30 Best Hacksaw Ridge Quotes

Judge: Private Doss, you are free to run into the hellfire of battle without a single weapon to protect yourself.

[repeated line]
Desmond: One more. Help me get one more.

Sgt: You are a very strange-looking individual, if you don't mind me saying so, Private. Name?
Ghoul: Andy Walker.
Sgt: How long have you been dead, son?
Ghoul: Sir?
Sgt: I am not "Sir!" I am Sergeant Howell or Sarge. "Sir" you save for useless people. The name is "Ghoul," you say?
Ghoul: Walker, Sergeant!
Sgt: Ghoul it is.
Ghoul: Yes, Sergeant!

Desmond: [looking at Hollywood's face wound] It looks much worse than it is. Girls will still wanna kiss ya.

Desmond: Please Lord, help me get one more. Help me get one more.

Sgt: I believe any man who takes great *pride* in his natural naked state will surely enjoy the *brisk* of the outdoors. Now, move your *privates*, Private Parts!... Move it!... You son of an *exhibitionist*!

Desmond: Maybe I am prideful... but I don't know how I'm going to live with myself if I don't stay true to what I believe... much less how you could live with me. I'd never be the man that I wanna be in YOUR eyes.

Dorothy: Yes, you can. It's just pride. Pride and stubbornness. Don't confuse your will with the Lord's.

Captain: All I saw was a skinny kid. I didn't know who you were. You've done more than any other man coulda done in the service of his country. Now, I've never been more wrong about someone in my life, and I hope one day you can forgive me.

Sgt: [if you] Plan on getting wet this weekend, make sure you put on a hat.
Corporal: Next!
Sgt: I don't want anyone comin' back pissin' cream.
Smitty: What, you don't want none for your coffee, Sarge?

Sgt: This is a personal gift from the United States government to each and every one of you -- a standard issue U.S. rifle, caliber .30, M1, a clip-fed, shoulder-fired, semi-automatic weapon designed to bring death and destruction to the enemy. This is to be your lover, your mistress, your concubine, perhaps the only thing in life you'll ever truly love.
Corporal: Fellas, let's dance. Grab a girl.
[the privates begin grabbing weapons]
Sgt: Don't point your gun forward. I do not want to be shot today, no matter how much you are tempted. Place the weapon by your side. Pay attention.
[one rifle remains in the rack; Doss is the only one who has not picked one up]
Sgt: Problem, Private Corn Stalk? Is there not one in your size, or is it the color that is the issue?
Desmond: No, Sarge. I was... I was told I don't have to carry a weapon.
Sgt: Come again? Step forward, Private. I can't be hearin' this right.
Desmond: Well, I'm sorry, Sergeant. I can't touch a gun.
Captain: [new scene in Captain Glover's office] What exactly is the problem?
Desmond: No problem, just a mistake, sir. I-I... I told the Army when I s... when I joined up...
Captain: That's not possible. Do you know why it's not possible, Private?
Desmond: No, sir.
Captain: 'Cause the United States Army does not make mistakes; so, if there's a problem, you must be that problem.
Desmond: I was just never supposed to be sent to a rifle company.
Sgt: He's a C.O., sir.
Captain: You're a conscientious objector, and you joined the Army?
Desmond: Well, no, sir, I'm... I'm a conscientious cooperator.
Captain: [bemused] Are you screwin' with me, Doss?
Desmond: No. No, sir. I volunteered. I ain't got no... no problem with wearing my uniform or salutin' the flag and-and doing my duty. It's just... just carrying a gun and the taking of human life.
Captain: You don't kill. That's all?
Desmond: Yes, sir, that's all.
Captain: You know, quite a bit of killing does occur in a war?
Desmond: Yes, sir.
Captain: I mean, that is the essential nature of war.
Desmond: Yes, sir.
Captain: All right. You have any other requirements of the United States Army? Is there anything else that we can do to ensure that you have a comfortable stay here with us?
Sgt: He doesn't wanna... work on Saturdays, sir.
Desmond: Well, Saturdays... I'm a Seventh-Day Adventist, so... Saturday is MY Sabbath, so I'm not allowed to work then.
Captain: I don't think that poses a problem, do you, Sergeant? We shall simply ask the enemy not to invade on the Sabbath, 'cause Private Doss here's at prayer. All right. And now we got that clear. Now let me tell you my requirements. They're not as complicated as yours. They're very simple. As long as you're in this company, under my command, you will obey my orders. Period. If you can't do it here, I can't trust you to do it in battle. I'm putting you in for a Section 8, psychiatric discharge. Dismissed.

Prosecutor: There is only one question that any military court need ask of the accused: Do you deny disobeying Col. Sangston's direct orders?
Judge: Well, do you, Private?
Desmond: No, sir, I don't.
Judge: Why are you contesting it, then? Why is it so important to you, given your refusal to even touch a weapon, to serve in a combat unit?
Desmond: Because when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, I took it personal. Everyone I knew was on fire to join up, including me. There were two men in my hometown declared 4-F unfit; they killed themselves 'cause they couldn't serve. Why, I had a job in a defense plant. I could've taken a deferment, but that ain't right. It isn't right that other men should fight and die that I would just be sitting at home safe. I need to serve. I got the energy and the passion to serve as a medic, right in the middle with the other guys. No less danger, just... while everybody else is taking life, I'm gonna be saving it. With the world so set on tearing itself apart, it doesn't seem like such a bad thing to me to wanna put a little bit of it back together.

Desmond: You want some morphine?
Sgt: Hell, yes. That or a bullet.

[the real Desmond Doss, his brother Hal, and Captain Glover are interviewed during the credits]
Desmond T. Doss: I was prayin' the whole time. I just kept praying, "Lord, please he'p me get one more." When I got this, I said, "Lord, please he'p me get one more."
Harold: I would say anyone is wrong to try to compromise somebody's conviction. I don't care whether it's army or what it is. When you own a conviction, that is not a joke. That's what you are.
Captain: Even though I said those things to him in regard to carrying a rifle, then... then he would never be by... by my damn side at all unless he had a rifle, but then, um, in the long run, finding out that he was one of the bravest persons alive, and then to have him end up saving my life was the irony of the whole thing.
Desmond T. Doss: Blood had run down into the fella's face and eyes. He was laying there just agroaning and callin' for a medic. I took water from my canteen, got some bandage, and I washed his face, and when that blood was washed from his eyes, his eyes came open. Man, he just lit up. He says, "I thought I was blind" -- and if I hadn't got anything more out of the war than that smile he gave me, I'd have been well repaid.

Smitty: [referring to a picture of Dorothy] That's one heck of a dame. You know you're fightin' out of your weight class with her, don't you?
Desmond: [chuckles] Yes, I do. Don't tell her that.
Smitty: She'd be much happier with a man like me anyway.
Desmond: Yeah, until she got to know you.
[laughs]
Smitty: [laughs] Ah, I'm an asshole sometimes.
Desmond: Sometimes?
[both laugh]

Stretcher: Some nut's up there dragging wounded from the top. Even lowered a couple of Japs.

Sgt: Gentlemen! I want you to meet Private Desmond Doss. Apparently, Private Doss does not believe in violence. He does not practice violence. He will not even deign to touch a weapon. You see, Private Doss is a conscientious objector, so I plead with you -- do not look to him to save you on the battlefield, because he will undoubtedly be too busy wrestling with his conscience to assist.
Desmond: Sarge, that's not true. Sarge...
Sgt: PRIVATE, AS YOU WERE! Now, I realize some of you might have strong feelings about this. It is what we men fight for -- to defend our rights, and to protect our women and children, even if Private Doss' beliefs might cause women and children to die -- so, I will expect everyone in this company to give Private Doss the full measure of respect he is DUE for the short time he will be with us. Am I clear?

Captain: Most of these men don't believe the same way you do, but they believe so much in how much you believe.

Desmond: [at the movies] What's the difference between an artery and a vein?
Dorothy: [smiling] What are you talkin' about?
Desmond: The... the boy's accident.
Dorothy: Ateries spurt blood.
Desmond: And veins?
Dorothy: Bleed. I think you need to practice your boy/girl datin' talk at home before you come out.
Desmond: Yeah, I probably do.

Tom: Is that truly the way it works, sir? You fight for your country, you lose so much that was dear to you, and then you're done with? The uniform's forgotten? You have no voice?

Sgt: I have seen stalks of corn with better physiques. Makes me want to pull an *ear* off, Private! Can you carry your weight?
Desmond: Yes, Sergeant!
Sgt: Should be *easy* for you then! Corporal!
Corporal: Sergeant.
Sgt: Make sure you keep this man away from strong winds.

Tom: Artie got hit in the back. It blew most of his guts and intestines out his front, offal everywhere. Wrecked his uniform entirely. It was lucky he was dead, so he never knew how awful his uniform looked.

Desmond: [quoting Sgt. Howell's words back to him] "You're tying a bowline, boy, not building a bra."

Sgt: Move! A sitting duck's a dead one!

Company: [quoting Herodotos] In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons.

Captain: He throws God at you, you throw hell right at him.

Desmond: I done everything they asked me, except this one thing, and I'm being treated like a criminal just 'cause I won't kill.

[Sgt. Howell arrives at the barracks the night after Doss had been beaten by his fellow recruits]
Sgt: As you were. Where's Doss?
[everyone turns to the back of the barracks where Doss - visibly beaten - has just finished his shower; Sgt, Howell is disturbed by the sight and breathes a sigh of melancholy]
Sgt: [sympathetic] This isn't good for anybody.
Desmond: Sure ain't what I joined up for.
Sgt: It's not about what you signed up for. It's about the lives of every man in here... and yours, son. It's time you quit this. Finish gettin' dressed and I'll walk you down. It's okay, Doss. There's no shame in this. Let's go.
Desmond: I got extra guard duty today, and I'm on KP this morning, so... can't.
Sgt: [nods impressed with his character] All right, Doss.
[shifts to professional tone]
Sgt: Private Doss, can you identify the men that beat you?
Desmond: No, Sarge.
Sgt: Are you saying that you don't know who attacked you?
Desmond: I never said I was attacked, Sarge.
Sgt: Well, what the hell are you sayin', Doss? You bruised half your body sleepin'?
Desmond: I... I sleep pretty hard.
Sgt: [Doss has finally won him over] All right.

Smitty: After what we've just been through... any sane man would be screaming for a weapon.
Desmond: Well, I never claimed to be sane.
[smiles]

Tom: Sir, I know the law, and I know my son is protected by those laws. They're framed in our constitution -- and I believe in them, as he does. They're why I went and fought, to protect them. Least, that is what I THOUGHT I was doing, because if it wasn't for that, then I have no idea what the hell I was doing there, sir.