"What are you looking at, Caroline?" "The wind, mom." "They say a hurricane is coming." "I feel like I'm on a boat..." "drifting." "Can I do anything for you, mom?" "Make anything easier?" "Oh, sugar." "There is nothing left to do." "It is what it is." "I'm finding it harder to keep my eyes open." "My mouth's full of... cotton." "There, there, miss Daisy." "You will scratch yourself to ribbons." "Do you want any more medication, mother?" "Doctor said you can have as much as you want." "No need for anybody to suffer." "A friend told me that... she never had a chance to say goodbye to her mother." "I wanted to tell you... how much I'm gonna miss you." "Mom." "Oh, Caroline." "Are you afraid?" "I'm curious." "What comes next..." "They built that train station in 1918." "Our father was there the day it opened." "He said that... a tuba band was playing." "They had the finest clockmaker in all of the South to build that glorious clock." "His name was" "Mr Gateau." "Mr Cake." "He was married to a Creole of Evangeline Parish and they had a son." "Mr Gateau was from birth absolutely blind." "When their son was old enough, he joined the army." "They prayed God would keep him out of harm's way." "For months, he did nothing but work on that clock." "One day a letter came." "Mr Gateau, done for the night, went up alone to bed." "And their son came home." "They burried him in a family plot where he would be with them when their time came." "Mr Cake worked on his clock, laboring to finish." "It was a morning to remember." "Papa said there were people everywhere." "Even Teddy Roosevelt came." "It's running backwards!" "I made it that way." "So that perhaps the boys that we lost in a war might stand and come home again." "Home to farm, work, have children," "to live long, full lives." "Perhaps my own son might come home again." "I'm sorry if I offended anybody." "I hope you enjoy my clock." "Mr Cake was never seen again." "Some say he died of a broken heart." "Some say he went to sea..." "Excuse me, do you mind if I make a call?" "Somebody's watching my little boy." "Sure." "I hope I haven't disappointed you." "You couldn't disappoint me." "Well, I..." "I know I don't have much to show for myself." "The suitcase." "There's a diary." "This?" "Could you read it to me, dear?" "Is this what you wanna do?" "I tried to read it a hundred different times..." "Mom, it's not exactly..." "Just the sound of your voice, darling." "It's dated "April 4th, 1985."" "It says, "New Orleans."" "This is my last will and testament." "I don't have much to leave, few possessions, no money really." "I will go out of this world the same way I came in, alone and with nothing." "All I have is my story." "I'm writing it now while I still remember it." "My name is Benjamin." "Benjamin Button." "And I was born under unusual circumstances." "The first world war had ended." "I've been told it was an especially good night to be born." "We won the war!" "What are you doing here?" "Thomas..." "I'm afraid she's gonna die." "What?" "That's enough!" "All of you!" "Get away from her!" "I came as quickly as I could." "The streets are filled with people." "Thomas, promise me he has a place..." "Yeah." "She gave her life for me." "And for that, I am forever grateful." "Mr Button...!" "Thomas!" "Thomas, wait!" "Hey, what are you doing there!" "?" "What do you have there?" "The air is sweet." "You look very handsome tonigh, miss Queenie." "Handsome as I ever seen you." "The brown matches your eyes." "Oh, hush!" "You ain't no slouch yourself." "Hambert's back in town." "He came home legless... but he home..." "I know you was sweet on him one time..." "Sweeter than I shoulda been..." "Miss Simone messed herself." "Sweet Jesus!" "She got to stop doing that, or it's diapers for her." "I'll be right there!" "C'mon, it's awful nice out here." "Come out back for a moment, take your mind off things." "What in God's name...!" "?" "Oh, the Lord done something here...!" "I hope I didn't hurt it none, stepping' on it like that." "We best leave that for the police." "Oh, baby." "I'll go." "It's for sure nobody wanted to keep it." "Come on, baby." "Quennie!" "Hold your water!" "I'll be back." "She went and messed herself all over again..." "Jane Childress, start her a bath." "And mind your own business, Mrs Duprey." "You'll be messing yourself soon enough." "Somebody stole my necklace." "OK, Mrs Hollister, I'll be right with you." "Go on back upstairs." "You are as ugly as an old pot, but you still a child of God." "Queenie, she won't go take a bath without you." "Mercy..." "I'll be right there!" "You just wait right here for me, okay?" "My sister gave me those pearls." "I can't find them anywhere." "Somebody's been stealing my jewelry." "They are right here, Mrs Hollister." "See?" "Right around your pretty white neck." "Now come on." "Your heart is strong." "You want to avoid any undue stimulation." "I trust you ladies will help me out with that?" "I've never seen anything like it, nearly blind from cataracts." "I'm not sure if he can hear, bones indicate severe arthritis." "His skin has lost all elasticity and his hands and feet are ossified." "He shows all the deterioration, the infirmities not of a newborn, but of a man well in his eighties on his way to the grave." "He's dying?" "His body's failing him before his life's begun." "Where did he come from?" "It's my sister's child." "From Lafayette." "She had an unfortunate adventure." "Poor child, he got the worse of it." "Come out white." "There are places for 'unwanted' babies like these, Queenie." "No room for another mouth to feed here." "The Nolan Foundation, despite their good intentions, thinks this place is a large nuisance as it is." "A baby..." "You said he don't have long." "Queenie, some creatures aren't meant to survive." "No, this baby here is a miracle, that's for certain." "Just not the kind of miracle one hopes to see." "Now listen!" "Listen up here!" "We gonna have us a visitor that's gonna be staying with us for a little while." "My sister had a child, but she couldn't see right by it." "So..." "He's known as..." "Benjamin." "Benjamin..." "He's not a well child, so we're gonna have to take good care of him." "I had ten children, there's not a baby I can't care for." "Let me see him." "Oh, God in heaven, he looks just like my ex husband." "Look, he's prematurely old." "Doctor Rose said he ain't got much more time on this earth." "Join the club." "Oh, smile!" "Hambert sends his remembrances to you." "Are you right out of your mind?" "I know you ain't got all the parts it takes to make one of your own, but this ain't yours to keep, it may not even be human kind." "Mr Weathers, come back here!" "Please." ""You never know what's comin' for you."" "It seemed I'd found a home." "Is any of this true?" "You have such a lovely voice." "Mom, there's an ancient streetcar token." "That clock just kept going, year after year after year..." "I didn't know I was a child." "Same old crap every day." "I thought I was like everyone else there." "An old man in a twilight of his life." "Stop banging' that fork." "It's used for eating, not for playin' with." "And use your napkin, please Mr. Benjamin." "Queenie!" "Hey, boy!" "I always had a healthy curiosity." "What was up the street, or around the next corner?" "Benjamin!" "That is dangerous." "Come back over here!" "Stay put, child!" "I loved her very much." "She was my mother." "Momma... momma!" "Some days I feel different than the day before." "Everybody feels different about themselves one way or another." "But we're all goin' the same way." "Just taking different roads to get there, that's all." "You're on your own road, Benjamin." "Momma, how much longer I got?" "Just be thankful for what you're given." "You already here longer than you supposed to." "Some nights, I'd have to sleep alone." "I didn't mind." "I would listen to the house breathing." "All those people sleeping." "I felt safe." "It was a place of great routine." "Every morning at 5:30 no matter the weather," "General Winslow, US army retired, raised the flag." "Mrs Sybil Wagner, once an opera singer of some note, well, she sang Wagner." "Alright, c'mon." "We gotta put some life into these old sticks for you." "get you walkin'." "No matter the season, supper was served promptly at 5:30." "Mol-asses..." "Molasses." "Molasses." "I learned to read when I was five." "My grandfather was a dresser for a famous actor." "He brought home every play for me to read." ""Kind keepers of my weak decaying age let dying Mortimer here rest himself." "Even like a man new haled from the rack." "So fare my limbs with long imprisonment." "And these gray locks, the pursuivants of death, argue the end of Edmund Mortimer."" "You thought I was plain ignorant, didn't you?" "The actor my grandfather worked for was John Wilkes Booth." "He killed Abraham Lincoln." "You never know what's coming for you." "On saturday nights, momma would make me go to church." "Benjamin!" "Amen!" "What can I do for you, sister?" "Her parts are all twisted up inside, she can't have little children." "Lord, if you could see clear to forgive this woman her sins so she can bear the fruit of the womb." "Out damnable affliction!" "Praise God!" "Hallelujah!" "And what's this old man's irrediction?" "He's got the devil on his back, trying to ride him into the grave before his time." "Out, Zebuchar!" "Out, Beelzebub!" "How old are you?" "Seven, but I look a lot older." "God bless you." "He's seven!" "Now, this is a man with optimism in his heart!" "Belief in his soul!" "We are all children in the eyes of God!" "We are gonna get you out of that chair." "And we're gonna have you walk." "It's all right." "In the name of God's glory, rise up!" "Come on!" "Come on, man!" "Now God is gonna see you the rest of the way." "He's gonna see this little old man walk without the use of a crutch or a cane." "He's gonna see that you walk from faith and divine inspiration alone!" "Now walk." "Don't touch him!" "Rise up, old man!" "Rise up like Lazarus!" "I said rise up!" "Yes!" "Say hallelujah!" "Walk." "Walk on." "Now, when I look back on it, it was miraculous." "But you know the saying:" ""The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away."" "Praise be to the Lord on the highest...!" "There was so many birthdays." "So we wouldn't run out, we would spare the candles." "You know I don't like birthdays and I don't like cake." "And death was a common visitor." "People came and went." "You always knew when someone left us." "There was a silence in the house." "It was a wonderful place to grow up." "I was with people who had shed all the inconsequences of earlier life." "Left wondering about the weather, the temperature of a bath, the light at the end of the day." "For everyone that died, someone would come to take their place." "I've been married five times." "My first wife and I are captured by neighbor tribe of cannibals." "We escaped across the river." "My wife, she can't swim, so, sadly, she eaten." "My second wife steps on a cobra and dies." "It was very bad luck to be married to me." "That's Mr Oti." "He's an acquaintance of an acquaintance of mine." "The next summer I'm captured..." "He's a pigmey." "...with six others by Baschiele tribe." "They trade us for pigs, shoes and beer to a very strange american man." "I hear you're not so old as you looking." "You just foolin' everybody." "What's the matter, did you get Madjembe?" "What's madjembe?" "Worms." "I don't think I have worms." "This is just how I am." "Come, let's get a cold root beer." "I found medication under your pillow." "I'm not supposed to." "It's dangerous." "Who said that?" "Come on, little man." "Hurry up." "Halt, please!" "Then I am in the monkey house at Philadelphia Zoological Park." "Three thousand people show up my first day." "Look." "What's it like living in a cage?" "It stinks." "But the monkeys, they do some tricks there." "I throw a spear... wrestle with Kowali, she is orangutan." "When I'm not playing with the monkeys, they want me to run to the bars in my cage, with my teeth." "So then what did you do?" "Then I leave ZOO." "Go here, go there, wander most of the time." "You were all alone?" "Plenty of time you'd be alone." "When you're different like us, it's gonna be that way." "But I tell you a little secret." "Fat people, skinny people, tall people, white people..." "they're just as alone as we are." "But they are scared shitless." "I think about the river I grew up on." "It would be nice to sit by my river again." "Come." "I have an appointment." "There's my little man." "You ready, sugar?" "Always ready." "Always ready." "Filamena, mr Benjamin." "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." "My pleasure, ma'am." "You can find your own way home, can't you?" "Take the St. Charles line to Napoleon." "Where in God's name have you been?" "Get in here!" "Youre goin' to take my breath away, you know that?" "Oh Lord, I was so worried about you." "It had been the best day of my life." "How's her breathing?" "Shallow." "They're sayin' it will reach us in few hours." "I gotta get my baby and take him to my sister's." "They say there's nothin' to worry about here in the hospital." "Nurses will be right here if you need them." "Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm okay, reading..." "I shouldn't be more than an hour." "Was there just company?" "It was just Dorothy leaving." "Go on, Caroline." "On sundays, the families would come and visit." "It was Thanksgiving, 1930." "I met the person who changed my life forever." "Well, Benjamin..." "Might I say you are looking strikingly youthful." "Good day, Mrs Fuller." "A single cane, back straight as an arrow..." "What elixir have you been drinking?" "Thank you, Ma'am." "Grandma, look at me!" "That was really something!" "Come on over here, you." "This is my granddaughter Daisy." "This is mister..." "I'm afraid, Benjamin, I don't rightly know your last name." "Benjamin is fine." "I never forgot her blue eyes." "Good people, supper is served." "Did you know turkeys aren't really birds?" "Why do you say that?" "They're in the pheasant family." "They can hardly fly." "Sad, don't you think?" "Birds that can't fly." "I like birds that can't fly." "They are so delicious." "That's cruel." "I have something to tell you all." "While we're giving thanks for God's blessings..." "I've had a miracle happen." "The Lord saw fit to answer my prayers." "What does she mean "answers her prayers"?" "She's gonna have a baby, silly." "That's what my momma said when I was gonna have a baby brother." "But he didn't live long." "Cause he didn't breathe right." "...when he got his beautiful hind legs just as big God Ngog had promised." "You can see that it's five o'clock, because big God Ngog's clock says so." "Isn't that something?" "Again." "Read it again." "Read it again, please." "Alright." "But afterwards, you must go to bed." "I promise." "Old Man Kangaroo..." "Are you sleeping?" "Who is that?" "It's me, Daisy." "Hi!" "Come on!" "Where are we going?" "Come on." "Right in here." "Here, you light it." "I'm not supposed to play with matches." "Don 't be a chicken." "Light it!" "I'll tell you a secret if you'll tell me one." "Okay." "I saw my momma kissing another man." "Her face was red from it." "Your turn." "I'm not as old as I look." "I thought so." "You don't seem like an old person." "Like my grandma." "I'm not." "Are you sick?" "Well, I heard momma and Tizzy whisper and they said I was gonna die soon." "But maybe not." "You're odd." "You're different than anybody I've ever met." "May I?" "Okay." "What are you doing under there?" "You come right out here and get back up to bed." "It's after midnight!" "You are not to be playing together." "Yes, ma'am." "Not many people experience that." "You want me to go on?" "What about your friend?" "The tall lady?" "We're not friends anymore." "That's what happens with tall people sometimes." "Well... goodbye." "I spent a lot of time by myself that year." "Hello?" "Hi." "I'm moving in today." "Welcome." "We've been expecting you." "Can you please show her up to Mrs Rousseau's old room?" "I'm sorry, but we usually don't allow dogs in the house." "Well, she's old as the hills, she's almost blind." "She won't be a bother much longer." "Well, alright, as long as she stays out from underfoot." "As hard as I try, I can't remember her name." "Mrs Lawson, or Mrs Hartford, or maybe it was Maple?" "It's funny how sometimes the people we remember the least make the greatest impression on us." "I do remember she wore diamonds." "And she always dressed in fine clothing as if she's going out." "Although she never did and nobody ever came to visit her." "She taught me to play the piano." "It's not about how well you play, it's how you feel about what you're playing." "Try this." "You cannot help but put yourself into the music." "There were many changes." "Some you could see, some your couldn't." "Hair started growing in all sorts of places." "Along with other things." "I felt pretty good, considering." "Oh, darlin', the pain." "Alright mom, I'll get the nurse." "Look at this eye." "This is a major hurricane." "Not doing too good?" "Nobody seems to know whether to stay or leave." "I'm gonna ride it out." "There, that should make things much easier." "Have you had a chance to say your goodbyes?" "My father waited 4 hours for my brother to get here from Boger City." "Couldn't go without him." "She seems like a sweet woman." "Yeah." "I haven't had as much time with her..." "Are you busy?" "Excuse me." "Sure." "Queenie would let me go with Mr Daws to Poverty Point, to watch the boats go up and down the river." "These were hard times." "Did I ever tell you I was struck by lightning seven times?" "Once when I was in the field just tending to my cows." "My fourt' hand didn't show up." "Anybody wanna make 2 $ for a day's work around here?" "What's the matter?" "Nobody wants to do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay?" "He never pays." "Nobody wants the job?" "I do." "You got your sea legs, old man?" "I think." "That's good enough for me." "Get your ass on board, we'll sure as hell find out!" "I was as happy as I could be." "I need a volunteer!" "I would do anything." "Yes, captain!" "Scrape off all this bird shit." "Right away, sir." "I was actually goin' to be paid for something I would've done for free." "His name was captain Mike Clark." "He'd been on a tugboat since he was seven." "Get movin'!" "Come here." "Could you... still get it up?" "I do every morning." "The old pole?" "The hard'n?" "I guess." "When was the last time you had a woman?" "Never." "Never?" "Not that I know of, sir." "Wait a minute!" "You mean to say, you've been on this earth for how many years, and you never had a woman?" "Damn!" "That's the saddest thing I ever heard in my life." "Never?" "No." "Then, by Jesus, you are comin' with me." "What did your father do?" "I never met my father." "You lucky bastard!" "All father's gonna do is hold you down." "Out on my father's boat, working da two-a-days." "This little fat bastard, "tug Irish" they call him." "I finally get up the nerves and tell him:" ""I don't wanna spend da rest of my life on a goddamn tugboat!"" "You know what I'm sayin'?" "You don't wanna spend the rest of your life on a tugboat." "Absolutely, damn right!" "And you know what my father says to me?" "He says: "Who the hell do you think you are?"" ""What the hell do you think you can do?"" "I tell him:" ""Well, if you're askin'..."" ""I wanna be an artist."" "He laughs... "An artist?"" ""God meant for you to work a tugboat just like me."" ""And that's exactly what you're gonna do."" "Well, I turned myself into an artist." "A tattoo artist!" "I put on every one of these myself." "You have to skin me alive to take my art away from me now!" "When I'm dead, I'm gonna send him my arm." "That one." "Don't let anyone tell you different!" "You gotta do what you're meant to do." "And I happen to be a god-damned artist!" "But you're a tugboat captain." "Captain Mike, we're ready for you and your friend." "Go, old timer." "Break your cherry." "Hello, ladies!" "Hi." "He gives me the willies." "That is not for me." "How are you tonight, grandpa?" "It was a night to remember." "What are you, Dick Tracy or something?" "I've got to rest." "I can't." "Thank you." "No, thank you." "Have a nice night." "Will you be here tomorrow?" "Every night but sunday." "It sure made me understand the value of earning a living." "Things money can buy you." "It's nasty out." "Can I offer you a ride somewhere?" "That's awfully kind of you, sir." "My name is Thomas." "Thomas Button." "I'm Benjamin." "Benjamin... it's a pleasure to know you." "Would you like to stop somewhere and have a drink?" "All right." "Evening." "What will it be, sir?" "I'll have whatever he's having." "A Sazerac for both of us." "With whiskey, not brandy." "You don't drink, do you?" "It's a night for firsts." "How's that?" "I've never been to a brothel, either." "It's an experience." "Certainly is." "There's a first time for everything." "Sure enough." "Your drinks." "I don't mean to be rude..." "but your hands, is that painful?" "I was born with some form of disease." "What kind of disease?" "I was born old." "I'm sorry." "No need to be." "Nothing wrong with old age." "My wife passed away many years ago." "I'm so so sorry." "She died in childbirth." "To children." "To mothers." "What line of work are you in, Mr Button?" "Buttons." "Button's Buttons." "There isn't a button we don't make." "Our biggest competition is B.F. Goodrich and his infernal zippers." "Would you gentlemen like anything else?" "One for the road, Benjamin?" "Only if you let me pay for it, Mr Button." "So, what line of work do you do?" "I'm a tugboat man." "I enjoyed talking to you." "I enjoyed drinking with you." "Benjamin... would you mind if, time to time, I stop by and say hello?" "Anytime." "Good night, Mr Button." "Good night, Benjamin." "Drive off." "Where have you been?" "Nothing." "I met some people and listened to music..." "Oh, sweet Jesus, boy!" "Growing up is a funny thing." "Sneaks up on you." "One person is there and then suddenly somebody else is taking their place." "She wasn't all elbows and knees anymore." "Benjamin!" "Come on." "Okay." "I loved those weekends when she'd come and spend the night with her grandmother." "Daisy!" "Daisy!" "You wanna see something?" "You gotta keep it a secret." "Get dressed." "I'll meet you out back." "Come on!" "Can you swim?" "I can do anything you can do." "Put this on." "We gotta hurry." "Is he okay?" "Captain!" "Captain Mike!" "Morning, captain." "Can you take us out?" "Do you know what day it is?" "Sunday." "You know what that means?" "It means that I was very drunk last night." "You're drunk every night." "Is that a girl?" "A close friend." "I want to show her the river." "I'm not supposed to go joy-ridin' with civilians." "I could lose my licence." "What are you waiting for?" "She put in for repair." "A wounded duck." "She's flyin' now!" "I wish we could go with them." "Did you say something, mom?" "It's getting really bad." "Can you hear me, mom?" "Time just seeped out of me." "Things were changing quickly." "I don't know how it's possible, but you seem to have more hair." "What if I told you that I wasn't getting older, but I was getting younger than everybody else." "Well, I'd feel sorry for you." "To have to see everybody you love die before you do." "It's an awful responsibility." "I've never thought about life or death that way before." "Benjamin, we're meant to lose the people we love." "How else would we know how important they are to us." "And one fall day, a familiar visitor came knocking on our door." "You wanna go with me to the drugstore?" "She taught me how to play the piano." "Amen!" "And she taught me what it meant to miss somebody." "Let's go." "I had gone to a brothel, I had my first drink," "Said goodbye to one friend and burried another." "In 1936, when I was coming to the end of the 17th year of my life," "I packed my bag and said goodbye." "I knew, life being what it was," "I'd probably never see them again." "Good luck to you, son." "Thanks." "I love you, mom." "I love you too, baby." "I want you to say your prayers every night, hear?" "Be safe!" "Benjamin!" "Where are you going?" "Off to sea." "I'll send you a postcard." "From everywhere." "Write me a postcard from everywhere." "Can you imagine?" "He sent me a postcard from everywhere he went." "Every place he worked." "Newfoundland, Baffin Bay, Glasgow, Liverpool, Narvik..." "He had gone with that captain Mike." "Captain Mike had contracted for three years with Moran Brothers" "Tug and Salvage." "The old ship had been refitted with a diesel engine and a new sea winch." "We went around Florida and up the Atlantic seaboard." "We were a crew of seven now." "Captain Mike and me, the cookie, Prentiss Mayes from Wilmington, Delaware." "The Brody twins, Rick and Vic who got along fine at sea, but for some reason, once they were on dry land, couldn't stand the sight of each other." "Enough!" "One in every eight boats never returns..." "There was John Grimm, who sure fit his name." "...all hands lost at sea." "From Belvedere, South Dakota." "And Pleasant Curtis from Nashville, who never said a word to anyone, except himself." "I wrote him constantly." "I told him I had been invited to audition in New York City, for the School of American Ballet." "Please stay." "Thank you." "Thank you." "You can stay." "I was relegated to the "corps"." "Another dancing gypsy." "Benjamin, how is it when you showed up, you were no bigger than a bollard with one foot in the grave." "Now... either I drink a helluva lot more than I think I do, or you sprouted!" "What's your secret?" "Well, Captain... you do drink a lot." "We stayed in a small hotel with the grand name, "The Winter Palace."" "You have no idea what you're talking about." "The hummingbird is not just another bird." "Its heart rate is 1,200 beats a minute." "Its wings beat 80 times a second." "If you was to stop their wings from beating, they would be dead in less that ten seconds." "This is no ordinary bird, this is a frikkin' miracle!" "They slowed down their wings with moving pictures, and you know what they saw?" "Their wingtips are doing..." "You know what the figure "8" is the mathematical symbol for?" "Infinity!" "Everybody, no matter what differences they had, languages, the color of their skin, had one thing in common:" "They were drunk every single night." "Could you hold the lift, please?" "Thank you very much." "Her name was Elizabeth Abbott." "She was not beautiful." "She was plain as paper." "But she was pretty as any picture to me." "What are you looking at?" "If you must know, we have a long standing agreement never to go to bed sober." "Isn't that right, honey?" "Whatever you say, darling." "Her husband was Walter Abbott." "He was Chief Minister of the British Trade Mission in Murmansk." "And he was a spy." "Are you okay, darling?" "Oh yes." "I broke my heel off one of my shoes." "I'm not in a habit of walking about in my stocking feet." "They were long days there." "And even longer nights." "One particular night, I was having trouble sleeping." "I'm sorry." "I couldn't sleep." "I was gonna make some tea." "Would you like some?" "No, thank you." "Milk?" "Honey?" "A bit of honey, please." "I hope you like flies in your honey." "Oh, perhaps not." "Maybe... better to let it steep a little." "Steep?" "Soak." "I don't know, I mean... there's a proper way of making tea." "Where I'm from, people just want it to be hot." "Well, quite right." "You're a seaman?" "Sailor." "I hope I'm not being impolite, but I have to ask:" "Aren't you a little old to be working on a boat?" "There's no age limit, as long as you can do the work." "And you have trouble sleeping?" "Thank you." "I didn't think I did." "I usually sleep like a baby." "Something kept me up." "My father, in his eighties, he was so convinced he's gonna die in his sleep, he limited himself to having afternoon naps." "He was so determined he was gonna cheat death." "Did he?" "Did he what?" "Die in his sleep?" "He died sitting in his favorite chair, listening to his favorite program on the wireless." "He must have known something." "My husband is British Trade Minister, and we've been here for fourteen months." "Good God!" "We were supposed to go to Peking." "But it never seemed to work out." "Have you been in the Far East?" "No." "I've never been anywhere, really." "I mean outside harbors." "And where is it that you're from?" "New Orleans, Louisiana." "I didn't know there was another." "And she told me about all the places she had been." "What she had seen." "And we talked till just before the dawn." "And we went back to our rooms, to our separate lives." "But every night, we'd meet again in that lobby." "A hotel in the middle of the night can be a magical place." "A mouse running and stopping." "A radiator hissing." "A curtain blowing." "There's something peaceful, even comforting, knowing that people you love are asleep in their beds, where nothing can harm them." "Elizabeth and I would lose track of the night, till just before daybreak." "I think I may have given you the wrong impression." "I beg your pardon?" "Well, married women don't customarily sit around in the middle of the night with strange men in hotels." "I wouldn't know what a married woman does and doesn't do." "Good night!" "Murmansk." ""I've met somebody and I've fallen in love." Mom?" "That was over 60 years ago." "Did you love him, mother?" "What does a girl know about love?" "I'm not dressed." "You look splendid just as you are." "Don't waste any time bothering about the wine or the cheese in Murmansk, cause they are really completely ordinary." "But the caviar and the vodka are sublime and plentiful." "So..." "Savor it... and don't eat it all at once." "Because that way, there's nothing left to enjoy." "Now take a little swallow of vodka while it's still in your mouth." "Nazdrovia." "You haven't been with many women, have you?" "Not on sundays." "And you've never had a girlfriend before, have you?" "No ma'am." "When I was nineteen, I attempted to become the first woman ever to swim the English Channel." "Really?" "But the current that day was so strong that... for every stroke I took, I was pushed back two." "I was in the water for 32 hours." "And when I was two miles from Calais, it started to rain." "When I couldn't go any further," "I stopped." "I just stopped." "And everybody asked me would I try again." "Why wouldn't I?" "I never did." "As a matter of fact," "I've never done anything with my life after that." "Your hands are so coarse." "I can feel the wind in your cheeks." "I'm afraid it's the witching hour." "It was the first time a woman had ever kissed me." "It's something you never forget." "Benjamin!" "You make me feel younger." "You make me feel years younger too." "I wish I was." "So many things I'd change." "I'd undo all my mistakes." "What mistakes?" "I kept waiting, you know." "Thinking that I'd do something to change my circumstances." "Do something." "Such an awful waste, you never get it back." "Wasted time." "If we're going to have an affair, you're never to look at me during the day." "And we're always to part before sunrise, and we will never say "I love you"." "Those are the rules." "Are you cold?" "I'm freezing." "She was the first woman that ever loved me." "Want me to skip some?" "No, glad he had somebody to keep him warm." "I couldn't wait to see her again." "We saw each other every night." "We always used the same room." "But each time seemed new and different." "Come here." "Elizabeth..." "Good night." "Until one night." "Yesterday, December 7th 1941, the day which will live in infamy." "...in the near future, and possibly beyond." "There's been a change of plan, lads." "As you may or may not know, the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor yesterday." "Frank D. Roosevelt asked each of us to do our part." "The Chelsea's been commissioned to serve in the United States Navy." "To repair, salvage and to rescue." "Anybody doesn't wanna go to war, now's the time to say so." "Once you set foot on that boat, you're in the Navy, friend." "I've been meaning to talk with you, Mike." "My wife's doing poorly." "I'd like to maybe see her one more time." "You're free to make your way home any way you can, Mr Mayes." "If he's leaving, who's gonna cook?" "Food poisoning is one of the leading causes of death at sea." "Right after inadequate safety equipment." "I can cook, captain." "Been doin' it all my life." "Yeah, I knew it." "You're a little too old for war, Benjamin." "Ah, what the hell." "I'll take any man who wants to kick the shit out of Japs and Huns." "That's it!" "Back to your gear." "We're going to war, gentlemen!" "She had left a note." "She wrote "It was nice to have met you."" "And that was it." "It wasn't the war any of us expected." "We just towed crippled ships." "Scraps of metal, really." "If there was a war, we didn't see it." "There was a man assigned to us." "The Chief Gunner loved the Navy." "But most of all, he loved America." "There is no other country in the world!" "When you spell A.M.E.R.I.C.A, you're spelling freedom." "His name was Dennis Smith and he was a full blooded Cherokee." "His family had been americans for over 500 years." "These pacifists." "They say they won't fight on conscience." "Where would we be... if everybody decided to act according to their conscience?" "Keep it down, would you chief!" "Hey..." "I've been watching you." "You seem trustworthy." "If something happens to me, could you see that this gets to my wife?" "He had given me all of his pay." "Hadn't spent a dime of it." "I want my family to know that I was thinking about them." "All hands on deck!" "Get you asses up here, you lazy bastards!" "The war had finally found us." "Full stop!" "Pleasant, get on that light." "A transport carrying 1300 men had been split by a torpedo." "We were first to arrive at the scene." "Stop the engine!" "Full stop!" "We were the only sound." "Fellows!" "We surely can't count to outrun them fuckers." "Battle stations!" "What?" "Is that the last one?" "Captain!" "They shot the hell out of my painting'!" "Give me your hand." "You'll be alright, captain Mike." "Nice spot in heaven's waitin' for you." "Nice spot." "You could be mad as a mad dog at the way things went." "You could swear, curse the fates... but when it comes to the end... you have to let go." "Captain." "1328 men died that day." "I said my goodbyes to the Cherokee, Dennis Smith." "John Grimm who was right, he was gonna die there." "I sent Pleasant Curtis' wife his money." "I said goodbye to the twin, Vic Brody, and to Mike Clark, captain of the tugboat "Chelsea."" "I said goodbye to all the other men, who had dreams of their own." "All the men who wanted to be insurance salesmen or doctors or lawyers or Indian chiefs." "This don't get fixed." "Out here, death didn't seem natural." "I had never seen a hummingbird that far out to sea." "Before or since." "And in may of 1945, when I was 26 years old..." "I'm coming!" "Queenie?" "Yes." "Oh, sweet Jesus!" "You're home!" "Lord, you came back!" "Let me look at you!" "Who's that, mama?" "Child, it's your brother, Benjamin." "I didn't know he was my brother." "There's a shit load of things you don't know." "Finish sweeping, wash your hands and help me with the table." "C'mon!" "Turn around." "Oh, you look like you've been born again!" "Younger than the springtime." "I think that preacher laid the hands on you gave you a second life." "I knew it the moment I saw you, you were special." "I tell you what, my knees are sore cause I've been on them every night asking the Lord, I say God, bring him home safely." "Remember what I told you?" "You never know what's comin' for you?" "That's right." "Sit down." "Did you learn anything worth repeating?" "I sure saw some things." "Oh, you've seen some pain." "Some joy too?" "Sure, sure I did." "Yeah, that's what I wanna hear." "Look at you..." "Where's Tizzy?" "Oh, baby!" "Mr Weathers died in his sleep one night last april." "Mama, I'm so sorry." "Don't you worry about that, baby." "Well, there's only one or two of them left now." "They're all just about new." "I guess they're waitin' their turn like everybody else." "I'm so glad you're back home with me." "Now we're going to find you a wife and a new job." "Come and help me with this table." "Benjamin!" "You're wasting your time, baby." "She's stone deaf." "You'll be staying in what was Mrs DeSeroux's old room." "You're too big to be rooming with anybody else." "It's a funny thing about coming home." "Looks the same." "Smells the same." "Feels the same." "Did I ever tell you I've been struck by lightning 7 times?" "Once when I was sitting in my truck, minding my own business." "You realise what's changed, is you." "And late one morning, not long after I'd been back..." "Excuse me, is Queenie here?" "Daisy?" "It's me, Benjamin." "Benjamin?" "Oh my God!" "Of course it's you!" "Benjamin!" "How are you?" "It's been such a long time!" "There's so much I wanna know!" "When did you get back?" "I got back few weeks ago." "I spoke to Queenie, she said you were in the war, somewhere at sea, we were so worried about you." "I'm okay." "Well, look at you." "You are so lovely." "You stopped writing." "When I had left she was a girl." "And a woman had taken her place." "She was the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." "Beautiful." "The most beautiful." "You remember grandma Fuller?" "Sure I do." "She passed." "I heard that, I'm sorry." "I just can't believe we're both here." "Must be fate... no, no, what did he call it?" "Kismet." "Do you know about Edgar Cayce, the psychic?" "I don't believe I..." "He says that everything is predetermined, but..." "I like to think that it is fate." "I'm not sure how it works, but I'm glad it happened." "Have you been to Manhattan?" "It's right across the river from me." "I can see the Empire State Building if I stand on my bed." "What about you, where've you been?" "Tell me everything." "Last time you wrote, you said you've been to Russia." "I always wanted to go to Russia." "Is it as cold as they say?" "Twice as cold." "My goodness!" "We always said you were different." "I think you really are." "You wrote that you met somebody." "Did it work out?" "It ran its course." "Hey, do you remember this?" "This is the picture of Old Man Kangaroo at 5 in the afternoon." "Would you like to have dinner?" "Did I tell you that I danced for Ballenchine?" "He's a famous choreographer." "He said that I had perfect line." "In a rehearsal once, a dancer fell." "And he just put it right into the production." "Can you imagine that in a classical ballet?" "A dancer intentionally falling?" "There's a whole new word for dance now, it's called abstract." "He's not the only one though, there's Lincoln Kirstein, and Lucia Chase and Agnes DeMille... she has just torn up all those conventions, all that straight up and down stuff..." "And she told me about this big new world." "Names that didn't mean a thing to me." "I didn't really hear very much of what she was saying." "It's new and modern and it's American." "They understand our vigor and our physicality." "Oh my God, I've just been talking and talking." "No, no, I've enjoyed listening." "I didn't know you smoked." "I'm old enough." "I'm old enough for a lot of things." "In New York we stay up all night." "Watch the sun come up over the warehouses." "There's always something to do." "I have to go back tomorrow." "So soon?" "Wish I could stay." "Dancers don't need costumes or scenery anymore." "I can imagine dancing completely naked." "Have you read D.H. Lawrence?" "His books were banned." "The words are like making love." "In our company, we have to trust each other." "Sex is a part of it." "I know a lot of the dancers are lesbians." "There was one woman who wanted to sleep with me." "Was that upseting you?" "Which part?" "Somebody wanted to sleep with me?" "You're a desirable woman," "I would think most of them would wanna sleep with you." "Let's go back to the house." "Or we can get a room somewhere." "We can lay down your jacket." "I don't know, Daisy..." "It's not that I wouldn't like to." "I think I'd just disappoint you." "Benjamin, I've been with older men." "You go back to New York in the morning, you should be with your friends." "You're only young once." "Oh, I'm old enough." "Daisy, just not tonight, is all." "We can go hear some music." "Our lives are defined by opportunities." "Even the ones we miss." "You look so handsome, so distinct." "They're sayin' the hurricane is gonna miss us." "Blow right on by." "Oh, that's great." "I'll stay under the blankets... with mother." "She said nothing..." "Benjamin?" "Things were becoming different for me." "My hair had very little gray and grew like weeds." "My sense of smell was keener, my hearing more acute." "I could walk further and faster." "While everybody else was aging, I was getting younger." "All alone." "Come in." "Benjamin!" "Do you remember me?" "Sure I do, Mr Button." "What happened to you?" "Darn foot got infected." "Welcome home, my friend." "I see you're still drinking your Sazerac with whiskey." "I'm a creature of habit." "Still visiting the house on Bourbon Street?" "Not for a long time." "Interesting times, though." "We went from making 40 thousand to nearly a million buttons a day." "We employed ten times the number of people." "We were operating around the clock." "Damn shame." "The war has been kind to the button industry." "You know..." "I'm sick." "I don't know how much longer I have." "I'm sorry to hear that, Mr Button." "No..." "I don't have any people." "I keep to myself." "I hope you don't mind, but... whenever possible, I'd enjoy your company." "I'll certainly do what I can." "Benjamin, do you know anything about buttons?" "Button's Buttons has been in our family for 124 years." "My grandfather was a tailor." "He had a small shop in Richmond." "After the Civil War, He moved to New Orleans where my father had the wisdom to make our own buttons." "So, with his help, the tailor shop grew to this." "And today, I can't sew a stitch." "That's very, very interesting." "You sure have done well for yourself." "So... what can I do for you, Mr Button?" "Benjamin, you are my son." "I'm so sorry I've never told you before." "You were born the night the Great war ended." "Your mother died giving birth to you." "I thought you were a monster." "I promised your mother I'd make sure you were safe." "I should never have abandoned you." "My mother?" "This is our summer house on Lake Pontchartrain." "When I was a boy I loved to wake up before anyone else, run down to the lake and watch the day begin." "It was as if I was the only one alive." "I fell in love the first time I saw her." "Your mother's name was Caroline Murphy." "She worked in your grandfather's kitchen." "She was from Dublin." "In 1903, Caroline and all her brothers and sisters came to live here, in New Orleans." "I'd find excuses to go down to that kitchen, just so I could look at her." "April 25th 1918, the happiest day of my life." "The day I married your mother." "Why didn't you just tell me?" "I plan on leaving everything I have to you." "I have to go." "Where?" "Home." "What is he thinking?" "He think he can just show up and everything's supposed to be fine and dandy." "Everybody's supposed to be friends." "He got another thing coming, that's for sure." "God be my witness, he got another thing coming!" "He left us 18 dollars that night you was found." "18 ratty dollars and a filthy diaper!" "Good night, Mom." "Good night, baby." "Did I ever tell you, I was struck by lightning 7 times?" "Once I was walking the dog down the road." "I'm blind in the one eye, can't hardly hear." "I get twitches and shakes out of nowhere," "I always lose my line of thought." "But you know what?" "God keeps reminding me I'm lucky to be alive." "Storm's comin'." "Wake up." "Let's get you dressed." "You could be mad as a mad dog at the way things went." "You can swear and curse the fates... but when it comes to the end... you have to let go." "That sure is a beautiful service." "He'll be burried right next to your mother." "You're my mother." "My baby." "I've never seen New York." "Excuse me, I'm a friend of Daisy's." "Right this way." "Daisy!" "Yes!" "I'm in the wardrobe!" "Is somebody looking for me?" "Benjamin!" "Hi." "What are you doing here?" "I thought I'd come visit." "Spend some time with you if I could." "I wish you would have called." "You took me by surprise." "Are you still mad?" "No." "Thank you, they're lovely." "I couldn't take my eyes off of you." "I thought you were mesmerizing." "Thank you." "That's very kind of you to say." "I better get changed." "A group of us are going to a party." "Would you wanna come?" "Somebody told me about a restaurant I thought you might enjoy." "I made a reservation." "Just in case." "It's just that all the dancers go out after the show." "You're welcome to come with us." "I'll get changed, alright?" "This is David." "He dances with the company." "This is Benjamin." "I told you about him." "Oh yeah... how are you doing?" "I'll go get you a drink." "So, you were a friend of her grandmother's?" "Or something like that?" "Something like that." "Excuse me." "Hey!" "I had no idea you were coming!" "Lord, Benjamin..." "What did you expect?" "What, you want me to drop everything?" "This is my life." "Hey, going downtown?" "Come on." "Have a good time." "There'll be musicians, interesting people..." "You don't have to do that." "It's my fault." "I should've called." "I thought..." "I'll come here and sweep you off your feet, or something." "Daisy, come on!" "I'll be right there." "He seems nice." "Do you love him?" "I think so." "I'm happy for you." "Maybe I'll see you at home." "Okay." "I enjoyed the show!" "He came to tell me his father had died." "You couldn't have known." "I was 23." "I just didn't care." "What did you do next?" "Some photographs, I think." "Front of my bag." "I was as good a dancer as I was ever gonna be." "For five years..." "I danced everywhere." "London, Vienna, Prague..." "I've never seen these." "Mom, you never talked about your dancing." "I was the only American to be invited to dance with the Bolshoi." "It was glorious." "But Benjamin was never far from my thoughts." "And I'd find myself saying:" "Goodnight, Benjamin." ""Goodnight, Daisy."" "He said that?" "Life wasn't all that complicated." "If you want, you might say I was looking for something." "Benjamin, mrs La Tourneau just passed." "Mr Benjamin Button?" "That would be me." "Bonjour." "Oui, monsieur?" "Miss Daisy Fuller." "Just a minute." "Please, have a seat." "Sure." "Sometimes we are on a collision course and we just don't know it." "Whether it's by accident or by design, there's not a thing we can do about it." "A woman in Paris was on her way to go shopping." "But she had forgotten her coat, and went back to get it." "When she had gotten her coat the phone had rung, so she had stopped to answer it and talked for a couple of minutes." "While the woman was on the phone," "Daisy was rehearsing for performance at the Paris Opera House." "And while she was rehearsing, the woman, off the phone now, had gone outside to get a taxi." "Now a taxi driver had dropped off a fare earlier, and had stopped to get a cup of coffee." "And all the while Daisy was rehearsing." "And this cab driver who had dropped off the earlier fare, and had stopped to get the cup of coffee, had picked up the lady who was going shopping, who had missed getting the earlier cab." "Taxi had to stop for a man crossing the street, who had left for work 5 minutes later than he normally did, because he forgot to set his alarm." "While the man, late for work, was crossing the street," "Daisy had finished rehearsing and was taking a shower." "While Daisy was showering, taxi was waiting outside a Boutique for the woman to pick up a package which hadn't been wrapped yet because the girl who was supposed to wrap it had broken up with her boyfriend the night before, and forgot." "When the package was wrapped, the woman, who was back in the cab, was blocked by a delivery truck." "All the while Daisy was getting dressed." "The delivery truck pulled away and the taxi was able to move." "While Daisy, the last to be dressed, waited for one of her friends who had broken a shoelace." "While the taxi was stopped, waiting for a traffic light," "Daisy and her friend came out the back of the theater." "And if only one thing had happened differently, if that shoelace hadn't broken, or that delivery truck had moved moments earlier, or that package had been wrapped and ready, because the girl hadn't broken up with her boyfriend," "or that man had set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier, or that taxi driver hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee, or that woman had remembered her coat and had gotten into an earlier cab," "Daisy and her friend would have crossed the street." "And the taxi would have driven by." "But life being what it is, a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone's control, that taxi did not go by, and that driver was momentarily distracted." "And that taxi hit Daisy." "Daisy!" "Help!" "And her leg was crushed." "Daisy..." "Who told you?" "Your friend wired me." "Very kind of you to come all this way to see that I was alright." "You'd do the same for me." "My God!" "Look at you." "You're perfect." "I wish you hadn't come." "I don't want you to see me like this." "Her leg had been broken in five places." "And with therapy, and time, she might walk again." "But she'll never dance." "I'm gonna take you home with me." "I wanna look after you." "I'm not going back to New Orleans." "Then I'll stay here in Paris." "Don't you understand?" "I don't want your help." "I know I'm feeling sorry for myself, but I don't want to be with you." "I tried to tell you that in New York, but you don't listen." "You might change your mind." "We are not little children anymore, Benjamin." "Stay out of my life." "I was awfully cruel." "He didn't understand that..." "I couldn't have him see me like that." "I didn't leave right away." "I stayed in Paris for awhile to look out for her." "I never knew that." "Darling, could you get the nurse?" "I taught myself to walk again." "I took the train to Lourdes." "Lets take a look." "That's normal." "Pulse rate is slowing." "She is gonna struggle to breathe." "Will you be alright?" "Yeah." "Alright, he says:" ""I went back home..."" "And then there's lot of pages torn out." ""I listened to the sound of the house." I think I've read that." "He spilled something on it, so it's hard to read, mom." "Something about "sailing"." "Does that make sense?" "I learned to sail on an old boat of my father's from the Lake House." "I can't lie, I did enjoy the company of a woman or two." "Or maybe three." "Don't bother, Sam." "It's just gonna be there again tomorrow." "Mama." "And in the spring of 1962," "she came back." "You wanna know where I've been?" "No." "How come you didn't write or nothin'?" "Just disappearing like that." "It was something I needed to do for myself." "I never took you to be the selfish type." "I sure hope I'm not wrong." "I'm usually not wrong about people." "Good night, Momma." "Good night, baby." "Now have fun." "You haven't said two words." "I don't wanna ruin it." "Sleep with me." "Absolutely." "I asked her to come away with me." "We sailed into the Gulf, along the Florida Keys." "I'm so glad we didn't find one another when I was 26." "Why do you say that?" "I was so young." "And you were so old." "It happened when it was supposed to happen." "I will enjoy each and every moment I have with you." "I bet I can stay out here longer than you." "Bet you can't." "You barely have a line, a crease." "Every day I have more wrinkles." "Not fair." "I love your wrinkles." "Both of them." "What's it like, growing younger?" "Can't really say." "I'm always looking out of my own eyes." "Will you still love me when my skin grows old and saggy?" "Will you still love me when I have acne?" "When I wet the bed?" "When I'm afraid of what's under the stairs?" "What?" "What are you thinking?" "I was thinking how nothing lasts." "And what a shame that is." "Some things last." "Goodnight, Daisy." "Goodnight, Benjamin." "Mom?" "When did you meet dad?" "Some time after that." "Did you tell him about this Benjamin?" "He knew enough, darling." "Momma!" "Queenie!" "Hallo?" "Hi, Mrs Carter." "It's Benjamin." "Where is everybody?" "Oh, Benjamin." "Queenie died." "I'm so sorry." "So sorry for your loss." "She was a great woman." "We buried her beside her beloved Mr Weathers." "And so we might have memories of our own, we sold my father's house on Esplanade." "It's a wonderful old place, darlin'." "I think we're going to be so happy here." "Oh, what a long family history you have." "They come with the house." "We have to see the master suite." "We bought ourselves a duplex." "I loved that house." "It smelled like firewood." "Don't stop, darlin'." "It was one of the happiest times of my life." "We didn't have a stick of furniture." "We would have picnics in the living room." "We ate when we felt like it." "Stayed up all night when we wanted." "We vowed never to fall into routine, to go to bed or wake up at the same time." "We lived on that mattress." "Our neighbor, Mrs Van Dam, was a physical therapist." "We lived four blocks from a public pool." "You might have got a few more years out of it." "You chose to do something so special, unique, that there was only a short window of time you could do it." "So even if nothing ever happened, you'd still be right here where you're now." "I just don't like getting old." "They put too much chlorine in here." "I promise you, I'll never lose myself to self-pity again." "And I think right there and then, she realised..." "None of us is perfect forever." "She found her own peace." "She opened a studio and taught young girls how to dance." "Come back the other way." "Excellent!" "Good night!" "You certainly are beautiful to watch." "Dance is all about the line." "Line of your body." "Sooner or later you lose that line, and you never get it back." "I figure..." "You were born in 1918, 49 years ago." "I am 43." "We are almost the same age." "We're meeting in the middle." "We finally caught up with each other." "Wait." "I want to remember us just as we are now." "I am pregnant." "You know, I swear the nurse slipped and said it was a boy." "But I think it's a girl." "I know you're afraid." "I'm not hiding it." "Okay." "What's your worst fear?" "Baby born like me." "Then I will love it all the more." "Okay." "How can I be a father when I'm heading the other direction?" "It's not fair to a child." "I don't wanna be anybody's burden." "Sugar, we all end up in diapers." "I'm gonna make this work." "I want this, and I want it with you." "I want you to have everything you want, all of it." "I'm just not sure how to reconcile this..." "Would you tell a blind man he couldn't have children?" "You be a father for as long as you can." "I know the consequences." "I've accepted that." "Loving you was worth everything to me." "I have to go pee." "The oldest woman to ever swim the English Channel arrived here today, in Calais," "Keep it!" "having made the swim in 34 hours, 22 minutes and 14 seconds." "68 years old Elizabeth Abbott, arrived at 5:38 GMT, exhausted but happy." "Mrs Abbott, how would you sum up in words this achievement?" "I suppose..." "anything is possible." "Are you ready?" "Yeah." "In the spring, on a day like any other..." "I'll be back in an hour!" "Honey!" "Gotta call the ambulance!" "The baby is coming." "Operator, I need an ambulance!" "Everyone's fine." "She's a perfectly healthy baby girl." "Honey..." "She gave birth to a five pound four ounce baby girl." "Did you count the toes?" "She's perfect." ""And we named her for my mother, Caroline."" "This Benjamin was my father?" "And this is how you tell me?" "Excuse me." "...all the conditions are there for the major storm, possibly even up to a cathegory 5." "Hey, I know it's hard." "You can't smoke in here." "Nobody can tell you exactly where it's gonna hit..." "You grew as the doctor had promised, normal and healthy." "You're gonna have to find a real father for her." "What are you talking about?" "She's gonna need someone to grow old with." "She'll learn to accept whatever happens." "She loves you." "Honey, she needs a father, not a playmate." "Is it me?" "Of course not." "Is my age beginning to bother you?" "Is that what you're telling me?" "You can't raise both of us." "It was your first birthday." "We had a party for you." "The house was filled with children." "How are you?" "Hey, man." "Before you turn around, they'll be in high school, dating." "I sold the summer house on Lake Pontchartrain." "I sold Button's Buttons." "I sold my father's sailboat." "I put it all into a savings account." "And so that you and your mother might have a life," "I left, before you could ever remember me." ""I left with just the clothes on my back."" "I don't want to read this now." "Can you just tell me where he went?" "I don't really know." "It's for me. 1970." "I was two." ""Happy birthday."" ""I wish I could've kissed you goodnight."" "They are all for me." "Five:" ""I wish I could've taken you to your first day of school."" "Six:" ""I wish I could've been there to teach you to play the piano."" "1981, I was thirteen:" ""I wish I could've told you not to chase some boy."" ""I wish I could've held you when you had a broken heart."" ""I wish I could've been your father."" ""Nothing I ever did will replace that."" "I guess he went to India." "For what it's worth, it's never to late, or in my case, too early, to be whoever you want to be." "There is no time limit, start whenever you want." "You can change or stay the same." "There are no rules to this thing." "We can make the best or the worst of it." "I hope you make the best of it." "And I hope you see things that startle you." "I hope you feel things you never felt before." "I hope you meet people with a different point of view." "I hope you live a life you're proud of." "If you find that you're not," "I hope you have the strenght to start all over again." "He had been gone a long time." "I'll see you next thursday." "Good night, miss Daisy." "Good night, sweetheart." "I'm sorry, we're closing." "Can I help you?" "Are you here to pick somebody up?" "Why did you come back?" "Mom?" "Mom!" "You ready yet?" "Mom, what's wrong?" "I was just hearing a very sad story about a mutual friend, who I hadn't seen for a very long time." "Caroline, this is Benjamin." "You knew him when you were just a baby." "Hi." "Hi." "Hey!" "I'm sorry, I thought you were done." "Oh, this is a friend of my family's, Benjamin Button." "This is my husband, Robert." "How do you do." "Pleasure." "It was very nice to meet you." "We'll be in the car, darling." "Alright." "Bye." "I'm just locking up." "She's beautiful, like her mother." "Does she dance?" "Not very well." "I guess that'd be from my side of things." "She's a dear sweet girl." "She seems a little lost." "But then, who isn't at twelve?" "There's a lot of her that reminds me of you." "My husband, he's a widower ... was a widower." "He's an incredibly kind, bright, adventurous man." "He's been a terrific father." "Good." "You're so much younger." "Only on the outside." "You were right." "I couldn't have been raising both of you." "I'm not that strong." "So, where are you staying?" "What are you gonna do?" "I'm staying at the Pontchartrain hotel on the avenue." "I don't know what I'm gonna do." "They're waiting." "I remember that." "That was him." "Hurricane's changed direction." "It's gonna make a landfall some time soon." "Am I supposed to do something?" "Arrangements are being made to move people, but it's up to you." "No, no, we're staying." "I'll let you know if anything changes." "That night, while I was sitting and wandering why I came back at all, there was a knock at the door." "Come in." "Are you alright?" "I'm sorry, I don't know what am I doing here." "Nothing lasts." "I never stopped loving you." "Benjamin, I'm an old woman now." "Some things you never forget." "Goodnight, Benjamin." "Goodnight, Daisy." "And as I knew I would..." "I watched her go." "That's the last thing he wrote." "Some time after your father passed, there was a call." "Hello?" "Yes, speaking." "I'm sorry, I don't understand." "It's the corner house." "Come on in!" "I'm Daisy Fuller." "I'm David Hernandez with the Orleans Parish dept of Child Welfare Services." "He was living in the condemned building." "The police found this with him, this address, it's got your name in here a lot." "He's in a very poor health." "He was taken to the hospital." "He doesn't seem to know who or where he is." "He's very confused." "I was telling Mr Hernandez that Benjamin is one of us." "If he needs a place to stay, it's alright." "He can stay here." "Benjamin." "You play beautifully." "He doesn't seem to like to be touched." "He goes in and out of states of recognition." "The doctors said if they didn't know any better... it is the beginnings of dementia." "Do you remember me?" "I'm Daisy." "I'm Benjamin." "It's nice to meet you, Benjamin." "Do you mind if I sit with you?" "I would love to hear you play." "Do I know you?" "And every day I would stop by to make sure he was comfortable." "Don't think that I don't know what you're doing!" "You're all fucking liars!" "He doesn't believe he just had his breakfast." "Why don't we see if we can find something else for you to do." "I have a feeling there's a lot of things I can't remember." "Like what, sugar?" "It's like..." "there's this whole life I had, and I can't remember what it was." "It's okay." "It's okay to forget things." "Many times he would simply forget who or where he was." "It wasn't easy." "Benjamin!" "I can see everything!" "I can see the big river!" "That's right." "You can see everything, sweetheart." "I can see the graveyard where mama's buried and other people." "I want you to come down!" "What if I can fly?" "I knew a man who could fly." "Come down and I'll tell you all about him." "Somebody go up there." "He was five when I moved in." "Nearly the same age I was when I had met him." "This is the picture of Old Man Kangaroo at 5 in the afternoon, when he got his beautiful hind legs." "The days passed, and I watched as he forgot how to walk..." "What's my name?" "...how to talk." "I'm Daisy." "Can you say Daisy?" "In 2002, they put up a new clock in that train station." "And in the spring of 2003," "he looked at me, and I knew that he knew who I was." "And then he closed his eyes as if he would go to sleep." "I wish I had known him." "Now you do." "Mom, I think I should go see what's going on." "Goodnight, Benjamin." "Some people are born to sit by a river." "Some get struck by lightning." "Some have an ear for music." "Some are artists." "Some swim." "Some know buttons." "Some know Shakespeare." "Some are mothers." "And some people... dance."