Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Woody Harrelson: Willoughby

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Quotes 

• Willoughby : My Darling Anne, There's a longer letter in the dresser drawer I've been writing for the last week or so, that one covers us, and my memories of us, and how much I've always loved you. This one just covers tonight, and more importantly, today. Tonight I have gone out to the horses to end it. I cannot say sorry for the act itself, although I know for a short time you will be angry at me, or even hate me for it. Please don't. This is not a case of, I came in this world alone and I'm goin' out of it alone, or anything dumb like that. I did not come in this world alone, my mom was there. And I am not goin' out of it alone, 'cause you were there, drunk on the couch, making Oscar Wilde cock jokes. No, this is a case, in some senses, of bravery. Not the bravery of facing a bullet down. The next few months of pain would be far harder than that small flash. No, it's the bravery of weighing up the next few months of still being with you, still waking up with you, of playing with the kids... Against the next few months of seeing in your eyes how much my pain is killing you. How my weakened body, as it ebbs away, and you tend to it, are your final and lasting memories of me. I won't have that. Your final memories of me will be us at the riverside, and that dumb fishing game, which I think they cheated at. And me inside of you, and you on top of me... And barely a fleeting thought, of the darkness yet to come. That was the best Anne. A whooole day of not thinking about it. Dwell on this day baby, 'cause it was the best day of my life. Kiss the girls for me, and know that I've always loved you... And maybe I'll see ya again if there's another place, and if there ain't... Well, it's been heaven knowing you. Your Boy, Bill

• Willoughby : Dear Mildred, Dead Man Willoughby here. Firstly, I wanted to apologize for dyin' without catchin' your daughter's killer. It's a source of great pain to me and it would break my heart to think you thought I didn't care. 'Cause I did care. There are just some cases, where you never catch a break. Then 5 years down the line, some guy hears some other guy braggin' about it in a barroom or a jail cell. The whole thing is wrapped up through sheer stupidity. I hope that might be true for Angela, I really do. Second, I got to admit Mildred, the billboards were a great fucking idea. They were like a chess move. And although they had absolutely nothing to do with my dyin'... I will assume almost everyone in town will assume that they did. Which is why, for Willoughby's counter-move, I decided to pay the next month's rent on 'em. I thought it'd be funny, you having to defend them a whooole 'nother month after they've stuck me in the ground. The joke is on you Mildred. Ha ha, and I hope they do not kill you. So good luck with all that, and good luck with everything else too. I hope and I pray that you get him.

• Willoughby : Jason, Willoughby here. I'm dead now, sorry about that. There's something I wanted to say to you that I never really said when I was alive. I think you've got the makings of being a really good cop, Jason, and you know why? Because, deep down, you're a decent man. I know you don't think I think that, but I do, dipshit. I do think you're too angry though, and I know it's all since your dad died and you had to go look after your mom and all, but as long as you hold on to so much hate, then I don't think you're ever going to become, what I know you want to become - a detective. 'Cause you know what you need to become a detective? And I know you're gonna wince when I say this, but what you need to become a detective is love.

  Mildred Hayes : Fuck 'em.

  [Mildred starts throwing Molatov cocktails at the police station, unaware that Dixon is inside it reading Willoughby's letter] 

  Willoughby : Because through love comes calm, and through calm comes thought. And you need thought to detect stuff sometimes, Jason. It's kinda all you need. You don't even need a gun. And you definitely don't need hate. Hate never solved nothing, but calm did. And thought did. Try it. Try it just for a change. No one'll think you're gay. And if they do, arrest 'em for homophobia! Won't they be surprised! Good luck to you, Jason. You're a decent man, and yeah you've had a run of bad luck, but things are gonna change for you. I can feel it.

• Willoughby : I'd do anything to catch the guy who did it, Mrs. Hayes, but when the DNA don't match no one who's ever been arrested, and when the DNA don't match any other crime nationwide, and there wasn't a single eyewitness from the time she left your house to the time we found her, well... right now there ain't too much more we could do.

  Mildred Hayes : You could pull blood from every man and boy in this town over the age of 8.

  Willoughby : There's civil rights laws prevents that, Mrs. Hayes, and what if he was just passing through town?

  Mildred Hayes : Pull blood from every man in the country.

  Willoughby : And what if he was just passing through the country?

  Mildred Hayes : If it was me, I'd start up a database, every male baby was born, stick 'em on it, and as soon as he done something wrong, cross reference it, make 100% certain it was a correct match, then kill him.

  Willoughby : Yeah well, there's definitely civil rights laws that prevents that.

• Dixon : We've had two official complaints about the billboards, so, actually...

  Willoughby : From who?

  Dixon : A lady with a funny eye... and a fat dentist.

  Willoughby : Give me the file on the Angela Hayes case.

  Willoughby : A lady with a funny fucking eye?... Jesus Christ.

• Willoughby : [from trailer]  You didn't happen to drill a *little* hole in the dentist today, did you?

  Mildred Hayes : [mouth numb]  Of course not.

• Willoughby : If you got rid of every cop with vaguely racist leanings, then you'd have three cops left, and all o' them are gonna hate the fags, so what are ya gonna do, y'know?

• Willoughby : You think I care about dentists?... I don't care about dentists... Nobody cares about dentists.

• Willoughby : Dixon, you goddamn asshole. I'm in the middle of my goddamn Easter dinner... Sorry, kids.

• Geoffrey : I just wanted to say, there's a lot of good friends of Bill Willoughby in this town, Ms. Hayes...

  [before Geoffrey could complete his sentence, Mildred, agitated, grabs the dentist drill Geoffrey is holding and drills a hole into his right thumbnail] 

  Geoffrey : Goddamn it!

  Mildred Hayes : Then why don't you tell those good friends of Bill Willoughby to tell him to go do his fucking job, fat boy.

  [Mildred then spits at Geoffrey before the next scene starts] 

  Willoughby : Hey there Mildred! You didn't happen to pay a visit to the dentist today, did you?

  Mildred Hayes : No.

  Willoughby : Uh?

  Mildred Hayes : I said "no".

  Willoughby : Oh, so it wasn't you who drilled a little hole in one of big fat Geoffrey's big fat thumbnails, no?

  Mildred Hayes : Of course not.

  Willoughby : Huh?

  Mildred Hayes : I said, "Of course not".

  Denise : You drilled a hole in the dentist?

  Mildred Hayes : Denise, no, I didn't.

  Willoughby : Well, I thought it was kind of funny myself, but he wants to press charges, so we're gonna have to bring you in, I'm afraid.

• Dixon : What's the matter with you, saying that goddamn stuff on TV?... My momma watches that station.

  Mildred Hayes : Your momma doesn't know about the torturing?

  Dixon : No, she doesn't know anything about it. She's against that kinda thing.

  Willoughby : Who's against what?

  Dixon : Momma... my momma-momma is against persons-of-color-torturing. She said nigger-torturing. I said, You can't say nigger-torturing no more. You gotta say persons-of-color-torturing. Isn't that right, Chief?

• Willoughby : [from trailer]  I don't think those billboards is very fair.

  Mildred Hayes : The time it took you to get out here whining like a bitch, Willoughby, some other poor girl's probably out there being butchered.

• Willoughby : Oscar Wilde...

  [Smiles in memories, shoots himself in the head] 

• Willoughby : I got cancer. I'm dying.

  Mildred Hayes : I know it.

  Willoughby : Huh?

  Mildred Hayes : I know it. Most everybody in town knows it.

  Willoughby : [confused]  And you still put up those billboards?

  Mildred Hayes : Well, they wouldn't be as effective after you croak, right?

• Willoughby : You really wanna fuck with the Ebbing Police Department, Red? Do you?

  Red Welby : I guess.