# 21 Grams

21 Grams is a 2003 film about three strangers brought together by a life-changing accident.
    Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Written by Guillermo Arriaga.

## Paul Rivers

* [From trailer] They say we all lose 21 grams... who will be next?
* Did you know that eating alone could cause kidney damage? And that's BAD.
* Just... disappear.
* I can't keep going like this. The insemination, the child. It's like we're trying to put a Band-Aid on something that's just been bled dry.
* [After waking up in the emergency room] So this is death's waiting room.
* What I doing in this precorpse club?
* [Quoting a poem] The earth turned to bring us closer. It turned on itself and in us, until it finally brought us together in this dream.
* There is a number hidden in every act of life, in every aspect of the universe. Fractals, matter-- there is a number screaming to tell us something... Numbers are a door to understanding a mystery that is bigger than us.
* We've been a fraud for a long time, Mary.
* There are so many things that have to happen for two people to meet.
* [Holding a glass jar containing his surgically removed heart] Ah. The culprit.
* How many lives do we live? How many times do we die? They say we all lose 21 grams... at the exact moment of our death. Everyone. And how much fits into 21 grams? How much is lost? When do we lose 21 grams? How much goes with them? How much is gained? How much is gained? Twentyone grams. The weight of a stack of five nickels. The weight of a hummingbird. A chocolate bar. How much did 21 grams weigh?

## Cristina Peck

* You know what I thought when mom died? I couldn't understand how you could talk to people again, how you could laugh... again. I couldn't understand how you could play with us. And no, no that's a lie, life does not just go on.
* Nothing I can do is going to bring them back.
* Whoever looks for the truth deserves punishment for finding it.
* I haven't spoken to anyone in months.*
* You can't just walk up to a woman you barely know and tell her you like her. You don't know what she's going through.*

## Jack Jordan

* God knows when a single hair moves on your head.
* I just ran over a man and two little girls.
* If someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn your other to him also.
* [After hitting his son upside the head to punish him for hitting his sister] There's no hitting in this house.

## Other

    Reverend John: Jesus didn't come to free us from pain. He came to give us the strength to bear it.
    Marianne Jordan: Life has to go on Jack. With or without God.

## Dialogue

    Cristina Peck: Katie could have lived. She'd be alive right now but that bastard left her there. Laying in the street. He left the three of them like animals. He didn't care. She could be here with me. That son of a bitch is walking the streets, and I can't even go into their room. I wanna kill him. I'm gonna kill Jack Jordan. I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch.
    Paul Rivers: Slow down, just slow down.
    Cristina Peck: Slow down. Slow down. While I what, huh? While I what?
    Paul Rivers: Take it easy.
    Cristina Peck: Take it easy? My husband and my little girls are dead, and I'm supposed to take it fucking easy? I can't just go on with my life! I am paralyzed here! I am a fucking amputee! Do you see that? Who are you? You owe it to Michael. No, you've got his heart. You're in house fucking his wife! And sitting in his chair! We have to kill him!
    Paul Rivers: Not like this.
    Cristina Peck: Then how? Tell me how! Katie died with red shoelaces on. She hated red shoelaces. And she kept asking me to get her some blue ones. And I never got her the blue ones. She was wearing those fucking red shoelaces when she was killed!
    Jack Jordan: I'm gonna turn myself in.
    Marianne Jordan: What? Why would you do that, Jack?
    Jack Jordan: It's my duty.
    Marianne Jordan: Your duty's to your family!
    Jack Jordan: My duty's to God.
    Paul Rivers: You shouldn't have done it
    Jack Jordan: Done what?
    Paul Rivers: [shouting You shouldn't have done it!
    Paul's doctor:The heart that you're carrying is going to give out soon. I need you to stay in the hospital until we can find you another donor.
    Paul:I can't do that. I can't wait for someone to die locked up in a white room.
    Paul's doctor: Your heart is going to give out sooner than you think. You will die from asphyxiation. Its not a nice death. At least here-
    Paul: You can help me die better?! You can help me die better. I'm not going to do that. I'd rather die outside.

## Taglines

* How much does life weigh?
* They say we all lose 21 grams at the exact moment of our death... everyone. The weight of a stack of nickels. The weight of a hummingbird... a chocolate bar.
* How much does love weigh?
* How much does revenge weigh?
* This Fall, fate weighs in.
* How much does guilt weigh?
* When do we lose 21 grams, how much goes with them?

## Cast

* Sean Penn — Paul Rivers
* Naomi Watts — Cristina Peck
* Benicio Del Toro — Jack Jordan
* Danny Huston — Michael

## External links

* Official website
* 21 Grams quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Article on the cinematography of 21 Grams from American Cinematographer