Apocalypse Now 1979 quotes

Clean

This sho' nuff a bizarre sight in the middle-a all this shit!

General Corman

Well, you see Willard... In this war, things get confused out there, power, ideals, the old morality, and practical military necessity. Out there with these natives it must be a temptation to be god. Because there's a conflict in every human heart between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil. The good does not always triumph. Sometimes the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point. You and I have. Walter Kurtz has reached his. And very obviously, he has gone insane.

Hubert

You are fighting for the biggest nothing in history.

Lance

Disneyland. ****, man, this is better than Disneyland.

You're in the asshole of the world, Captain!

Being playmate of the year... is the loneliest experience i can imagine. It's like... you try to express your feelings to someone and show them your heart and there's this glass wall between you, this invisible glass. They can see your mouth moving. But they can't hear what you're saying. You can never really make them hear what you're trying to say. That's why i tried so desperately... to show somebody that i had some talent. They make you do things you don't wanna do... like, this picture here. I started feeling repulsed with myself. Maybe i'm unfit to have a relationship with a beautiful, innocent boy. I wish... I wish i could find.. just one person... that could share my point of view.

Roxanne

The war will still be here tomorrow.

Roxanne

There are two of you. One that kills and one that loves.

Roxanne (after asking if Willard will go back to America after the war and he replies no): Then you are like us; your home is here.

And now here's another blast from the past coming out to Big Cind, all alone in the men's room out there with the First Battalion Thirty-fifth Infantry, and dedicated by the fire team at An Khe to their groupie CO Fred the Head: The Rolling Stones' Satisfaction.

I'm Lt. Carlsen. I was sent from Nha Trang with this message for you three days ago, sir. They expected you here a little sooner. This is mail for the boat's crew. You don't know how happy this makes me in delivering all this.

Willard

Why?

Because now I can get out of here...if I can find a way. [an enemy artillery shell lands dangerously close by as Lt. Carlsen runs away] You're in the asshole of the world, Captain!

Chef

How come all you guys sit on your helmets?

So we don't get our balls blown off.
[Chef laughs a little, seems to think for a second and then sits on his helmet]

Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River in a Navy patrol boat. Pick up Colonel Kurtz's path at Nu Mung Ba, follow it and learn what you can along the way. When you find the Colonel, infiltrate his team by whatever means available and terminate the Colonel's command.

Willard

Terminate?..... the Colonel?

General Corman

He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct. And he is still in the field commanding troops.

Terminate..... with extreme prejudice.

You understand, Captain, that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist.

Hubert de Marais

See, Captain, when my grandfather and my uncle's father came here there was nothing. The Vietnamese were nothing. So we worked hard, very hard, and brought rubber from Brazil and then planted here. We took the Vietnamese, work with them, make something: something out of nothing. So when you ask me why we want to stay here, Captain, we want to stay here because it's ours. It belongs to us. It keeps our family together. I mean, we fight for that, while you Americans — you are fighting for the biggest nothing in all of history!

Kilgore

How're you feeling, Jimmy?

Like a mean mother****er, sir!