Top 50 Quotes From The Guardian

Ben: There will come a time when you have to decide who lives and who dies.

Man: I don't swim so good.
Ben: You don't swim so good?
Man: No, sir.
Ben: It's okay. I swim pretty good.

Danny: Can you die from chlorine poisoning?
Billy: I can't feel my legs. I'm serious.
Jake: I don't know about you guys, but I feel good.
Ken: This Randall guy, he's operating on some whole other cylinder. What is it, two weeks, and he's failed half the class already?
Ken: He's a legend. They say he's got something like 200 saves.
Danny: I heard it was 300.
Jake: Who cares what his number is? If he's such a stud, what's he doing here?

[Cadets jog and sing as Jake runs in late]
Jack: Airman Fischer's coming in late, yeah!
Cadets: Airman Fischer's coming in late, yeah!
Jack: Must be nice to go out on a date, yeah!
Cadets: Must be nice to go out on a date, yeah!

Capt. Frank Larson: If by some miracle you actually have what it takes to become one of us, then you get to live a life of meager pay with the distinct possibility of dying slow, cold and alone somewhere in the vast sea. However, you also get the chance to save lives, and there is no greater calling in the world than that. So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Welcome to A- school.

[first lines]
Capt. William Hadley: There is a legend of a man who lives beneath the sea. He is a fisher of men, the last hope of all those who have been left behind. Many survivors claim to have felt his gripping hands beneath them; pushing them up to the surface; whispering strength until help could arrive. But this, of course, is only a legend.

[Ben takes Jake to the same Navy bar he got in a fight in earlier that night]
Jake: You gotta be kidding me.
Ben: What was it they called you?
Jake: "Puddle pirates", but it's not - I'm way over it.

Ben: I don't care who you are, where you're from, or where your going. I care about one thing, and one thing only. That is the future victims that you will be asked to save. If i think that you will fail them. Then i will fail you. Understood?
A: Yes Senior Chief!

Jake: That guy who holds all them records, is he still alive?
Capt. Frank Larson: Why do you ask?
Jake: Just thought you ought to let him know I'm about to knock his name off that board.
Capt. Frank Larson: Why don't you let him know yourself? He's standing right behind you.

Jake: Does this mean you're not going to fail me.
Ben: For what? Backing up a buddy at a bar? Then I've got to bigger problems than you.

Jake: You gotta make a move!
Billy: I can't. I get nervous.
Jake: You're tellin' me you can jump outta helicopters but you're afraid to go talk to a girl?
Billy: Uh... pretty much, yea.

Maggie: If my muscles hurt, it just means I've used them. If it hurts to walk up the stairs, it's just cause I've done it a hundred times to lay down next to a man who loved me. My face may have wrinkles, but I have laid under hundreds of skies on sunny days. I look like this, well, because I drank and I smoked and I lived and I loved and I screwed my way through a pretty damn good life. Getting old isn't bad. It's earned.

Billy: [after hitting his teacher in the face] United States Coast Guard I'm here to help you.

[last lines]
Emily: What are you doing here?
Jake: I lied to you. I can't do casual.

Ben: I don't know about you but I could use a fucking drink.
Ben: [after Jake peers up at Randall] Oops.

Ben: [reading off his class roster] Fischer. Why are you here, Fischer?
Jake: I'm here to exceed your expectations, Senior Chief. I'm a rescue swimmer at heart, born, bred, and water-fed. Hoorah!
Ben: [dryly] Wow. I bet you practiced that all morning.

Jake: That was definitely NOT in the manual!

Ben: Whatever decision you make, you make as a team.

Ben: I can't sleep.
Maggie: Of course you can't. Your wife left you, your best friend died; you sound like a damn country song. If you had a dog, he'd be run over by now.

Jake: How do you choose who to save?
Ben: I swim as fast and as hard as I can, for as long as I can. And the sea takes the rest.

Jake: What's your real number?
Ben: 22.
Jake: 22? That's not bad. It's not 200 but...
Ben: 22 is the number of people I lost, Jake. The only number I kept track of.

Pilot: We're low on fuel. The rulebook says we cut our losses. What do you think, Ben?
Ben: When we go home, they die.

Emily: What do you have, an art gallery over here? What is this "2"?
[looking number two tattooed on Jake's shoulder]
Jake: It's so the guy behind me knows what place he's coming in.

[Ben has just rescued Jake and they are being hoisted up to the helicopter]
Jake: I thought you were going fishing!
Ben: What do you call this?
[the cable starts to fray and Ben makes a snap decision - to unhook himself and fall so Jake will get up safely]
Jake: What are you doing? Don't even think about it!
Ben: It's not gonna hold us both.

Jake: What's your number?

[Hodge drunkenly repeats Captain Larson's speech, trying to hit on the female bartender]
Billy: We go to "A" School, which is the most difficult school in the military. The attrition rate's like... what is it, 50 percent?
Jake: 50 percent.
Billy: Over 50 percent. We're still here. Cause we're the best of the best. When storms shut down entire ports, you know who goes out? Uh, we do. When hurricanes ground the US Navy, these little guys over there, guess who goes out? That's right, we do!
Bartender: Look honey, you'd better keep it down in here.
Billy: Okay, honey.
[to Jake]
Billy: She called me 'honey'!
[to the bartender]
Billy: Okay, honey! But when God himself reaches down from heaven... What does he do, Jake?
Jake: [trying not to laugh] Rips houses off the foundations.
Billy: When God himself rips houses off the foundations, we go out! Because we are rescue swimmers, and that's what we do.

Jake: You're going to kick me out for defending the Coast Guard?
Ben: The Coast Guard has been around for 200 years. I doubt a couple of knuckleheads like yourself are going to defend it.

Ben: There will come a time when you might have to decide who lives and dies out there. It's a terrible responsibility but it's one you will have to make as a rescue swimmer. The bigger reality is, its also something you are going to have to live with as a human being. There will come a time when you will have to say no. The most important person to keep alive is yourself. You'll be facing crews from 5 to 20 all saying 'save me, save me.' They're looking for a miracle. How old are you Hodge?
Billy: 24.
Ben: At 24 years old you have to become that miracle. You have to find a way to be that miracle.

Jake: [voice-over] The Coast Guard conducted the largest search and rescue missions for a single man in its history, but the body of Senior Chief Ben Randall was never found. What makes a legend? Is it what someone did while they were alive? Or how they're remembered after they're gone? Some people actually believe Senior Chief made the swim to the Aleutian Islands, that he's standing on a distant beach somewhere with a fishing pole in his hand. But I found my answer a couple of weeks later.
[Jake pulls a victim into the helicopter]
Drowning: Where is he?
Jake: Huh? There's nobody else out there, man.
Drowning: No, he was there! He was with me the whole time! He said he would hold on till help arrived. He never let go!
Jake: [voice-over] There is a legend of a man who lives beneath the sea. He is a fisher of men, a last hope for all those who've been left behind. He is know as the Guardian.

Ben: Save the ones you can Jake. The rest, you've got to let go.

Emily: Hey, Mags, can I have a beer?
Jake: Well, well. So you are gonna have a drink with me.
Emily: No, I'm having a drink near you. Entirely different thing.
Jake: You're a real little lightening-rod, aren't you? What's your name?
Emily: Daisy Buchanan.
Jake: You're lying, Daisy Buchanan.
Emily: There is that possibility.
Jake: No, that was a sure-fire lie.
Emily: So I take it you've read 'The Great Gatsby'. Where's my money?
Jake: It's not on me, but it is close, if a very safe place. Now, I've drawn a map with a complex set of clues. Each one is more fiendishly clever then the last...
[Emily reaches into his pocket and pulls out the money]
Jake: ...That works too.
Emily: [jump cut. they are now at a table and Emily has the *map*] This is just a picture of your pants.
Jake: Yeah, but it's a *bad* picture, which is what makes it so fiendishly clever.

Jake: Hey, there was a question I wanted to ask you back as school, but I didn't. When you can't save 'em all, how do you choose who lives?
Ben: It's probably different for everybody Jake. Its kind of simple for me though. I just, I take the first one I come to or the weakest one in the group and then I swim as fast and as hard as I can for as long as I can. And the sea takes the rest.
Jake: Do you think I'm ready?
Ben: I'm not your teacher anymore Jake. I'm just your fellow swimmer.
Jake: That's not exactly the answer I was looking for there.
Ben: If I did not think you were ready, I would not put you in the Bering Sea

Jake: So do you have a name?
Emily: Yes, "Don't forget my money"...
Jake: OK... Do you have middle name?

Capt. Frank Larson: Out of the 39 000 men and women that make up the United States Coast Guard there are only 280 rescue swimmers. This is because we are the Coast Guard's elite. We are the best of the best. When storms shut down entire ports, we go out. When hurricanes ground the United States Navy, we go out. And when the holy Lord himself reaches down from heaven and destroys his good work with winds that rip houses off the ground, We. Go. Out.
Ben: [Later in private, quoting him:] "When God rips houses off the ground?"
Capt. Frank Larson: I was rollin'.

[to Helen]
Ben: I had a case a while back, a couple was drowning. By the time I got there, the husband was dragging his wife under, just trying to stay afloat. Pure survival instinct. It took me a long time to understand that that man was me.

Ben: [to his class] Can someone tell me the Rescue Swimmer's Motto?
Jake: So others may live, Senior Chief!
Ben: Ooohhh, I feel safer already.

Ben: [as Jake is supposed to be performing CPR on a dummy] Why aren't you breathing, Fischer?
Jake: I wasn't aware it was possible for someone to still be alive and hold their breath for fifteen minutes, Senior Chief.
Ben: Are you a coroner? I didn't think so. It isn't our job to decide if they're dead. Keep breathing.

Danny: Here's to our gal, Lindsey. You can rescue me anytime.
Cate: You know what, Doran? You I might actually let drown.
Cadets: Oh!

Jack: Mr. Fischer is our high school swim champ. He's had scholarships to every Ivy League.
Ben: [*very* sarcastically] Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that he was so qualified. I mean, you set records in a pool? That's amazing. I'll bet it was like, what, eight feet deep in the deep end? What if your nose plug didn't work? What if another swimmer had cut into your lane? For the love of God, you could've been killed.

Ben: Ya know, there never was anyone else Mag's.
Maggie: Like hell, Ben, you're a bigamist. You've been married to the coast guard all along. Now gimme that shoulder. Prolly swum it out of socket tryin to prove you was still nineteen.
Ben: When the heck did we get old?
Maggie: Hell, I've always been old Ben. Ya' know what though, I don't mind. I mean if my muscles ache, it's because I've used 'em. It's hard for me to walk up them steps now, its 'cuz I walked up 'em every night to lay next to a man who loved me. I got a few wrinkles here and there, but I've layed under thousands of skies with sunny days. I look and feel this way, well cuz I drank and I smoked. I lived and I loved, danced, sang, sweat and screwed my way thorough a pretty damn good life if you ask me. Getting old ain't bad Ben. Getting old, that's earned.

Ben: [refering the the accident that killed Jake's friends] I've read the report Jake. Your blood alcohol level was zip that night. I'm guessing there was a flip for designated driver, you lost.
Jake: I guess that just makes it all go away, huh?
Ben: No, it doesn't make it all right, it just makes it an accident. At least that's how it reads. You were 16 years old Jake. I'm not your priest, but if I was I think maybe you deserve a pass.
Jake: You're giving me a pass. You think you know everything, with your psychobabble bullshit. Why am I here? Why are you here, huh? Your too old to be doing this, you washed up here. You don't want to be teaching a bunch of kids in a pool, am I right? I don't give an eff what you read or who you talked to. You don't know about me.
[now yelling]
Jake: I have me under control.
Ben: I can see that. The only difference between you and me is that I don't wear the ones I lost on my arm. I know where your at Jake. I'm there myself. I ask myself everyday why I was the one who survived.
Jake: And?
Ben: And if I can't answer that for me, I'm certainly not going to try to answer that for you. Have a seat. I want you to start being a member of this team. The team you have now. You have a gift Jake. You're the best swimmer to come through this program, hands down, by far, and you've got a whole record board to prove it. But you know what I see when I look at it? I see someone fast enough who's going to get there first. I see someone strong enough who's going to last. I see someone who can save a life maybe no one else could. You really want to honor then initials on your arm? Then honor your gift. Save the ones you can Jake. The rest, you've got to let go.

Ben: We are going to consider everything tonight off-duty and off-record...
[after Jake stares blankly at Randall]
Ben: That was an invite.
Jake: [with a surprised reaction] oh.

Jake: Evening, ma'am. Can I buy you a drink?
Emily: I don't think so.
Jake: You don't know what you're missing.
Emily: You sure you wanna go with that one? That's, like, your top-of-the-line, A-game material? See, the way I see it, you've got two choices here. Walk away from me, or walk out of here with me and split the cash.
Jake: [bluffing] Cash? What cash?
Emily: The money you bet your friends you could pick me up.

Jake: I won't let go!
Ben: I know.

Ben: Class 5506, will you come find me if I am lost?
Cadets: Yes, Senior Chief!
Ben: Will you come save me if I am drowning?
Cadets: Yes, Senior Chief!
Ben: I believe you would.

Jake: [chanting in the pool, while pouring a jug of water over himself as Randall sprays him with water] I'm a rescue swimmer, yes I am. I'm here to get your ass out of this jam. I jump from the helo and swing from the cable.
[throws jug of water down]
Jake: I'm not Tarzan, I'm just willing and able!

Emily: How does Jake Fischer become a guy who wants to jump out of helicopters?
Jake: I killed a couple guys and had to get out of Dodge.
Emily: You're lying.
Jake: There is that possibility.
Emily: The truth?
Jake: My bull riding career was going down the drain.

Jake: You do *not* want to hear about my day.
Emily: Yeah, I do.
Jake: Man, this guy Randall, you know, it doesn't matter what I do. It's just not good enough.
Emily: Maybe he's just trying to push you to be better. We teachers do that to the ones we believe in.
Jake: No, it's personal with me. He's knows that I'm better then he was. I mean, today I broke every one of his records. I owned them all.
Maggie: Not all of them. There's one record you won't break.
[takes a picture off the wall]
Maggie: This is 'The Aegis'. Medical ship. Caught on fire. It was a nightmare; people burning in their beds. And Ben Randall got every one of those people out of there, except for this one guy. And right when the ship started to go down, he reaches down and grabs this guy. He's hanging from the cable with this man's life in his hands, and the winch jams. It's twenty minutes to the base. The man's screaming, but Ben looks him dead in the eye, and do you know what he said? He said "I won't let go."
Emily: What happened?
Maggie: Dislocated his shoulder, tore every tendon in his hand, but he didn't let go. Twenty minutes, just fingertips. You break that record, and you give me a call.
Jake: ...My day was alright.

Ben: I've been trying to peel the layers back for a while now and I, I just don't get it. I mean this kind of work seems a little remedial for someone like yourself. A big swim champ offered to every Ivy League, you give it up to be here with us. Why?
Jake: I'm here to save lives Senior Chief.
Ben: I spoke to your coach Jake.
Jake: You spoke to my coach?
Ben: Yeah I spoke with your coach. Something in your file just kept hanging me up. You will the state championship your freshman and sophomore years then you don't swim the next two. I'm just a public school guy, so uh pardon me, but it didn't add up until now.
[shows a newspaper with a headline of "swim team killed in fiery crash - one survivor"]
Ben: Kick Holloway, 100 medley winner, thrown through the passenger window. Abe Ikeman, first team All-American, lungs crushed. Carl Sandables, 50 meter freestyle champ, made it all the way to the hospital, died of internal bleeding.
Jake: I guess you just know everything then.
Ben: I know what it's like to lose a team.
Jake: Yeah, what about living in a small town where everyone thinks you killed their brother, or their son, or their best friend? You know about that?
Ben: The kind of small town where everyone waves at each other, just not to you.

Jake: Hey, I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier about you being old and washed up.
[Ben nods]
Jake: ...Is there anything you'd like to say to me?
Ben: Like what?
Jake: I don't know, I apologized to you, I just thought that, you know, there might be something you've said or done that you'd like to apologize to me for...
Ben: Why?
Jake: Cause... that's how's it's done, I... you suck at apologizes.