# Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

A 2001 film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, was a breakthrough for photorealistic CGI humans. The film follows Dr. Aki Ross, Dr. Sid, and the Deep Eyes combat group as they attempt to defeat the Phantoms - a mysterious alien race that has attacked the Earth.
    Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi. Written by Al Reinert and Jeff Vintar.

## Dr. Aki Ross

* I want what life I have left to mean something.
* I'm convinced that these dreams are some form of communication. Their message still eludes me. But they're coming faster now, and that can only mean one thing. The Phantoms inside me are beginning to win.
* Then you're my spiritual support. [Smiles] Gray, how sweet of you.
* I finished it. I know what it means. I know what the Phantoms really are.
* They're not an invading army. They're ghosts.
* Don't leave me, Gray.

## Captain Gray Edwards

* You're telling me his backpack is the seventh spirit?
* The city may be lost, but we are not.
* This is not a good place to be.
* What the hell is that? That's not what I think it is, is it?
* You've been trying to tell me that death isn't the end. Don't back out on me, now that I finally believe.

## General Douglas Hein

* It is, in fact, for her own good, captain.
* My wife and daughter… were killed by Phantoms when the San Francisco Barrier City was attacked. Did I ever tell you that? I try to imagine what… what that must have been like. Seeing everyone around you fall over dead for no apparent reason. And then, at the end, feeling something next to you. Invisible… touching you… reaching inside your body and—You've lost family, haven't you?
* The fact remains, the Earth is under attack from an aggressor who must be destroyed at all costs.
* Well, since you are under the alien's influence, Doctor, I will take your protest to mean that we are, in fact, pursuing the correct course of action. So, I suggest you take your last few moments and prepare to meet your… "Gaia".

## Corporal Neil Flemming

* It's amore baby.
* [Jane is blasting every Phantom in sight.] We're fine, Sir. Jane is negotiating with extreme prejudice.

## Sergeant Ryan Whittaker

* It's gonna be one of those days.
* [Looking over the remains of a battlefield] This was the Phantom cleansing mission. It was supposed to end the war. [Pause] My father's in here somewhere.

## Dialogue

    Aki: There's a life-form in here.
    Gray: There hasn't been life here in years.
    Aki: Well there is now.
    Ryan: Oh, please! Tell me we're not risking our necks for this plant!
    Jane: I wouldn't even call it a plant. It's a weed.
    Neil: I wouldn't even call it a weed.
    Jane: What's with her?
    Ryan: What's with her and the captain?
    Neil: What's with her and that stupid plant? [Jane and Ryan glare at him] What?
    Aki: [Reading Sid's journal] "All life is born of Gaia, and each life has a spirit. Each new spirit is housed in a physical body…" Doctor?
    Dr. Sid:: Go on.
    Aki: "Through their experiences on earth, each spirit matures and grows. When the physical body dies, the mature spirit, enriched by its life on earth, returns to Gaia. Bringing with it the experiences… enabling Gaia to live and grow".
    Dr. Sid:: I was young once too, you know.
    Aki: Doctor, there's a war going on. No one's young anymore.
    Aki: What we need now is some luck.
    Dr. Sid:: Luck has nothing to do with it! Faith and hard work, girl. Cause I'll be damned if you're going to die before me!
    Aki: I was infected by a Phantom during an experiment. Normally no one could have survived.
    Gray: How did you?
    Aki: Dr. Sid created a membrane around the infection, keeping me alive. So the first spirit wave was me. The second was a fish.
    Gray: A fish?
    Aki: The third was a deer I found in a wildlife preserve outside of Moscow. The fourth was a bird. Ever try to track a sparrow from outer space? It's no fun. What am I saying; you probably would love that.
    Gray: You're right, I probably would.
    Aki: And then there was that plant I collected from Times Square.
    Gray: I thought that was number six.
    Aki: What?
    Gray: You skipped one.
    Aki: [Quietly] The fifth was a little girl, dying in a hospital emergency room. I retrieved the sample in time, but she, uh… I told her everything had a spirit. Dogs, cats, trees, little girls, even the Earth. I told her that she wasn't dying, just returning to the Earth's spirit. To Gaia. She, uh, told me that she was ready to die. She said I didn't have to make up stories to make her feel better. [Pause] Only seven years old and ready to die.
    Gray: Is the General suggesting that Dr. Ross is a spy?
    General Hein: The General is wondering why he's explaining himself to a Captain.
    Dr. Sid:: Her vital signs are dropping. Aki is slipping away from us. She needs a sympathetic spirit to help hold her in this world, and I can think of no spirit better suited for that task than yours, Captain.
    Gray: I don't understand.
    Dr. Sid:: You don't have to understand. You just be with her now. You keep her with us.
    Aki: All right. Why do you think we've never been able to determine a relationship between the human-sized Phantoms and the giant ones roaming the wastelands?
    Neil: Excuse me Doc, but… what friggin' relationship? I mean, you got your human-sized Phantoms, a-a-and your creepy, caterpillary Phantoms, and your flying Phantoms, and let's not forget my personal favorite, the big fat giant Phantoms!
    Jane: Down boy!
    Ryan: He's right. If you spent as much time in the field as we have, you know there is no relationship. It's like a zoo out there.
    Aki: Precisely! I think the giant ones are like our whales, or elephants.
    Neil: But why would an invading army bring a bunch of whales and elephants along for the ride? Unless their ship was some kind of a crazy Noah's arc.
    Dr. Sid:: Hmm. W-w-we have always assumed that the meteor was intended as a form of transportation. Perhaps it wasn't.
    Aki: The meteor is a chunk of their planet that got thrown into space when they destroyed their world.
    Neil: But how could they survive the trip across outer space on a chunk of rock?
    Aki: They didn't.
    Neil: Oh. This is all beginning to make a creepy kind of sense.
    Automated Announcement: Proceed to the nearest evacuation facility. Proceed to the nearest evacuation facility.
    Neil: I think we should proceed to the nearest evacuation facility.
    [Neil is trying to hotwire an impound tractor while Jane keeps guard]
    Neil: Jane, let me ask you something. You think we're going to get out of here alive? I mean, I wonder if anyone else has gotten out. You think anyone's made it this far? Huh?
    Jane: Uhhh…
    Neil: You think this "Eighth Spirit" stuff is really gonna work against the Phantoms? I mean, what if it's all a bunch of mumbo jumbo? [The control panel zaps him] Ow! Jane, do you mind if we stop talking? I'm trying to concentrate here.
    General Hein: We're going to hit again and again. And keep on hitting it, until it's dead.
    Zeus Cannon Operator: But sir, we're not even sure if it has any affect on the creature!
    General Hein: No effect? We've got them on the run, soldier. This is our moment of victory. I order you to fire.
    Zeus Cannon Operator: The system won't allow us to fire again, sir!
    General Hein: We'll see about that...
    Automated Warning: Warning, system overload.
    General Hein: I know!
    Automated Warning: Warning, system overload.
    General Hein: I KNOW! But it must be done...

## Taglines

* Truth In Every Dream.
* Fantasy Becomes Reality.
* Unleash a new reality.
* Enter a new dimension, beyond all you imagine, where fantasy becomes reality.
* Open your mind. Unlock the secret. Experience the fantasy.
* Prepare to embark on an epic adventure.
* The land where dreams mix up with reality and love to bring you a beautiful epic.
* No more fairy tales, this is reality.

## Cast

* Ming-Na - Dr. Aki Ross
* Donald Sutherland - Dr. Sid
* Alec Baldwin - Gray Edwards
* Ving Rhames - Ryan Whittaker
* Peri Gilpin - Jane Proudfoot
* Steve Buscemi - Neil Fleming
* James Woods - General Douglas Hein
* Matt McKenzie - Major Elliot

## External links

* Final Fantasy:The Spirit Within quotes at the Internet Movie Database