Tag: morgan freeman

“What’s in the box?”

From: Seven (stylized “Se7en”)

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Detective David Mills

The story behind the quote: This quote comes from the climactic scene of the crime thriller, Seven, which revolves around a serial killer mimicking the seven deadly sins of the Bible. Oddly enough, the line itself, already mundane by itself, is only said verbatim once or twice in the scene. However, thanks to brilliant directing and storytelling, this rather ordinary quote has become incredibly memorable.

In the final moments of the movie, the serial killer John Doe (played by Kevin Spacey) leads Detectives David Mills (played by Brad Pitt) and William Somerset (played by Morgan Freeman) to the middle of the desert where they receive a package. Mills guards Doe while Somerset checks out the package. When the grizzled detective opens it, he is shocked and disturbed. While this is happening, Doe tells Mills that he envies his life and implies that he beheaded the detective’s wife, implying that is what’s in the box. Somerset tries to placate Mills but the young detective asks his partner what was in the package they received…

Geek wisdom: We like to think we’re ready for everything and anything. However, this is just not true. There are even some questions we don’t want to hear the answers to because we know how devastating they can be.

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“Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

From: The Shawshank Redemption

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Andy Dufresne

The story behind the quote: The quote comes from the critically acclaimed film, The Shawshank Redemption. The movie follows Andy Dufrense, who was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife and the man she was having an affair with. He is imprisoned in Shawshank, where he befriends Ellis “Red” Redding, who is serving a life sentence. While not a commercial hit when it was first released, The Shawshank Redemption has become a classic due to near universal approval.

The quote comes after Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) is released from solitary. He meets up with “Red” Redding (played by Morgan Freeman) and Andy dreams of what he would do if he ever does make it out of prison. Red tells Andy that he shouldn’t keep dreaming about life on the outside. That’s when Andy turns to Red and delivers the quote

Geek wisdom: When in times of deep despair, we can feel that life is hopeless and there is no meaning to living anymore. It can be easy to think that life is all about suffering and pain during these trying times. However, the only time life is actually not worth living is when we give up on the hope that things will never get better.

We should never give up on life and try to move past the hard times. That’s the only way things will actually get better.