The Last Unicorn (1982)

Mia Farrow: Unicorn, Amalthea

Photos 

Quotes 

• Molly : No, it can't be. Can it be? Where have you been? Where have you been? Damn you! Where have you been?

  Schmendrick : Don't you talk to her that way!

  Unicorn : I'm here now.

  Molly : And where were you twenty years ago? Ten years ago? Where were you when I was new? When I was one of those innocent young maidens you always come to? How dare you! How dare you come to me now, when I am this!

  [Weeps] 

  Schmendrick : Can you really see her? Do you know what she is?

  Molly : If you had been waiting to see a unicorn, as long as I have...

  Schmendrick : She's the last unicorn in the world.

  Molly : It would be the last unicorn that came to Molly Grue. It's all right, I forgive you.

• Unicorn : You are a true wizard now, as you always wished. Does it make you happy?

  Schmendrick : Well, men don't always know when they're happy. But I-I think so. And you?

  Unicorn : I am a little afraid to go home. I have been mortal, and some part of me is mortal yet. I am no longer like the others, for no unicorn was ever born who could regret, but I now I do. I regret.

  Schmendrick : I am sorry. I have done you evil and I cannot undo it.

  Unicorn : No. Unicorns are in the world again. No sorrow will live in me with that joy-save one. And I thank you for that part, too. Farewell good magician. I will try to go home.

• Butterfly : Listen. Don't listen to ME, listen. You can find the others if you are brave. They passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints. Listen! Listen, listen QUICKLY!

  Unicorn : [agitated]  I AM listening! Where did they go and what is the Red Bull?

  Butterfly : Listen! LISTEN!

  [insane laughter] 

  Butterfly : The king is in his counting house, counting out, counting out, counting...

• Mommy Fortuna : The harpy's as real as you are, and just as immortal. And she was just as easy to catch, if you want to know.

  Unicorn : Do not boast, old woman. Your death sits in that cage, and she hears you.

  Mommy Fortuna : Oh she'll kill me one day or another. But she will remember forever that *I* caught her, and *I* held her prisoner. So there's my immortality, eh?

  Unicorn : Let me go. And let her go too. I cannot bear to see her caged. We are two sides of the same magic... The harpy and me, we are not for you.

• [the unicorn has just looked at all the "horrors" in the other cages at the carnival and discovered that they are not real; they are only illusions] 

  Unicorn : That one is real. That is the harpy, Celaeno.

  Schmendrick : Yes, the old woman caught her by chance, the same way she took you. Oh, she should never have meddled with a real harpy! Or a real unicorn for that matter. Because the truth melts her magic, always.

• Unicorn : You may come with me if you like, though I wish you'd asked for some other reward for having freed me.

  Schmendrick the Magician : Well, I thought about it, but you could never have granted my true wish.

  Unicorn : No. I cannot turn you into something you are not. I cannot turn you into a true magician.

  Schmendrick the Magician : That's all right, don't worry about it.

  Unicorn : I'm not.

• Schmendrick : Tell me what you see. Don't be afraid. Look at your fellow legends and tell me what you see.

  Unicorn : What he calls a Manticore looks to be no more than a shabby, toothless lion. And he has that whole crowd believing that poor old ape with the twisted foot is a Satyr! Illusions, deceptions, mirages! Your Mommy Fortuna cannot truly change things!

  Schmendrick : That is true. She can only disguise, and only for those eager to believe whatever comes easiest. She cannot turn cream into butter, but she can make a lion look like a manticore to eyes that want to see a manticore. Just like she put a false horn on a real unicorn so they can see the unicorn. I know you. If I were blind, I would know what you are.

  Unicorn : Who are you?

  Schmendrick : I am called Schmendrick, the Magician. Uh... you won't have heard of me.

• The Unicorn : Never run from anything immortal; it only attracts their attention.

• Schmendrick : If we run away then all the unicorns of the world will remain prisoners forever except one. And she will grow old and die.

  Amalthea : Everything dies! I want to die when you die.

  [looks at Lir] 

  Amalthea : I'm no unicorn, no magical creature. I'm a woman, and I love you, Lir. Don't let him change me! Lir, I will not love you when I'm a unicorn.

  Prince Lir : Amalthea, don't...

  Schmendrick : Then let the quest end here! I don't think I could change you back, even if you wished it. Marry the prince, and live happily ever after.

  Amalthea : Yes, that is my wish.

  Prince Lir : No. My lady, I am a hero. Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever. A happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story.

  Molly Grue : But what if there isn't a happy ending?

  Schmendrick : There are no happy endings, because nothing ends.

  Molly Grue : Schmendrick, let her stay the way she is. Let her be...

  Schmendrick : That's not in the story. Lir know that, and so does she.

  Molly Grue : You don't care! You don't care what happens to her or to the others, just so you're a real magician at last. You don't care-"

  Schmendrick : Well I wish I didn't care! I wish to God I didn't care about anything but my magic! But I do! I do.

• Amalthea : [turns at Haggard's approach]  Don't!

  Haggard : What are you looking at?

  Amalthea : The sea.

  Haggard : Ah yes, the sea is always good. There is nothing I can look at for very long, except the sea.

• Amalthea : Once, I can't remember, I was long ago, someone strange. I was innocent and wise, and full of pain. Now that I'm a woman, everything has changed. Once, when I was searching, somewhere out of reach, far away, in a place I could not find, or heart obey. Now that I'm a woman, everything is strange.

• [a farmer thinks the unicorn is a white mare, infuriating her] 

  Unicorn : [furious]  Mare? MARE? I? A HORSE? Is THAT what you take me for? Is THAT what you see?

• Unicorn : I am no longer like the others, for no unicorn was ever born who could regret, but now I do. I regret.

• Unicorn : Say my name then. If you know my name, tell it to me.

  The Butterfly : [quoting Romeo & Juliet]  Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name...!

  Unicorn : Say it, if you know.

  The Butterfly : Rumpelstiltskin! Gotcha!

• Unicorn : I can never regret. I can feel sorrow, but it's not the same thing.

• Schmendrick : Mommy Fortuna doesn't think so. She sees me as a clumsy fraud, a trickster. But I am Schmendrick the magician, last of the red hot swamis. And I, too, am real... like you. Like her.

  Schmendrick : [looks at her]  Yes, I will help you.

  Unicorn : Where's the other man?

  Schmendrick : Ruhk? Oh, don't worry about him. Oh, don't worry about him. I asked him a riddle, and it always takes that lout all night to solve riddles. And now...

  [he starts practicing] 

  Schmendrick : Shara sineverel morlin sudai! Suni numira eddi subai!

• Amalthea : [singing]  Once, I can't remember. / I was long ago, someone strange. / I was innocent and wise, and full of pain. / Now that I'm a woman, / Everything is strange.

  Amalthea : [speaking]  I must go to him. I must face the Bull again and discover what he has done to them, before I forget who I am forever. But, I don't know where to find him, and... I'm lonely...

  Amalthea : [singing again]  Once, when I was searching, / Somewhere out of reach, far away, / In a place I could not find, or heart obey. / Now that I'm a woman, / Everything has changed. / Everything has changed. / Everything has changed.

• Unicorn : There has never been a time without unicorns. We live forever! We are as old as the sky, old as the moon! We can be hunted, trapped; we can even be killed if we leave our forests, but we do not *vanish*. Am I truly the last?

• Unicorn : I have forgotten that men cannot see Unicorns. If men no longer know what they're looking at, there may be other unicorns in the world yet, unknown, and glad of it.

• [Schmendrick has turned the Unicorn into a mortal woman] 

  Unicorn : I can feel this body DYING all around me!

• Unicorn : Or is the story of the Red Bull just another of his songs? I can't leave the forest, but I must know if I'm the only unicorn left in the world. What if they're hiding together... somewhere far away? What if they're waiting for me? In need of my help?

• The Unicorn : I'm looking for others like me. Have you seen them, Magician?

  Schmendrick : No, I've never seen anyone like you. Not while I was awake, anyway.

• Amalthea : But I'm always dreaming, even when I'm awake; it is never finished.

• Prince Lir : I wish you would ask something of me.

  Almathea : Drown out my dreams! Keep me from remembering whatever wants me to remember it!

• Unicorn : I'm a little afraid to go home. I have been mortal, and some part of me is mortal yet. I am no longer like the others, for no unicorn was ever born who could regret, but now I do. I regret.

  Schmendrick : I am sorry. I have done you evil and I cannot undo it.

  Unicorn : No. Unicorns are in the world again! No sorrow will live in me with that joy... save one - and I thank you for that part, too.

• Unicorn : [now a woman]  I am afraid of this mortal body... more afraid than I was of the Red Bull.

• Unicorn : Tell me, butterfly, have you seen the other unicorns?

  Butterfly : [singing]  Oh, have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man?

• Prince Lir : [after the Unicorn brings him back to life]  Father? Father, I had that dream again...

  [holds his head] 

  Prince Lir : No... I was DEAD...

  Unicorn : [standing on a hill looking down at Lir]  I remember you... I remember...

• Amalthea : Who am I? Why am I here? What is it that I'm searching for in this strange place, day after day?

• Unicorn : You are a true wizard now, as you always wished. Does it make you happy?

  Schmendrick : Well... men don't always know when they're happy. But I - I think so.

• [last lines] 

  The Unicorn : Farewell good magician, I will try to go home.