# Fatal Attraction

Fatal Attraction is a 1987 film about a married man's one-night stand that begins to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.
    Directed by Adrian Lyne. Written by James Dearden, based on his 1980 short film Diversion.

## Dan Gallagher

* [to Jimmy] She keeps calling the apartment. Every time Beth answers the phone, she hangs up. I'm scared Jimmy, and I don't want to lose my family.

## Alex Forrest

* [to Dan] We were attracted to each other at the party, that was obvious. You're on your own for the night, that's also obvious... we're two adults.
* [to Dan] Well, what am I supposed to do? You won't answer my calls, you change your number. I mean, I'm not gonna be ignored, Dan!
* [from her tape, which Dan is listening to] Hello, Dan. Are you surprised? This is what you’ve reduced me to. I guess you thought you'd get away with it. Well... you can't. 'Cause part of you is growing inside of me, and that's a fact, Dan. You'd better start... learning how to deal with it. ‘Cause, you know, I... I feel you. I taste you. I think you. I touch you. Can you understand? Can you? I'm just... asking you... to acknowledge your responsibilities. Is that so bad? I-I-I don't think so. I mean, I don't think it's unreasonable. And... you know, another thing... is that you thought you could just walk into my life, and turn it upside down, without a thought for anyone but yourself. You know what you are, Dan? You are a cock-sucking son of a bitch. I hate you. I bet you don't even like real girls, do you? Ha! You disappoint me, you fucking faggot!
* [to Dan, who is listening to another taped message] You thought you could just walk into my life without a thought for anybody but yourself. You know what you are, Dan? You’re a cock-sucking fucking son of a bitch. You are. I bet you don’t even like girls, do you? They probably scare you. Well, I know I do. So you’re scared of me, aren’t you? You’re fucking frightened of me, huh? You’re afraid. You’re afraid, aren’t you? You gutless, heartless, spineless bastard. I hate you. You deserve everything you get!
* [to Beth] What are you doing here? Why are you here? He tried...to say goodbye to me last night. But he couldn't because...he and I feel the same way about each other. Do you know how it is when you meet somebody for the first time? And you get this instant attraction. And don't you think I understand what you're doing? You're trying to move him into the country...and you're keeping him away from me. And you're playing happy family. Aren't you? [begins to slice her own leg with a butcher knife] You wouldn't understand that because you're so...so selfish. He told me about you. He told me about you. He was very honest. If you weren't so stupid, you'd know that. But you're so stupid. You're so stupid! You're a stupid, selfish bitch!

## Beth Gallagher

* [on the phone to Alex] If you ever come near my family again, I'll kill you. Do you understand?

## Dialogue

    Alex Forrest: You must have to be discreet.
    Dan Gallagher: Oh, god yeah.
    Alex Forrest: Are you?
    Dan Gallagher: Am I what?
    Alex Forrest: Discreet?
    Dan Gallagher: Yes, I'm discreet.
    Alex Forrest: Me, too.
    Alex Forrest: You're here with a strange girl being a naughty boy.
    Dan Gallagher: I don't think having dinner with anybody's a crime.
    Alex Forrest: Not yet.
    Alex Forrest: I had a wonderful time last night. I'd like to see you again. Is that so terrible?
    Dan Gallagher: No. I just don't think it's possible.
    Dan Gallagher: Look, Alex... I like you. And maybe if I wasn't with somebody else, I'd be with you. But I am.
    Alex Forrest: Please don't justify yourself, it's pathetic. You'd tell me to fuck off, I'd have more respect for you.
    Dan Gallagher: All right, then fuck off.
    Doctor: [after Alex's suicide attempt] Whatever resentment she's feeling, she probably got it out of her system.
    Dan Gallagher: What if she didn't get it out of her system? What then?
    Dan Gallagher: You're so sad. You know that, Alex? Lonely and very sad.
    Alex Forrest: Don't you ever pity me, you smug bastard.
    Dan Gallagher: I'll pity you... I'll pity you. I'll pity you because you're sick.
    Alex Forrest: Why? Because I won't allow you treat me like some slut you can just bang a couple of times and throw in the garbage?
    Telephone Operator: Operator. May I help you?
    Alex Forrest: Operator, I've been trying to get 555-8129. 212? The recording says its been disconnected.
    Telephone Operator: Just a moment please. [pause] I'm sorry, the number's been changed to an unlisted number.
    Alex Forrest: Operator, this is a real emergency please. You need to give me that number.
    Telephone Operator: I'm sorry. We're not allowed to give out that information.
    Alex Forrest: Well fuck you!
    Telephone Operator: My place or yours?
    [Alex slams phone down]
    Dan Gallagher: Why are you trying to hurt me?
    Alex Forrest: I'm not trying to hurt you Dan, I love you!
    Dan Gallagher: You what?
    Alex Forrest: I love you!
    Dan Gallagher: You don't even know me
    Alex Forrest: How can you say that?

## Taglines

* A look that led to an evening. A mistake he'll regret...FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.
* On the other side of drinks, dinner, and a one night stand...lies a terrifying love story.
* A one-night fling, with no strings attached. That's what she said. That's what he believed.

## About Fatal Attraction

* Once the woman begins behaving as if she had a right to a share in the lawyer's life, she becomes the dreaded lunatic of horror movies. But with a difference: she parrots the aggressively angry, self-righteous statements that have become commonplaces of feminist fiction, and they're so inappropriate to the circumstances that they’re the proof she's loco. They're also Lyne's and the scriptwriter James Dearden's hostile version of feminism.
* It's about men seeing feminists as witches, and, the way the facts are presented here, the woman is a witch. She terrorizes the lawyer and explains his fear of her by calling him a faggot. This shrewd film also touches on something deeper than men's fear of feminism: their fear of women, their fear of women's emotions, of women's hanging on to them.
** Pauline Kael "The Feminine Mystique" The New Yorker (October 11, 1987; published in the October 19, 1987 issue). Reprinted in Kael's collection Hooked, New York: Dutton (1989), p. 374-77.

## Cast

* Michael Douglas - Dan Gallagher
* Glenn Close - Alexandra "Alex" Forrest
* Anne Archer - Beth Rogerson Gallagher
* Ellen Hamilton Latzen - Ellen Gallagher
* Stuart Pankin - Jimmy
* Ellen Foley - Hildy
* Fred Gwynne - Arthur
* Meg Mundy - Joan Rogerson, Beth's mother
* Tom Brennan - Howard Rogerson, Beth's father
* Lois Smith - Martha, Dan's secretary
* Mike Nussbaum - Bob Drimmer
* J. J. Johnston - O'Rourke
* Michael Arkin - Lieutenant
* Jane Krakowski - Christine, the babysitter

## External links

* Fatal Attraction quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Fatal Attraction at Rotten Tomatoes
* Fatal Attraction at Metacritic
* Fatal Attraction at Mojo