Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb quotes

View Quote [on the necessity of a computer-controlled automatic trigger on the doomsday device] It is not only possible - it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy the fear to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision-making process which rules out human meddling, the Doomsday Machine is terrifying. It's simple to understand. And completely credible and convincing.

View Quote Gee, I wish we had one of them Doomsday Machines, Stainsey.

View Quote Well, shoot. We ain't come this far just to dump this thing in the drink. What's the nearest target o' opportunity?

View Quote Take a look at the big board! [falls, rolls and gets up quickly] They're gettin' ready to clobber us!

View Quote Greenhouses can keep plant life, animals can be bred and slaughtered.

View Quote For more than a year, ominous rumors have been privately circulating among high-level western leaders that the Soviet Union had been at work on what was darkly hinted to be the Ultimate Weapon, a Doomsday device. Intelligence sources traced the site of the top secret Russian project to the perpetually fog-shrouded wasteland below the arctic peaks of the Zhokhov Islands. What they were building, or why it should be located in such a remote and desolate place, no one could say.

View Quote [to Ripper] Do I look all rancid and clotted? You look at me, Jack. Eh? Look, eh? And I drink a lot of water, you know. I'm what you might call a water man, Jack - that's what I am. And I can swear to you, my boy, swear to you, that there's nothing wrong with my bodily fluids. Not a thing, Jackie.

View Quote A moment please, Mr. President.

View Quote The technology required is easily within the means of even the smallest nuclear power. It requires only the will to do so.

View Quote [The film's final line] Sir! I have a plan. Heh. [He realizes he is standing up] Mein Führer! I can walk!

View Quote In order to guard against surprise nuclear attack, America's Strategic Air Command maintains a large force of B-52 bombers airborne 24 hours a day. Each B-52 can deliver a nuclear bombload of 50 megatons, equal to 16 times the total explosive force of all the bombs and shells used by all the armies in World War Two. Based in America, the Airborne alert force is deployed from the Persian Gulf to the Arctic Ocean, but they have one geographical factor in common - they are all two hours from their targets inside Russia.

View Quote My conclusion was that this idea was not a practical deterrent, for reasons which, at this moment, must be all too obvious.

View Quote Hey Jack, how about we play a little guessing game shall we. How about I guess what the code is and-[Ripper kills himself]

View Quote Jack, I am afraid I am going to have to ask you for the key to the door and the recall code, please.