The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Gil Bellows: Tommy

Photos 

Quotes 

• [after Tommy told the story of how he got arrested] 

  Andy Dufresne : Perhaps it's time you tried a new profession.

  Tommy Williams : Huh?

  Andy Dufresne : What I mean is, you don't seem to be a very good thief, maybe you should try something else.

  Tommy Williams : Yeah, well, what the hell you know about it, Capone? What are you in for?

  Andy Dufresne : Me? My lawyer fucked me. Everybody's innocent in here. Don't you know that?

• Tommy Williams : So I'm backing out the door, right, and I got the TV, like this; it was a big old thing, I couldn't see shit; suddenly I hear this voice, "Police, kid, hands in the air." You know, I was standing there, holdin' on to that TV, so finally the voice says, "You hear what I said, boy?" And I say, "Yes sir, I sure did, but if I drop this fucking thing you got me on destruction of property too."

• Red : [narrating]  Tommy Williams came to Shawshank in 1965 on a two-year stretch for B&E. That's breaking & entering to you. Cops caught him sneaking TV sets out the back door of a JC Penney. Young punk. Mr. Rock and Roll. Cocky as hell.

  Tommy Williams : Hey, c'mon, old boys! You're movin' like molasses! Makin' me look bad!

  Red : [narrating]  We liked him immediately.

• Tommy Williams : I was thinkin' about gettin' my GED.

  Andy Dufresne : I don't waste time with losers, Tommy.

  Tommy Williams : [angrily]  I *ain't* no goddamn loser!

  Andy Dufresne : You mean that?

  Tommy Williams : Yeah!

  Andy Dufresne : [seriously]  You *really* mean that?

  Tommy Williams : Yes sir, I do.

  Andy Dufresne : Good. Because if we do this, we go all the way, nothing half-assed.

  Tommy Williams : Thing is, uh... I don't read so good.

  Tommy Williams : "Well."

  [pause, Tommy looks confused] 

  Tommy Williams : You don't read so *well.*... We'll get to that.

• [Tommy and Red are talking about Andy] 

  Tommy Williams : What's he in here for, anyway?

  Red : Murder.

  Tommy Williams : [Impressed]  The hell you say!

  Red : Yeah, you wouldn't think it to look at the guy. Caught his wife in bed with some golf pro. Greased 'em both.

  [pause, Tommy looks shocked] 

  Red : What? What is it?

  [cut to a later scene with Andy present] 

  Tommy Williams : About four years ago I was up in Thomaston on a two to three stretch. Stole a car. It was a dumb-fuck thing to do. About six months left to go, I get a new cellmate in. Elmo Blatch. Big, twitchy fucker. Kind of roomie you pray you don't get, you know what I'm sayin'? Six to twelve, armed burglary. Said he'd pulled hundreds of jobs - hard to believe, high-strung as he was, you cut a loud fart he'd jump three feet in the air. Talked *all the time*, too, that's the other thing, he never shut up. Places he'd been, jobs he'd pulled, women he fucked. Even, people he killed. People, gave him shit. That's how he put it. So one night like a joke, I say to him, I say, "Yeah, Elmo, who'd you kill?" So he says:

  Elmo Blatch : [in flashback]  I got me this job one time, busing tables at a country club, so I could case all these big rich pricks who come in. So I pick out this guy, go in one night, and do his place. He wakes up, and gives me shit, so I killed him. Him and this tasty bitch he was with!

  [laughs] 

  Elmo Blatch : And that's the best part. She's fuckin' this prick golf pro but she's married to some other guy! Some hot-shot banker! And he's the one they pinned it on!

• [Tommy is taking the high school equivalency test] 

  Andy Dufresne : [clicking a stopwatch]  Time. Well?

  Tommy Williams : Well, it's for shit! I didn't get a fucking thing right, might as well've been in Chinese!

  Andy Dufresne : Let's just see how the score comes out.

  Tommy Williams : Yeah? Well I'll tell you how the damn score comes out!

  [crumples the test paper and flings it into the trash can] 

  Tommy Williams : TWO POINTS! Right there! Goddamn cats crawlin' up trees, five times five is twenty-five... FUCK THIS PLACE! FUCK IT!

• [Tommy receives a letter from the Board of Education] 

  Red : You gonna open it, or stand there with your thumb up your butt?

  Tommy Williams : Thumb up my butt sounds better.