- Héctor: [sings] Remember me, though I have to say goodbye / Remember me, don't let it make you cry / For even if I'm far away, I hold you in my heart / I sing a secret song to you, each night we are apart / Remember me, though I have to travel far / Remember me, each time you hear a sad guitar / Know that I'm with you, the only way that I can be / Until you're in my arms again, remember me...
- Ernesto de la Cruz: [to Mamá Imelda] Don't I know you?
- Mamá Imelda: [Smacks Ernesto with her shoe] That's for murdering the love of my life!
- Ernesto de la Cruz: [Confused] Who the...?
- Héctor: She's talking about me!
- [to Imelda, touched]
- Héctor: I'm the love of your life?
- Mamá Imelda: I don't know, I'm still angry at you!
- Ernesto de la Cruz: Hector? How did you...
- [Imelda smacks him with her shoe again]
- Mamá Imelda: And *that's* for trying to murder my grandson!
- Ernesto de la Cruz: Grandson?
- Miguel: She's talking about me!
- Ernesto de la Cruz: You! Wait. You're related to Hector?
- Miguel: [pointing at De la Cruz's breast pocket] The photo!
- [the rest of the family appears from around the corner; De la Cruz runs]
- Mamá Imelda: After him!
- Ernesto de la Cruz: Security!
- Héctor: You said love of your life?
- Mamá Imelda: I don't know *what* I said!
- Miguel: [cheekily] That's what *I* heard...
- Miguel: [after watching Chicharrón disappear] Wait... what happened?
- Héctor: [sadly] He's been forgotten. When there's no one left in the living world who remembers you, you disappear from this world. We call it the Final Death.
- Miguel: Where did he go?
- Héctor: No one knows.
- Miguel: But I've met him! I could remember him when I go back.
- Héctor: No. It doesn't work like that, chamaco. Our memories, they have to be passed down by those who knew us in life - in the stories they tell about us. But there's no one left alive to pass down Cheech's stories.
- [shrugs]
- Héctor: Hey, it happens to everyone eventually.
- Héctor: [singing for Chicharrón] Well everyone knows Juanita / Her eyes each a different color / Her teeth stick out / and her chin goes in / and her...
- [he hesitates]
- Héctor: ... knuckles, they drag on the floor.
- Chicharrón: Those aren't the words!
- Héctor: There are children present.
- [singing]
- Héctor: Her hair is like a briar / She stands in a bow-legged stance / And if I weren't so ugly / She'd possibly give me a chance.
- Chicharrón: [chuckles] Brings back memories. Gracias.
- [exhales deeply as he vanishes]
- Mamá Imelda: Mijo, I was so worried.
- [Hugs Miguel, then looks to Héctor resentfully]
- Mamá Imelda: And you, how many times must I turn you away?
- Héctor: Imelda...
- Mamá Imelda: I want nothing to do with you! Not in life, not in death! I spent decades protecting my family from *your* mistakes. He spends five minutes with you, and I have to fish him out of a sinkhole!
- Miguel: I wasn't in there because of Héctor. He was in there because of me. He was just trying to get me home! I didn't want to listen, but he was right! Nothing is more important than family. I'm ready to accept your blessing. And your conditions. But first, I need to find de la Cruz. To get Héctor's photo!
- Mamá Imelda: What?
- Miguel: So, he can see Coco again. Héctor should be on our ofrenda. He's part of our family.
- Mamá Imelda: He *left* this family!
- Miguel: He tried to go home to you and Coco. But de la Cruz murdered him!
- [Imelda looks from Miguel to Héctor in surprise]
- Héctor: [sorrowfully] It's true, Imelda.
- Miguel: [after a pause] And so what if it's true? You leave me alone with a child to raise, and I'm just supposed to forgive you?
- Héctor: Imelda, I...
- [Suddenly shudders and collapses to his knees, Imelda gasps]
- Héctor: I'm running out of time. It's Coco.
- Mamá Imelda: She's forgetting you.
- Miguel: You don't have to forgive him. But we shouldn't forget him!
- Mamá Imelda: I wanted to forget you. I wanted Coco to forget you, too, but...
- Héctor: This is my fault, not yours. I'm sorry, Imelda.
- Mamá Imelda: Miguel, if we help you get his photo, you will return home? No more music?
- Miguel: Family comes first.
- Mamá Imelda: [to Héctor] I... I can't forgive you. But I *will* help you. So, how do we get to de la Cruz?
- Miguel: I... might know a way.
- [Mamá Imelda has just taken Héctor's protrait from De La Cruz and is about to give Miguel her blessing to send him back home]
- Mamá Imelda: Miguel, I give you my blessing. To go home... to put up our photos... and, to never...
- Miguel: [resigned] ... never play music again.
- [Mamá Imelda looks at Héctor and smiles]
- Mamá Imelda: ...And to NEVER forget how much your family loves you.
- Frida Kahlo: [explaining her new performance piece to Miguel] Darkness - and from the darkness... a giant papaya! Dancers emerge from the papaya, and the dancers... are all me! And they go to drink from the milk of their mother, who is a cactus! But, who is also me! And her milk is not milk, but tears!
- [pause]
- Frida Kahlo: Is it too obvious?
- Miguel: [unsure] I think it's... just the right amount of obvious?
- Miguel: [to Mamá Coco, pointing at each of his cheeks] I have a dimple on this side, but not on this side. Dimple. No dimple. Dimple. No dimple.
- Abuelita: Miguel, eat your food! Oh, you're a twig, Mijo! Here, have some more!
- [starts piling tamales on his plate]
- Miguel: No, gracias.
- Abuelita: [sternly] I *asked* if you would like more *tamales*?
- Miguel: ...Si?
- Abuelita: [cheerfully] That's what I thought you said!
- Mamá Imelda: [seeing Miguel in the Land of the Dead; surprised] Miguel?
- Miguel: [smiling nervously] Mamá Imelda...
- Mamá Imelda: [puts her hands on her hips] WHAT is going on?
- Héctor: [Ernesto takes Miguel at the edge of the stadium] Ernesto, STOP!
- [shudders and collapses to the floor]
- Héctor: Leave the boy alone.
- Ernesto de la Cruz: I've worked too hard, Hector. Too hard to let him destroy everything.
- Héctor: [pleading] He's a living child, Ernesto!
- [the other Riveras turn the camera on Ernesto so the audience can see]
- Ernesto de la Cruz: He's a THREAT!
- [the audience gasps]
- Ernesto de la Cruz: You think I'd let him go back to the land of the living with your photo? To keep your memory alive? No!
- Miguel: You're a coward!
- Ernesto de la Cruz: I am Ernesto de la Cruz, the greatest musician of all time!
- Miguel: Héctor's the REAL musician, you're just the guy who murdered him and stole his songs!
- [the audience gasps]
- Guy in audience: Murdered?
- Ernesto de la Cruz: [grabs Miguel by the shirt collar] I am the one who is willing to do what it takes to seize my moment. Whatever it takes.
- [Throws Miguel off the stadium]
- Miguel: This isn't a dream, then - you're all really out there!
- Tía Victoria: You thought we weren't?
- Miguel: I don't know - I thought it might have been one of those made-up things grown-ups tell kids, like... vitamins!
- Tía Victoria: Miguel, vitamins are a real thing.
- Miguel: Well, now I'm thinking maybe they could be.
- Ernesto de la Cruz: [after Héctor is taken away by security for attacking Ernesto after learning the truth about his death] I apologize, where were we?
- Miguel: You were going to give me your blessing.
- Ernesto de la Cruz: Yes, uh, si. Miguel, my reputation it is, ah, very important to me. I would hate to have you think...
- Miguel: That you murdered Héctor, for his songs?
- Ernesto de la Cruz: Ha ha. You don't think that, do you?
- Miguel: I... no. Everyone knows you're, the... the good guy.
- Ernesto de la Cruz: [Ernesto looks at Héctor's photo, and then puts it in his pocket]
- Miguel: Papa Ernesto, my blessing?
- Ernesto de la Cruz: [Ernesto looks at Miguel's marigold petal, and then crushes it into powder] Security, take care of Miguel. He'll be... extending his stay.
- Miguel: [as he is taken away by security] WHAT? BUT I'M YOUR FAMILY!
- Ernesto de la Cruz: And Héctor was my best friend. Success doesn't come for free, Miguel. You have to be willing to, do whatever it takes to... seize your moment. I know you understand.
- Miguel: No, NO!
- Miguel: Wait, are those...? Alebrijes! But, those are...
- Tío Oscar: *Real* Alebrijes. Spirit creatures.
- Tía Rosita: They guide souls on their journey.
- Tío Felipe: Watch your step - they make 'caquitas' everywhere.
- [after Ernesto is disgraced, and flung from the amphitheater, a guy returns from the concession stand]
- Guy in audience: [to his wife, excitedly] What did I miss?
- [Miguel slips through a barred gate as Imelda tries to catch him]
- Mamá Imelda: I am trying to save your life!
- Miguel: You're *ruining* my life!
- Mamá Imelda: [shocked] What?
- Miguel: Music's the only thing that makes me happy! And you want to take that away! You'll never understand!
- Mamá Imelda: [sings] Ay, de mí, llorona, llorona de azul celeste. Y aunque la vida me cueste llorona, no dejaré de quererte...
- Miguel: [turning back] I thought you hated music.
- Mamá Imelda: [smiling] Oh, I loved it! I remember that feeling, when my husband would play, and I would sing, and nothing else mattered. But, when we had Coco, there was something that mattered more than music. I wanted to put down roots; *he* wanted to play for the world. We each made a sacrifice to get what we wanted. Now, you must make a choice.
- Miguel: But, I don't want to... pick sides! Why can't you be on *my* side? That's what families are supposed to do! Support you!
- [pause]
- Miguel: But you never will.
- Mamá Imelda: [the Rivera family spots Mamá Imelda at the desk of a Family Reunion agent] I demand to speak to the person in charge.
- Departures Agent: Sorry, señora it says here no one put up your photo.
- Mamá Imelda: My family always, ALWAYS puts my photo on the ofrenda! That devil box tells you nothing but lies!
- [pulls off her shoe and beats the computer with it]
- Papá Julio: [Approaches with fear] Mamá Imelda?
- Mamá Imelda: Oh, mi familia! They wouldn't let me cross the bridge.
- [Puts her shoe back on]
- Mamá Imelda: Tell this woman and her devil box that my photo *is* on the ofrenda!
- Papá Julio: Well, we-we never made it made it to the ofrenda.
- Mamá Imelda: What?
- Papá Julio: We ran into a, a...
- [the family parts to reveal Miguel]
- Mamá Imelda: [Gasp] Miguel?
- Miguel: [Gives a hesitant wave] Mamá Imelda...
- Mamá Imelda: [suspiciously] *What* is going on?
- Clerk: [Office door opens] You the Rivera family?
- [States matter-of-factly]
- Clerk: Well, you're cursed.
- Miguel: [as Abuelita bangs on the locked door] Mama Coco? Can you hear me? It's Miguel! I, I saw your Papa! Remember? Papa? Please, if you forget him, he'll be gone, forever!
- [picking up Hector's guitar]
- Miguel: Here, this was his guitar, right? He used to play it to you?
- [showing her the photo with Hector's face missing]
- Miguel: See? There he is! Papa! Remember? Papa? Mama Coco, *please*, don't forget him!
- [Coco just stares blankly; Miguel gets up sadly as the door unlocks and his family bursts in]
- Abuelita: [outraged at Miguel] What are you *doing* to that poor woman? It's okay, Mamita...
- Papá: [angrily] What's gotten into you?
- [seeing Miguel crying, he hugs him relieved]
- Papá: I thought I lost you Miguel.
- Miguel: I'm sorry Papa.
- Mamá: [also hugging Miguel] We're all together now. That's what matters.
- Miguel: [miserably] Not all of us.
- Abuelita: [reassuring her mother] It's okay, Mamita.
- [turning to Miguel, suddenly becoming very angry with him]
- Abuelita: Miguel, you apologize to your Mama Coco!
- Miguel: [wiping his eyes as Abuelita angrily stares at Miguel] Mama Coco...
- [his foot nudges the guitar, he pauses, looking at it]
- Abuelita: [becomes more aggressive] Well? *Apologize!*
- Miguel: Mama Coco? Your Papa? H-he wanted you to have this.
- [he picks up the guitar and begins to play; Abuelita gasps at this and moves to take the guitar away from him but Enrique lays a hand on her shoulder]
- Papá: Máma, wait.
- Miguel: [singing] Remember me... though I have to say goodbye, remember me... don't let it make you cry...
- [Coco's hand twitches]
- Mamá: [surprised] Look!
- Miguel: [continuing to sing as Coco becomes more alert] For even if I'm far away, I hold you in my heart. I sing a secret song to you each night we are apart... Remember me, though I have to travel far...
- [Coco sings]
- Miguel, Mamá Coco: Remember me, each time you hear a sad guitar.
- [Abuelita tears up realizing how wrong she was for hating music]
- Miguel, Mamá Coco: Know that I'm with you the only way that I can be... Until you're in my arms again, remember... me...
- [Coco smiles at Miguel, then notices Abuelita crying]
- Mamá Coco: Elena? What's wrong, Mija?
- Abuelita: [happily, through her tears] Nothing, Mama. Nothing at all.
- Miguel: [sings] Remember me, though I have to say goodbye / Remember me, don't let it make you cry /
- [Mama Coco's hand starts moving]
- Mamá: Look.
- Miguel: For even if I'm far away, I hold you in my heart / I sing a secret song to you, each night we are apart / Remember me, though I have to travel far /
- Miguel, Mamá Coco: Remember me, each time you hear a sad guitar
- [Abuleta seeing this realizes how wrong she was for hating music and tears of joy start pouring out of her eyes]
- Miguel, Mamá Coco: / Know that I'm with you, the only way that I can be / Until you're in my arms again, remember me...
- [smiles at Miguel and notices her daughter crying]
- Mamá Coco: [Sees Elena crying happy tears] Elena? What's wrong mija?
- Abuelita: [weeping with joy] Nothing mama,
- [sniffles]
- Abuelita: nothing at all.