Clark Gregg credited as playing...
Phil Coulson
- Phil Coulson: I know it was a risk. If we went down today, we'd probably be down for good. But now we have a chance to survive. We have soldiers willing to sacrifice, but they need weapons. The enemy has the advantage. We need one of our own.
- Alphonso 'Mack' Mackenzie: You risked that for a quinjet?
- Phil Coulson: No. For what we can do with one. Disappear. Become ghosts. That's how we have to live now... in the shadows, to save people, even when they don't know it, don't want it.
- Melinda May: You're the man in charge, but I'm in charge of you, remember? I had two rules.
- Phil Coulson: Avoid field operations...
- Melinda May: ...And check in with me every few days. It's been two weeks.
- Phil Coulson: And I'm flying back out tonight. I have to focus on recruitment. It's starting to wear me down.
- Melinda May: The hours?
- Phil Coulson: The numbers. Between the traitors, military detainees, and the sell-outs in the private sector, the people who could possibly be considered loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. is not impressive. And they're scattered all over the damn globe.
- Melinda May: Well, you have no choice but to meet them face-to-face, get a read on them.
- Phil Coulson: I know, and I prefer it. But flying economy blows.
- Phil Coulson: What's your assessment of Hartley's people?
- Melinda May: You know what I think. They're mercenaries, here for the money.
- Phil Coulson: But what's your assessment?
- Melinda May: They're *good* mercenaries.
- Isabelle 'Izzy' Hartley: Sir, Mark's down. Third party, possibly Hydra, and we're out in the open. What are our orders?
- Phil Coulson: Go dark.
- Phil Coulson: I want to make your job easier. Chasing us is a waste of resources, general. We're the good guys, and we can help you catch the bad guys.
- Brigadier General Glenn Talbot: Kidnapping me and tying me up in your honeycomb kill room is not helping your case. Do you think I'm an idiot?
- Phil Coulson: Oh, no. You're the real deal. But you're surrounded by people who constantly underestimate the threat they're up against. Me and my people swore an oath we don't intend to break: to protect the innocent, to watch out for people... people like your son.
- Brigadier General Glenn Talbot: How dare you bring my family into this.
- Phil Coulson: We save lives, including yours, whether you like it or not.
- Phil Coulson: [imitating Brigadier General Talbot] It's Private Tilden, isn't it?
- Private Tilden: Yes, sir.
- Phil Coulson: Well, I don't care I about this register or that. I want General Jones and his friends sent directly to the ordnance depot to meet me.
- Billy Koenig: Go bigger. Go bigger.
- Phil Coulson: ...Or I'll have you so deep in horse manure, son, you'll need a damn snorkel.