Max von Sydow movie quotes

View Quote You were expecting physical danger? What could it do, kill ya, huh? No, in Hell there's real danger. Of losing your mind.

View Quote Elevator to Hell. Going up.

View Quote This is the guy who doesn't give up.

View Quote [Block is distracted from the chessboard by Jof and Mia's sudden departure]
Death: Have you lost interest?
Block: Lost interest? On the contrary!
Death: You look worried. Are you hiding something?
Block: Nothing escapes you!
Death: Nothing escapes me. No one escapes me.

View Quote Death: When next we meet, the hour will strike for you and your friends.
Block: And you will reveal your secrets?
Death: I have no secrets.
Block: So you know nothing?
Death: I am unknowing.

View Quote [Block goes to confess at a confessional alcove in a church]
Block: I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is empty, and the emptiness a mirror facing me. I see myself and am filled with loathing and horror. My indifference to men has shut me out from their company. I live now in a world of ghosts, a prisoner of my dreams and fantasies.
Priest: Yet you do not want to die.
Block: Yes, I do.
[as Block looks away, we see now that the "priest" is actually Death]
Priest/Death: What are you waiting for?
Block: I want knowledge.
Priest/Death: You want guarantees.
Block: Call it what you will.
[Block kneels as if praying to the figure of Jesus]
Block: Is it so awfully unthinkable to conceive of God with one's senses? Why should He conceal Himself in a fog of half-spoken promises and unseen miracles? How are we to believe the believers when we don't believe ourselves? What will become of us who want to believe but cannot? And what of those who neither will nor can believe? Why can I not kill God within me? Why does He go on living within me in a painful, humiliating way, though I curse Him and want to tear Him out of my heart? Why does He remain a treacherous reality of which I cannot rid myself? Do you hear me?
Priest/Death: I hear you.
[Block turns to kneel before the priest behind the confessional screen]
Block: I want knowledge. Not belief. Not supposition. But knowledge. I want God to reach out to me, unveil His face, speak to me.
Priest/Death: But He is silent.
Block: I cry to Him in the darkness, but sometimes it is as if there is no one there.
Priest/Death: Perhaps there is no one there.
Block: Then life is a senseless horror. No man can live with Death before his eyes and the knowledge that all is nothing.
Priest/Death: Most people reflect neither upon Death nor nothingness.
Block: Yet they must one day stand at the last shore of life and look into the Darkness.
Priest/Death: Yes, that day.
Block: [laughs bitterly] I see what you mean. We must make an idol of our fear, and that idol we shall call God.
Priest/Death: You are uneasy.
Block: Death visited me this morning. We are playing chess. This respite enables me to perform a vital errand.
Priest/Death: What errand?
Block: My whole life has been coming and going and talking without point or consequence. It has been nothing. I say it without bitterness or self-reproach, for I know that almost all men's lives are made up just like that. But I want to use my respite for one meaningful deed.
Priest/Death: Ah. So this is why you play chess with Death.
Block: He is a dangerous and skillful tactician, [smiling] but I have not yet lost one piece.
Priest/Death: How will you outwit Death?
Block: [smiling] I am playing a a combination of bishop and knight that he has not yet detected. On my next move, I'll shatter his flank.
[the "priest" turns to face Block through the screen]
Death: I shall remember that.
[Block stands up, startled]
Block: You are a traitor and you have tricked me! But we shall meet again, and I'll find a way out.
Death: We shall meet at the inn and continue our game.

View Quote [from the trailer] Pathetic earthlings... who can save you now?

View Quote I'd much rather see you on my side, than scattered into... atoms.

View Quote Pathetic earthlings. Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would've hidden from it in terror.

View Quote Kill them all. Let God sort them out.

View Quote When I started out I was just a peddler moving across the blind face of a distant land. Moving, always moving. Always gone... and in the end I'd always offer weapons. And they'd always take them. Of course I was gone before they realized what they'd purchased.

View Quote The young carpenter from Nazareth? I knew him well. Promising young man. He died badly.

View Quote It's the power of Christ! The power of Christ compels you!

View Quote Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. We may ask what is relevant but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don't listen to him. Remember that - do not listen.

View Quote Chris: Would you like some bourbon in that, father?
Merrin: Well, my doctor says I shouldn't but thank God my will is weak.

View Quote Joubert: Would you move from the window, please?
Janice: Pardon me? ...I won't scream.
Joubert: I know.

View Quote Atwood: [delivering money] That includes Condor, of course.
Joubert: Yes. I owe you Condor.
Atwood: Otherwise--
Joubert: Otherwise does not exist.
Atwood: Will Condor take long?
Joubert: Do you want an estimate?
Atwood: There is a time factor.
Joubert: Always with you people. Condor is an amateur. He's lost, unpredictable...perhaps even sentimental. He could fool a professional. Not deliberately, but precisely because he is lost. Doesn't know what to do, unlike Wicks who has always been entirely predictable. The man Condor killed in the alley?
Atwood: Some friend of his.
Joubert: Close friend?
Atwood: I suppose. Why?
Joubert: It interests me. What was his name?
Atwood: I don't know. He was nobody.
Joubert: Right.
Atwood: What about Wicks?
Joubert: You want the firm to question him? They will, you know.
Atwood: We don't want that.
Joubert: Cost you nothing. I was careless with Condor. Wicks will be done for nothing.

View Quote Turner: I'd like to go back to New York.
Joubert: You have not much future there. It will happen this way. You may be walking. Maybe the first sunny day of the spring. And a car will slow beside you, and a door will open, and someone you know, maybe even trust, will get out of the car. And he will smile, a becoming smile. But he will leave open the door of the car and offer to give you a lift.
Turner: You seem to understand it all so well. What would you suggest?
Joubert: Personally, I prefer Europe.
Turner: Europe?
Joubert: Yes. Well, the fact is, what I do is not a bad occupation. Someone is always willing to pay.
Turner: I would find it… tiring.
Joubert: Oh, no — it's quite restful. It's… almost peaceful. No need to believe in either side, or any side. There is no cause. There's only yourself. The belief is in your own precision.
Turner: I was born in the United States, Joubert. I miss it when I'm away too long.
Joubert: A pity.
Turner: I don't think so.
...
[Joubert pauses, then holds out a gun to Turner]
Joubert: For that day.

View Quote Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Men like you are my specialty, you know. Men of violence.
Chuck Aule: Now, that's a hell of an assumption to make.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: No assumption, no, not at all. You misunderstand me. I said, you are 'men of violence'. I'm not accusing you of being violent men. That's quite different.

View Quote Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Did you know that the word 'trauma' comes from the Greek for 'wound'? Hm? And what is the German word for 'dream'? Traum. Ein Traum. Wounds can create monsters, and you, you are wounded, Marshal. And wouldn't you agree, when you see a monster, you... you must stop it?
Teddy Daniels: Yeah... I agree.
[Dr. Naehring injects him with a sedative]

View Quote Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: You both served overseas, huh?
Chuck Aule: It's not much of a stretch, Doc. For all you know, we're both paper pushers over there.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: No, you are not. - Since the schoolyard, neither of you has ever walked away from a physical conflict. No, no, not because you enjoyed it, but because retreat isn't something you consider an option.
Chuck Aule: We weren't raised to run, Doc.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Ah, yes. Raised. And who raised you, Marshal?
Teddy Daniels: Me? Wolves.
[Dr. Naehring and Dr. Cawley laugh again]
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Very impressive defense mechanisms.

View Quote She follows him as a slave, seeking the truth of her soul as if I could not give it to her.

View Quote There comes a time, thief, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

View Quote What daring! What outrageousness! What insolence! What arrogance! I salute you.

View Quote Alex Gardner: [talking about his current lifestyle] Sounds like you disapprove.
Dr. Paul Novotny: You're damn right I disapprove! You've got tremendous gifts, and you've chosen to piss them all away.

View Quote Dr. Paul Novotny: How did you sleep? Have any dreams?
Alex Gardner: You mind if take a leak before I give my deposition?

View Quote Dr. Paul Novotny: Bill Hardy has been a good test subject for us before.
Alex Gardner: Oh, he's a steel worker. I'll probably wind up in some bad beer commercial.

View Quote You missed a very dull TV show on Auschwitz. More gruesome film clips, and more puzzled intellectuals declaring their mystification over the systematic murder of millions. The reason they can never answer the question "How could it possibly happen?" is that it's the wrong question. Given what people are, the question is "Why doesn't it happen more often?" Of course it does, in subtler form.

View Quote Frederick: I'm not interested in what your interior decorator thinks, okay?
Dusty: I can't commit to anything without consulting her. That's what I have her for, okay?
Frederick: This is degrading. You don't buy paintings to blend in with the sofa!
Dusty: It's not a sofa, it's an ottoman!

View Quote It's been ages since I sat in front of the TV, just changing channels to find something. You see the whole culture - Nazis, deodorant salesman, wrestlers, beauty contests, the talk show. Can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling, hmm? But the worst are the fundamentalist preachers, third-rate con men, telling the poor suckers that watch them that they speak for Jesus and to please send in money. Money, money, money! If Jesus came back and saw what's going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.

View Quote Joseph Dredd, you are aware that the law allows only one punishment for your crime. Death. However, it has long been our custom to carry out the last order of a retiring senior judge. And so, I step down. As I leave, to take my long walk into the cursed earth, I ask that this court honor my last order: be lenient with Judge Dredd, in gratitude for his years of service.

View Quote Four decades ago DNA samples were taken from the four members of the council. One was chosen, mine. They altered it to enhanced the best qualities and screened off the worse weaknesses and frailties. We created you.

View Quote Chief Justice Fargo: The blind lady.
Joseph Dredd: Who is she?
Chief Justice Fargo: Justice, before your time. We should have never taken justice out of her hands.
Joseph Dredd: You brought order to chaos, sir.
Chief Justice Fargo: That we did. Solved many problems, and created many more! Being a Judge, Joseph, perhaps too much power in one person's hands. But we once tried to compensate - dreate the perfect Judge. We called it Janus. Four decades ago, DNA samples were taken from the original Council. One was chosen: Mine. We altered it to enhance the best qualities...and screen out the worst: Weaknesses, frailties. We created you.
Joseph Dredd: You didn't create me, sir. I have a family.
Chief Justice Fargo: No.
Joseph Dredd: At the Academy, you told me they were killed when l was very young.
Chief Justice Fargo: A lie.
Joseph Dredd: I have a picture of them.
Chief Justice Fargo: A fake. We lied... to both of you.
Joseph Dredd: (confused) Both?
Chief Justice Fargo: There was another infant created in that experiment, but something went wrong. Genetically mutated to the perfect criminal.
Joseph Dredd: I have a brother?
Chief Justice Fargo: You were best friends at the Academy. Star pupils. And then he turned. And for his crimes, you judged him.
Joseph Dredd: (realizing) Rico...Rico... You let me judge my own brother? You never told me, sir.
Chief Justice Fargo: I couldn't.
(Dredd turns and look to the distance)
Chief Justice Fargo: You were like a son to me.
Joseph Dredd: (contemplating) A son...my whole life is a lie...
Chief Justice Fargo: Rico had to be executed to protect you, to protect the city.
Joseph Dredd: (seething) Rico...Rico... (turns to Fargo) He's alive!
Chief Justice Fargo: No. I signed the order myself. I saw the report.
Joseph Dredd: I didn't kill Hammond. It was him. It was his DNA that convicted me.
Chief Justice Fargo: (realizing) Griffin. Hmph. It was Griffin.
Joseph Dredd: (nodding) Griffin, yes.
Chief Justice Fargo: We've both been deceived, Joseph. I'm so sorry. Rico's killed me and destroyed you! (gasping his last breaths) Fi.. find him, Joseph.
Joseph Dredd: Don't die.
(Fargo passes away. Dredd feels a tinge of grief but pity, then picks up the shotgun and stares at the Statue of Justice as thunder and lightning boomed on the horizon)
Ferguson: What do we do? (Dredd says nothing for a bit) What do we do?
Joseph Dredd: (Dredd turns to Ferguson with a determined but angry look, cocking the shotgun in reply) Find Rico.

View Quote (Thinking about Leto's reaction after the sandworm attack) He's more concerned about the men than the spice. I must admit, against all judgement, I like this duke.

View Quote I am the Supreme Commander of SPECTRE, Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Yesterday morning, the American Air Force launched two cruise missiles from Swadley Air Base in Great Britain. Through the ingenuity of SPECTRE, the dummy warheads they carried were replaced with live, nuclear warheads. Your weapons of destruction are now safely in our possession and will be moved to two secret targets. Please note the serial numbers of the missiles; they will confirm the truth. Your weapons of deterrence did not deter us from our objective! A terrible catastrophe now confronts you. However, it can be avoided by paying a tribute to our organization, amounting to twenty-five percent of your respective countries' annual oil purchases. We have accomplished two of the functions that the name SPECTRE embodies: terrorism and extortion. If our demands are not met within seven days, we shall ruthlessly apply the third: revenge!