Ask Lemmy

In the 1981 film Excalibur, adapted from "Le Morte d'Arthur" by Sir Thomas Malory.

When after years and years lost to an evil spell, King Arthur is free and strong and purposeful once more, he pays Queen Guinevere a visit, at the convent where she had retreated from the world and had become a nun.

In her chamber, Guinevere reaches under her bed and produces what seems like a miracle: Excalibur itself, which Arthur had regarded as utterly lost. As Arthur takes and wields Excalibur in a mixture of disbelief and delight, Guinevere whispers happily, "I kept it".

Then Arthur reels off these parting words, which I shall try to reconstruct from pure memory:

I have often dreamt, that in the hereafter of our lives,
when I am just a man, and owe no more to the future,
you will come to me, and claim me yours,
and know that I am your husband. It is a dream I have...

Then Arthur turns, wielding Excalibur, and leaves, en route to fulfill his destiny for one final time.

"Russian warship, go fuck yourself"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_warship,_go_fuck_yourself

We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.

~ Tom Stoppard

'Is nice' - Borat

Not a movie, but the series Cosmos.

"We are a way for the universe to know itself." -Carl Sagan

"How are you doing this Vincent? How have you done any of this?"

"You wanna know how I did it? This is how I did it Anton. I never saved anything for the swim back."

-Gattaca

The bathtub scene from Training Day. Every. Single. Time.

Kaneda... What do you see?

-- Searle, Sunshine (2007)

One of the very few times I've gotten goosebumps was from the last bit of dialog in the first Terminator movie. Sarah Connor is sitting in her jeep at a gas station with her German Shepherd. Sarah: What did he just say? Gas Station Attendant: He said there's a storm coming. Sarah (looking off into the distance): I know.

“All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” — Roy Batty, Blade Runner (1982)

"Blow up the damn ship, Picard!"

• First Contact

But really, Viola Davis' entire performance carries the whole film and makes every important moment land.

"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."

-Blade Runner (1982)

I am a leaf on the wind...
...watch how I soar.

"Sons of Gondor, of Rohan. My brothers.

I see it in your eyes, the same fear that would take the heart of me.

A day may come, when the courage of men fails. Where we forsake our friends, and abandon all bonds of fellowship.

But it is not this day.

An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight!

By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand! Men of the West!"

Not a movie, but Andor had so many good ones. And I mean a lot, too many for a single post. My favorite though is Namek's Manifesto:

"There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.

Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause.

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

And then remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.

Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance, will have flooded the banks of the Empire’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.

Remember this. Try."

Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?

- Spy Kids 2

The president’s Independence Day (1996) speech gets me almost every time.

Especially when he crescendos, “…the day when the world declared in one voice, we will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight.”

The idea of every nation on Earth actually rallying behind a cause is such a romantic one.

Obvious one, "I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with ME!"

Maybe not a quote but when Arnold lights the torch and lets out his war cry in the Predator.

When people think you're dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just waiting for their turn to speak.

Fight Club

Doesn't really give me goosebumps, but I think about it a lot because how much of a lie it is, especially because the Narrator/Cornelius is too full of himself to recognize the only people stopping to listen to him are people who are actually dying themselves. He isn't dying, and isn't actually listening to any of their stories, certainly not with sincerity or care. He is just merely... waiting for his turn to speak.

Sixth Sense:

"She said you came to the place where they buried her. Asked her a question? She said the answer is... "Every day." What did you ask?"

"Do... Do I make her proud?"

I'll be back.

~~The Passion of the Christ~~

The Terminator

Charlie Chaplin's speech at the end of The Great Dictator

From Stand By Me:

Ace: “What are you gonna do? Shoot us all?”
Gordy: “No, Ace. Just you.”

I'm a sucker for "last stand" quotes. That is, those made by a character who already knows that they aren't going to survive or win out of whatever situation they're in, is resigned to the fact, but is going to try to do what they can despite that.

Star Wars: A New Hope

https://youtu.be/6H0vFP_jXN4?t=147

Red Leader is hit, with his spacecraft damaged.

LUKE: Red Leader, we're right above you.

Turn to 0-five. We'll cover for you.

GARVEN: Stay there. I just lost my starboard engine. Get set up for your attack run.

Luke looks confused, then looks down and sees the lead craft crash and explode; he looks back ahead, shaken.

Honestly...thinking about it, the more-memorable last-stand quotes that come to mind probably aren't aren't from movies, but real life.

The Battle off Samar

In one US-Japanese naval battle in World War II, due to Japan successfully executing a major decoy movement, the US left a number of escort carriers

slow, weak ships that could potentially pack a punch at a distance but were extremely vulnerable at close range

undefended and had the bulk of Japan's remaining surface naval forces, including some of the most-powerful surface warships ever built, engage them at close range, with very little warning. This was more-or-less a worst-case scenario for them. The most-powerful US surface warships present, three destroyers, were each comparable in displacement to a single turret on the battleship Yamato, which was one of the heavy combatants attacking. None of the US surface ships present had guns capable of penetrating the heavy Japanese surface warship armor. There were also a few escort destroyers, even slower, weaker, and smaller ships really intended only to defend against submarines. When engaged, the escort carriers scattered, to try to make it as hard as possible to a large proportion of them down. The destroyers were ordered to charge the immensely-more-powerful Japanese surface force

a suicidal attack

to try to slow the attack and preserve as many escort carriers as possible. One destroyer escort, the Samuel B. Roberts, had its captain also engage, and give approximately the following quote:

Over his ship's 1MC public-address circuit, he told his crew "This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can." Without orders and indeed against orders, he set course at full speed to follow Heermann in to attack the cruisers.

Some of the crew survived in the water afterwards, so we still have the quote.

The Battle of Galliopoli

In World War I, the Battle of Gallipoli, the very-influential Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who later became leader of Turkey, was a commander.

The battle was an attempt by British forces

who had tremendous naval superiority

to conduct a major amphibious assault and establish a secure beachhead. In general, amphibious assaults are very risky for the attacking force; one is placed in a position where one's forces have little ability to retreat if things go poorly. The critical issue is managing to push back enemy forces and establishing a secure buffer between those forces and the vulnerable unloading and staging areas on a beach

at this time, what that meant was largely out of artillery range

to keep them from being attacked.

The Turkish forces could win a land battle, given time to bring other forces up, but the British forces had the advantage of surprise and superiority over the Turkish forces already in place. If the British forces could push back the Turkish forces, the British would get their beachhead.

Turkish forces, including those commanded by Ataturk, fought a desperate, successful attempt to hold the amphibious assault back long enough to permit reinforcements to arrive.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mustafa_Kemal_Atat%C3%BCrk

Men, I am not ordering you to attack. I am ordering you to die. In the time that it takes us to die, other forces and commanders can come and take our place.

Orders to the 57th Infantry Regiment during the Gallipoli campaign (25 April 1915); as quoted in Studies in Battle Command by Combat Studies Institute, US Army Command and General Staff College, p. 89; also quoted in Turkey (2007) by Verity Campbell, p. 188

The Battle of Thermopylae

Probably one of the more-famous quotes in military history is "molon labe". A greatly-superior Persian force was invading Greece; defending Greek forces held a region which was relatively-favorable for defense by small numbers (this is where the "300 Spartans" fought a delaying action). The defenders did not have realistic hope of victory for the battle, though they ultimately won the war. As the Persian force approached, a surrender demand was issued and refused; as history records it, the Greek response was "molon labe":

The Greeks were offered their freedom, the title "Friends of the Persian People", and the opportunity to re-settle on land better than that they possessed.[60] When Leonidas refused these terms, the ambassador carried a written message by Xerxes, asking him to "Hand over your arms". Leonidas' famous response to the Persians was "Molṑn labé" (Μολὼν λαβέ – literally, "having come, take [them]", but usually translated as "come and take them").[61] With the Persian emissary returning empty-handed, battle became inevitable. Xerxes delayed for four days, waiting for the Greeks to disperse, before sending troops to attack them.

Leonidas didn't remain himself, so maybe one can't quite let that qualify as a "last stand quote".

War of the Worlds

Originally from a novel rather than a movie, and not a last stand quote, but the ending of the War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (severe spoiler warning):

Hey, you messed up your spoiler somehow.

But anyway, while Chronicles of Riddick is an otherwise thoroughly mediocre film, I am immensely thrilled by one exchange of dialogue, and think about it weekly. It goes something like:

Prisoner: "What're ya gonna do, old man, kill me with yer soup cup?"

Vin Diesel: "Teacup. I'm going to kill you with my teacup."

I hate the word, but I'll make an exception when Ripley says "get away from her, you bitch" to the alien queen.

"What are you doing Cooper? DOCKING" - Interstellar (2014)