One More Day

Vision Quest
written by Darryl Ponicsan, based on the novel by Terry Davis

Louden (Matthew Modine): I was at the hotel, they told me you took the night off. Thought you were sick or something.
Elmo (J.C. Quinn): Of course I took the night off, dummy, isn't this the night you wrestle Shute?
Louden: You took the night off for that?
Elmo: Yeah, shaved, got a haircut and everything.
Louden: You never took the night off to see me wrestle before, they'll dock you for that.
Elmo: Hey kid, money ain't everything.
Louden: It's not that big a deal, I mean it's six lousy minutes on the mat. If that.
Elmo: Ever hear of Pelé?
Louden: Yeah, he's a soccer player.
Elmo: A very famous soccer player. I was in the room here one day. I'm watching the Mexican channel on TV. I don’t know nothing about Pelé. I'm watching what this guy can do with a ball and his feet. The next thing I know he jumps up in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in, upside down and backwards. I mean, the goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him. And Pelé gets excited and he rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium waving it around over his head. Everybody's screaming in Spanish. I'm here, sitting alone in my room. I start crying, yeah that's right, I start crying. There's another human being, a species which I happen to belong to, can kick a ball, and LIFT himself and the rest of us sad-ass human beings up to a better place to be, if only for a minute. Let me tell you kid, it was pretty goddamn glorious.It ain't the six minutes... it's what happens in that six minutes.