Up in the Air

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Up in the Air Quotes

#1
Natalie Keener: I thought I'd be engaged by now. I thought by 23, I'd be married, maybe have a kid, corner office by day, entertaining at night. I was supposed to be driving a Grand Cherokee by now.
Alex Goran: Well, life can underwhelm you that way.
Natalie Keener: Where did you think you'd be by err...?
Alex Goran: It doesn't work that way. At a certain point, you stop with the dead lines. It can be a little counter productive.
Natalie Keener: I don't want to say anything that is anti feminist. I really appreciate everything that your generation did for me.
Alex Goran: It was our pleasure.
Natalie Keener: Sometimes it feels like, no matter how much success I have, it's not gonna matter until I find the right guy. I could have made it work, he really fit the bill, you know. White collar, 6'1, college grad, loves dogs, likes funny movies, brown hair, kind eyes, works in finance but is outdoorsy. I always imagined he'd have a single syllable name like Matt or John or Dave. In a perfect world, he drives a 4 runner and the only thing he loves more than me is his golden lab. And a nice smile. What about you?
Alex Goran: You know, honestly by the time you're 34, all the physical requirements just go out the window. You secretly pray that he'll be taller than you, not an asshole would be nice just someone who enjoys my company, comes from a good family. You don't think about that when you're younger. Someone who wants kids, likes kids. Healthy enough to play with his kids. Please let him earn more money than I do, you might not understand that now but believe me, you will one day otherwise that's a recipe for disaster. And hopefully, some hair on his head. I mean, that's not even a deal breaker these days. A nice smile. Yea, a nice smile just might do it.
Natalie Keener: Wow. That was depressing.
#2
[as Ryan and Natalie enter the Hilton Miami Airport Hotel]
Natalie Keener: How about just not dying alone?
Ryan Bingham: Starting when I was 12, we moved each one of my grandparents into a nursing facility. My parents went the same way. Make no mistake, we all die alone. Now those cult members in San Diego, with the sneakers and the Kool-Aid, they didn't die alone. I'm just saying there are options.

[Natalie starts to cry]
Ryan Bingham: Oh, fuck.
Natalie Keener: [sobs] Brian left me.

[Natalie is sobbing hysterically; Ryan then comforts her and calms her down]
Ryan Bingham: All right. Okay, okay. All right. All right.
#3
Ryan Bingham: All the things you probably hate about travelling -the recycled air, the artificial lighting, the digital juice dispensers, the cheap sushi- are warm reminders that I'm home
#4
Natalie Keener: He broke up with me by text message.
Ryan Bingham: Wow. That's kind of like getting fired over the Internet.
#5
[Ryan and Natalie arrived at the Hilton hotel where Ryan jumps to the counter to check with his Hilton Honors card; A woman becomes insulted by this]
Business Woman: He just waltzes in and cuts in line?
Hilton Clerk: We reserve priority assistance for our Hilton Honors members.
Ryan Bingham: [hands the business woman the packet] The promotions are great. You should check it out.

[the woman snatches the packet from Ryan in anger; Ryan laughs]
#6
Natalie Keener: Hungry much?
Ryan Bingham: Our business expense allots forty dollars each for dinner. I plan on grabbing as many miles as I can.
Natalie Keener: Okay, you got to fill me in on the miles thing. What is that about? You're talking about, like, frequent flyer miles?
Ryan Bingham: You really want to know?
Natalie Keener: I'm dying to know.
Ryan Bingham: I don't spend a nickel, if I can help it, unless it somehow profits my mileage account.
Natalie Keener: So, what are you saving up for? Hawaii? South of France?
Ryan Bingham: It's not like that. The miles are the goal.
Natalie Keener: That's it? You're saving just to save?
Ryan Bingham: Let's just say that I have a number in mind and I haven't hit it yet.
Natalie Keener: That's a little abstract. What's the target?
Ryan Bingham: I'd rather not...
Natalie Keener: Is it a secret target?
Ryan Bingham: It's ten million miles.
Natalie Keener: Okay. Isn't ten million just a number?
Ryan Bingham: Pi's just a number.
Natalie Keener: Well, we all need a hobby. No, I- I- I don't mean to belittle your collection. I get it. It sounds cool.
Ryan Bingham: I'd be the seventh person to do it. More people have walked on the moon.
Natalie Keener: Do they throw you a parade?
Ryan Bingham: You get lifetime executive status. You get to meet the chief pilot, Maynard Finch.
Natalie Keener: Wow.
Ryan Bingham: And they put your name on the side of a plane.
Natalie Keener: Men get such hardons from putting their names on things. You guys don't grow up. It's like you need to pee on everything.
#7
Natalie Keener: [Ryan overhears Natalie talking about him on the phone to her boyfriend] No, I don't think of him that way; he's old. [Startled, Ryan looks in the mirror]
#8
Ryan Bingham: [End of closing monologue] The stars will wheel forth from their daytime hiding places; and one of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over.
#9
Alex Goran: What a weasly prick.
Natalie Keener: Yeah, but what does that make me? Someone who falls for a prick.
Alex Goran: We all fall for the prick. Pricks are spontaneous, they're unpredictable and they're fun. And then we're surprised when they turn out to be pricks.
#10
Ryan Bingham: Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it's *because* they sat there that they were able to do it.
#11
[after they both have sex in Ryan's room; Ryan lays on the floor whilst Alex, naked, lies on the bed]
Ryan Bingham: Good call on that towel rack.
Alex Goran: I like how you burritoed me in the sofa cushions.
Ryan Bingham: I was improvising.
Alex Goran: Shame we didn't make it to the closet.
Ryan Bingham: Mmm. We gotta do this again.
Alex Goran: Oh. yeah.
#12
Alex Goran: I am the woman that you don't have to worry about.
Ryan Bingham: Sounds like a trap.
#13
San Francisco Manager: [interviewing Natalie for a job] So, what happened?
Natalie Keener: How exactly do you mean?
San Francisco Manager: You graduated top of your class. You could have had your pick of employment, including right here. Instead, you went to Omaha to... fire people for a living?
Natalie Keener: Challenging work.
San Francisco Manager: I'll say. I couldn't imagine doing that day in and day out. Not in this climate.
Natalie Keener: I... followed a boy.
San Francisco Manager: I guess we've all done that at some point in our lives.

[the manager pauses and picks up a letter from his desk, showing it to Natalie]
San Francisco Manager: This guy says I'd be lucky to have you.
Ryan Bingham: [voiceover, reading the letter] To whom it may concern: I can't begin to count the number of people I've fired in my lifetime. So many that I've forgotten what it's like to actually hire someone. We've never met, but I know you'd be lucky to have Natalie Keener. My advice? Take her and don't look back. She'll be the best decision you've made in a long time.
San Francisco Manager: [holding his hand out] I sure hope he's right.

[Natalie springs to her feet and shakes hands, gathering her composure and trying not to smile too broadly]
#14
Natalie Keener: Can you stop condescending for one second or is that one of the principles of your bullshit philosophy?
#15
[Natalie, on her first outing, walks into the Omaha Airport terminal dragging her slow-moving luggage; Ryan, offended by this, looks at her in frustration]
Natalie Keener: What?
Ryan Bingham: Follow me.

[later at a store in the terminal, Ryan grabs a new, updated rolling luggage]
Natalie Keener: I really like my luggage.
Ryan Bingham: That's exactly what it is, it's luggage. You know how much time you lose by checking in?
Natalie Keener: I don't know. Five, ten minutes?
Ryan Bingham: 35 minutes a flight. I travel 270 days a year. That's 157 hours. That makes seven days. You're willing to throw away an entire week on that?

[Natalie sighs]
#16
[On the shuttle bus ride to the Hilton Miami Airport Hotel]
Natalie Keener: Never?
Ryan Bingham: No.
Natalie Keener: Ever?
Ryan Bingham: No.
Natalie Keener: You never wanna get married?
Ryan Bingham: Nope.
Natalie Keener: Never want kids?
Ryan Bingham: Not a chance.
Natalie Keener: Ever?
Ryan Bingham: Never. Is that so bizarre?
Natalie Keener: Yes. Yes, it is.
Ryan Bingham: I just don't see the value in it. All right, sell it to me.
Natalie Keener: What?
Ryan Bingham: Sell me marriage.
Natalie Keener: Okay. How about love?
Ryan Bingham: [scoffs] Okay.
Natalie Keener: Stability. Just somebody you can count on.
Ryan Bingham: How many stable marriages do you know?
Natalie Keener: Somebody to talk to, someone to spend your life with.
Ryan Bingham: I'm surrounded by people to talk to. I doubt that's gonna change.
#17
Ryan Bingham: How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV... the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home... I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office... and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.
#18
Ryan Bingham: So, did you wake him up or slip out?
Natalie Keener: What?
Ryan Bingham: This morning. Your new friend. Did you wake him up for an awkward goodbye or did you just slip out and make him feel like a whore?
Natalie Keener: [confused] I just left.
Ryan Bingham: Protocol's always tricky.
#19
Kara Bingham: You're awfully isolated the way you live.
Ryan Bingham: Isolated? I'm surrounded.
#20
Natalie Keener: [to Alex] You're so pretty. You're exactly what I want to look like in fifteen years.