The Rock (1996) - Quotes

Taglines: Honey, you wanna know who really killed J.F.K.?

Taglines: Cocked, locked, and Ready to Rock!

Taglines: America is Rocking!

Taglines: Alcatraz. Only one man has ever broken out. Now five million lives depend on two men breaking in.

Taglines: Get ready to rock!

Stanley Goodspeed: Womack tore up your pardon, John.

John Mason: But of course. I knew he would.

Goodspeed: The S.D.U.s and the scuba gear should still be where we came ashore. If you can get to the Pan Pacific Hotel, there's clothes in my closet, $200 in the Bible, Room 26.

Mason: Well, it's been a long time since I've said thank you to anybody... but thank you. Well, Stanley, I guess this is where we go our separate ways. I'm sure you understand the etymology of your name, "Goodspeed".

Goodspeed: Yeah, God speed: To wish someone a prosperous journey. Why?

Mason: Well, if you fancy a journey, I recommend Fort Walton, Kansas.

Goodspeed: I was thinking of Maui.

Mason: [puts something into Goodspeed's hand] No... Forget Maui.

Goodspeed: [reads piece of paper; looks back at Mason, but he's disappeared] St Michael's Church, Fort Walton, Kansas. Front pew, right leg, hollow. Is this what I think it is- MASON!?

Goodspeed: [Holding VX nerve gas] Do you know how this shit works?

Capt. Darrow: [Holding his knife; flashes his knife] Do you know how this shit works?! Come on, come on, I don't need the gun. I'll put it down, come on. Let's play! Come on, come on!

Goodspeed: [[Elton John; [w:Rocket Man|Rocket Man] Listen, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Stan Goodspeed, FBI. Uh, let's talk music. Do you like the ] song "]"?

Darrow: I don't like soft-ass shit!

Goodspeed: [he fires the rocket out the window, taking Darrow with it] Oh, oh, you don't, OK. Well, I only bring it up because, uh... it's you. You're the rocket man! How do you like how that shit works?!

Gen. Hummel: [thinking Mason is a SEAL] I thought I'd been in the service a long time... name and rank, sailor.

Mason: It's Army, actually.

Maj. Baxter: [Mason looks at him] Answer the question. And address him as "General, sir.

Mason: Captain John Patrick Mason, General, sir, of her Majesty's SAS. Retired, of course.

Gen. Hummel: You're a long way from home, Captain. How the hell are you involved in this?

Mason: Oh, I have a unique knowledge of this prison facility. I was, uh...formerly a guest here.

Gen. Hummel: Have they bothered to tell you who I am, why I'm doing this, or are they just using you like they do everybody else?

Mason: All I know is, you were big in Vietnam; I saw the highlights on television.

Gen. Hummel: Then you wouldn't have any fucking idea of what it means to lead some of the finest men on God's earth into battle and then see their memory betrayed by their own fucking government!

Mason: I don't quite see how you cherish the memory of the dead by killing another million, and, uh, this is not combat. It's an act of lunacy, General, sir. Personally, I think you're a fucking idiot.

Gen. Hummel: [slightly smiling; [Thomas Jefferson] The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ].

Mason: [[Oscar Wilde; Hummel strikes him in the back of the neck] Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious," according to ]. Thank you for making my point.

Gen. Hummel: [aims pistol at Mason's head] Where are the guidance chips? Where are the guidance chips?!

Mason: I destroyed them.

Gen. Hummel: That's a bad move, soldier.

Mason: [referring to the tourist] Does that mean you'll execute us both?

Goodspeed: You've been around a lot of corpses. Is that normal?

Mason: [looks at the twitching corpse] What, the feet thing?

Goodspeed: Yeah, the feet thing.

Mason: Yeah, that happens.

Goodspeed: Well, I'm having kind of a hard time concentrating. Can you do something about it?

Mason: Like what? Kill him again?

Goodspeed: Listen, I'm just a biochemist. And most of the time I work in a glass jar and lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo--a beige one. But what I'm dealing with here, is one of the most deadly substances the Earth has ever known. So what do you say you cut me some friggin slack?

Goodspeed: A really elegant string-of-pearls configuration. Unfortunately, incredibly unstable.

Mason: And what exactly does this stuff do?

Goodspeed: If the rocket renders it aerosol, it could take out an entire city of people.

Mason: Really? And what happens if you drop one?

Goodspeed: Happily, it'd just wipe out you and me.

Mason: How?

Goodspeed: [Mason has lifted the chem round to look at it] It's a cholinesterase inhibitor. Stops the brain from sending nerve messages down the spinal cord within 30 seconds. Any epidermal exposure or inhalation and you'll know. A twinge at the small of your back as the poison seizes your nervous system- DO NOT MOVE THAT! Your muscles freeze, you can't breathe, you spasm so hard you break your own back and spit your guts out. But that's after your skin melts off.

Mason: [wide-eyed as he looks at chem rounds] My God.

Goodspeed: [smiles grimly] Oh, I think we'd like God on our side at the moment, don't you?

Mason: [Gives Goodspeed a handgun; walks up staircase] Are you sure you're ready for this?

Goodspeed: I'll do my best.

Mason: [stops and motions back to Goodspeed] Your best? Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen!

Goodspeed: Carla was the prom queen.

Mason: [faintly impressed] Really?

Goodspeed: [Cocks his gun] Yeah!

Commander Anderson: Stand Fast!

Mercenary: Drop your weapons!

General Hummel: Hold your fire!

Agent Paxton: It's a fucking trap.

General Hummel: This is General Hummel, drop your weapons... Drop em!

Commander Anderson: Anderson here, General Hummel. Commander. Team Leader.

General Hummel: Commander Anderson, if you have any concern for the lives of your men, you will order them to safety their weapons and place them on the deck.

Agent Paxton: This is not happening...

Commander Anderson: Sir, we know why you're out here. God knows, I agree with you. But like you, I swore to defend this country against all enemies— foreign, sir... and domestic. General, we've spilled the same blood in the same mud. And you know god damn well I can't give that order.

Navy SEAL: We're dead!

General Hummel: Your unit is covered from an elevated position, Commander. I'm not gonna ask you again. Don't do anything stupid. No-one has to die here.

Commander Anderson: [raising his voice] You men following the General: You're under oath as the United States Marines, have you forgotten that? We all have shipmates we remember, some of them were shit on and pissed on by the Pentagon. But that doesn't give you the right to mutiny!

General Hummel: You call it what you want! You're down there, we're up here! You walked into the wrong goddamn room, Commander!

Commander Anderson: Stand fast!

General Hummel: Goddamn it, Commander, one last time. You tell your men to safety their weapons, drop em on the deck.

Commander Anderson: I cannot give that order!

General Hummel: I am not gonna repeat that order!

Commander Anderson: I will not give that order!

General Hummel: What the hell is wrong with you, man?

Commander Anderson: Stand fast!

Navy SEAL: Oh, my God!

Mercenary: Let's waste these fuckers.

General Hummel: One last time. You order your men to safety their weapons...

General Hummel: Cease fire! Cease fire! Cease fire!

Goodspeed: You enjoying this?

Mason: Well, it's certainly more enjoyable than my average day: Reading philosophy, avoiding gang rape in the washroom. Though it's less of a problem these days. Maybe I'm losing my sex appeal.

Commander Anderson: Have you ever been in a combat situation?

Goodspeed: Define combat, sir.

Anderson: Shep?

LT Shepherd: An incursion underwater to re-take an impregnable fortress held by an elite team of US Marines in possession of 81 hostages and 15 guided rockets armed with VX poison gas.

Goodspeed: [runs to the bathroom and throws up] Oh. In that case, no, sir. Excuse me a moment.

John Mason: So what do you have in store for me, Womack, when this is over?

FBI Director James Womack: You'll get your life back, Mason.

Mason: [walks away, but turns back to Womack] But you could have given my life back years ago. Why should I trust you now?

Womack: You've got my word.

Mason: [Womack nods. Both men shake hands but Mason attaches a rope on Womack's hand and throws him off the balcony.] Will you shake on it?

Carla: You didn't really mean what you said about bringing a child into this world... being an act of cruelty, did you?

Goodspeed: I meant it at the time.

Carla: Stanley, "at the time"? You said it seven-and-a-half seconds ago!

Goodspeed: Well... gosh. Kind of a lot's happened since then.

General Al Kramer: Frank, it's Al Kramer.

BG Francis Hummel: [chomps a cigar] Hi, Al, how you doin'?

Kramer: I don't know, Frank. Ah, why don't you tell me. Got a lot of very, very worried people here, Frank.

Hummel: [[w:United_States_Marine_Corps_Force_Reconnaissance|Force Reconnaissance Marines] I'll come straight to the point. Eighty-three ] have died under my various commands. Forty-seven in northern Laos and southern China.

White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair: Southern China? We never admitted we sent troops into China.

Hummel: Who is this? Identify yourself.

Sinclair: White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair, General.

Hummel: [stands up] How old are you, Chief of Staff Sinclair?

Sinclair: I'm 33-

Hummel: Well, Mr. Sinclair, you've probably got no fucking idea what I'm talking about. By your ninth birthday, I was running black ops into China. My men were responsible for over 200 enemy kills. Now put some rigging tape over Mr. Sinclair's mouth, he's wasting my time!

Kramer: Ah you want to continue, Frank?

Hummel: Remember Operation Desert Storm? Those surgical hits made by our smart bombs, covered so well on CNN? It was my men on the ground that made those hits possible by lasing the targets. Twenty of them were left to rot outside Baghdad after the conflict ended. No benefits were paid to their families. No medals conferred. These men died for their country and they weren't even given a goddamn military burial. This situation is unacceptable. You will transfer 100 million dollars from the Grand Cayman Red Sea Trading Company account to an account I designate. From these funds, reparations of $1 million will be paid to each of the 83 Marines families. The rest of the funds, I will disperse at my discretion. Do I make myself clear?

FBI Director James Womack: Except for the Red Sea Trading Company. What is that?

Hummel: Identify yourself.

Womack: This is FBI Director Womack, General.

Hummel: It's a slush fund where the Pentagon keeps proceeds from illegal arms sales-

Kramer: Jesus, Frank! This is classified information!

Hummel: [disconnects video call] You alert the media, I launch the gas. You refuse payment, I launch the gas. You've got 40 hours, till noon day after tomorrow to arrange transfer of the money. I am aware of your countermeasure. You know, and I know, it doesn't stand a chance. Hummel from Alcatraz. Out.

Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair: [[w:Vietnam War|Vietnam; [w:Operation Just Cause|Panama; [w:Operation Urgent Fury|Grenada; [w:Operation Desert Storm|Desert Storm; [w:Purple Heart|Purple Hearts; [w:Silver Star|Silver Star; [Medal of Honor|Congressional Medal of] Three tours in ], ], ], ], three ], two ]s and the ]– Jesus. This man is a hero.

General Al Kramer: Well, I think "legend" might be a better description, Mr. Sinclair.

Sinclair: Yeah, well, now we can add kidnapping and extortion to his list of accolades.

Gen. Kramer: [mildly indignant] Mr. Sinclair, General Hummel is a man of honor.

Brig. General Francis X. Hummel: [addressing Marines; [George Washington|Washington; [w:Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson; [w:John Adams|Adams] We'll be branded as traitors. The gravest capital crime, punishable by death. Couple of hundred years ago, a few guys named ], ], and ] were branded traitors by the British - and now they're called patriots. In time so shall we.

Brig. General Francis X. Hummel: [Visiting his wife's grave; places flowers; Places his Medal of Honor on the tombstone and kisses it] I miss you so much... There's something I've gotta do, Barb. Something I couldn't do while you were here. I tried. You know I tried everything, and I still don't have their attention. Let's hope this elevates their thinking. But whatever happens... Please don't think any less of me.