"Listen, pal. I make an honest living. People only come to me when they're in a desperate situation. I help 'em out. I don't kick families out of their houses like you bums down at the bank do."
The day Jake's photos of Hollis and Katherine hit the front page of a local newspaper, Jake smugly celebrates his investigative work while getting a shave at his barbershop. The man in the neighboring chair makes a sarcastic comment about the low-down work Jake conducts as a private investigator, prompting Jake to denounce bankers' role (particularly during the Great Depression) in repossessing bankrupt families' homes. In this quote, Jake cannot help but reveal the frustration he feels when people judge him for his profession when it is his ambition to help people in desperate situations. As the viewer will see, Jake's sincere desire to help others is both a virtue and a weakness, as the help he tries to give Evelyn will lead to her death.
"You’re a very nosy fellow, kitty cat. Huh? You know what happens to nosy fellows? Huh? No? Wanna guess? Huh? No? Okay. They lose their noses."
On the same day Hollis Mulwray's body is retrieved from the Oak Pass Reservoir, Jake returns after nightfall and climbs the fence to investigate the scene. After nearly being washed away in a rush of water being covertly dumped, Jake is accosted by corrupt Water Department stooge Claude Mulvihill and his knife-wielding associate (played by the film's director, Roman Polanski). As a symbolic warning for Jake to keep his nose out of other people's business, the man slices through Jake's nostril, telling Jake that next time he will take the entire nose off.
"Somebody’s been dumping thousands of tons of water from the city’s reservoirs and we’re supposed to be in the middle of a drought. He found out about it and he was killed."
Although Jake is initially hired to investigate Hollis Mulwray's supposed infidelity, Jake soon begins uncovering a conspiracy centered on the Los Angeles water supply. After meeting Evelyn for lunch, Jake frustratedly explains that her husband was likely killed because he was about to expose the same information Jake has stumbled across. Although the city is supposedly undergoing a drought, Hollis and Jake have discovered that someone is ordering water to be discreetly dumped in the middle of the night from various runoff sites. As Jake will come to learn, the water is being dumped as part of a broader conspiracy to manufacture a drought that will shore up public support for a new dam project Noah Cross wants built.
EVELYN: “She’s my daughter.”
[Gittes slaps Evelyn.]
GITTES: “I said I want the truth!”
EVELYN: “She’s my sister. . . .”
[slap]
EVELYN: “She’s my daughter. . . .”
[slap]
EVELYN: “My sister, my daughter.”
[More slaps.]
GITTES: “I said I want the truth!”
EVELYN: “She’s my sister AND my daughter!”
When Jake believes he has found Hollis's glasses in the pond Hollis was drowned in, he confronts Evelyn and demands to know the full truth of what she has been hiding. In this key exchange, Jake learns the sordid truth that Evelyn has spent her life trying to hide: Katherine, the young woman Jake and the audience has believed to be Evelyn’s sister and Hollis's mistress, is in fact both Evelyn's sister and her daughter as the result of an incestuous sexual relationship with her father Noah. Screenwriter Robert Towne knew this revelation would stand out as among the film's most memorable scenes. After consultation with Polanski, they decided to have Jake slap Evelyn repeatedly to coax the truth out of her.
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
After watching the police shoot and kill Evelyn, leaving Katherine vulnerable to Noah, Jake is forced to accept that his attempt to protect Evelyn and Katherine has, like the last time he was in Chinatown, "guaranteed" that harm has come to them. As his operatives pull him away from the gruesome scene of Evelyn's death, Jake stops and looks back. In this iconic line, Walsh speaks of Chinatown as a metaphor for traumatic things over which Jake has no control. Citing the last time Jake tried to protect a woman in Chinatown, Walsh lets his friend know that there's nothing more he can do; all he can do is walk away from the situation and let his remorse fester.
"Bad for grass."
"Right. Bad for glass."
During his first visit to the Mulwrays' mansion, Jake watches the gardener pull dead grass from the edges of the backyard pond. As the Japanese-accented gardener mutters about how the pond is harmful to the surrounding lawn, Jake humors him, repeating "bad for glass," as he hears the gardener's "r" as an "l." It is only during a later visit to the house that Jake realizes that the man is explaining that the saltwater pond damages the grass. This initial mistake is significant because it sets up Jake's eventual revelation that Hollis was drowned in the backyard pond.
“Jesus. That’s in Chinatown, ain’t it?”
“I know where it is. Just do it.”
After learning the truth behind Evelyn's evasiveness and desire to hide Katherine, Jake phones his operative, Walsh, and tells him to meet him in two hours at Kahn's house, where Evelyn and Katherine are waiting to flee. Upon hearing the address 1712 Alameda, Walsh responds with alarm because he knows Jake's history with Chinatown. As though the area is cursed, Walsh cannot believe that Jake would ever want to go there and risk reliving his traumatic past.
“I don’t blame myself. See, Mr. Gitts [sic], most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place they’re capable of anything.”
When Jake confronts Noah about his corrupt land and water deals, his involvement in Hollis's murder, and his impregnation of his own daughter, Noah replies with these haunting lines. Rather than accept blame for Evelyn's rejection of him, Noah makes a menacing and cryptic threat against Jake's life.
"He owns the police!"
As they try to flee Chinatown, Evelyn and Katherine encounter Noah outside 1712 Alameda. When Noah won't obey her order to stay away from Katherine, Evelyn pulls a gun on her father. To de-escalate the situation, Jake shouts at her to put the gun away and let the police handle Noah and his guilt. However, Evelyn shouts back that her father owns the police. In this significant exchange, Evelyn informs the naïve Jake that he can expect no justice for Noah because his wealth and web of corruption are too great.
"Oh lord! Oh lord!"
In the film's tragic final scene, one of the bullets fired toward Evelyn's fleeing car hits her in the back of the head, the bullet exiting her eye socket. As Katherine screams at the horrific sight of her dead mother, Noah walks up behind Katherine and encloses her in a menacing embrace. Feigning despair, Noah laments in these lines the tragic outcome. In reality, the viewer understands Noah is pleased to see Evelyn thwarted in her escape, as he can now claim guardianship over Katherine.
