The Big Lebowski (1998)

Sam Elliott: The Stranger

Photos 

Quotes 

• The Stranger : Take it easy, Dude.

  The Dude : Oh, yeah!

  The Stranger : I know that you will.

  The Dude : Yeah, well - the Dude abides.

  [Exits with beers in hand] 

  The Stranger : [to the camera]  The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners.

• [first lines] 

  The Stranger : [voiceover]  Way out west there was this fella... fella I wanna tell ya about. Fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least that was the handle his loving parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. Mr. Lebowski, he called himself "The Dude". Now, "Dude" - that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place so darned interestin'. They call Los Angeles the "City Of Angels." I didn't find it to be that, exactly. But I'll allow there are some nice folks there. 'Course I can't say I've seen London, and I ain't never been to France. And I ain't never seen no queen in her damned undies, so the feller says. But I'll tell you what - after seeing Los Angeles, and this here story I'm about to unfold, well, I guess I seen somethin' every bit as stupefyin' as you'd see in any of them other places. And in English, too. So I can die with a smile on my face, without feelin' like the good Lord gypped me. Now this here story I'm about to unfold took place back in the early '90s - just about the time of our conflict with Sad'm and the I-raqis. I only mention it because sometimes there's a man... I won't say a hero, 'cause, what's a hero? But sometimes, there's a man. And I'm talkin' about the Dude here. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's the Dude, in Los Angeles. And even if he's a lazy man - and the Dude was most certainly that. Quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin' for laziest worldwide. But sometimes there's a man, sometimes, there's a man. Aw. I lost my train of thought here. But... aw, hell. I've done introduced him enough.

• The Stranger : Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you.

• The Stranger : There's just one thing, Dude.

  The Dude : And what's that?

  The Stranger : Do you have to use so many cuss words?

  The Dude : What the fuck you talking about?

  The Stranger : Okay, Dude. Have it your way.

• The Stranger : I like your style, Dude.

  The Dude : Well, I dig your style too, man. Got the whole cowboy thing goin'.

  The Stranger : Thankee.

• The Stranger : It was a pretty good story. Don't you think? It made me laugh to beat the band. Parts, anyway. I didn't like seein' Donny go. But, then I happen to know that there's a little Lebowski on the way. I guess that's the way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuatin' itself down through the generations. Westward the wagons, across the sands of time until we - ah, look at me. I'm ramblin' again.

• The Stranger : Darkness warshed over the Dude - darker'n a black steer's tookus on a moonless prairie night. There was no bottom.

• [last lines] 

  The Stranger : Say, friend - you got any more of that good sarsaparilla?

• The Stranger : How have things been going?

  The Dude : Well, you know, strikes and gutters, ups and downs.

• The Stranger : [Last line]  Say, friend, you got any more of that good Sarsaparilla?