High Noon

You look like a man who just lost a battle, Fred... but you're sitting at the Sultan's Table. What's eating the great aviator?

Fourteen Falcons sitting dead on the tarmac in Memphis. Twenty-four thousand in jet fuel I can't cover by Tuesday. My own family thinks I'm a lunatic burning an inheritance on a pipe dream.

You sound like my ex. Mark had the whole San Diego waterfront in his pocket, and every time a real expansion came along, he got scared and played it safe. Died broke, selling outboard motors, still bragging about the docks he used to own.

I'm not playing safe, Rayna. I built a hub-and-spoke system from scratch.

Then stop talking like a man who's already lost.

What's the name of this grand adventure of yours?

Federal Express.

Built for speed. So tell me, Mr. Express — how much faster is “overnight” than what everyone else is doing?

Standard guarantee's twenty-four hours. Door-to-door.

What if twenty-four is too long for me?

Too long? What do you want — eighteen? Those Falcons are fast.

What if I need it by noon?

Noon? You've got a twelve-inch package that needs shipping?

I was hoping you could handle several packages by noon, Mr. Memphis.

Noon...

We need impact by 1200 hours! High noon! Not 1205 — if that window closes, we lose the strike!

They aren't paying for weight, Rayna. They're buying time. A bank needs cleared checks, a hospital needs tissue samples by noon — they'll pay ten times the rate to land before then.

We fly west at midnight, thirty thousand feet, and outrun the sun to the coast. Beat it to noon.

You must have come from a loving family, Fred. A mother and father who cherished you. Sisters and a brother who looked up to the boy who went to war and came home a decorated pilot.

Half true, ma'am.

Which half?

My father built a fleet of buses. Moved a hundred thousand people a year through Memphis — mothers to see their sons, men to the mill on time. That was the family business. That was his legacy.

And you build airplanes.

I use airplanes to build delivery routes for packages, with an on-time guarantee.

So you sell delivery promises.

Well, you could say that. Federal Express. It's a whole new airline for packages.

My sisters and brother don't like that I risked our family's legacy on this. They're coming after me now for retribution.

How is this so, Mr. Memphis? You were born to carry on your father's legacy, to pick up the reins of your family's destiny. Your family invested with you. How can they turn against you when they don't know the path you're blazing — the fastest courier in America?

You're right. I told them we'd turn a profit.

They just hate the time frame.

Time is like water. Constantly flowing. It only becomes a cage when it becomes a promise you don't keep.

I didn't make them—

Wait. I did. I promised them a return in a time I couldn't keep.

Yes. Squandering time is the only true defeat.

I'm enjoying this time, every moment of it, here next to you.

Speaking of time— where is—

Here we are, my two lovebirds. Le dîner est servi.

Membra sumus corporis magni. We are members of one great body.

Then feed it well tonight, Captain. Tomorrow it flies.