Captain John H. Miller quotes from Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Captain John H. Miller

Port sidestick, starboard side stick. Move fast and clear those murder holes.

Captain John H. Miller

It's like finding a needle in a stack of needles.

Captain John H. Miller

He better be worth it. He better go home and cure a disease, or invent a longer-lasting light bulb.

Captain John H. Miller

Sometimes I wonder if I've changed so much, my wife is even gonna recognize me whenever it is I get back to her, and how I'll ever be able to, tell about days like today. Ahh, Ryan. I don't know anything about Ryan, I don't care. The man means nothing to me; he's just a name. But if, you know, if going to Ramelle, and finding him so he can go home, if that earns me the right to get back to my wife, well then, then that's my mission.

Captain John H. Miller

Things have taken a turn for the surreal.

Captain John H. Miller

I just know that every man I kill, the farther away from home I feel.

Captain John H. Miller

James . . . earn this. Earn it.

Captain John H. Miller

Our objective is to win the war.

Captain John H. Miller

This Ryan better be worth it. He better go home and cure some disease, or invent a longer-lasting light bulb, or something. Because to tell you the truth, I wouldn't trade ten Ryans for one Vecchio or one Caparzo.

Where's the rally point?!

Anywhere but here!

Captain, if your mother saw you do that, she'd be very upset!

I thought you were my mother!

I don't gripe to you. I don't gripe in front of you. You should know that.

Pvt. Reiben

Sorry, sir, but let's say you weren't a Captain, or maybe I was a Major. What would you say then?

In that case, 'd say this is an excellent mission, sir, with an extremely valuable objective, sir. Worthy of my best efforts, sir. Moreover, I feel heartfelt sorrow for the mother of Private James Ryan and am willing to lay down the lives of me and my men--especially you, Reiben--to ease her suffering.

Caparzo, get that kid back up there!

Pvt. Caparzo

Captain, the decent thing to do would be take her over to the next town.

We're not here to do the decent thing, we're here to follow **** orders!

Pvt. Reiben

You want to explain the math of this to me? I mean, where's the sense in risking the lives of the eight of us to save one guy?

Anyone wanna answer that?

Medic Wade

Hey Reiben, think about the poor bastard's mother.

Pvt. Reiben

Hey, Wade, I got a mother, you got a mother, the sarge has got a mother. Shit, 'll bet that even the Captain's got a mother. [Reiben looks questioningly at Captain Miller] Well, maybe not the Captain, but the rest of us have got mothers.

"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?

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.

Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.

Pvt. Reiben

Even if you think the misson's FUBAR, Captain?

*Especially* if you think the mission's FUBAR.

What's FUBAR?

Pvt. Mellish

Oh, it's German.

Never heard of it.

James... 'm here to tell you your brothers were killed in combat.

Which... Which ones, sir?

All of them.

Captain, I have an opinion on this matter.

By all means, share it with the squad.

Well, the way I see it, this entire mission is a serious misallocation of valuable military resources.

Yeah, go on.

Sir, I always believed God gave me a special gift, to make me a fine instrument of warfare.

Reiben, pay attention. This is the way to gripe.

Stars.

Lt. DeWindt

Yeah, Brigadier General Amend, deputy commander, 101st. Some **** 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 **** 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.

All that for a general?

Lt. DeWindt

One man.

Pvt. Reiben

Lot of that going around.

Pvt. Reiben

I got a bad feeling about this one.

When was the last time you felt good about anything?

Well when I think of home, I... I think of something specific. I think of my, my hammock in the backyard or my wife pruning the rosebushes in a pair of my old work gloves.

This, this one night, two of my brothers came and woke me up in the middle of the night. And they said they had a surprise for me. So they took me to the barn up in the loft and there was my oldest brother, Dan, with Alice, Alice Jardine. I mean, picture a girl who just took a nosedive from the ugly tree and hit every branch coming down. And... and Dan's got his shirt off and he's working on this bra and he's tryin to get it off and all of a sudden, Sean just screams out, “Danny, you're a young man! Don't do it!” And so Alice Jardine hears this and she screams and she jumps up and she tries to get running out of the barn but she's still got this shirt over her head. She goes running right into the wall and knocks herself out. So now Dan's just so mad at us. He, he starts coming after us, but... but at the same time Alice is over there unconscious. He's gotta wa... , wake her up. So he grabs her by a leg and he's drag, dragging her. At the same time he picks up a shovel. And he's going after Sean, and Sean's saying, “What are you trying to hit me for? I just did you a favor!” And so this makes Dan more angry. He tries to swing this thing, he looses the shovel, goes outta his grasp and hits a kerosene lantern. The thing explodes, the whole barn almost goes up because of this thing. That was it. That was the last, that was, Dan went off to basic the next day. That was the last night the four of us were together. That was two years ago. Tell me about your wife and those rosebushes?

No, no that one I save just for me.

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?

How many?

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.

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.

Is that what they're supposed to tell your mother when they send her another folded American flag?

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.

Well, we could make a sticky bomb.

Corp. Henderson

Are, are you making that up, sir?

No, it's in the field manual.

Well, we seem to be out of field manuals, sir. Perhaps you can "enlighten" us.

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.

Pvt. Mellish

'm just saying, this seems like an unnecessary risk considering our objective, sir.

Our objective is to win the war.

Get your gear. Let's go.

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?

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?

Lt. Dewindt

FUBAR.

Pvt. Reiben

FUBAR.

FUBAR.

FUBAR.

Y'all got that right.

Hey, I looked up “fubar” in the German dictionary. There's no “fubar” in there.

Maybe I should go up the middle, sir.

The way you run? I don't think so.

Maybe I should go left, sir.

Maybe you should shut up!

“War educates the senses, calls into action the will, perfects the physical constitution, brings men into such swift and close collision in critical moments that man measures man.”

I guess that's Emerson's way of finding the bright side.

You know Emerson, sir?

Mike are you all right!?
Sgt. Horvath[After having received several shots to the back] I'm fine, I just got the wind knocked out of me.

Private, I'm afraid I have some bad news for ya. Well, there isn't any real easy way to say this, so, uh, so I'll just say it. Your brothers are dead. We have, uh, orders to come get you, 'cause you're going home.

Oh, my God, my brothers are dead. I was gonna take 'em fishing when we got home. H-How did they die?

They were killed in action.

No, that can't be. They're both-That...That can't be. My brothers are still in grammar school.

..You're James Ryan?

Yeah.

James Francis Ryan from Iowa?

James Frederick Ryan, Minnesota.

You guys got any three star hotels around here, with clean sheets and room service?

Capt. Hamill

How about a comfy church?

That'll do.

The seawall! Move up to the seawall!

Sir, I'm staying!

Clear this beach, make way for the others!

This is all we've got between us and the Almighty!

Every inch of this beach has been pre-sighted! You stay here, you're dead men!

Sergeant Horvath! Do you recognize where we are?

Right where we're supposed to be, but no one else is!

Nobody's where they're supposed to be!

Is this all, all that's made it?

We're scattered pretty bad, sir. There's bound to be more of us.

Not enough. This is not enough.

Dog One exit, it's got to be that cut on the right, or is it the one on the left? Shit!

No, no, no, Vierville is to the west of us, this is Dog One.

They're killing us! And we don't have a **** chance, and that ain't fair!

That's quite a view.

Yes it is. Quite a view.

Pvt. Mellish

Hey! You want to get your head blown off, you fancy little ****? Don't ever **** touch me with those dirty little rat claws again. Get the **** back in formation.

I was just wondering where you're from, that's...[Mellish glares at him. Upham walks ahead to Caparzo] Uh, Caparzo, is that it?

Pvt. Caparzo

Hey, drop dead, corporal.

Got you.

Pvt. Caparzo

And another thing, every time you salute the captain you make him a target for the Germans. So do us a favor, don't do it. Especially when I'm standing next to him. Capisce?

Alright, capisce.

Medic Wade

Corporal, what's your book about?

It's supposed to be about the bonds of brotherhood developed between soldiers during war.

Pvt. Caparzo

Brotherhood? What do you know about brotherhood? Get a load of this guy, Fish. Why don't you ask the captain where he's from?

Pvt. Mellish

Yeah, ask the captain. He'll tell ya everything you wanna know about him.

Pvt. Reiben

You want to explain the math of this to me? I mean, where's the sense in risking the lives of the eight of us to save one guy?

Twenty degrees. [Speaks up] Anyone wanna answer that?

Medic Wade

Hey, Reiben, think about the poor bastard's mother.

Pvt. Reiben

Hey, doc, I got a mother, you got a mother, the sarge has got a mother. Shit, I'll bet that even the Captain's got a mother. [Looks at Miller] Well, maybe not the Captain, but the rest of us have got mothers.

"Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die."

Pvt. Mellish

La-la-la-la-la-la-la. What the **** is that supposed to mean, Corporal? We're all supposed to die, is that it?

Upham's talking about our duties as soldiers. We have orders and we are to follow those orders, and that supersedes everything, including our mothers.

Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.

Pvt. Reiben

Even if you think the mission's FUBAR, Captain?

Especially if you think the mission's FUBAR.

What's FUBAR?

Pvt. Mellish

Oh, it's German.

Never heard of it.

Sir, I have an opinion on this matter.

Well, by all means, share it with the squad.

Well, from my way of thinking, sir, this entire mission is a serious misallocation of valuable military resources.

Yeah, go on.

Well, it seems to me, sir, that God gave me a special gift. Made me a fine instrument of warfare.

Reiben, now pay attention. THIS is the way to gripe. Continue Jackson.

Well, what I mean by that, sir, is if you's to put me and this here sniper rifle, anywhere up to and including one mile of Adolf Hitler with a clear line of sight, sir, pack your bags fellas, war's over. Amen.

Pvt. Reiben

Oh, that's brilliant, bumpkin. [At Miller] Say Captain, you don't gripe at all?

I don't gripe to you, Reiben. I'm a Captain. We have a chain of command. Gripes go up, not down. Always up. You gripe to me, I gripe to my superior officer, and so on and so on and so on. I don't gripe to you. I don't gripe in front of you. You should know that, as a Ranger.

Pvt. Reiben

Well, I'm sorry, sir, but let's say you weren't a Captain, or maybe I was a Major. What would you say then?

Ah, well, in that case, I'd say this is an excellent mission, sir, with an extremely valuable objective, sir, worthy of my best efforts, sir. Moreover, I feel heartfelt sorrow for the mother of Private James Ryan and am willing to lay down my life, and the lives of my men — especially you, Reiben — to ease her suffering.

Pvt. Mellish

He's good.

Pvt Caparzo

I love him.

Capt. Hamill

How was the road in?

Scenic. We lost most of our ammo.

Pvt. Mellish

Not to mention one of our men.

Capt. Hamill

Lieutenant, redeploy that bazooka to the other side of the road!

Yes, sir!

Capt. Hamill

And get Ryan up here.

Ryan! Ryan! Front and center! Ryan!

Pvt. Reiben

Here comes our boy. [Ryan runs past Reiben. At Horvath.] Told ya he was an asshole.

Sir, Private Ryan, reporting as ordered, sir!

Capt. Hamill

At ease. Captain Miller 2nd Rangers wants a word with you.

This way. [Miller stops and sits on a rock] Take a knee. [He does so, taking his helmet off as well. Pause] Private, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. [Pause] Well, there isn't any real easy way to say this, so, uh...I'll just say it. Your brothers are dead. [Ryan has a saddened look on his face.] We have, uh, orders to come get you 'cause you're going home. [There is a long pause]

Oh, my God, my brothers are dead. I was gonna take 'em fishing when I got home...

I'm so sorry, James.

H-How'd they die?

They were killed in action.

T-That can't be. That can't be, my brothers are still in grammar school.

You're James Ryan?

Yeah.

James Francis Ryan from Iowa?

James Frederick Ryan, Minnesota? [Hamill has a confused look on his face] W...Does that mean my brothers are okay?

Yeah, I'm sure they're fine.

Are you sure that they're okay though? How-

We're looking for a different Private Ryan. This is just a big foul-up.

Capt. Hamill

What've you heard? How's it all falling together?

Well, we've got the beachhead secure, problem is Monty's taking his time moving on Caen, we can't move out 'til he's ready.

Capt. Hamill

That guy's over-rated.

No argument here.

Capt. Hamill

We gotta take Caen to take St. Lo.

You gotta take St. Lo to take Valognes.

Capt. Hamill

Valognes, you got Cherbourg.

Cherbourg, you got Paris.

Capt. Hamill

Paris, you get Berlin.

And then that big boat home.

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?

How many?

Ninety-four. But that means I've saved the lives of ten times that many, doesn't it? Maybe even twenty, 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.

Except this time, the mission is a man.

This Ryan better be worth it. He better go home and cure some disease or invent a longer-lasting light bulb, or something. Because to tell you the truth, I wouldn't trade ten Ryans for one Vecchio or one Caparzo.

Amen.

Tell, me Reiben, if you had to do it again, how'd you think you'd react the next time?

Pvt. Reiben

Me? I'd shoot myself before I ever got off the damn boat.