Wilder’s office to try to convince him, and Wilder still said no. Later, Crowe and Wilder became friends and Crowe wrote a book about Wilder’s life.

Two Paul McCartney instrumentals are used in the movie, “Momma Miss America” (during the airport montage) and “Singalong Junk” (during Jerry and Dorothy’s first kissing scene on the porch), both from the 1970 album “McCartney.” Cameron Crowe received McCartney’s permission without ever having met him, instead sending a tape of the film to the latter’s office. The two would actually meet for the first time five years later in L.A., and the result of that meeting was McCartney composing the title song to Crowe’s movie Vanilla Sky, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

The long haired at the CopyMat is ex-‘Alice In Chains’ guitarist Jerry Cantrell.

Winnie Holzman, creator of My So-Called Life, appears in scenes involving the divorced women’s group. She’s the one who says, “these holidays make me feel more divorced”.

Cameron Crowe’s mother appears among those attending the divorced women’s group. She is the one who says, “I finally got in touch with my anger.”

When Dorothy and Ray drop off Jerry at the airport and look at the family saying goodbye (a mother and child are seeing off the father), the three people shown are the stand-ins for Tom Cruise, Renée Zellweger and Jonathan Lipnicki who worked on the film.

Jonathan Lipnicki showed up on the set one day telling everyone that, “the human head weighs eight pounds”. Cameron Crowe liked it so much he wrote it into the script.

Tom Cruise has said that his character was based in part on Sydney Falco from Sweet Smell of Success (played by Tony Curtis).

Tom Cruise did not remember that Bonnie Hunt was in Rain Man. At first he thought she was joking when she said they had worked together before.

Parker Posey was originally considered for the role of Dorothy Boyd.

Cameron Diaz was considered for the role of Dorothy Boyd.

Cameron Crowe offered the Dorothy Boyd role to Janeane Garofalo, if she could lose weight, but after trimming down, she learned that Renée Zellweger had won the part instead in what was to become a career-launching smash hit.

Jamie Foxx auditioned for the role later given to Cuba Gooding Jr.

Mira Sorvino auditioned for the role of Dorothy Boyd

Courtney Love was considered for the role of Dorothy Boyd.

The stock footage of the airplane taking off is the same stock footage that was used for the airplane take off sequence in Billy Wilder’s film Avanti!.

The song that Couch is playing when Jerry enters his hotel room on the night of the draft is “Something In The Way” by ‘Nirvana’ .

Diane Lane auditioned for the role of Avery Bishop.

Cameo: [Rick Reilly] Sports writer holding a camera behind Jerry after Rod gets up after being “hurt”.

The parts of Dorothy and Jerry were originally written for Winona Ryder and Tom Hanks. Hanks was unable to commit to the project due to his work on That Thing You Do!. Ryder was able to commit, but when screen tests were done with Tom Cruise, they “looked like brother and sister” when standing together.

Director Cameron Crowe was a big fan of The Apartment and used Shirley MacLaine as a model for the kind of woman he wanted for Dorothy Boyd.

Renée Zellweger admitted that the day she was cast in this film, it had been so long since she had worked that when she went to an ATM, she did not have enough of a balance to make a withdrawal.

The baseball field at the end of the film is the same field used in Hook.

The movie’s line “Show me the money!” was voted as the #25 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).

The song playing when Dorothy and Jerry first have sex is “Haitian Fight Song” by Charles Mingus. This is the answer to Jerry’s question “What IS this music?”.