To quote dialogue in a film or TV show, follow the MLA guidelines for drama, interviews, and other written sources representing dialogue with speakers’ names: Introduce speech by each new speaker with the character’s name (or a description, if the character is unnamed) in all capital letters, followed by a period. Indent the line half an inch from the left margin. If the text runs more than one line, use a hanging indent for subsequent lines (MLA Handbook 6.40). Include a timestamp in your parenthetical citation if possible. You might want to ascertain the spelling of a character’s name by checking the credits.
In Asteroid City, the encounter with the alien presages planetary collapse:
AUGIE. I don’t like the way that guy looked at us.
MIDGE. What guy?
AUGIE. The alien.
MIDGE. How did he—how did he look at us?
AUGIE. Like we’re doomed.
MIDGE. Maybe we are. (1:22:07–18)Work Cited
Asteroid City. Directed by Wes Anderson, Focus Features / Indian Paintbrush, 2023.
As with dialogue in written sources, short quotations can be integrated into your prose (6.41).
To Augie’s remark that the alien looked at them “like we’re doomed,” Midge responds, “Maybe we are” (1:22:13–18).
When you transcribe dialogue from a nonwritten source, you will have to make choices about spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and other stylistic elements. Except where fidelity to the source is best served by a different choice—for example, a character’s speech might be best represented by run-on sentences—apply the same principles as in your own prose.
Work Cited
MLA Handbook. 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.