Outbreak Quotes

Robby Keough It's a pretty unique experience.

Sam Daniels Sorta like living with me.

Robby Mm-hmm.

Sam Would you go through it again?

Robby Maybe. Now that I have the antibodies.

Taglines This animal carries a deadly virus… and the greatest medical crisis in the world is about to happen.

Maj. Salt Okay, sirs, here we go. These pictures were taken over a period of eight hours. Normal, healthy kidney cells before they met the virus. In the space of an hour, a single virus has invaded, multiplied and killed the cell. And in just two hours, its offspring have invaded cells here, and here. Continually multiplying.

Casey Schuler Jesus Christ, five hours? It infects the cell, replicates, and kills this fast? These numbers can't be right, Ebola takes days to do this damage.

Maj. Salt Sirs, the numbers are correct. I wish to God they weren't. One goes in, millions come out. Every cell is dead. Now we see them individually, searching for the next victim until there's nothing left to kill.

Casey Schuler Mark this day, Salt. We could spend our whole careers waiting to see a new virus.

Maj. Salt Sirs, Mr. Motaba, up close and personal.

Casey Schuler I hate this bug.

Sam Daniels Come on, Casey. You have to love its simplicity. It's one-billionth our size and it's beating us.

Casey So, what do you wanna do — take it to dinner?

Sam No.

Casey What, then?

Sam Kill it.

Sam Daniels Once in your life, take a chance!

Robby Keough You know what, Sam? I did. I married you.

Sam Daniels Sir, I sent you the fax six hours ago...

Brig. Gen. Billy Ford Sam, I am not going to issue an alert.

Sam I don't wanna bust up your party, sir, but you gotta issue an alert.

Ford You said it was contained!

Sam I said containment was probable. You should be monitoring the airports, you gotta...

Ford Sam! Do you remember 1989?

Sam Yeah.

Ford You found two lousy cases of ] in ] and we put a note to every American kid's lunchbox. You remember that?

Sam Yeah, I was wrong.

Ford You were wrong.

Sam Uh-huh.

Ford What about 1992? ]?

Sam I was wrong. Yup.

Ford Wrong again. But you're right about this?

Sam No, I could be wrong about this...

Ford Yet you waltz into my party smelling like dirty socks, snatch me away from Senator Rosales, whom I need not remind you, Sam, is head of the Senate Arms Services subcommittee which is in charge of our fucking budget.

Sam Forget ]. Forget Lassa. This bug kills so fast, Billy. You could be dead in...

Ford Keep your voice down. Now, that is exactly my point, Sam.

Sam What?

Ford It is the very lethality of this virus which is working for us here. These unfortunate people don't live long enough to spread the goddamn thing around. So you're right, it is contained.

Sam I hope so.

Gen. Donald McClintock With all due respect, Col. Daniels, if you do not follow us to Travis Air Force Base, I will blow you out of the sky!

Sam Daniels General, with all due respect, fuck you, sir.

Col. Briggs They're headed right there, and I got two teams on standby.

Gen. Donald McClintock Good, Briggs — a potential screw-up you managed to avoid among many others you have not. Who do you think should handle this now?

Briggs You, sir?

McClintock You kiss ass with the best of them, Briggs. You hope to make general one day?

Briggs Yes, sir.

McClintock Well, you won't.

Sam Daniels What're you gonna be doing at CDC?

Robby Keough Working ]. Same as you.

Sam My job.

Robby Well, I like to think of it as my job.

Sam Daniels Colonel Daniels, from USAMRIID. I'm sorry.

George Yes, and I'm George from Sioux City, South Dakota. Back of the line, Colonel.

Sam We got a terrible epidemic. We're from Cedar Creek, George. We're from Cedar Creek, California!

Major Salt CEDAR CREEK, SITE OF A VIRAL INFECTION!!!

Sam George, you heard about this virus — need we say more? Okay, we need all the bills of lading from ships arriving from Africa in the last three months. George!

George Uh-huh… huh?

Sam Shall I cough on you, George?

Col. Sam Daniels You hear me, don't you, guys? I'll say it one last time. These people that you're going to bomb are not the enemy. We can kill the virus without killing these people. I swear on my soul that the President does not have the facts. He doesn't know we have a working serum. Oh Christ, if you think I'm lying, drop the bomb. If you think I'm crazy, drop the bomb, but don't drop the bomb just because you're following orders! What you haven't been told is that your superiors have another agenda. Don't you understand that right below you in Cedar Creek, there's a biological weapon that they've been manufacturing illegally for the last 30 years?!? Hey, I guarantee you that the disease has spread beyond the perimeters of this town! If you incinerate Cedar Creek, you incinerate the serum!!!

Brig. Gen. Billy Ford Sandman, this is General Ford. You will ignore that order. For the record, I'm relieving General McClintock of command, for the crime of withholding vital information from the President of the United States.

Maj-Gen. Donald McClintock I have, in no way, withheld vital information from the President of the United States.

Ford Colonel Briggs.

Colonel Briggs Sir.

Ford Place General McClintock under arrest.

McClintock If I go down for this, Billy, you go down for it.

Ford It's out of our hands now, Donnie.

McClintock You silly sentimental son of a bitch... Nobody puts me under arrest. Nobody. Colonel Briggs. What a wonderful moment this must be for you.

White House Chief of Staff Now, as I understand it, you want to firebomb the town of Cedar Creek, California, population 2600, with something called a "]", the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in our arsenal. The way it works, it explodes, sucks in all available oxygen to the core, vaporizes everything within a mile of ground zero — men, women, children, and one airborne virus. Destruction complete, case closed, crisis over. This... Constitution of the United States... I've read it cover to cover. I don't find anything in it about vaporizing 2600 American citizens, but it does say — several times — that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process. So, a couple of things before "Clean Sweep" is even considered: One, unanimous, unwavering support for the president on this one and I mean public, you're gonna stand there shoulder to shoulder with him - he goes down, you go down. And the second thing is, I want an army of experts citing hundreds of thousands of lab experiments, telling any idiot with a camera, that there was no other way! You got that? Hmm? No member of this government is gonna go sneaking off to the Washington Post telling how "they were the sole voice of opposition." If there is a voice of opposition out there, I want him in here now! Those are the citizens of Cedar Creek. Go on, look at them - these are not statistics, ladies and gentlemen - they're flesh and blood, and I want you to burn those into your memories, because those images should haunt us til the day we die!

Taglines Try to remain calm.