Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Johnny Depp: Ichabod Crane

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Quotes 

• Ichabod Crane : Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.

• Brom Van Brunt : And who are you, friend? We haven't heard your name yet.

  Ichabod Crane : I have not said it.

• Young Masbath : Is he dead?

  Ichabod Crane : That's the problem. He was dead to begin with.

• [last lines] 

  Ichabod Crane : [arriving in New York City with Katrina and Masbeth]  Ah, just in time for a new century. You'll soon find your bearings, young Masbeth. The Bronx is up, the Battery is down, and home is this way.

• Ichabod Crane : It is truth, but truth is not always appearance.

• Katrina Anne Van Tassel : Will you take nothing from Sleepy Hollow that was worth the coming here?

  Ichabod Crane : No. No, not nothing.

  [pauses] 

  Ichabod Crane : A kiss, from a lovely young woman, before she saw my face or knew my name.

  Katrina Anne Van Tassel : Yes, without sense or reason.

• Ichabod Crane : [to the Western Woods Crone]  I should like to say that I make no assumptions about your occupation nor your ways, Witch... which... which... which are nothing to me, whatever you are.

• Katrina Anne Van Tassel : I have shed my tears for Brom... and yet my heart is not broken. Do you think me wicked?

  Ichabod Crane : No... but perhaps there is a little bit of witch in you, Katrina.

  Katrina Anne Van Tassel : Why do you say that?

  Ichabod Crane : Because you have bewitched me.

• Ichabod Crane : It was a headless horseman!

  Baltus Van Tassel : You must not excite yourself.

  Ichabod Crane : But it was a headless horseman!

  Baltus Van Tassel : Of course it was. That's why you're here.

  Ichabod Crane : No, you must believe me. It was a horseman, a dead one. Headless!

  Baltus Van Tassel : I know, I know.

  Ichabod Crane : You don't know because you were not there! It's all true.

  Baltus Van Tassel : Of course it is. I told you. Everyone told you.

  Ichabod Crane : I... saw him.

  [faints] 

• Ichabod Crane : We have murders in New York without benefit of ghouls and goblins.

  Baltus Van Tassel : You are a long way from New York, constable.

• Ichabod Crane : Katrina, why are you in my room?

  Katrina Anne Van Tassel : Because it is yours.

• The Burgomaster : Constable Crane! This is a song we have heard from you more than once. Now, there are two courses open to me. The first, is to let you cool your heels in the cells until you learn respect for the dignity of my office...

  Ichabod Crane : I beg pardon. But why am I the only one who can see that to solve crimes, we must use our brains, assisted by reason, using up-to-date scientific techniques?

  The Burgomaster : Which brings me to the second course. There is a town, two days journey to the north in the Hudson Highlands. It is a place called Sleepy Hollow. Have you heard of it?

  Ichabod Crane : I have not.

  The Burgomaster : An isolated farming community, mainly Dutch. Three persons have been murdered there, all within a fortnight. Each one found with the head lopped off.

  Ichabod Crane : Lopped off?

  The Burgomaster : Clean as dandelion heads, apparently. You will take these experimentations of yours to Sleepy Hollow, and there you will detect the murderer. Bring him here to face our good justice. Will you do this?

  Ichabod Crane : I will.

  The Burgomaster : Remember, it is you, Ichabod Crane, who is now put to the test.

• [Regarding a spider] 

  Ichabod Crane : Kill it! Kill it! No, no, stomp it!

• Ichabod Crane : The millennium is almost upon us. In a few months, we will be living in the nineteenth century. But our courts continue to rely on medieval devices of torture.

  High Constable : Stand down!

  Ichabod Crane : I stand up for sense and justice.

• Katrina Anne Van Tassel : Is it Theodore?

  Ichabod Crane : No. Pardon, miss, I am only a stranger.

  Katrina Anne Van Tassel : Then have a kiss on account.

• Ichabod Crane : Katrina, I might have killed you. Why have you come?

  Katrina Anne Van Tassel : Because no one else would go with you.

  Ichabod Crane : I am now twice the man, and it is your white magic.

• Ichabod Crane : You believe the father killed her?

  Samuel Philipse : The *Horseman* killed her.

  Ichabod Crane : How often do I have to tell you? There is no Horseman. There never was a Horseman, there never *will* be a Horseman!

  [Pulls a pendant off of The Magistrate's neck] 

  Ichabod Crane : What is that thing?

  Samuel Philipse : My talisman. It protects me from the Horseman.

• Ichabod Crane : Doctor Lancaster, Reverend Steenwyck, Notary Hardenbrook, and Magistrates Philipse, who tried to cut and run, and lost his head. Four frightned men, arguing on the very night Magistrate Philipse was killed. There's a conspiracy here. The doctor, the reverend, the notary, and the magistrate. What is the secret that unites them? Magistrate Philipse knew there were five bodies to four graves, knew the widow was pregnant, but would not tell me the name of the father. What does this point to? We must proceed by a process of elimination. I shall make a list of every man and woman in Sleepy Hollow, starting with their chief citizen, Baltus Van Tassel. I feel we're getting very close.

  Young Masbath : Yes. I suppose Baltus is the chief citizen, now that old Van Garrett is dead.

  Ichabod Crane : Yes. The Van Garretts. I had almost forgotten them.

  Ichabod Crane : Come with me.

  Young Masbath : Where are we going?

  Ichabod Crane : To Notary Hardenbrook's.

  Young Masbath : Have you thought of something?

  Ichabod Crane : Yes. I have.

• Lady Van Tassel : Still alive?

  Ichabod Crane : Run, Katrina.

  Lady Van Tassel : Yes, do run, and jump, and skip!

• Ichabod Crane : [the decapitated corpse of Masbath has been found]  You have moved the body.

  Dr. Thomas Lancaster : I did.

  Ichabod Crane : You must never move the body!

  Dr. Thomas Lancaster : Why not?

  Ichabod Crane : Because...

• Ichabod Crane : [Studies the horse tracks surrounding Jonathan Masbath's dead body, and takes giant footsteps]  The stride is gigantic! The attacker rode Masbath down, turned his horse, and came back. Came back to claim the head.

  [Takes a small bottle out of his bag and starts sprinkling powder near the severed neck. The powder sizzles] 

  Ichabod Crane : Yes. There's a chemical reaction. It shows there was a powerful, singular thrust to the neck.

  [Puts on strange goggles] 

  Ichabod Crane : Now.

  [Using tongs, he lifts the skin of the neck and a beetle runs out. He shudders] 

  Ichabod Crane : Interesting.

  Baltus Van Tassel : What is it?

  Ichabod Crane : The wound was cauterized in the very instant, as though the blade itself were red-hot. And yet, no blistering, no scorched flesh.

  Samuel Philipse : The Devil's fire.

• New Yorker : Ichabod Crane, is that you?

  Ichabod Crane : None other... Not only me... I have found something, which was lately a man.

• Reverend Steenwyck : Their heads were not found severed. Their heads were not found at all.

  Ichabod Crane : The heads are... g-gone?

  Notary James Hardenbrook : Taken. Taken by the Headless Horseman. Taken back to hell.

• Samuel Philipse : Constable Crane. Jonathan Masbeth was not the fourth victim, but the fifth.

  Ichabod Crane : The fifth?

  Samuel Philipse : Aye. Five victims in four graves.

• Ichabod Crane : [opens the book]  It was your mother's?

  Katrina Anne Van Tassel : Keep it close to your heart. It's sure protection against harm.

  Ichabod Crane : Are you so certain of everything?

• [to the horse] 

  Ichabod Crane : Giddy-up... no, no this way... good horsey.

• Dr. Thomas Lancaster : This is most irregular, Constable.

  Ichabod Crane : I should hope so, Doctor, but in this case necessary. I shall need to operate.

  Dr. Thomas Lancaster : Operate? She's dead.

• [On Katrina's apparent guilt] 

  Young Masbath : A strange sort of witch, with a kind and loving heart. How can you think so?

  Ichabod Crane : I have good reason.

  Young Masbath : Then you are bewitched by reason.

  Ichabod Crane : I am beaten down by it!

• [to Katrina, who is apparently guilty] 

  Ichabod Crane : It was an evil spirit possessed you. I pray God it is satisfied now, and you find peace. The evil eye has done it's work; my life is over, spared for a lifetime of horrors in my sleep, waking each day to grief. Goodbye, Katrina.

• Ichabod Crane : Yes I think you loved me that day when you followed me into the Western Woods... to have braved such peril.

• Ichabod Crane : [from trailer]  Excuse me, miss, I am not used to...

  Katrina Anne Van Tassel : Female company?

• Ichabod Crane : What are you running from, Magistrate Philipse?

  Samuel Philipse : Damn you, Crane.

  Ichabod Crane : You had a mind to help me.

  Samuel Philipse : Yes, and it's put me in mortal dread of...

  Ichabod Crane : Of what?

  Samuel Philipse : Of powers against which there is no defense.

• Ichabod Crane : Katrina... you took the evidence and burned it.

  Katrina Anne Van Tassel : So you would not have it to accuse my father.

  Ichabod Crane : I accuse no one.

• Ichabod Crane : Once more, the neck wound cauterized. The sword thrust to the stomach... the same. But, to what purpose?

  Dr. Thomas Lancaster : To what is your purpose is the question.

  [Dr. Lancaster inquisitively looks at one of Ichabod's operating tools] 

  Dr. Thomas Lancaster : What manner of instruments are these?

  Ichabod Crane : Some of my own design!

• [repeated line] 

  Ichabod Crane : I see.

• Ichabod Crane : We take the Indian Trail to the Tree of the Dead.

  Young Masbath : How will we recognize it?

  Ichabod Crane : Without difficulty, I rather fear. Then climb down to the Horseman's resting place.

  Young Masbath : His camp?

  Ichabod Crane : His grave.

• Reverend Steenwyck : [Ichabod comes out covered in blood after examining the widow Winship's body]  What in the name of God have you done to her?

  Ichabod Crane : We are dealing with a madman.

  Samuel Philipse : What did you find out, Constable?

  Ichabod Crane : The widow Winship... was with child.