Gone Girl Best Movie Quotes

Amy Dunne: Promise me we’ll never be like them.
Nick Dunne: Like who?
Amy Dunne: All those awful couples we know. Those wives who treat their men like dancing monkeys, to be trained and paraded.
Nick Dunne: Husbands who treat their wives like the highway patrol, to be out-foxed and avoided.

Nick Dunne: I think I’m going to be laid off.
Amy Dunne: We’re in a recession. If it happens, we’ll deal with it. I’ll probably be next. We have each other. Everything else is background noise.
Nick Dunne: You are exceptional.

Amy Dunne: What’s the laptop for?
Nick Dunne: Laptoping.

Nick Dunne: You don’t trust me. You don’t trust my judgment. You certainly don’t trust my intention.
Amy Dunne: What are you talking about?
Nick Dunne: That’s the basic tenet of a prenup, isn’t it?
Amy Dunne: Why are you throwing that in my face again?
Nick Dunne: Because it’s easy to throw.
Amy Dunne: Nick, I don’t get it. I don’t get why you’re daring me to be someone I don’t want to be. The nagging shrew. The controlling b**ch. I’m not that person. I’m your wife.

Officer James Gilpin: [referring to Nick] Oh, look. He’s being a good guy, so everybody can see him being a good guy.
Detective Rhonda Boney: Oh, you really don’t like him, do you?
Officer James Gilpin: What’s to like?

Marybeth Elliott: It’s like you’re the goddamn Homecoming King.
Nick Dunne: It was important to my mother that I be polite, I be considerate, I be a gentleman.
Marybeth Elliott: Well, it looked like you were having fun.
Nick Dunne: I am in a nightmare!

Marybeth Elliott: [referring to the river] My God, this place literally smells like feces.

Ellen Abbott: [referring to Nick’s photo where he’s standing next to Amy’s photo] Look at that pie-eating grin from a guy whose wife is missing.

Margo Dunne: How are you doing?
Nick Dunne: Terrific.
Margo Dunne: How’s Marybeth?
Nick Dunne: She’s a wreck.
Margo Dunne: And you?
Nick Dunne: Awesome.

Margo Dunne: Ever since you walked into The Bar that morning Amy went missing, you seem off.
Nick Dunne: I am off. Everybody’s examining me and projecting their s**t on me. All I want is to come over here, have a beer with you, and not be judged. Can we do that?

Amy Dunne: [from her diary] Nick is happy to be home. But I don’t know if he’s happy I’m with him. I feel like something he loaded by mistake. Something to be jettisoned, if necessary. Something disposable. I feel like I could disappear.

Andie Fitzgerald: You were going to get a divorce.
Nick Dunne: Never say that out loud again.

Amy Dunne: [from her diary] Last night, I went from desperate to pathetic. I became someone I don’t even like. The kind of woman I used to mock.

Amy Dunne: Maybe it’s time.
Nick Dunne: Now is literally the worst time.
Amy Dunne: Well, it would be a new start for us. And for me, I would have a real purpose here.
Nick Dunne: A child is not a hobby.
Amy Dunne: Not a hobby. An inspiration.

Nick Dunne: You really want to be the couple that has a baby to save their marriage?
Amy Dunne: Save?
Nick Dunne: Reboot, retool, rekindle, whatever!
Amy Dunne: And you’re going to walk out the door now?
Nick Dunne: Yeah, I am!
Amy Dunne: You’re a f***ing coward.

Amy Dunne: [from her diary] What scared me wasn’t that he’d pushed me. What scared me was how much he wanted to hurt me more. What scared me was that I’d finally realized, I am frightened of my own husband.

Amy Dunne: [writing in her diary] For Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d buy a gun. That is how crazy I’ve become. Nick wants me gone, but he won’t ask for a divorce. In his mind, I’m the owner of his bar, his only line of credit. The b**ch with the prenup. I could go home to my parents, but I’d have to tell them the truth. And I don’t even know if I believe the truth. Can I really think Nick would hurt me? I’m being paranoid. Crazy. It’s just, I’d sleep better with a gun.

Nick Dunne: [after Margo finds out about his affair] You have no idea how s**tty it was with Amy. How f***ing terrible she made me feel. Flyover Boy. I would get knots in my stomach just coming home, knowing she would be sitting there, dissatisfied, before I even walked in the f***ing door.
Margo Dunne: This is so bad. If anybody finds out, you’re totally f***ed.

Margo Dunne: Nick, I was scared for you before, and now, I’m f***ing petrified. We’re having a vigil tonight for your missing wife, and this morning, you’re kissing your college girlfriend goodbye! Can you imagine?

Tanner Bolt: [referring to Nick] Listen, just because this guy isn’t walking around weeping, that doesn’t mean that he’s not hurting.
Ellen Abbott: Tanner, the hallmark of a sociopath is a lack of empathy.
Tanner Bolt: But the truth is, you’d have to be a sociopath to behave normally in this situation, because it’s the most abnormal situation in the world.

Nick Dunne: I’m so sick of being picked apart by women.
Margo Dunne: You need to hire Tanner Bolt.
Nick Dunne: I don’t deserve this.
Margo Dunne: That’s exactly what you deserve.

Officer James Gilpin: I can’t believe we haven’t arrested this guy.
Detective Rhonda Boney: We’re not going to arrest anybody just because some blonde dunce says so.
Officer James Gilpin: Why are you going so easy on him? You got a crush?
Detective Rhonda Boney: One, I am conducting an investigation, not a witch hunt. And, two, don’t talk to me that way, ever.

Nick Dunne: [at Amy’s vigil] I want to say something, because I think some of you might be wondering, and are too polite to ask. I had nothing to do with the disappearance of my wife. I’m cooperating with the police. I haven’t hired a lawyer. I have nothing to hide. Amy is my soul mate. She is brilliant. She’s charming, and wise. I love you, Amy. I love my wife so much. And I may not behave for the cameras the way they want me to, and if they want to punish me for that, that’s okay. But I just want to ask you in the media, please, harass me, but don’t harass the people of this town. If you need to mock somebody, mock me. But please don’t turn this investigation into a circus.

Detective Rhonda Boney: [to Nick] You see, we’ve seen dozens of home invasions.
Officer James Gilpin: Dozens and dozens.
Detective Rhonda Boney: This area right here, it looked wrong from the second we saw it. The whole thing looked staged.

Detective Rhonda Boney: She was pregnant.
Nick Dunne: [smashes a glass in anger] This is insane.
Detective Rhonda Boney: So, my question becomes…
Nick Dunne: I don’t want to talk to you again, ever without a lawyer.

Margo Dunne: You told me you didn’t want kids.
Nick Dunne: I was trying to put a good face on.
Margo Dunne: Then, suddenly, you’ve got a pregnant wife. That’s a problem for you. Especially when you factor in the secret teenage girlfriend.

Nick Dunne: I wanted a baby with Amy. A year ago, Amy being pregnant would have been the best thing ever!

Margo Dunne: Nick, why have you kept this stuff? It’s like a little box of hate.
Nick Dunne: I don’t know, Go! Maybe I hate her!
Margo Dunne: I love you no matter what. But you need to tell me.
Nick Dunne: Tell you what? What are you asking me? Are you asking me if I killed my wife, Go? Is that what you’re asking me? If I murdered my wife?
Margo Dunne: I would never ask you that!

Officer James Gilpin: Let’s make the arrest.
Detective Rhonda Boney: Do you know how hard it is to make a murder case without a body?
Officer James Gilpin: No.
Detective Rhonda Boney: Well, it’s incredibly hard. So, I want one last thing.
Officer James Gilpin: What’s that?
Detective Rhonda Boney: I want a body.

Amy Dunne: [writing in her diary] I will practice believing my husband loves me, and will love this baby. That this child might really save our marriage. But I could be wrong. Because sometimes, the way he looks at me, I think, man of my dreams, father of my child, this man of mine may kill me. He may truly kill me.

Amy Dunne: I am so much happier now that I’m dead. Technically, missing. Soon to be presumed dead. Gone. And my lazy, lying, cheating, oblivious husband, will go to prison for my murder. Nick Dunne took my pride, and my dignity, and my hope, and my money. He took and took from me until I no longer existed. That’s murder. Let the punishment fit the crime.

Amy Dunne: To fake a convincing murder, you have to have discipline.

Amy Dunne: And because you’re you, you don’t stop there. You need a diary. Minimum, three hundred entries on the Nick and Amy story. Start with the fairy tale early days. Those are true. And they’re crucial. You want Nick and Amy to be likeable. After that, you invent. The spending. The abuse. The fear. The threat of violence. And Nick thought he was the writer.

Amy Dunne: And if I get everything right, the world will hate Nick for killing his beautiful, pregnant wife. And after all the outrage, when I’m ready, I’ll go out on the water with a handful of pills, and a pocket full of stones. And when they find my body, they’ll know Nick Dunne dumped his beloved like garbage. And she floated down past all the other abused, unwanted, inconvenient women. Then, Nick will die too. Nick and Amy will be gone. But, then, we never really existed.

Amy Dunne: Nick loved a girl I was pretending to be. “Cool Girl.” Men always use that, don’t they, as their defining compliment. “She’s a cool girl.” Cool Girl is hot. Cool Girl is game. Cool Girl is fun. Cool Girl never gets angry at her man. She only smiles in a chagrined, loving manner, and then presents her mouth for f***ing. She likes what he likes.

Amy Dunne: When I met Nick Dunne, I knew he wanted Cool Girl. And for him, I’ll admit, I was willing to try.

Amy Dunne: [referring to their marriage] I can’t say I didn’t enjoy some of it. Nick teased out of me things I didn’t know existed. A lightness, a humor, an ease. But I made him smarter. Sharper. I inspired him to rise to my level. I forged the man of my dreams.

Amy Dunne: We were happy pretending to be other people. We were the happiest couple we knew. And what’s the point of being together if you’re not the happiest? But Nick got lazy. He became someone I did not agree to marry. He actually expected me to love him unconditionally. Then he dragged me, penniless, to the navel of this great country, and found himself a newer, younger, bouncier Cool Girl.

Amy Dunne: You think I’d let him destroy me and end up happier than ever? No f***ing way. He doesn’t get to win. My cute, charming, salt of the earth, Missouri guy. He needed to learn. Grown-ups work for things. Grown-ups pay. Grown-ups suffer consequences.

Nick Dunne: [to Margo] I need twenty seconds where you don’t judge me, interrupt me, or get angry.

Margo Dunne: [reading Amy’s note] “Dear Husband, I know you think you’re moving through this world unseen. Don’t believe that for a second. I know where you’ve been, and I know where you’re going. For this anniversary, I’ve arranged a trip. Follow the river, up, up, up. Sit back and relax, because you are done.” What’s “up, up river”?
Nick Dunne: “Up the river.” Prison.
Margo Dunne: F***ing crazy b**ch.
Nick Dunne: That’s what this is. She’s framing me for her murder.
Margo Dunne: You married a complete psychopath.

Nick Dunne: [referring to the gift Amy left him] Punch and Judy puppets.
Margo Dunne: Remember, he beats Judy to death and kills that baby.
Nick Dunne: So I’m Punch. Okay. We already knew that, Amy, what’s your point?
Margo Dunne: Does Missouri have the death penalty?

Nick Dunne: Do you not believe me?
Tanner Bolt: No, I believe you. It’s just the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. I mean, I love it. But, for you, it sucks. But you got to have a grudging respect for your wife at this point, right?
Nick Dunne: Are you laughing me out of the building?
Tanner Bolt: No. Are you kidding me? I’m in. I’m way in.

Tanner Bolt: This is why I have a hundred thousand dollar retainer. I win the unwinnable cases.
Nick Dunne: A hundred thousand dollars?
Tanner Bolt: We’ll figure something out. I’ll give you a special “my wife is skilled in the art of vengeance” rate.

Tanner Bolt: Well, right now, it’s a “he said, she said.”
Nick Dunne: She’s telling a better story.
Tanner Bolt: No, Nick. She is telling the perfect story.

Detective Rhonda Boney: The whole thing just feels hinky. Like finding an envelope marked “Clue”.
Officer James Gilpin: You ever hear the expression, “The simplest answer is often the correct one?”
Detective Rhonda Boney: Actually, I’ve never found that to be true.

Tanner Bolt: [as they arrive at Nick’s father’s house] Well, whatever they found, I think it’s safe to assume that it’s very bad.

Tanner Bolt: We got a hurt, young girlfriend, who will no doubt go public at any moment.
Nick Dunne: No, Andie won’t do that.
Tanner Bolt: She will. They always do. Don’t take it personally.

Tanner Bolt: This is a ticking time bomb. You’ve got to throw yourself on it.
Nick Dunne: People are going to hate me.
Tanner Bolt: And then, they will forgive you. A guy admitting that he’s a gigantic a**hole on television? People empathize with that.

Tanner Bolt: I will drill you as if you were doing a deposition. What to say, what not to say.
Margo Dunne: A trained monkey?
Tanner Bolt: A trained monkey who doesn’t get the lethal injection.

Tanner Bolt: Nick, this case is about what people think of you. They need to like you. Now, you do this, and you will reach millions of those people.
Nick Dunne: Maybe I only need to reach one.

Desi Collings: Let’s go to the police. You can explain everything.
Amy Dunne: No, I can’t turn up now. I’d be a pariah. Everyone would hate me. Is it wrong to want Nick to go prison?
Desi Collings: He should go to prison for what he’s done.

Tanner Bolt: [after Andie comes out about their affair] Everything has changed. An hour ago, we were ahead of this. Now?
Nick Dunne: I can handle this.
Tanner Bolt: We’re on the defense. This is a completely different dynamic.
Nick Dunne: I can handle it.
Margo Dunne: [referring to Schieber] She’s going to eat you alive.

Desi Collings: I am looking forward to my reunion with Amy Elliott.

Nick Dunne: [during his interview with Sharon Schieber] Let me be clear. Just because I am not a murderer, it doesn’t make me a good guy. I’m not a good guy. I was a bad husband to a great wife. I broke the vow that I made to her.
Sharon Schieber: Those are pretty words, Nick. But what does that really mean to you?
Nick Dunne: It basically means that I was a con artist.

Nick Dunne: [as Amy is watching the interview on TV] I met Amy Elliott seven years ago. I was completely transfixed. Amy can do that to you. I was this average guy, from an average place, with mediocre aspirations. And I met a woman who dazzled me. And I wanted her to love me, so I pretended to be better than I was. When we got married, I promised to be that guy. That guy who works harder. That guy who, who lives and acts, and loves with as much passion as she does. But I failed her. Instead of doing what was right, I did what was easy.

Sharon Schieber: If she is out there, able to hear and see you tonight, what would you like to say to her, Nick?
Nick Dunne: Amy, I love you. You’re the best person I’ve ever known. And I’ve taken myself to the woodshed for the way that I’ve treated you. And if you come back, I promise I will spend every day making it up to you. I will be the man that I promised you I would be. I love you. Come home.

Nick Dunne: The truth is my defense.

Detective Rhonda Boney: So, finally, Nicholas Dunne, you’re under arrest for the murder of your wife.
Tanner Bolt: Do not say another word.
Nick Dunne: What about my side?

Desi Collings: You’re not bored?
Amy Dunne: Desi, how could I be bored? You can discuss 18th-century symphonies, 19th-century Impressionists, quote Proust in French. Nick’s idea of culture was a reality TV marathon with one hand down his boxers.

Margo Dunne: Tanner, is there any f***ing lead on Amy?
Tanner Bolt: I’ve got two of my best guys on it. She’s air.
Nick Dunne: Come home, Amy. I dare you.

Nick Dunne: [after Amy turns up making it appear Desi kidnapped her] Are we pals again?
Detective Rhonda Boney: Now that I know you didn’t murder your wife, yes. What do you think?
Nick Dunne: Kidnapping? The story is insane.

Nick Dunne: [referring to Desi] She slit his throat with a box cutter.
Officer James Gilpin: How did she manage to get a hold of a box cutter if he had her tied up the whole time?
Nick Dunne: Can’t you just be happy your wife is home and safe?

Nick Dunne: Alright, you can stop pretending now.
Amy Dunne: I’m not pretending. You were perfect. The Nick I saw on TV, that’s the Nick I fell in love with.
Nick Dunne: You do know I was just telling you what you wanted to hear, right?
Amy Dunne: That’s how well you know me. You know me in your marrow.

Nick Dunne: You killed someone, Amy. You’re a murderer now.
Amy Dunne: I’m a fighter. I fought my way back to you.

Amy Dunne: You went on national television and begged for me to save your life. And I obliged. But I want that Nick.
Nick Dunne: I’m leaving.
Amy Dunne: You really think that’s smart? Shampoo. Wounded, raped wife battles her way back to her husband, and he deserts her. They’ll destroy you. Neighbors will shun you. And I’ll make sure that no one forgets the pain you caused me.

Nick Dunne: Was there ever a baby?
Amy Dunne: There can be.

Reporter: Nick, what’s next for you and Amy?
Amy Dunne: Right now, it’s all about our marriage. When two people love each other, and can’t make that work, that’s the real tragedy.

Margo Dunne: [referring to Amy] I can’t believe that f***ing spider is America’s sweetheart.

Tanner Bolt: [to Nick] I swear, you two are the most f***ed-up people I’ve ever known. And I specialize in f***ed-up. You and Amy under the same roof? You should pitch that as reality television.

Tanner Bolt: Oh, she’s good.
Margo Dunne: Amazing Amy and the Humbled Husband.
Tanner Bolt: The Real Housewives of Branson. Take care of this guy, will you?
Nick Dunne: I can’t believe you’re just leaving now.
Tanner Bolt: You are not at risk anymore.
Nick Dunne: I’m the definition of “at risk”.
Tanner Bolt: You got a book deal, a Lifetime movie, you franchised The Bar. You may want to thank her. Just don’t pi** her off. See you, guys.
Margo Dunne: Elvis has left Missouri.

Amy Dunne: I need you to admit that you got the credit cards, and that you hid all that stuff at Go’s, and that you pushed me. I’m going to need those three things to feel safe. You have to own this, Nick.
Nick Dunne: Don’t worry. I know exactly what to say.

Nick Dunne: [referring to Amy’s positive pregnany test] Amy, You can teach those people to hate me all you want. I don’t care. I am leaving you.
Amy Dunne: I won’t have to teach your child to hate you. He’ll do that all by himself.

Nick Dunne: You f***ing c***!
Amy Dunne: I’m the c*** you married. The only time you liked yourself was when you were trying to be someone this c*** might like. I’m not a quitter. I’m that c***. I’ve killed for you. Who else can say that? You think you’d be happy with a nice Midwestern girl? No way, baby. I’m it.

Nick Dunne: You’re delusional. I mean, you’re insane. Why would you even want this? Yes, I loved you. And then all we did was resent each other, and try to control each other. And cause each other pain.
Amy Dunne: That’s marriage.

Margo Dunne: You could get custody.
Nick Dunne: No, I won’t. And you know it. It’s going to be my child. I’m not going to leave it.
Margo Dunne: You want to stay.
Nick Dunne: I have a responsibility. It’s not about what I want anymore.
Margo Dunne: You want to stay with her.

Margo Dunne: You’re breaking my heart.
Nick Dunne: Go, you’re my voice of reason. I need you with me on this.
Margo Dunne: Of course I’m with you. I was with you before we were even born.

Nick Dunne: [doing their interview with Ellen Abbott] We’ve been through the darkness. We’ve come out, united. We communicate. We’re honest with each other. Right? We’re partners in crime.
Amy Dunne: And?
Nick Dunne: And? We’re going to be parents.

Nick Dunne: “What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What will we do?”