Wing Commander (1999)

Tchéky Karyo: Commodore James 'Paladin' Taggart

Photos 

Quotes 

• Taggart : Let's make our miracle.

• Blair : What happened?

  Taggart : You just plotted a jump through a gravity well in under 10 seconds. The Navcom can't do that.

  Maniac : That's not bad. I mean, that's not bad for the second best pilot in the Academy!

  Taggart : YOU SHUT UP! Next time you don't follow my orders I dump you with the rest of the garbage, you got that? You plot a course for the Tiger Claw, Mr Blair.

  Blair : Yes sir.

  [Taggart leaves the cockpit] 

  Maniac : That guy's got a serious attitude problem.

• Blair : My whole life, I've taken crap because I'm part Pilgrim. And I don't know why.

  Taggart : Sit down. You're one of the last descendants of a dying race. Pilgrims were the first space explorers and sailors. For five centuries they defied the odds. They embraced space, and for that, they were rewarded with a flawless sense of direction. They could feel magnetic fields created by quasars and black holes, negotiate singularities, navigate not just the stars, but space-time itself.

  Blair : Like a Navcom AI?

  Taggart : No no, you've got it backwards. The billions of calculations each second necessary to lead us through a black hole or quasar is the Navcom recreation of the mind of a single Pilgrim.

  Blair : Then why did the war start?

  Taggart : You spend so much time out here alone, you end up losing your humanity. When Pilgrims began to lose touch with their heritage, they saw themselves as superior to man. And in their arrogance, they chose to abandon all things human and follow what they called their destiny. Some say they believed they were gods.

  Blair : Do you believe they were gods?

  Taggart : No. But I do believe they were touched by God. Like it or not, you've got some of that inside you.

• [Gerald comes onto the Diligent wearing a combat suit] 

  Taggart : Aren't you on the wrong ship, Commander?

  Cdr. Gerald : I still have a responsibility to this crew, Commodore. And excuse my bluntness, but if you think I'm going to let my men be flown into combat by a rogue and a half-breed, you are sadly mistaken.

  Taggart : [to Blair]  He really is a good guy once you get to know him.