Good Will Hunting · written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck · 1997

Sean describes his own father's abuse, giving Will room to connect his guardedness to the past.

Scene 99 of 127 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act three

Sean
Will

Act oneAct two

Begins 1:59 into a 2:11 film

The story so farBefore scene 99

When MIT professor Gerald Lambeau discovers that janitor Will Hunting is a gifted mathematician, a court deal lets Will work with Lambeau and therapist Sean Maguire; Will must risk intimacy and choose a life beyond the defenses that have kept him safe.

Scenes 1–16
Will is a brilliant janitor, fiercely loyal to his South Boston friends and protected by routine.
Scenes 17–31
Lambeau's discovery and the court deal confront Will with an ability and a future he cannot keep hidden.
Scenes 32–46
Will enters therapy and the academic world while beginning a relationship with Skylar.
Scenes 47–82
He tests intimacy and professional opportunity while using jokes, anger and silence to stay in control.
Scenes 83–91
Will proves he can refuse a prestigious job, but the refusal does not yet tell him what he wants.
Scenes 92–97
He loses Skylar's trust and collides with Lambeau and Sean over a future he has avoided choosing.
Just before
Scene 96
Chuckie tells Will that he hopes one day to find his door empty because Will finally left.
Scene 97
Lambeau and Sean argue over whether Will is being helped or used, and the conflict spills into the open.
Scene 98
A flashback fragment shows Will's father looming over him in childhood.
Scene 99
This scene

99INT. SEAN'S OFFICE -- DAY

SEAN

(after a pause)

My dad used to make us walk down to

the park and collect the sticks he was

going to beat us with. Actually the

worst of the beatings were between me

and my brother. We would practice on

each other trying to find sticks that

would break.

WILL

He used to just put a belt, a stick

and a wrench on the kitchen table and

say "choose."