The Talented Mr. Ripley
Movie Quote Quiz

Tom Ripley: You're the brother I never had. I'm the brother you never had. I would do anything for you, Dickie.

Freddie Miles: I want this job of yours, Tommy. I was just saying, you live in Italy, sleep in Dickie's house, eat Dickie's food, wear his clothes, and his father picks up the tab. If you get bored, let me know, I'll do it.

Meredith: Dickie?
Tom Ripley: Hello Meredith.
Meredith: Oh my God! I hardly even recognized you.
Tom Ripley: Well, you spotted me so you get the reward.

Tom Ripley: Nothing is more naked than your handwriting. See how nothing's quite touching the line? That's vanity.
Dickie Greenleaf: Well, we certainly know that that's true.

Dickie Greenleaf: Everybody should have one talent, what's yours?
Tom Ripley: Forging signatures, telling lies... impersonating practically anybody.
Dickie Greenleaf: That's three, nobody should have more than one talent.

Marge Sherwood: I don't believe a single word you've said.
Tom Ripley: You're shivering, Marge. Look at you, Marge. Can I hold you? Will you let me hold you?

Dickie Greenleaf: Now you'll find out why Ms. Sherwood shows up for breakfast, Tom. It's not love, it's my coffee machine.

Peter: Tom is crushing me.

Freddie Miles: Tommy. How's the peeping? Tommy, how's the peeping? Tommy. Tommy. Tommy. Tommy. Tommy.

Herbert Greenleaf: You know, people always say that you can't choose your parents, but you can't choose your children.

Freddie Miles: In fact the only thing which looks like Dickie is you.

Marge Sherwood: The thing with Dickie... it's like the sun shines on you, and it's glorious. And then he forgets you and it's very, very cold.
Tom Ripley: So I'm learning.
Marge Sherwood: When you have his attention, you feel like you're the only person in the world, that's why everybody loves him so much.

Tom Ripley: And that's the irony, Marge. I loved you. You may was well know it, Marge: I loved you. I don't know... maybe it's grotesque of me to say this now, so just write it on a piece of paper or something and put it in your purse for a rainy day. 'Tom loves me.' 'Tom loves me.'.

Peter: Meredith Logue. You were kissing somebody. Looked like Meredith.
Tom Ripley: Hardly kissing. Kissing off, maybe.
Peter: That's not what it looked like.

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Mistakes

Continuity mistake: When Tom, as Dickie, rents a place in Rome, and after Tom kills Freddie, the police are all over him. Marge comes calling and Tom, as Dickie, asks the policeman to ask her to come back later, which leaves Tom alone with the detective. But as we see Marge creeping up the stairs, to see Dickie, suddenly, the policeman is with Tom and the detective, even though the policeman had left and Tom had closed the doors, so the policeman should not have been there.

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Questions

Question: At the end of the movie, when Tom finds out that Meredith is on the boat, he wants to kill either her or Peter because they both believe different stories about him and might run into each other. Is there any reason why he chose to kill Peter?

Answer: After running into Meredith, Tom's plan was to stay in the cabin with Peter the entire trip to avoid them seeing one another. But after Tom makes that suggestion, Peter tells Tom that he seen him kissing Meredith. He couldn't avoid or kill her since Peter already saw her. Family members also saw Tom with Meredith. If Meredith suddenly vanished or was killed I'm quite sure there'd be an investigation. Peter was the only option. No one is on board to report Peter missing. Once the boat docks, Tom will be long gone before they discover Peters body. Unlike Meredith, her family would be looking for her immediately since they're traveling together. I'm quite sure he'd much rather have killed Meredith, she meant nothing to him.

Answer: Meredith was travelling with many other people and he can't kill all of them, so he has to kill Peter. Anthony Minghella discusses this in the audio commentary of the film.

Answer: I saw a lot of reviews saying killing Meredith would be harder because she traveled with a lot of people on the ship. Considering that Tom was able to figure out the old trick where he made Meredith to coincidentally meet up with Peter and Marge in a cafe, I'm pretty sure he could up with the same plot to tell Meredith to meet him somewhere around the corner of the ship too, say in the middle of the night to look at the moon etc. Peter beforehand can be exhausted due to consumption of alcohol or had steamy session of coitus so he could never find out that Peter went out to see Meredith. I don't know how the cruise ship of the 50s worked out at the time but there must be a range of dinner time where people go to a hall for their meals - therefore Tom could persuade Meredith to have some alone time at her cabin while the rest of her Cos were having dinner. Since Meredith was infatuated of him, anything what Tom could have said or planed something with her she would have agreed.

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