The Aviator (2004) - Quotes

Katharine: Howard's building a new aeroplane.

Howard: I feel like a little adventure.

Katharine: Do your worst, Mr. Hughes!

Katharine Hepburn: Well, if you're deaf, you must own up to it. Get a hearing aid, or see my father. He's an urologist, but it's all tied up inside the body, don't you find?

Howard: Mmm.

Katharine: Me, I keep healthy. I take seven showers a day to keep clean, also because I'm so vulgarly referred to as "outdoors-y." Well, I'm not "outdoors-y," I'm athletic. I sweat! There it is, now we both know the sordid truth: I sweat, and you're deaf. Aren't we a fine pair of misfits?

Professor Fitz: Mr. Hughes! Mr. Hughes! Oakland! There are clouds in Oakland!

Howard: You're serious this time?

Professor Fitz: Yes! Goddammit, yes. I can promise you, clouds in Oakland.

Howard: [Turns to his crew] Alright, alright. Don't get jittery on me. OAKLAND! WE'RE GOING TO OAKLAND!

Howard: I've been to Chatsworth, Santa Cruz, Encino, San Diego, Riverside, Van Nuys, and Bakersfield. It has been eight months! Where are my goddamn clouds, huh?

Professor Fitz: [shouting in frustration] They move, Mr. Hughes! Clouds move — that's what they do! They move!

Odie: Hey, you want the good news or the bad news?

Howard: Bad news, always.

Odie: [Gives Howard a magnifier to look at the strut] Alright, we've installed the 450 radial, but the struts won't take the vibrations. The minute we fire her up, the struts start cracking at the attach points.

Howard: Well, what's the good news?

Odie: There isn't any.

Howard: Goddamn it, Odie, if the 450's too big, we just gotta figure something else out.

Odie: Well, we've done everything. We've rebuilt her from top to toe. Now, if we drain the fuel tank for a couple of runs, she might make 180 MPH.

Howard: I want minimum 200, alright?

Odie: [[w:Theda Bara|Theda Bara] Yeah, well I want a date with ], but that ain't gonna happen either.

Howard: Ah, don't be so sure...Well, if the struts won't sustain the engine, then maybe we get rid of the struts.

Odie: No, then the top wing falls off.

Howard: ...Then let it.

Odie: What?

Howard: Who-who says we need a top wing? Who says we need anything?

Odie: [Realizes what Howard's thinking] A monoplane...

Howard: A cantilevered monoplane, right? I mean, they're doing it in France. To hell with the top wing and the struts.

Odie: Put in a 550 Wasp engine...

Howard: 100 octane fuel, that would give us a top horsepower of what?

Odie: 700.

Howard: We squeeze that to 1,000, we've got the fastest plane ever built.

Odie: You know, I just gotta say, we've already spent over $200,000 rebuilding this plane.

Howard: [Grabs a 2x4 and tosses it to Odie; Odie swings the board at the struts, breaking them and the top wing] Yeah, to hell with it. Tear it up, Odie! Go on!

Frank: You may be directing this movie, Howard. But what you're asking- we can't do it!

Howard: Don't tell me I can't do it; don't tell me it can't be done!

Frank: The gyro forces are too much here. You send these planes into simultaneous barrel rolls they won't make it!

Howard: It's the goddamn climax of the picture Frank, all right, you make it work! Look, decrease the vertical trajectory if you have to, a Le Rhône rotary won't stall at 60 degrees- I've done it!

Advisor: Howard, we need to cut that sequence down, we don't have enough cameras.

Howard: No, no we're not cuttin anything! I'll get those extra cameras, set up for rehearsal's in five!

Noah Dietrich: Mr. Hughes, I'm Noah Dietrich. Your office said I'd find you here.

Howard: Dietrich. You're a man on the come! I read your resume and talked to your references. You know what I'm lookin for?!

Noah: Well as I understand it you're looking for a second-in-command at Hughes Tools; someone to oversee the financial aspects of the business-

Howard: Yeah, I'm lookin for somebody to run it and do a damn good job. Look, there's really only one thing you gotta know! My folks... they're gone now! So it's my money! Now what I choose to do with that money may seem crazy to those sons-a-bitches in Houston — and I'm sure as hell it does — but it all makes good sense to me, you got that?

Noah: Got it.

Howard: Good. Now you made what uh... five thousand dollars a year your last job; I'll pay you ten thousand!

Noah: Guess I'll be working twice as hard!

Howard: You'll be workin four times as hard; I just got you half price, Mr. Dietrich. Welcome aboard. You're my voice now, make em understand that- look, some of those fine folks down there still callin me Junior. You tell em its Mister Hughes now!

Noah: [[Houston] So when do we go to ]?

Howard: [[W:Cholera|Cholera; [W:Typhus|Typhus; [malaria; [W:yellow fever|yellow fever; gestures to the fleet] We don't. ] epidemic in 1913, two thousand dead; whole place is nothin but pestilential swamp. ], ], cholera, ], you name it they got it. You see that, Mr. Dietrich? You are lookin at the largest private air force in the entire world. What do you think of that, now?

Noah: Well... It's your money.

Howard: START EM UP!!!

Allene Hughes: Q-u-a-r-a-n-t-i-n-e.

Young Howard Hughes: Quarantine. Q-u-a-r-a-n-t-i-n-e. Quarantine.

Noah Dietrich: You just placed the largest order for planes in the history of the damned planet, Howard!

Noah Dietrich: Now I'm glad Jack is feeling so sunny about this, but I've seen the books. Now, I'm not just crying wolf this time; we're in serious trouble! You've gotta make a choice. You want to be bankrupted by the big plane or by the big airline?

Noah Dietrich: Now, it's been a great ride. We've had a hell of a lot of fun. But you're losing $25,000 a day doing this. Every day.

Katharine Hepburn: There's too much Howard Hughes in Howard Hughes. That's the trouble.

Katharine Hepburn: Can't you eat ice cream out of a bowl like everyone else in the world?!

Katharine Hepburn: [[Charles Darwin|Darwin] Ha! Men can't be friends with women. They must possess them or leave them be. It's a primitive urge from caveman days. It's all in ]: Hunt the flesh, kill the flesh, eat the flesh. That's the male sex all over.

Katharine Hepburn: You see, Howard, we're not like everyone else. Too many acute angles. Too many... eccentricities. We have to be very careful not to let people in or they'll make us into freaks.

Katharine Hepburn: Do your worst, Mr. Hughes!

Howard Hughes: The way of the future. The way of the future. The way of the future. The way of the future. The way of the future.

Howard Hughes: [to [[Katharine Hepburn] You come out of the blue and tell me you’re leavin me and have you have the nerve to expect graciousness?!

Howard Hughes: I am supposed to be many things that are not complimentary. I am supposed to be capricious, I have been called a playboy, I have even been called an eccentric. But I do not believe I have the reputation of being a liar. Now, needless to say, the Hercules was a monumental undertaking; it is the largest plane ever built. It is over five stories tall with a wingspan longer than a football field, that is more than a city block! Now I put the sweat of my life into this thing, I got my reputation all rolled up in it, and I have stated several times that if the Hercules fails to fly, I will leave this country and never come back... and I mean it! Now, Senator Brewster, you can subpoena me, you can arrest me, you can even claim that I have folded and taken a run-out powder, but, well, I have had just about enough of this nonsense! Good day!

Howard Hughes: I'm afraid you don't know how the aviation business works, Senator. See, wining and dining Air Force dignitaries is common in our business. It's because we all want the big contracts. All the major aircraft companies do it. I don't know whether it's a good system, I just know it is not illegal. You, Senator, you are the lawmaker. If you pass a law that states no one can entertain Air Force officers, well, hell! I'd be happy to abide by it!

Howard Hughes: I sleep...in this room...in the dark. I have a place I can sleep. I have a chair. That's just beautiful. Oh, yeah. I like the desert. It's hot there in the desert, but it's clean. It's clean. I need to sleep. I should drink something first. I should have some... some milk. Wait a minute... what if that milk is sour? That milk is bad I shouldn't pick up the bottle with my right hand. And I shouldn't take the top off with my left...put it in my pocket. My left pocket.

Howard Hughes: Tell Juan Trippe something for me. Tell him thanks for the flowers. And he can kiss... both sides... of my ass.

Howard Hughes: Orange juice has... nutritional value. There's some... flies... outside the window. Little Howard likes... citrus. Don't he just.

Howard Hughes: Sh- Show me all the blueprints, Odie. Show me all the blueprints... (Lower) Show me all the blueprints. I'm serious now- show me all the blueprints... ... ... Show me all the bl- Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. (clears throat) I wanna get it done right so show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints. Show me all the blueprints show me all the blueprints.

Howard Hughes: Quarantine. Q-u-a-r-a-n-t-i-n-e. Quarantine.

Howard Hughes: [[w:Scarface (1932 film)|Scarface; [W:Jean Harlow|Jean Harlow; [W:Ann Sheridan|Ann Sheridan; [Irene Dunne|Irene Dunne; [Claudette Colbert; [Rita Hayworth; [W:Bettie Grable|Bettie Grable; [W:Jane Russell|Jane Russell] (In front of the Motion Picture Censorship Board) Good to see you, Mr. Breen. Gentlemen, it's good to see you- I haven't seen you all since that issue with all the violence in ]. The problem here seems to revolve around Ms. Russell's mammaries, is that correct? Mr. Breen feels that they are too prominant, yes? More prominant than other mammaries have been up on the screen? Well... we hope to dispel that notion. ]. ]. ]. ], ], ]... and the lovely Ms. ]. Now all of these photos- save for Ms. Russell's- have been enlarged from pictures that received Mr. Breen's seal of approval... and as you can see they all contain mammaries. At this point I'd like to introduce my assisstant, Dr. Ludlow Branson. Dr. Branson is a mathematician of some note...yes. And he will prove that, in fact, Ms. Russell's mammaries are no more prominant than any of these other fine ladies. Doctor? Doctor... you forgot your calipers.

Howard Hughes: I'm Howard Hughes, the aviator.

Howard Hughes: [[W:XF-11|XF-11; [W:Mitsubishi Zero|Zeroes; [W:Buck Rogers|Buck Rogers] The ]! She's a spy-plane really. Designed every inch of her myself. She's got a top speed of 350 which means she can outrun anything they throw against her. Yeah, after the Japs stole my H-1 design for their goddamn ] I figure I'd better do em one better. Yeah, she's my ] ship.

Howard Hughes: She'll go faster.

Howard Hughes: Tell Jimmy I want ten chocolate chip cookies, medium chips, none too close to the outside.

Howard Hughes: Boy, you are just hittin on all six cylinders aren't'cha? My God. Would you do me a favor and just...? Would you just smile for me one time, just once? Yeah, yeah, see you got a short upper lip...makes for a much nicer smile. See I wonder what gives a beautiful woman like you pleasure. I mean say you're just standing there, right and I- I just touch you. Just like this... see my fingertips. I mean, do you like that? Do you? See, I wanna learn what pleases you. I wanna learn everything about you. Would you let me do that? Would you give me that job?