I’ll start us off with Cousin Ellis from No Country For Old Men:
“All the time you spend trying to get back what’s been took from you, more is going out the back door.”
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The winner is Matt Damon from Good Will Hunting
Why shouldn’t I work for the N.S.A.? That’s a tough one, but I’ll take a shot. Say I’m working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I’m real happy with myself, cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East.
Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never met, never had no problem with, get killed. Now the politicians are sayin’, “Oh, send in the Marines to secure the area” cause they don’t give a shit. It won’t be their kid over there, gettin’ shot. Just like it wasn’t them when their number got called, cause they were pullin’ a tour in the National Guard. It’ll be some kid from Southie takin’ shrapnel in the ass.
And he comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, cause he’ll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And, of course, the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain’t helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon.
And they’re takin’ their sweet time bringin’ the oil back, of course, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin’ play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain’t too long ‘til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy’s out of work and he can’t afford to drive, so he’s got to walk to the fuckin’ job interviews, which sucks cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin’ him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he’s starvin’, cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat, the only blue plate special they’re servin’ is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what did I think? I’m holdin’ out for somethin’ better. I figure fuck it, while I’m at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.
Idk if I’d call this my favorite, but the one that immediately popped into my brain is one from the original Men In Black - uncharacteristically introspective quote in an otherwise goofy-ass alien flick:
J: “Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.”
K: “The person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.”
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe… Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion… I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
Roy Batty’s closing monologue from Blade Runner before he dies.
It’s depressing, but in a beautiful way.
I absolutely love that speech, but I don’t find it depressing. More, sad but a powerful expression of what it is to be mortal.
Somerset at the end of Se7en:
Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.” I agree with the second part.
“And they never saw Stu Redman again.” - The Stand
Can’t find the full quote, but there is a scene in the movie Calvary where a guy at a pub tells the main character (a priest) a story about a boy rendered blind, deaf, mute, and paralyzed, going into excruciating detail about the hell he must be in. Truly a messed up thing to tell another human. Highly recommend watching the movie.
Does Paxton in Aliens count? When he declares “game over, man” twice.
It’s from a game, but the voice acting was top notch, Handsome Jack in Tales From the Borderlands:
Everyone thinks they’re the hero of their own story.
Also from no country:
Carla Jean Moss: The coin don’t have no say. It’s just you.
Anton Chigurh: Well, I got here the same way the coin did.
I’m a leaf on the wind. Watch me soar.
