PLATOON -- QUOTES
Sgt. Barnes: You talking about killing? Hmm? Y'all experts? Y'all know
about killing? I'd like to hear about it, potheads.
[takes pipe and inhales drag]
Sgt. Barnes: Are you smoking this shit so's to escape from reality? Me, I
don't need this shit. I am reality. There's the way it ought to be, and there's
the way it is. Elias was full of shit. Elias was a crusader. Now, I got no
fight... with any man who does what he's told. But when he don't, the machine
breaks down. And when the machine breaks down, we break down. And I ain't gonna
allow that... in any of you. Not one.
[hands pipe back and spits]
Sgt. Barnes: Y'all love Elias. Oh, you wanna kick ass. Yeah. Well, here I
am, all by my lonesome. And there ain't nobody gonna know. Six of you boys
against me. Kill me. Huh. I shit on all of you.
Sgt. Barnes: Man, I don't need this shit! I am reality!
Bunny: [to Private Taylor] Fucking pussy man! He's laughing at
you! That's the way the gook laughs.
[to Vietname villager]
Bunny: Yeah, you're real sorry aint 'ya? Jusy crying you're little hearts
out about Sandy and Sal, and Manny!
[Bunny hits the Vietnamese villager over the head with the butt of his
shotgun]
Bunny: Holy shit, you see that fucking head come apart, man? Shit, I've
never seen brains like that before, man. I bet that old bitch runs the whole
fucking show, she probably slit Manny's throat. She would probably cut my balls
off if she had the chance!
Sgt. O'Neill: Bunny, can we just go? Nobody saw a fucking thing!
Bunny: Let's do 'em, man! Let's do this whole fucking village!
Sgt. Elias: I love this place at night. The stars... there's no right or wrong in them. They're just there.
[Chris has just gotten to Vietnam. Some passing veterans shout at him]
Soldier 1: You're gonna love the Nam.
Soldier 2: For fucking ever.
Sgt. Barnes: You all take a good look at this lump of shit. Remember what it looks like. You fuck up in a firefight... and I goddamn guarantee you a trip out of the bush - in a body bag! Out here, assholes, you keep your shit wired tight at all times! And that goes for you, shit-for-brains. You don't sleep on no fuckin' ambush! And the next sum'bitch I catch coppin Z's in the bush, I'm personally gonna take an interest in seein' him suffer. I shit you not. Doc, tag him and bag him!
Sgt. Barnes: Shut up! Shut up and take the pain! Take the pain!
[King is writing a letter to his girlfriend]
Francis: It ain't D-E-R-E, it's D-E-A-R. And "Sarah" ain't got no two
R's, King. Damn you're dumb.
King: It don't make no difference, she know what I mean. She don't read
too good nohow.
[Referring to Vietnam]
Chris Taylor: Somebody once wrote: "Hell is the impossibility of reason."
That's what this place feels like. Hell.
[Elias, Barnes and O'Neill argue about what to do with the "cherries."]
Sgt. Elias: They don't know shit, Barnes, and chances are we're gonna run
into something. Think about it.
Sgt. O'Neill: That's just great Bob. Whadda you want me to do? Send one
of my guys out to get zapped so some lameass just in from the world can get his
beauty sleep? Nah!
Sgt. Elias: Hey O'Neill, take a break! You don't have to be a prick every
day of you life, you know.
Junior: Simple, free your mind and the ass will follow.
Bunny: Hey, I can dig it, man. When you smoke that shit everything kind
of gets weird, you know what I mean? You heard that story about the gooks
putting chemicals in the grass so we don't fight and become pacifists?
Junior: Yeah, but don't you worry Bunny, 'cos you're used to kill anyway,
man.
Bunny: Yeah, but I still like a piece of pussy once in a while. Ain't
nothing like a piece of pussy, except maybe the Indy 500.
Junior: The only way you get some pussy man, is if a bitch dies and wills
it to you. And then, maybe!
Pvt. Gator Lerner: [to Rhah] You're weird, man.
[During the interrogation of a village chief after the platoon finds hidden
weapons]
Pvt. Gator Lerner: He says they had no choice... says the NVA killed
their old honcho when he said no, and I say all the rice is theirs.
Sgt. Barnes: Oh, bull SHIT, Lerner!
Junior: Free your mind, your ass will follow.
[Manny has been killed and the platoon is looking for revenge]
Chris Taylor: The village, which had stood for maybe a thousand years,
didn't know we were coming that day. If they had, they would've run. Barnes was
the eye of our rage. And through him, our captain Ahab, we would set things
right again. That day we loved him.
Sgt. Elias: What happened today was just the beginning. We're gonna lose
this war.
Chris Taylor: Come on! You really think so? Us?
Sgt. Elias: We've been kicking other peoples asses for so long I figured
it's time we got ours kicked.
Chris Taylor: Day by day I struggle to maintain not only my strength but also my sanity. It's all a blur. I have no energy to write. I don't know what's right or wrong anymore. The morale of the men is low, a civil war in the platoon. Half the men with Elias, half with Barnes. There's a lot of suspicion and hate. I can't believe we're fighting each other, when we should be fighting them.
King: Somewhere out there is the beast and he's hungry tonight.
Chris Taylor: Have you ever gotten into a mistake that you just can't get
out of, King?
King: There is a way out of everything, man. Just keep your pecker hard
and your powder dry and the world will turn.
Bunny: You know Junior, some of the things we've done, man... I don't
feel like we've done something wrong. Sometimes, man... I get this bad feeling.
I told the padre the truth man, I like it here. Get to do what you want, nobody
fucks with you. The only worry you got is dying. And if that happens you won't
know about it anyway. So what the fuck man?
Junior: Shit! I gotta be in this hole with you man? I just know I
shouldn't come.
Sgt. Elias: Police up your spare rounds and frags. Don't leave nothin' for the dinks.
Tex: It's gonna piss on us all night. Gonna put a serious case of
crotch-rot on that ugly face of yours, Junior.
Junior: Goddamn, break your ass for the white man. Ain't no justice
around here.
[last lines]
Chris Taylor: [voiceover] I think now, looking back, we did not
fight the enemy; we fought ourselves. The enemy was in us. The war is over for
me now, but it will always be there, the rest of my days. As I'm sure Elias will
be, fighting with Barnes for what Rhah called "possession of my soul." There are
times since, I've felt like a child, born of those two fathers. But be that as
it may, those of us who did make it have an obligation to build again. To teach
to others what we know, and to try with what's left of our lives to find a
goodness and a meaning to this life.
Sgt. O'Neill: Bob, I got a bad feeling on this one, all right? I mean I
got a bad feeling! I don't think I'm gonna make it outta here! D'ya understand
what I'm sayin' to you?
Sgt. Barnes: Everybody gotta die some time, Red.
Sgt. Barnes: Martin, get your boots on. And the next time I catch you
spraying skeeter repellent on your fuckin' feet, I'm gonna court martial your
nigger ass.
Junior: Well then court-martial me, motherfucker! Fuck my ass, send me to
fucking Long Binh! You do your fucking work! You white folks have got your last
klick out of Junior!
Sgt. Barnes: O'Neil, get me that centipede.
Sgt. O'Neill: Sarge?
Sgt. Barnes: Yeah, that long hairy red and black bastard I found in the
ammo crate. I'm gonna put it in this boy's crotch, see if he can walk.
Sgt. O'Neill: Oh, yeah. I remember now.
Doc: This is bad, man. I've got bad vibes here.
Chris Taylor: It's the way the whole thing works, people like Elias get
wasted, people like Barnes just go on making up the rules any way they want. So
what do we do? Sit in the middle and suck on it. We just don't add up to dry
shit, King.
King: Whoever said we did, man? All you got to do is make it out of here.
It's all gravy, everyday the rest of your life, gravy.
Chris Taylor: He killed him, I know that he killed him, I saw his eyes
when we came back in.
Rhah: How do you know the dinks didn't get him? You've got no proof, man.
Chris Taylor: The proof is in the eyes, when you know you know.
Chris Taylor: Anyway you cut it, Barnes is a fucking murderer!
King: Right on.
Rhah: Taylor, I remember when you first came in here, telling me how much
you admired the bastard.
Chris Taylor: I was wrong.
Rhah: Wrong? You ain't never been right, about nothing! And dig this you
assholes, and dig it good. Barnes has been shot seven times and he ain't dead,
does that mean anything to you, huh? Barnes ain't meant to die! The only thing
that can kill Barnes is Barnes.
Chris Taylor: [narrating] Well, here I am, anonymous all right. With guys nobody really cares about. They come from the end of the line, most of 'em. Small towns you never heard of: Pulaski, Tennessee; Brandon, Mississippi; Pork Van, Utah; Wampum, Pennsylvania. Two years' high school's about it, maybe if they're lucky a job waiting for them back at a factory, but most of 'em got nothing. They're poor, they're the unwanted, yet they're fighting for our society and our freedom. It's weird, isn't it? They're the bottom of the barrel and they know it. Maybe that's why they call themselves grunts, cause a grunt can take it, can take anything. They're the best I've ever seen, Grandma. The heart & soul.
Chris Taylor: [narrating] Maybe I finally found it, way down here in the mud. Maybe from down here I can start up again, be something I can be proud of, without having to fake it, be a fake human being.
King: Hey, Taylor, how in the fuck you get here anyway? You look
educated.
Chris Taylor: I volunteered for it.
King: You did what?
Chris Taylor: I volunteered. I dropped out of college, told 'em I wanted
the infantry, combat, Vietnam.
Crawford: You volunteered for this shit, man?
Chris Taylor: Believe that?
King: You's a crazy fucker, giving up college?
Chris Taylor: Didn't make much sense, I wasn't learning anything. I
figured why should just the poor kids go off to war and the rich kids always get
away with it.
King: Oh, I see, what we got here is a crusader.
Crawford: Sounds like it.
King: Shiiit, you gotta be rich in the first place to think like that.
Ever'body know, the poor are always being fucked over by the rich. Always have,
always will.
[Chris Taylor takes his first hit of marijuana]
Sgt. Elias: First time?
Chris Taylor: Yeah.
Sgt. Elias: Then the worm has definitely turned for you, man. Feel good?
Chris Taylor: Yeah, it feels good. I got no pain in my neck now.
Sgt. Elias: Feelin' good's good enough.
Bunny: I told the padre the truth, man: I like it here. You get to do what you want. Nobody fucks with you. The only worry you got is dyin', and if that happens you won't know about it anyway. So what the fuck, man?
Sgt. Elias: Barnes believes in what he's doing.
Chris Taylor: And you?
Sgt. Elias: Back in '65? Yeah. Now, no. What happened today is just the
beginning. We're gonna lose this war.
Sgt. Barnes: Elias was full of shit. Elias was a crusader. Now I got no problem with any man does what he's told, but when he don't, the machine breaks down. And when the machine breaks down, WE break down. And I'm not gonna allow that, from any of you. Not one.
Sgt. O'Neill: Excuses are like assholes, Taylor. Everybody's got one!
Rhah: What did you turn in to the underworld for, Taylor?
King: This here ain't Taylor. Taylor's dead! This here is Chris. He's
been resurrected.
Chris Taylor: Die you motherfuckers! Die!
Sgt. Barnes: Y'all loved Elias. And you want to kick ass. Yeah. Well,
here I am, all by my lonesome. And there ain't anybody gonna know. Six of you
boys against me. Kill me.
[Everyone stays put]
Sgt. Barnes: Yeah. I shit on all of you!
Lt. Wolf: Barnes, what's the hold up? Six says we're jamming him up back
there.
Sgt. Barnes: Tell that dipshit to get fucked!
[turns to Chris]
Sgt. Barnes: What the hell's the matter with you, Taylor? You are one
simple son of a bitch!
Sgt. O'Neill: Guy's in three years and thinks he's Jesus Fucking Christ or something.
Chris Taylor: She's a fucking human being, man.
Sgt. Elias: Barnes! Barnes! What the fuck do you think you're doing?
Sgt. Barnes: Stay outta this, Elias, this ain't your show.
Sgt. Elias: [shouts] You ain't a firing squad, you piece of shit!
[Elias and Barnes fight, the others try to stop them from fighting]
Sgt. Barnes: You're done, Elias! I swear to fuckin' God, you're done.
Bunny: What are they doing over there? They're gettin' high, that's what.
Tony Hoyt: I say we waste the whole fucking village!
Sgt. Barnes: That Son of a Bitch Knows What I'm Saying!
Ace: Damn Right He Does!
[first title card]
Title card: Rejoice O young man in thy youth... - Ecclesiastes
[first lines]
Pvt. Gardner: [seeing body bags] Aw, man, is that what I think it
is?
Sergeant: All right, you cheese-dicks, welcome to the 'nam! Follow me.
Sgt. Barnes: [after the platoon discovers a horribly murdered colleague] Those motherfuckers.
Sgt. Barnes: Saddle up! Lock and load!
Capt. Harris: Snakebite leader, Ripper Bravo Six, we're gonna need you
soonest be advised I've got zips in the wire down here, over!
Phantom Pilot: Roger your last Bravo Six, Snakebite lead we can't run it
any closer. We're hot to trot and packing snape and nape but we're bingo fuel.
It's your call, Six actual, Over.
Capt. Harris: Snakebite leader, Bravo Six, for the record, it's my call.
Dump everything you got left ON MY POS. I say again, I want all you're holding
INSIDE the perimeter. It's a lovely war. Bravo Six Actual and Out.
Phantom Pilot: Roger your last Bravo Six. We copy it's your call. Get em
in their holes down there. Hang tough, Bravo Six we are coming cocked for
treetops. Whiskey to Echo... Snakebite Two, this is lead. Last pass on zero
niner. Watch my smoke to target, expend all remaining. Follow my trace...
