Big Fish

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Big Fish is a 2003 film about a man who goes home to be with his family as his ailing father passes away. During his time there, he recalls the outlandish tales that his father told about his own life, always swearing they were true.

Directed by Tim Burton. Written by John August (screenplay). Based on Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace
An adventure as big as life itself. taglines

Edward Bloom[edit]

  • Kept in a small bowl, they will remain small. With more space, the fish can double, triple or quadruple its size.
  • There are some fish that cannot be caught. It's not that they're faster or stronger than other fish. They're just touched by something extra. Call it luck. Call it grace. One such fish was "The Beast".
  • I was trying to find a cure to my gigantificationism...
  • I was thinking about death and all. About seeing how you're going to die. I mean, on one hand, if dying was all you thought about, it could kind of screw you up. But it could kind of help you, couldn't it? Because you'd know that everything else you can survive.
  • I was never much for being at home, Will. It's too confining. And this, here... being stuck in bed. Dying is the worst thing that ever happened to me.
  • Armed with the foreknowledge of my own death, I knew the giant couldn't kill me. All the same, I preferred to keep my bones unbroken.
  • Oh, come on. I can't go back, I'm a human sacrifice. If I go back they'll think I'm a coward. I'd rather be dinner than a coward.
  • The biggest fish in the river gets that way by never being caught.
  • There were two roads out of Ashton, a new one which was paved, and an older one that wasn't. People didn't use the old road anymore, and it had developed the reputation of being haunted. Well, Since I had no intention of ever returning to Ashton, this seemed as good a time as any to find out what lay down that old road.
  • Now, there comes a point where a reasonable man will swallow his pride and admit that he's made a terrible mistake. The truth is, I was never a reasonable man.
  • What I recalled of Sunday School was that the more difficult something became, the more rewarding it was in the end.
  • I agreed to spend the afternoon, if only to understand the mystery of how a place could feel so strange, and yet so familiar.
  • As difficult as it was to reach Spectre, I was fated to get there eventually. After all, no man can avoid reaching the end of his life.
  • This isn't how I die.
  • We didn't have a proper wedding. Your mother-in-law was never supposed to marry me. She was engaged to somebody else.
  • It was on that night Karl met his destiny. And I met mine. Almost.
  • They say when you meet the love of your life, time stops. And that's true. What they don't tell you, is that once time starts again, it moves extra fast to catch up.
  • You will never know its Girth!
  • It was that night I discovered that most things you consider evil or wicked are simply lonely, and lacking in social niceties.
  • Fate has a cruel way of circling around on you. After all this work to leave Ashton, the girl I loved was now engaged to one of its biggest jerks. There's a time when a man needs to fight, and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny is lost, that the ship has sailed, and that only a fool will continue. The truth is, I've always been a fool.
  • Sandra Templeton, I love you! And I will marry you!
  • While I took the beating of a lifetime, it was Don Price who was ultimately defeated.
  • Truth is, I've been thirsty my whole life. Never really known why.
  • You see, most men, they'll tell a story straight through— it won't be complicated, but it won't be interesting either.

William Bloom[edit]

  • In telling the story of my father's life, it's impossible to separate the fact from the fiction, the man from the myth. The best I can do is to tell it the way he told me. It doesn't always make sense, and most of it never happened. But that's what kind of story this is.
  • Everyone loves my father. He's a very likable guy.
  • Okay, okay— The thing about icebergs is you only see 10 percent. The other 90 percent is below the water where you can't see it. That's what it is with you Dad. I'm only seeing this little bit that sticks above the water.
  • [last lines] That was my father's final joke, I guess. The man tells his stories so many times that he becomes the stories. They live on after him. And in that way, he becomes immortal.


  • It's not a woman, it's a fish. No one ever catches her. Fish looks diff'rent to diff'rent people. My daddy said it looked like the coon dog he had when he was kid...back from the dead.
  • Fate has a way of circling back on a man, and taking him by surprise. A man sees things differently at different times in his life. This town didn't seem the same now that he was older.


Edward: Having a kid changes everything. I mean, there's the diapers and the burping and the midnight feedings...
Will: Did you do any of that?
Edward: No, but I hear it's terrible. Then you spend years trying to corrupt and mislead this child, fill its head with nonsense and still it turns out perfectly fine.

Edward: Really.
Norther Winslow: There's a lot of expectation. I don't want to disappoint my fans...the grass so green, skies so blue, spectre is really great!
Edward: It's only three lines long.

Beamen: You won't find a better place!
Edward: I don't expect to.
Jenny: Promise me you'll come back.
Edward: I promise. Someday. When I'm really supposed to.

Man in crowd: Mayor, he ate an entire cornfield!
Young girl in crowd: He ate my dog!

Mayor: Son that creature could crush you without trying.
Edward: Oh trust me— he'll have to try.

Edward: Will never told you?... Ah, probably just as well. He would have told it wrong anyway. All the facts and none of the flavor.
Josephine: Oh... so this is a tall tale?
Edward: Well, it's not a short one.

Karl: I don't want to eat anybody. I just get so hungry. I'm just too big.
Edward: Did you ever think maybe you're not too big— but, maybe this town's just too small?

Amos: Tell me, Karl, have you ever heard the term “involuntary servitude?”
Karl: No.
Amos: Unconscionable contract?
Karl: Uh... Nope.
Amos: Great! Here you go.

Edward: I just saw the woman I'm going to marry, I know it. But I lost her.
Amos: Oh, tough break. Well, most men have to get married before they lose their wives.
Edward: I'm going to spend the rest of my life looking for her. That or die alone.
Amos: Damn, Kid! Let me guess. Real pretty? Reddish-blondish hair? Blue dress?
Edward: Yeah!
Amos: I know her uncle. Friends of the family.
Edward: Who is she? Where does she live?
Amos: Forget it kid, don't waste your time. She's out of your league.
Edward: What do you mean? You don't even know me.
Amos: Sure I do. You were hot s*** back in Hickville, but here in the real world, you got squat. You don't have a plan. You don't have a job. You don't have anything except the clothes on your back... you were a big fish in a small pond, but this here is the ocean, and you're drowning. Take my advice and go back to Puddleville. You'll be happy there.

Edward: You don't know me, but my name is Edward Bloom and I love you. I've spent the last three years working to find out who you are. I've been shot and stabbed and trampled a few times— I broke my ribs twice— but it's all been worth it to see you here, now, and to finally get to talk to you. Because I'm destined to marry you. I knew it the first moment I saw you at the circus. And I know it now more than ever.
Sandra: I'm sorry.
Edward: You don't have to apologize to me. I'm the luckiest person you'll find today.
Sandra: No, I'm sorry. I'm engaged to be married. But you're wrong. I do know you. At least by reputation. Edward Bloom from Ashton. See, I'm actually engaged to a boy from Ashton. Don Price. He was a few years older than you.
Edward: Well... congratulations. I'm sorry to have bothered you...

Josephine: You never told me how your parents met.
Will: They met at Auburn.
Josephine: What about the details? How they fell in love. The Circus. The War. You never told me any of that.
Will: That's because most of it never happened.
Josephine: But it's romantic.

Will: You have to understand. When I was growing up, he was gone more than he was here. And I started thinking— maybe he has a second life somewhere else. With another family, another house— he leaves us, he goes to them. Or maybe there is no second family. Maybe he never wanted a family. But whatever it is, maybe he likes that second life better. And the reason he tells all those stories is because he can't stand this boring place.
Josephine: But it's not true.
Will: What is "true"? He's never told me a single true thing.

Edward: What do you want, Will? Who do you want me to be?
Will: Yourself. Good, bad, everything. Just show me who you are for once.
Edward: I have been nothing but myself since the day I was born. And if you can't see that, it's your failing, not mine.

Sandra: It was during the war. Your father went missing. They thought he was dead.
Will: That really happened?
Sandra: Not everything your father says is a complete fabrication.

Jenny: One day, Edward Bloom left, and never returned to the town he'd saved. As for the girl, the common belief was that she'd become a witch, and crazy at that. She became something of a legend herself. And the story ended where it began.
Will: Well, logically, you couldn't be the witch, because she was old when he was young.
Jenny: Well, it's logical if you think like your father. See, to him, there's only two women: your mother and everyone else... And one day I realized I was in love with a man who could never love me back. I was living in a fairy tale... I'm not sure I should have told you any of this... I wanted to be as important to him as you were, and I was never going to be. I was make-believe and... his other life, you, you were real.

Will: As we get-as we get close to the river, we see that everybody is already there.
Will: And I mean's-it's unbelievable.
Edward: The story...of my life.
Will: And the strange thing is,there's not a sad face to be found,everyone is just so glad to see you.And send you off right.
Will: You become what you always were...a very big fish...and that's how it happens.
Edward: Exactly.


  • An adventure as big as life itself.


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