Day of the Dead (1985)
Lori Cardille: Dr. Sarah Bowman
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Quotes
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Sarah : I can't believe that Rhodes would have done it.
John : No, he would have had Steel do it.
Sarah : He can't be that inhuman.
John : Captain Rhodes is perfectly human. He knows what he's doing which concerns me. He won't shoot Billy
[points to McDermott]
John : ... because he's got no one else who knows electronics. He won't shoot me... because I'm his ride. He probably won't shoot Frankenstein because the old doc can talk him silly. But the rest of you? The rest of you better start worrying, don't you know.
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John : We don't believe in what you're doing here, Sarah. Hey, you know what they keep down here in this cave? Man, they got the books and the records of the top 100 companies. They got the Defense Department budget down here. And they got the negatives for all your favorite movies. They got microfilm with tax return and newspaper stories. They got immigration records, census reports, and they got the accounts of all the wars and plane crashes and volcano eruptions and earthquakes and fires and floods and all the other disasters that interrupted the flow of things in the good ole U.S. of A. Now what does it matter, Sarah darling? All this filing and record keeping? We ever gonna give a shit? We even gonna get a chance to see it all?
[shouting]
John : This is a great, big, 14 mile *tombstone*!
["tombstone" echoes with distant moaning]
John : With an epitaph on it that nobody gonna bother to read. Now, here you come. Here you come with a whole new set of charts and graphs and records. What you gonna do? Bury them down here with all the other relics of what... once... was? Let me tell you what else. Yeah, I'm gonna tell you what else. You ain't never gonna figure it out, just like they never figured out why the stars are where they're at. It ain't mankind's job to figure that stuff out. So what you're doing is a waste of time, Sarah. And time is all we got left, you know.
Sarah : What I'm doing... is all there's left to do.
John : Shame on you. There's plenty to do. Plenty to do, so long as there's you and me and maybe some other people. We could start over, start fresh, get some babies...
[whispering]
John : and teach 'em, Sarah, teach 'em never to come over here and *dig these records out*.
[distant moaning]
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Sarah : You got an alternative? I'd be happy to hear it.
John : I got an alternative, yeah, yeah, I got an alternative. Let's get in that old whirly-bird, find us an island some place, get juiced up and spend what time we got left soakin' up some sunshine! How's that?
Sarah : You could do that, couldn't you? With all that's going on, you could just do that without a second thought?
Sarah : Shit, I could do that even if all this wasn't going on!
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Captain Rhodes : I'm callin' a meeting for 7:00 tonight! I want everybody present. *Everybody*, lady! Including Dr. Frankestein and including your boyfriend!
Sarah : I gave him a sedative. He won't be awake!
Captain Rhodes : Look here, woman! I'm short on man power! I won't have you goin' around dopin' up any of my men without orders from me! Is that clear?
Sarah : Yes, sir!
[salutes]
Sarah : Fuck you, sir!
-
[first lines]
McDermott : Nothing, nothing at all.
Sarah : Send again.
McDermott : I've been sending up and down the coast from Sarasota to the Everglades and still getting back the same dead air. There's nothing! There's nobody or at least nobody with a radio.
Sarah : All right then let's set down, we'll use the bullhorn.
McDermott : Set down? Wait a minute, that's not in our contract!
Sarah : It's the biggest city within 150 miles and we're going to give it every chance.
McDermott : Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Sarah : Set down, John!
John : I'll set us down. But I won't leave my seat and I'll keep the engine running. Now the first sign of trouble, I'm going up. If you ain't on board when that happens, you're likely to have a lousy afternoon.
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[Steel is taunting the zombies in the corral]
Pvt. Rickles : [laughing] That's it, Steel! Whip it out!
Pvt. Steel : Fuckin' A! Biggest piece of meat in the cave! I don't wanna frighten the lady, though, not with her boyfriend around.
Sarah : You're incapable of exciting me, Steel, except as an anthropologic curiosity.
Pvt. Steel : Oh, what the hell does that mean, Rickles?
Pvt. Rickles : It means you're a caveman, asshole! You're a fuckin' throwback! You've been spendin' too much time underground! It's okay, Steel - throwbacks all got big dicks!
[Steel and Rickles laugh]
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Ted Fisher : We've got to have sterile conditions. Half the work we do goes down the toilet due to contamination.
Captain Rhodes : You'll work with what you've got, Fisher.
Ted Fisher : But it's madness! Can't you understand...
Captain Rhodes : [cutting him off] I understand this. You and your playmates, you're running out of friends fast around here.
Ted Fisher : Look, Major Cooper promised us that we would have...
Captain Rhodes : [cutting him off again] Major Cooper is dead! I'm in command now. And I'm telling you that you'll work with what you've got. And you better start showing me some results, or you won't have that very much longer.
Ted Fisher : How can we show you results when we don't have the proper working conditions?
Sarah : We're in a desperate situation here! We need each other. Can't we just get along?
Captain Rhodes : You need us the way I see it, lady. I'm not so sure we need you at all. I'm not even sure just what the hell it is you're doing in there. Just what the hell it is my men are risking their asses for.
Sarah : Well, maybe if there was more cooperation around here, your men wouldn't have to risk their asses quite as often!
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Captain Rhodes : What kind of progress? What are you talking about, "make them behave?" What does that mean?
Dr. Logan : It means keeping them from wanting to eat us for one thing. It means keeping them in check. It's controlling them. Controlling them.
Captain Rhodes : When are you going to show us something that we can understand?
Dr. Logan : Very close... very close! I think in a matter of weeks...
Sarah : [cutting Dr. Logan off] I don't think there's any way you can tell how long anything is going to take. It could be months, it could be years before we know exactly what we're dealing with here.
Dr. Logan : [to the soldiers whom are arguing] Sarah's research is more esoteric than mine. She's looking for a way to reverse the process, a way to eradicate the problem. That could take a long time. A very long time. She may never find what she is looking for. We have a limited supply of chemical agents. Our equipment is hopelessly inadequate.
Captain Rhodes : McDermott doesn't have decent radio gear. Now, you're telling me that you don't have the shit you need? We're running low on ammunition. We're running low on men for Christ's sake!
Sarah : It was very rushed! This whole operation was put together in a matter of days.
Captain Rhodes : Yeah? Well it can all be taken apart in a matter of minutes, lady! And I'm here to tell you that I'm ready to do that little thing! I'm ready to take the next train out of here!
Dr. Logan : I ask you again, Captain. Where will you go? You have no choice but to give us the weeks that we've asked for.
Sarah : You have to give us however long it takes! Look... there have to be survivors in Washington. They have more sophisticated shelters than this one. There have to be people in those shelters who know about us, who know where we are. With no radio contact, they'll come looking for us...
[Sarah's words are drowned out by the soliders arguing and protesting and jeering]
Captain Rhodes : [to the solders] Shut up! I said, shut up!
[the room is now silent as Rhodes turns back towards Sarah and the scientists and pauses for a few seconds]
Captain Rhodes : You got a little more time. A little more... I ain't saying how much. But you better start showing me some results, and you better not piss me off. You understand? Nothing happens around here without my knowing about it! And anybody who fucks with my command... they get court martialed... they get executed. You better know I mean it too, people.
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Ted Fisher : Unbelievable! We've come out of the frying pan and into the fire! I thought Cooper was an asshole, but he was a sweetheart next to Rhodes. We could be in serious trouble here with him in charge. You'd better watch yourself, Sarah. I really mean physically watch yourself from now on.
Sarah : Don't worry. It wont come to that. By the way, where is Logan?
Ted Fisher : You mean Frankenstein? He's in laboratory. Where else?
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Sarah : You're not all right. You're collapsing from stress. Now, let me help you...
Pvt. Miguel Salazar : Collapsing from stress? We're all collapsing. This whole fucking unit is collapsing. Everybody except you. I know you're strong, all right, so what? Stronger than me, stronger than everyone, so what? So fucking what?
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Ted Fisher : What's he trying to prove? I once saw one of those things sitting behind the wheel of a car in D.C. trying to drive down Independence Avenue. It didn't make me want to be its friend.
Sarah : No, it isn't what this one does, but what he doesn't do! He doesn't get excited or agitated when Logan enters the room! He doesn't see Logan as...
Ted Fisher : Lunch.
Sarah : Dinner.
Ted Fisher : Breakfast.
[they laugh]
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John : Gas up the machine. She's down to fumes.
Sarah : No, wait 'til it's dark. There's too many of them out there.
John : Hey, it's no good to leave the gas tank on the helicopter empty. Supposed we need to get out of here in a hurry?
Sarah : Then we're shit out of luck! They're getting too riled up. Do it tonight after dark when they can't see you.
John : They know we're in here even if they can't see us. What good is it to leave the gas tank empty?
Sarah : The activity excites them! They're too many of them!
Johnson : She's right. They're more and more of them every day.
Sarah : If we get a lot more or if they might break down the fence, you can come out and shoot some of them. Otherwise say inside the building. Stay out of sight!
McDermott : Thankfully you live out here in the suburbs, Johnson. You ougt to see how congested the cities are getting to be.
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Pvt. Steel : Hey, what'd you find?
McDermott : Nothing!
Pvt. Steel : Nothing? How far up the coast did you go?
Sarah : A hundred miles, each way.
Pvt. Steel : [beat] Aw, geez...
Pvt. Rickles : [to Miguel] Jump in here, soldier.
Pvt. Miguel Salazar : Why?
Pvt. Rickles : Orders. We gotta bring in two more dumb-fucks. Let's go.
Sarah : Two more? What's Logan doing to them in there?
Pvt. Miguel Salazar : [to Miguel] Get in here, soldier!
Sarah : We've just returned from a patrol. He's been awake for nearly 24 hours. Can't you get anyone else?
Pvt. Steel : What anyone else? There is no one else. We're it!
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[Steel is threatening to kill Miguel for his accidentally releasing a zombie. Sarah trains her machine gun on Steel]
Sarah : Let him go, goddamn it! Or I'll cut you in half!
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Pvt. Miguel Salazar : [Sarah awakens from her nightmare, with Miguel looking at her] You are afraid, aren't you? Just as afraid as I am.
[sarcasm]
Pvt. Miguel Salazar : Why don't you take a sedative, Sarah, to help you sleep?
[no response from her]
Pvt. Miguel Salazar : You're full of shit, Sarah, you know that? You really are full of shit. I'm through with you...
Sarah : Fine then. Get out. Just... GET OUT!
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Sarah : [sees six graves dug nearby, plus one new one with a fresh mound of dirt] Hey, that's a new grave over there.
Johnson : Major Cooper. He died this morning.
John : [to Sarah] And then there were twelve.
Sarah : Of course, there was a burial this morning. That's why there's so many of them outside the fence.
John : What's going to bring them out here tomorrow, Sarah? And the next day and the next day after that? There's hundreds of them out there. Thousands! A million of them! You stick your head in the sun, they're gonna come and bite off your ass! This is bullshit what we're doing here! It's crazy!
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Dr. Logan : They still have motor function. Even powers of deliberation. These things can be domesticated! Don't you see? They can be conditioned to behave. To do what we want them to do.
Sarah : Oh, and all that's required is 15 hours of fancy surgery that only you and a handful of other people in this world are trained to do. I thought we were going to stop work on the neuro-physical and concentrate on something more practical.
Dr. Logan : Fine, but central to the condition... I will not stop any work that might lead to an answer. Let alone in an area that is central to the condition.
Sarah : But you're just proving theories that were advanced months ago, and your not even proving them correctly! You're making a lot of assumptions here! You're wasting time trying to define what's happening instead of looking for what's making it happen. And just slicing up too many specimens! It is extremely dangerous to go up top to the surface and round them up in the wild where we can't control them!
[notices a dead zombie laying on the floor nearby]
Sarah : What happened to this one?
Dr. Logan : It became too unruly. I couldn't handle it. I had to destroy it. We can still get some information from it.
Sarah : Dr. Logan, we are loosing the cooperation of the men. I'm not even sure they will go up top to round up more when we run out of the specimens we already have. I'm not sure they might try to shut us down completely!
Dr. Logan : Then I'll show them results. I'll show them results. I'll show them that these creatures can be domesticated even without the surgery. Knowing what they are, we can then began to approach them properly. We can try to condition them... control them. We've go to do this, Sarah. It's our only hope.
