Apocalypse Now Quotes
Willard : Are you crazy, Goddammit? Don't you think its a little risky for some R&R?
Kilgore : If I say its safe to surf this beach, Captain, then its safe to surf this beach! I mean, I'm not afraid to surf this place, I'll surf this whole fucking place!
Kilgore : If I say its safe to surf this beach, Captain, then its safe to surf this beach! I mean, I'm not afraid to surf this place, I'll surf this whole fucking place!
Movie: Apocalypse Now
AFRS Announcer : [ radio announcer ] 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.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Willard : Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice mission, and when it was over, I never wanted another.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Willard : [ voice-over ] "Never get out of the boat." Absolutely goddamn right! Unless you were goin' all the way... Kurtz got off the boat. He split from the whole fuckin' program.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Willard : [ voice-over ] They were gonna make me a Major for this, and I wasn't even in their fuckin' army anymore.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Willard : [ voice-over ] Charlie didn't get much USO. He was dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat. He had only two ways home: death, or victory.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Photo Journalist : One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Kurtz : We train young men to drop fire on people, but their commanders won't allow them to write "fuck" on their airplanes because it's obscene!
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Photo Journalist : There's mines over there, there's mines over there, and watch out those goddamn monkeys bite, I'll tell ya.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Colonel Lucas : 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.
Civilian : Terminate with extreme prejudice.
Colonel Lucas : You understand, Captain, that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist...
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.
Civilian : Terminate with extreme prejudice.
Colonel Lucas : You understand, Captain, that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist...
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Kilgore : Smell that? You smell that?
Lance : What?
Kilgore : Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. [ kneels ]
Kilgore : I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like [ sniffing, pondering ]
Kilgore : victory. Someday this war's gonna end... [ suddenly walks off ]
Lance : What?
Kilgore : Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. [ kneels ]
Kilgore : I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like [ sniffing, pondering ]
Kilgore : victory. Someday this war's gonna end... [ suddenly walks off ]
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Kurtz : Did they say why, Willard, why they want to terminate my command?
Willard : I was sent on a classified mission, sir.
Kurtz : It's no longer classified, is it? Did they tell you?
Willard : They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.
Kurtz : Are my methods unsound?
Willard : I don't see any method at all, sir.
Kurtz : I expected someone like you. What did you expect? Are you an assassin?
Willard : I'm a soldier.
Kurtz : You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill.
Willard : I was sent on a classified mission, sir.
Kurtz : It's no longer classified, is it? Did they tell you?
Willard : They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.
Kurtz : Are my methods unsound?
Willard : I don't see any method at all, sir.
Kurtz : I expected someone like you. What did you expect? Are you an assassin?
Willard : I'm a soldier.
Kurtz : You're neither. You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Willard : On the river, I thought that the minute I looked at him, I'd know what to do, but it didn't happen. I was in there with him for days, not under guard; I was free, but he knew I wasn't going anywhere. He knew more about what I was going to do than I did. If the generals back in Nha Trang could see what I saw, would they still want me to kill him? More than ever, probably. And what would his people back home want if they ever learned just how far from them he'd really gone? He broke from them, and then he broke from himself. I'd never seen a man so broken up and ripped apart.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Kurtz : I worry that my son might not understand what I've tried to be. And if I were to be killed, Willard, I would want someone to go to my home and tell my son everything. Everything I did, everything you saw, because there's nothing that I detest more than the stench of lies. And if you understand me, Willard, you will do this for me.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Willard : Everybody wanted me to do it, him most of all. I felt like he was up there, waiting for me to take the pain away. He just wanted to go out like a soldier, standing up, not like some poor, wasted, rag-assed renegade. Even the jungle wanted him dead, and that's who he really took his orders from anyway.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Kilgore : What the hell do you know about surfing, Major? You're from goddamned New Jersey!
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Photo Journalist : This is the way the fucking world ends! Look at this fucking shit we're in, man! Not with a bang, but with a whimper. And with a whimper, I'm fucking splitting, Jack.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Willard : My mission is to make it up into Cambodia. There's a Green Beret Colonel up there who's gone insane. I'm supposed to kill him.
Chef : What? Oh, that's typical! Shit! Fuckin' Vietnam mission! I'm short, and we gotta go up there so you can kill one of our own guys? That's fuckin' great! That's just fuckin' great! Shit! That's fuckin' crazy! I thought you were going in there to blow up a bridge, or some fucking railroad tracks or something!
Willard : I'm sorry. Look, I'll cut you loose here and you can turn around and...
Chef : [ interupting ] No, no, we go together... on the boat! We came this far, so we go together. All the way! We'll take you up there, we'll go with you... but on the boat! Okay?
Chef : What? Oh, that's typical! Shit! Fuckin' Vietnam mission! I'm short, and we gotta go up there so you can kill one of our own guys? That's fuckin' great! That's just fuckin' great! Shit! That's fuckin' crazy! I thought you were going in there to blow up a bridge, or some fucking railroad tracks or something!
Willard : I'm sorry. Look, I'll cut you loose here and you can turn around and...
Chef : [ interupting ] No, no, we go together... on the boat! We came this far, so we go together. All the way! We'll take you up there, we'll go with you... but on the boat! Okay?
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Kilgore : How're you feeling, Jimmy?
Door Gunner : Like a mean motherfucker, sir!
Door Gunner : Like a mean motherfucker, sir!
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Roxanne : There are two of you, don't you see? One that kills... and one that loves.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
[ the boat has arrived at the Do Lung bridge, which is a combat zone ]
Chef : Lance! Hey, Lance! What do you think?
Lance : It's beautiful!
Chef : What's the matter with you? You're acting kinda weird!
Lance : Hey, you know that last tab of acid I was saving? I dropped it.
Chef : You dropped acid?... Far out!
Chef : Lance! Hey, Lance! What do you think?
Lance : It's beautiful!
Chef : What's the matter with you? You're acting kinda weird!
Lance : Hey, you know that last tab of acid I was saving? I dropped it.
Chef : You dropped acid?... Far out!
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Willard : The crew were mostly kids; rock & rollers with one foot in their grave.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Willard : The First of the Ninth was a old calvary division that traded in their horses for helicopters and went tear-assing around 'Nam looking for the shit...
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Willard : Part of me was afraid of what I would find and what I would do when I got there. I knew the risks, or imagined I knew. But the thing I felt the most, much stronger than fear, was the desire to confront him.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Roxanne : Do you know why you can never step into the same river twice?
Willard : Yeah, 'cause it's always moving.
Willard : Yeah, 'cause it's always moving.
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Colonel Kilgore : [ Explaining why the helicopters play music during air assaults ] We use Wagner. It scares the shit out of the slopes. My boys love it!
Movie: Apocalypse Now
Willard : Hey soldier, do you know who's in command here?
Soldier : Ain't you?
Soldier : Ain't you?
Movie: Apocalypse Now