Summary

Will Hunting is a young genius living a rough life in Boston's south end. While being employed as a janitor at a prestigious college in Boston, he's discovered by a Fields Medal-winning professor who eventually tries to get Will to turn his life around. With the help of counselor Sean Maguire, Will begins to realize that there's more to himself than he ever imagined.

Quotes

Sean
I thought about what you said to me the other day, about my painting. I stayed up half the night thinking about it, and then something occurred to me and I fell into a deep, peaceful sleep and haven't thought about you since. You know what occurred to me?
Will
No.
Sean
You're just a kid. You don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about.
Will
Why, thank you.
Sean
It's all right. You've never been out of Boston.
Will
Nope.
Sean
If I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written... Michelangelo? You know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the Pope, sexual orientation, the whole works, right? But you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling. I've seen that. If I asked you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus of your personal favorites. You may even have been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. If I asked you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right? "Once more into the breach, dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap and watched him gasp his last breath, looking to you for help. If I asked you about love you'd probably quote me a sonnet, but you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes. Feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you, who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel. To have that love for her be there forever. Through anything, through cancer. You wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in a hospital room for two months holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes that the terms visiting hours don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, because that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. I look at you and I don't see an intelligent, confident man: I see a cocky, scared-shitless kid. But you're a genius, Will; no one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine. You ripped my fucking life apart. You're an orphan, right? Do you think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been, how you feel, who you are, because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally, I don't give a shit about all that, because you know what? I can't learn anything from you I can't read in some fucking book. Unless you wanna talk about you, who you are. Then I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't wanna do that, do you, sport? You're terrified about what you might say. Your move, Chief.

Will
What is that?
Sean
This is your file. I have to send it back to the judge for evaluation.
Will
Oh. Hey, you're not gonna fail me, are you? What's it say?
Sean
Wanna read it?
Will
Why? Have you had any, uh, experience with that?
Sean
20 years of counseling. Yeah, I've seen some pretty awful shit.
Will
I mean, have you had any... experience with that?
Sean
Personally?
Will
Yeah.
Sean
Yeah, I have.
Will
It sure ain't good.
Sean
My father was an alcoholic. Mean fuckin' drunk. He'd come home hammered, looking to wale on somebody. So I'd provoke him so he wouldn't go after my mother and little brother. Interesting nights were when he wore his rings.
Will
He used to just put a--a wrench, a stick and a belt on the table and just say, "Choose."
Sean
Well, I gotta go with the belt there then.
Will
I used to go with the wrench.
Sean
Why the wrench?
Will
'Cause fuck him, that's why.
Sean
Your foster father?
Will
Yeah. So, uh, what is it, like, "Will has an attachment disorder"? Is it all that stuff? "Fear of abandonment"? Is that why I, uh, broke up with Skylar?
Sean
I didn't know you had.
Will
Yeah, I did.
Sean
You wanna talk about it?
Will
No.
Sean
Hey Will, I don't know a lot. You see this? All this shit? It's not your fault.
Will
Yeah.
Sean
Look at me, son. It's not your fault.
Will
I know.
Sean
It's not your fault.
Will
I know.
Sean
No, no, you don't. It's not your fault. Hmm?
Will
I know.
Sean
It's not your fault.
Will
All right.
Sean
It's not your fault. It's not your fault.
Will
Don't fuck with me.
Sean
It's not your fault.
Will
Don't fuck with me, all right?! Don't fuck with me, Sean, not you.
Sean
It's not your fault. It's not your fault.
Will
My God. My God, I'm so sorry. My God.
Sean
Fuck them, okay?