Commander Stone Hopper quotes from Battleship (2012)

View Quote [The morning after Alex has broken into a convenience store to get a chicken burrito and been arrested by the police, Alex wakes up in an ice bath while his brother is yelling at him.] I've had it! Look at yourself! How is it that you screw everything up?! Oh, by the way, that girl you were trying to impress last night? Do you know who her father is? Admiral Shane! He runs the whole damn fleet! So now, you're messing with MY JOB! MY LIFE! Now I've always stayed out of your business, haven't I? 'Cause I was hoping that maybe one day, you would learn from your mistakes- you would grow up, you would mature a bit! You're 26, and what've you got? You've got, $65 to your name? A car that doesn't start, you're living on my couch... [Alex has managed to get out of the ice bath Stone threw him in while he was passed out; he is now sitting on the couch.] As of right now, as of right this second there's a new dynamic at play. And this dynamic is the following: from here on, until I state otherwise, there will be no more debate, no more discussion, no more compromise! It's me speaking, you listening! Me saying, you doing. Do you understand that? [Pauses] It's time for a new course of action. A new direction; a game change. You're joining me in the Navy.

View Quote Hopper: All right, so we can't see them and they can't see us, and we have no way to hit them from a safe distance.
Captain Nagata: There is a way.
Hopper: A way?
Captain Nagata: A way of seeing them without seeing them.
Hopper: You're going to reference Art of War, aren't you? What are we supposed to do, "fight the enemy where they aren't"? "Move like water"? Because I've read that thing about six times, and it makes no sense.
Captain Nagata: That book is Chinese.
Hopper: Still makes no sense.

View Quote [readying two Barrett rifles]
Hopper: Where'd you learn to shoot?
Nagata: I'm not sure how you say it in English. Natsu campu... "Summa campu"?
Hopper: ...Summer camp?
Nagata: Champion, when I was twelve.
Hopper: Are you kidding me?

View Quote [The USS John Paul Jones has been sunk in battle; aboard a lifeboat, LT Alex Hopper looks around at the isolated American and Japanese survivors who are all dejected.]
Hopper: It doesn't end like this.
Captain Nagata: What do you want us to do, Hopper? We have no ships left.
Hopper: We have one. [looks at the USS Missouri as the boats enter Pearl Harbor] We've got a battleship.
Captain Nagata: Are you crazy? That's a museum.
Hopper: Not today.

View Quote [As alien explosive pegs are fired]
Hopper: Drop port anchor.
Old Salt: What?
[the pegs get closer]
Hopper: Drop it NOW!
[the anchor drops]
Nagata: We are gonna die.
Hopper: We are gonna die. You're gonna die. I'm gonna die. We're all gonna die... Just not today.
[Anchor hits the bottom and the ship starts club-hauling to face the alien mothership full broadside, causing the pegs to make a near miss]
Old Salt: Let's drop some lead on those mother---
Hopper: FIRE!
[they start firing on the ship]

View Quote [Hopper's unorthodox tactic works]
Nagata: I can't believe that worked!
Hopper: Yeah, Art of War. "Fight the enemy where they aren't." After all these years, it finally just clicked.
Nagata: But that's not what it means.
Hopper: Really?
Nagata: Not even close.

View Quote [It looks like the end for the Missouri and her crew. They are about to fire their last round at the communications array, cutting the aliens on land away from Planet G and thereby saving the world, at the cost of leaving them defenseless against the Shredder drones. Hopper turns to Captain Nagata, his former enemy]
Hopper: It was an honor serving with you, Captain.
Captain Nagata: The honor was mine.
Hopper: [gets back on his walkie-talkie] Fire.