50 Best For All Mankind Quotes

Molly: You know, when I got this flight, Wayne was terrified. But I wanted it. So I let him think I couldn't see through his brave front. I chose to let him be terrified so that I could go to the moon. That's pretty selfish.

Deke: Anybody tell the president that we don't have any female astronauts?
Thomas: Well, I think he's aware. Every newspaper, magazine, talk show and newscast is pointing it out on a daily basis.

Deke: No doubt in your mind, when this Saturn lifts off, it hauls ass.

Richard: Hello, Molly. I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House. I just can't tell you how proud we all are of what you have done for your country and for women everywhere.
Molly: Well, it's an honor, Mr. President. I hope I can bring you back enough ice for a highball. I know how much you enjoy a stiff drink.
Richard: Bring back enough for two, and I'll have that drink with you.

Edward: We didn't even come close to covering our part of the crater today. So tomorrow, we'll have to recon another sector.
Danielle: Our part. I love that it's our part now, like somehow we own it.
Edward: Kind of it how it works, you know? Whoever plants the flag first, owns it. Ask the Pilgrims.
Danielle: And what if I ask the Indians?

Kelly: [voiceover] On April 3rd, 1972, a C-5A Galaxy transport plane with 243 infants, children, volunteers and crew took off from Saigon as part of Operation Babylift. One minute, 23 seconds later, the plane crashed into a field. Forty-seven children were rescued. I was one of them. There are these moments that shape your life, moments you have no control over. If the pilot had banked left instead of right, if the south had won the war in Vietnam, if the Russians hadn't beat us to the moon... I always thought things happen for a reason. Good and bad, there's a design, a plan. But lately I've started to wonder if maybe we just say that to make ourselves feel better. Maybe we're just drifting from moment to moment trying to do what we think is right. To give some meaning to our lives. So who am I? I'm Hanh Nguyen, born in Saigon, daughter of Le and Bing Nguyen. And I'm Kelly Ann Baldwin, raised in Houston, daughter of Karen and Ed Baldwin. A child of the space program. Is this the journey I was meant to be on? Applying to the Naval Academy, following in my father's footsteps? I don't know. All I know is the more we look back, wondering what might have been, the less we're living for today. And the future... John Lennon probably put it best: "Everything will be okay in the end. And if it's not okay, it's not the end.

Richard: I like what I'm seeing on the news, Deke. Quite a show. Congratulations.
Deke: Thank you, sir. I appreciate...
Richard: If the girl screws up, it's your ass.

Deke: You have any idea how hard I've been working to get these women ready? They have been busting their butts doing every goddamn thing I ask.
Thomas: Well, he's seen the light. What can I say? With the Soviets on our heels, he doesn't want any distractions. And the polling didn't help. Turns out Americans don't really wanna watch women dying in fiery plane crashes.

Mike: Oh, lookie here, boys. Gene Kranz, the new director of Johnson Space Center, deigns to visit us common working stiffs.
Gene: I thought what the hell, I'll drop by and say farewell. Plus, I wanted to personally congratulate you on finally getting a command of your own, Mike. You earned it.
Mike: I appreciate that, Gene. Hey, listen, you tell Neil that I guarantee we'll do a better job of landing than he and Buzz.
Gene: I think everyone did a better job of landing than he and Buzz.

Gordo: You know, the whole world seems like it's tearing itself apart. War, death, hate. Chicago, last year. Man, Chicago last year. I never seen anything like that before. I love that city. I went to school there. I had a bunch of friends, you know? And to be back there on those streets where I went to school and see it all go down like that? You know, the cops just beating on those kids? You remember? You know? Just crushing their heads with their batons and just blood everywhere and they I just never seen that before. To see the hate in their eyes. You know, they wanted to kill those kids. They wanted to crush them. Right? Like they were just bugs. And I thought to myself, wou know, maybe, maybe a man being up on the moon might make people like that just lift their eyes for a moment and look past that hate and see something bigger. Bigger like hope.

[Margo approaches Sergei's hotel room, where a Marine is standing guard]
Sgt. John Perkins: What can I do for you?
Margo: I'm Margo Madison, I need to see Sergei Nikulov.
Sgt. John Perkins: No one goes in, no one goes out. Those are my orders.
Margo: [flashing her ID badge] I'm the director, Johnson Space Center.
Sgt. John Perkins: I'm sure you are, honey, but you're not getting in.
Margo: What's your name?
Sgt. John Perkins: Sergeant John Perkins.
Margo: OK, Sergeant John Perkins, I know you have a job to do but so do I. I'm gonna give you 15 seconds to get in touch with your superior officer, 12 seconds to explain the situation to him, 45 seconds for him to reach General Nelson Bradford and confirm I am who I say I am. Another 15 seconds for your boss to get back to you, and ten for you to open this door. That puts you 97 seconds away from either a cold beer at the end of your shift or an open-ended transfer to Thule, Greenland.
[glances at her watch]
Margo: Your time starts now... honey.

Gordo: You're gonna be an astronaut candidate.
Tracy: No. I'm gonna be an astronaut. One day I'm gonna have one of those pins on my collar just like you.
Gordo: Someone's got a fire up her ass. I like it. A lot.

Thomas: We need a win. Sputnik. Gagarin. Leonov. Belikova. The president's not interested in another second-place finish. It's bad enough that our girl's accident is plastered all over the news. We have an election coming up, and the way it looks, it's probably gonna be against Ted Kennedy.
Deke: Should be a nice, clean fight.
Thomas: The president wants to give the American people something to cheer about.
Frank: A Kennedy landslide?
Thomas: Laugh all you want, but Nixon's the only reason this program still exists. Apollo 15 will locate a usable site. And the president will announce that mankind's first permanently manned base on the moon will be flying the star-spangled banner. Congratulations, gentlemen, you're going to make history.

Edward: This is close as I got on Apollo 10.
Molly: Stick with me, kid. I'll take you all the way this time.
Edward: That's the Cobb I was looking for.

Edward: Houston, Shackleton Base. Seahawk has landed.
Molly: Boy!
Edward: We're really here.
Molly: I have never wanted a cigarette more in my entire life.

Margo: You know what mattered to my father? His stamp collection. He'd come home at 5:30 every night on the dot, have two martinis. Not one, not three, but two. And he'd then spend the rest of the evening in his study with his records and his stamp collection. That was it. That was his life, nothing else. Not my mother, not me. Nothing. When I graduated college, the first woman in my family on either side, by the way, you know what he did? He gave me a desk calendar. That's how important I was to him.

Jack: Okay, we have the translation now, and these are the words that Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, the first man to set foot on the moon, spoke just moments ago. "I take this step for my country, for my people, and for the Marxist-Leninist way of life. Knowing that today is but one small step on a journey that someday will take us all to the stars." I'm not sure what to say. Perhaps there are no words. So, for now, we'll let you soak in this historic moment and reflect on what it means for our country and for the world.

[after an unsuccessful first meeting between the Americans and Soviets over Apollo-Soyuz]
Molly: Four hours closer to the heat death of the universe, I'll be damned if I know what we accomplished.

Margo: To enter orbit, you not only have to be going exactly the right direction, you have to be moving at exactly the right speed. If you're even one mile per hour over, lunar gravity won't hold onto the craft. It's like a marble going past a drain. It's going too fast, it'll just shoot right by.
Harold: Okay, so they just need to slow themselves down, right?
Margo: By our calculations, they've used all their fuel just to get to this point.
Harold: Oh. Well, then, I guess I'll just call the president back in the middle of his Christmas dinner and let him know that, once again, our good news has turned into shit.

Gordo: I've decided I'm not gonna keep secrets anymore. I want the world to know what really happened up there.
Danielle: So, you want to make an honest man of yourself by exposing me as a liar?
Gordo: No. I want to tell the truth. The people should know that you're the real hero, not me.
Danielle: I know the truth, all right? That's all that matters. I broke my arm to save a fellow astronaut who was going through a rough patch. I'm proud of that.
Gordo: Yeah, and I'm proud of you too. And I'm grateful.
Danielle: Then keep your mouth shut. Because if you breathe a word about what really happened out of some misguided sense of justice, you know damn well they will ground me. And I have worked too hard to get here, Gordo. Don't you dare take that away from me.

Jim: I won't allow you to destroy the Republican Party.
Ellen: Maybe it needs a little destroying.

Edward: No one on my crew is going to the moon in a damn diaper. This is NASA. You're rocket scientists. Figure it out.

Edward: Okay, I loved those guys, all right. Gus and Roger and Ed, I think about them every day. I mean, we all do. They were good men. That's the thing. Good men die in test planes all the time. But we don't change the whole culture of flight test 'cause good men die. We still get up there and push the envelope every single day, and maybe, maybe today's the day you don't come back. We all know that. It's always there. But we get up there anyway, and we keep taking the risks. But we stopped taking risks at NASA. And that's why we lost the moon.

Deke: You wanna cry about Apollo 15? Let me tell you something. There may not be an Apollo 12, much less 15.
Edward: What the hell are you talking about?
Deke: The country's in shock, Eddie. Like Pearl Harbor shock. American people thought we had this thing in the bag, then the Russians come along and snatch it away at the last minute. Congress is talking about hearings, the president is looking for someone to blame, and you just served up the whole goddamn agency for a necktie party.
Edward: They really might cancel everything after 11?
Deke: That's usually what happens when the race is over. Winner collects their prize, loser goes home.

Ellen: Yet after all we've accomplished, I come before you today to confess that I have failed you... because I lied to you and in doing so I broke the covenant of trust between the President and the American people. I not only failed to tell you the truth, I also failed to protect the men and women serving bravely in our armed forces. I failed to stand up to some of our most venerable citizens who faced acts of prejudice and discrimination and I failed to defend the rights and the dignity of Will Tyler, the brave American hero serving his country on the surface of Mars at this very moment and I failed someone very close to me because I was afraid to stand up and tell the truth. I failed because I feared what people would think of me and I failed to trust the compassion and judgement of you, the American people. I underestimated you and for that I am truly sorry. I cannot correct my past mistakes, I can stop lying to you right here and right now and give you the simple truth. I am gay and I have been since the day I was born.

Mikhail: This is the moon, mister. Belongs to everyone.
Edward: Molly Cobb and I discovered ice there over three years ago.
Mikhail: Yeah, if it's about who was here first, Alexei Leonov was here before you, Edward Baldwin. And he said moon belonged to the whole world.
Edward: I seem to remember him saying something about the Marxist-Leninist way of life.

Walter: While the Apollo 12 is hurtling toward the moon the Soviets have upped the anti in the space race once again. The video is coming in now. There's the cosmonaut now. Descending the ladder. There we have it. Cosmonaut is now on the lunar surface.
[the cosmonaut raises their visor and is revealed to be a woman]
Walter: It's a woman!
[everyone looks in shock]
Walter: Ladies and gentlemen it's been confirmed that it's a woman. Her name is Anastasia Belikova. Former pilot in the Soviet Airforces. What a truly, truly historic moment for women watching across the world. The 32 year old Soviet Cosmonaut has become the first woman to set foot on the moon.

Gordo: Control inputs are gonna keep changing, but just don't do anything dumb, and you got this.
Tracy: What makes you think I'd do anything dumb?
Gordo: You married me, didn't ya?
Tracy: Roger that.

Harold: This cannot be our best option. I'm not gonna stand here and let you...
Margo: This is my call. I'm in command here. So you can either stay out of my way, or you can fuck right off. Those are your options.

Tracy: Is it true you've stopped paddling students?
Principal: Corporal punishment in schools is becoming frowned on in modern educational circles.
Tracy: Well, spanking was not frowned upon in my home, and now I'm an astronaut. So what does that tell you?

Karen: I'm gonna learn to drink with the guys. Yeah, 'cause then I can find out how my husband really feels about his job. Or I'll just read about it in the newspapers with everyone else! Right?

Molly: Do you remember Apollo 15?
Karen: How could I forget.
Molly: So that was Gordo's flight. Gordo had been training for more than a year to find ice on the moon, and when Deke said that he was putting me on, do you think I hemmed and hawed? Hmm? Do you think I was like "oh, I can't. What would Gordo say? What if he's hurt?" Fuck that! I said yeah! Sign me up!
Karen: Yes, Molly, of course you did because you're a...
Molly: Selfish prick?
Karen: No, I was going say that you're a force of nature.
Molly: No. I'm a selfish prick. That's okay. Selfish pricks change the world.

Edward: Hey, Shane, buddy. I hope you're listening. I did something special today just for you. I wrote your name on the surface of the moon. It's going to be there for millions of years. Long after both of us are gone.
Young: That is so bitchin'!

Isaiah: Why are we talking about you being home?
Danielle: Mr. Baldwin was selected for the Mars mission.
Isaiah: They picked the old white guy. Shocker. He gonna take a walker and colostomy bag up with him?

Deke: I always knew you had a bit of John Glenn in you. I mean, yeah, you were quiet, a little hard on yourself, but when you walk into a room, people pay attention. When you speak, people listen.

Thomas: Beginning with Apollo 12, we will be scouting for the location of a permanent military installation on the moon.
Wernher: Absolutely not. We're a scientific program, not a playground for G. I. Joe.
Thomas: Wernher, this is a good thing. Nixon's doubling down on the program. Our budgets will go up exponentially. We can bring in three, four more classes of astronauts. What do you think, Deke?
Wernher: Well, I could sure use the extra manpower, but I don't know, 12's flight is right around the corner.
Thomas: Yeah, we may need to move that up a tad.
Wernher: Thomas, listen to me. We cannot allow this encroachment. I've seen it before. My Aggregat 4, it was designed for low Earth orbit. When the Wehrmacht saw its potential, it became the V-2, a terrible weapon. We cannot allow space to become another battlefield.
Thomas: It already is.

Gene: Until a few weeks ago, I thought I knew what today was all about. I thought it was about being first. Turns out the stakes are much bigger than that. Today is about the future of our country. The future of the world. Because if we fail in our mission today, the United States will turn away from space, turn away from the future. Bogged down by war, poverty, hatred. And the future? Well, the future will belong to the Soviet Union. They will be the ones reaching into space for all of mankind. Now, I want you all to think about that for a moment. What that means for the future, to look like the "Marxist-Leninist way of life." But if we succeed, if we succeed in putting Apollo 11 on the moon, we're still in this thing. Still in the race. The future will be ours to fight for and to win. We put a man on the moon today, I guarantee we are not stopping there. We'll go to Mars. Saturn. The asteroids, the stars, deep space. The galaxy. And then, then we're getting answers to the big questions. Are we alone? Is there life out there? I am proud to be a member of this team, and I know that we will succeed today in our mission in putting two Americans on the moon. Because in this room, in this agency, in this country... failure is not an option.

Larry: Where have you been? You left town without telling anyone. No one had any idea where the hell you were.
Ellen: The Secret Service knew.
Larry: You mind telling me?
Ellen: I went to see Pam.
Larry: Are you out of your mind?
Ellen: Close to it.

Ellen: Lives have been lost, and, honestly, probably more will be lost. But every one of us knew the risks before we joined, the toll it takes on us, and on the ones we love. But we all signed up just the same. It's the price we pay to push forward to explore the universe and wander into the unknown. Pushing ourselves to the limits of what's possible. Are there sacrifices that have to be made? Of course. But sacrifice is a part of any journey. It's like those caravans, the wagon trains that crossed our country a hundred years ago in search of a new home. Or the ships that sailed across the Atlantic in search of a new world. Taking on these great challenges against great odds that's what makes us human. Remember, we chose to go to the moon not because it was easy but because it was hard. So, yes. Yes, I think it's worth it. Because no matter how hard it is now, when we look to the future, we can see that things can... they can get better. I do believe that.

Deke: You know, it's not the worst way to go.
Ellen: Which? Because right now we can pick from suffocation, starvation...
Deke: Cannibalism.
Ellen: Or we could just open the hatch.
Deke: I don't know. I kinda wanna see how far we'll get. Go farther in the universe than anyone's ever gone. That's something, at least.

Dennis: Uh, continuity checks good. 24 now has a functioning unit. Harry, you can unhook the diagnostic line. Looks like Molly got the FCC installed right the first time.
Molly: Our work guaranteed or your money back.

Molly: Apollo 25 splashdown.
Gordo: Roger that, 25. Condition of the crew?
Molly: I'm good, the astro wife is smiling, and Dennis is seasick.

Molly: Well, at least I won't have to wear a bra in space. Zero G and all.
Frank: Speaking on behalf of Ed and myself, in the interest of our respective marriages, please do.

Karen: You're going up against NASA and the Soviets. I mean, if you intend to tell the world you're going to slap an outboard motor on my hotel and drive it to Mars, Wall Street's gonna laugh at you.

Deke: Presidents come and go, Ed, but we're the ones carrying the fire. It took a lot of guts, what you did up there in DC. I need guys like you around for what's coming down the pike.
Edward: I'm not coming back to sit behind a desk.
Deke: No, you're not.
Edward: What exactly does that mean?
Deke: It means you're back on Apollo 15.
Edward: Wait, are you...?
Deke: Ed, maybe just once, shut the fuck up. You're going back to the moon.

Edward: I'm not going to abandon this base or our mining operations to the Russians. They'd strip Jamestown of every piece of technology they could get their hands on. I will stay until properly relieved by the crew of Apollo 24.

Marge: Everyone believes it would be in the best interests of the agency and the country for Edward to make a public denial, stating emphatically that he was grossly misquoted by that reporter and strongly disassociating himself from those remarks. I also think, in that instance, Deke would be able to persuade Dr. von Braun to reinstate him on 15.
Karen: It's not that simple, Marge. Eddie would never get up and lie. He went to Annapolis. Right? Duty, honor, country. Those things matter to him.
Marge: You don't have to go to Annapolis to have integrity, Karen.
Karen: No, I don't mean to imply that, but I know my husband.
Marge: Duty, honor, country. I believe in those things. Sometimes you have to pick two.

Ellen: We'll have to ditch the cargo. Gonna need just about all the fuel we've got left to get our velocity down to 35,650 feet per second. The margin's gonna be... well there won't be a margin.
Deke: Well, it's either that or we're on our way to Jupiter and Ed stays stranded.

Deke: I was at the Cape with the rest of the Mercury astronauts when Jim Webb came down and told us the Russians put the first man in space. Webb wanted us to put a good face on for the press. So we did, but not for a while. First, we had to be pissed off, and we were. Gus could hardly speak. And Al Glad Al Shepard's not here today. Al was really pissed. Even Glenn. Yes, believe it or not, gentlemen, John Glenn actually said the word "fuck."

Margo: Apollo 25, Houston. That's a no-go on a rescue attempt. Set up for reentry on the next orbit.
Tracy: Dennis?
Dennis: I'm with you, Trace.
Tracy: Screw that, Houston. I'm not leaving Molly up here to die.
Margo: Not your call, Stevens.
Tracy: The hell it's not. I am the pilot in command of this ship and the final authority as to the safety of this flight. I'm going after her.
Molly: Forget it, Stevens. I'm not losing my ship because you wanna play hero.
Tracy: Yeah, well, it's not your ship until you come back aboard, Cobb. And, Houston? Gordo may be one crazy son of a bitch, but he knows this spacecraft better than anybody. So you put him back on, now.