Saving Private Ryan quotes

View Quote Corp. Upham: "There's not a reason why, there's but to do and die."
Pvt. Mellish: La-la-la-la-la-la. What the **** is that supposed to mean, Corperal? We're all supposed to die, is that it?
Capt. Miller: Upham's talking about our duties as soldiers. We all have orders and we are to follow those orders and that supercedes everything, including your mothers.
Corp. Upham: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.
Pvt. Reiben: Even if you think the misson's FUBAR, Captain?
Capt. Miller: *Especially* if you think the mission's FUBAR.
Corp. Upham: What's FUBAR?
Pvt. Mellish: Oh, it's German.
Corp. Upham: [Who is fluent in German] Never heard of it.

View Quote Pvt. Jackson: Captain, I have an opinion on this matter.
Capt. Miller: By all means, share it with the squad.
Pvt. Jackson: Well, the way I see it, this entire mission is a serious misallocation of valuable military resources.
Capt. Miller: Yeah, go on.
Pvt. Jackson: Sir, I always believed God gave me a special gift, to make me a fine instrument of warfare.
Capt. Miller: Reiben, pay attention. This is the way to gripe.

View Quote Sgt. Horvath: Stars.
Lt. DeWindt: Yeah, Brigadier General Amend, deputy commander, 101st. Some ****ing genius had the great idea of welding a couple of steel plates onto our deck to keep the general safe from ground fire. Unfortunately, they forgot to tell me about it until we were just getting airborne. Well, that's like trying to fly a freight train. OK? Gross overload. Trim characteristics all shot to hell. I nearly broke both my arms trying to keep her level. And when- and when we released, you know I cut as hard as I could, tried to gain some altitude and still keep her from stalling. We came down like a ****ing meteor. And that is how we ended up. And the others, they stopped easy enough OK, though, you know? We were just-we were just too damn heavy, you know? The grass was wet, downward slope and all. 22 guys dead.
Capt. Miller: All that for a general?
Lt. DeWindt: One man.
Pvt. Reiben: Lot of that going around.

View Quote Pvt. Reiben: I got a bad feeling about this one.
Capt. Miller: When was the last time you felt good about anything?

View Quote Capt. Miller: You see, when... when you end up killing one of your men, you see, you tell yourself it happened so you could save the lives of two or three or ten others. Maybe a hundred others. Do you know how many men I've lost under my command?
Sgt. Horvath: How many?
Capt. Miller: Ninety-four. But that means 've saved the lives of ten times that many, doesn't it? Maybe even 20, right? Twenty times as many? And that's how simple it is. That's how you... that's how you rationalize on making the choice between the mission and the man.

View Quote Pvt. Ryan: It doesn't made sense, sir. I mean, why me? Why not any of us? Hell, these guys deserve to go home as much as I do. They've fought just as hard.
Capt. Miller: Is that what they're supposed to tell your mother when they send her another folded American flag?
Pvt. Ryan: You can tell her that when you found me, I was with the only brothers I had left. And that there was no way I was deserting them. I think she'd understand that.

View Quote Capt. Miller: Well, we could make a sticky bomb.
Corp. Henderson: Are, are you making that up, sir?
Capt. Miller: No, it's in the field manual.
Pvt. Ryan: Well, we seem to be out of field manuals, sir. Perhaps you can "enlighten" us.
Capt. Miller: You take a standard G.I. sock, cram it with as much Comp[osition] B as it can hold, rig up a simple fuse, then coat the whole thing with axle grease. Now when you throw it, it should stick. It's a bomb that sticks, a "sticky bomb." Think of a better way to knock out the tracks off a tank, 'm all ears.
Pvt. Reiben: This is great. Now we've gotta to surrender our socks.

View Quote Pvt. Mellish: [Arguing about taking a machine gun nest] 'm just saying, this seems like an unnecessary risk considering our objective, sir.
Capt. Miller: Our objective is to win the war.

View Quote Capt. Miller: [After the fight to take the radio nest has left Medic Wade dead] Get your gear. Let's go.
[Reiben doesn't move]
Sgt. Horvath: You heard him, gear up. Your captain just gave you an order.
Pvt. Reiben: Yeah, like the one he gave to take this machine gun. That was a real doozie, wasn't it?
Sgt. Horvath: Soldier, you are way out of line!
Pvt. Reiben: Yes, sir, that was one hell of a call, coming to take this nest, but hell, we only lost one of our guys going for it. That's right, I hope Mama Ryan's real ****in' happy knowing that Little Jimmy's life is a little bit more important than two of our guys! But then again, we haven't found him yet, have we? Have we?

View Quote Lt. Dewindt: FUBAR.
Pvt. Reiben: FUBAR.
Sgt. Horvath: FUBAR.
Capt. Miller: FUBAR.
Pvt. Jackson: Y'all got that right.
Corp. Upham: Hey, I looked up “fubar” in the German dictionary. There's no “fubar” in there.

View Quote Pvt. Mellish: Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. Right?
[Corp. Upham smiles]
Corp. Upham: FUBAR!

View Quote Pvt. Reiben: You know what that song reminds me of? It reminds me of Mrs. Rachel Troubowitz and what she said to me the day I left for basic.
Pvt. Mellish: What, "don't touch me"?
Pvt. Reiben: No, Mrs. Rachel Troubowitz was our super's wife. She comes into my mom's shop to try on a few things, all right? And she's easily like a uh, a forty-four double E. These things are massive. And 've got her convinced that she's like a 42D, all right. So we're in the dressing room, she's trying to squeeze into this side-cut, silk-ribbonned, triple panel girdle with the uh, shelf-lift brassiere and it's beautiful because she's just pouring outta this thing, you know? It's beautiful. And she sees me and she can tell I got a hard-on the size of the Statue of Liberty, all right? And she says to me, "Richard, calm down." And she says, "Now when you're over there, if you see anything that upsets you, if you're ever scared, I want you to close your eyes and think of these. You understand?" So I said, "Yes, ma'am!"

View Quote Sgt. Horvath: Maybe I should go up the middle, sir.
Capt. Miller: The way you run? I don't think so.
Sgt. Horvath: [insistently] Maybe I should go left, sir.
Capt. Miller: [angrily] Maybe you should shut up!

View Quote Sgt. Horvath: Good luck Reiben.
Pvt. Reiben: I don't need any luck, Sarge! I was born lucky!

View Quote Medic Wade: Actually, the trick to falling asleep is trying to stay awake.
Pvt. Mellish: How's that, Wade?
Medic Wade: Well, when my mother was an intern, she used to work late through the night... sleep through the day. So the only time we'd ever get to talk about anything is when she'd get home. So what I... I used to do, I used to lie in my bed and try to stay awake as long as I could, but it never worked, 'cause... 'cause the harder 'd try, the faster 'd fall asleep.
Pvt. Reiben: Yeah, well, that wouldn't have mattered none in my house. My ma, she would've come home, shook me awake, chatted me up 'til dawn. I swear, that woman was never too tired to talk.
Pvt. Mellish: That was probably the only time she could get a word in.