The Final Countdown (1980)

Martin Sheen: Warren Lasky

Photos 

Quotes 

• Captain Yelland : If the United States falls under attack our job is to defend her in the past, present and future.

  Lasky : And after that?

  Captain Yelland : After that, we take our orders from the Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces.

  Lasky : Franklin Delano Roosevelt?

• Lasky : [a captured Japanese prisoner is holding a captive and is demanding access to a radio]  Why don't you tell him what's going on here, Commander? You're an expert on what's gonna happen tomorrow; tell him about it, for God's sakes. Go on, tell him! We got nothing to lose!

  Captain Yelland : [Owens looks at Yelland, who nods]  Go ahead, tell him.

  Commander Richard Owens : [hesitates, then looks directly at the Japanese prisoner]  26 November, six carriers left the Kuril Isles north of Japan. The carriers were the Akagi, Kaga, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Hiryu, Soryu. Tomorrow at dawn, these carriers will send 353 planes to attack Pearl Harbor.

  Senator Chapman : [staring, stunned]  How in the hell do you know all that?

  Commander Richard Owens : Your code is "Climb Mount Niitaka." Niitakayama nobore!

  [the Japanese prisoner, looking horrified, slowly lowers the gun and is shot to death by security crew] 

• Lasky : Still think it's a dream?

  Captain Yelland : It's a nightmare.

• Captain Yelland : Lasky, you've been a pain-in-the-ass... but I'm glad to have known you.

  Lasky : Thank you, Captain. I appreciate that.

  Captain Yelland : Good luck to you

  Charlie The Dog : WOOF!

  Captain Yelland : And you, too!

• Lasky : Think of the history of the next forty years...

  Commander Richard Owens : I have a suspicion history will be a little more difficult to beat, than you imagine Mr. Lasky.

  Lasky : I'm talking about the classic paradox of time. Imagine, for example, I go back in time and meet my own Grandfather. Long before he got married, before he had children. And we have an argument, and I kill him. Now if that happens, how am I ever going to be born? And if I can never be born, how can I go back in history and meet my very own Grandfather?

  Commander Richard Owens : [angrily]  I'm not half the theorist you are, Mr. Lasky. But I still have a gut instinct that things only happen once. And if they have happened, then there's nothing we can do to change them. Nor should we try.

  Lasky : Well, how are you going to avoid it? It's already happening, and we're already involved!

  Commander Dan Thurman : For Christ's sake! What is this, some half-assed Princeton debating society? We are in a war situation! This is a United States warship! Or, at least, it used to be. Or will be. Or what the hell ever! Oh, Goddammit, you can drive yourself crazy just trying to think about this stuff!

  [shouts] 

  Commander Dan Thurman : Jesus, I must be dreaming!

• [last lines] 

  Commander Richard Owens : Welcome back, Mr. Lasky.

  Lasky : Laurel, Commander Owens.

  Commander Richard Owens : Please join us. We have a lot to talk about.

• Lasky : You may be the victims of some kind of joke, but whether the Pentagon's behind it, or the Kremlin, or some little green men from Mars, I promise you, I'm as much in the dark about it as you are.

• Public Address Sailor : General quarters, general quarters! All hands man your battlestations! Go up and forward on your starboard side, down and aft on your port side! General quarters, general quarters!

  Lasky : What the hell's going on?

  Marine Cpl. Kullman : General quarters sir, come with me!