The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Jack Hawkins: Major Warden

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Quotes 

• Maj. Warden : You'll go on without me. That's an order. You're in command now, Shears.

  Commander Shears : You make me sick with your heroics! There's a stench of death about you. You carry it in your pack like the plague. Explosives and L-pills - they go well together, don't they? And with you it's just one thing or the other: destroy a bridge or destroy yourself. This is just a game, this war! You and Colonel Nicholson, you're two of a kind, crazy with courage. For what? How to die like a gentleman, how to die by the rules - when the only important thing is how to live like a human being!... I'm not going to leave you here to die, Warden, because I don't care about your bridge and I don't care about your rules. If we go on, we go on together.

• Maj. Warden : I belong to a rather rum group called Force 316. Our headquarters is up in the botanical gardens.

  Commander Shears : Protecting rare plants from the enemy?

• Maj. Warden : [to Col. Green]  Sir, it's most annoying. They say, in view of the time element, they don't think a few practice jumps would be worthwhile.

  Major Shears : No?

  Maj. Warden : No, they say if you make one jump, you've only got 50% chance of injury, two jumps, 80%, and three jumps, you're bound to catch a packet. The consensus of opinion is that the most sensible thing for Major Shears to do is to go ahead and jump, and hope for the best.

  Major Shears : With or without a parachute?

• Maj. Warden : [lowering binoculars]  Kill him... Kill him!

  Major Shears : [screaming]  KILL HIM! KILL HIM!

• Maj. Warden : Is there something wrong?

  Commander Shears : I was just thinking. You speak Yai's language, I don't. He's gonna lead you back to the river Kwai himself, by a route I never took. Will someone tell me why I'm so indispensable to this outfit?

  Maj. Warden : I know how you feel, but there's always the unexpected, isn't there?

  Commander Shears : Tell that to Chapman.