“The Right Stuff” quotes
(1983)
Title The Right Stuff
Year 1983
Director Philip Kaufman
Genre Drama, History, Sci-Fi, Adventure
Year 1983
Director Philip Kaufman
Genre Drama, History, Sci-Fi, Adventure
Plot – In 1947, an American pilot breaks the sound barrier and sets the stage for the conquest of space. Together science, political competition, new technology and a huge financial and organizational commitment help to prepare the operation. On the other hand, for its complete success, men with "the right stuff" are needed. These are carefully selected pilots, who are gifted and highly trained: brave, intelligent, real men, our "guides" into space.
All actors – Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward, Barbara Hershey, Kim Stanley, Veronica Cartwright, Pamela Reed, Scott Paulin, Charles Frank, Lance Henriksen, Donald Moffat, Levon Helm, Mary Jo Deschanel, Scott Wilson, Kathy Baker, Mickey Crocker, Susan Kase, Mittie Smith, Royal Dano, David Clennon, Jim Haynie, Jeff Goldblum, Harry Shearer, Scott Beach, Jane Dornacker, Anthony Munoz, John P. Ryan, Darryl Henriques, Eric Sevareid, William Russ, Drew Letchworth, Christopher P. Beale, Richard Dupell, William Hall, John X. Heart, Ed Holmes, Jack Bruno Tate, Edward Anhalt, Mary Apick, Robert Beer, Erik Bergmann, James Brady, Katherine Conklin, Maureen Coyne, Tom Dahlgren, John Lion, Peggy Davis, John Dehner, Robert Elross, Drew Eshelman, Robert J. Geary, Royce Grones, David Gulpilil, Anthony Wallis, Kaaren Lee, Sandy Kronemeyer, Frankie Di, Michael Pritchard, Ed Corbett, O-Lan Jones, Mark Todd, Allen Gebhardt, Chuck Yeager, Ed Sullivan, Gilbert Bazan, Ronnie Dee Blaire, Nikolai Bulganin, Bill Dana, Yuri Gagarin, Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, Christopher Kriesa, Georgi Malenkov, James Mathers, Anastas Mikoyan, Mimi Sarkisian, Tony Toscano, Kliment Voroshilov
show all“The Right Stuff” Quotes 27 quotes
“Whoever controls the high ground of space controls the world. The Roman Empire controlled the world because it could build roads. Later, the British Empire was dominant because they had ships. In the Air Stage, we were powerful because we had the airplane. And now the Communists have established a foothold in outer space. Pretty soon they'll...” (continue)(continue reading)
- Scott Crossfield: You want a pilot to become a balistic missile. And then splash down - possibly get lost at sea.
- Pancho Barnes: See, some peckerwood's gotta get the thing up. And some peckerwood's gotta land the son of a bitch. And that "peckerwood" is called a "pilot".“- John Glenn: If you don't want the Vice President or the TV networks or anybody else to come into the house, then that's it, as far as I'm concerned. They are not coming in, and I will back you all the way, a hundred percent on this. And you tell them that, ok? I don't want Johnson or any of the rest of them to set as much as one toe inside our...” (continue)(continue reading)
“- John Glenn: I'm tired of being forthright, gracious and magnanimous.
- Gordon Cooper: Yeah.
- John Glenn: I'm tired of these stupid questions from the press.
- Gordon Cooper: Mm-hm.
- John Glenn: I'm tired of smocks, I'm tired of engineers telling us what we can't do, I'm tired of everybody that says we are not pilots!”- Liaison Man: You mean for this "space race" you don't want our best pilots?
- Recruiter: I didn't say that. We want the best pilots that we can get.“- Liaison Man: Right now the President's got his own problems with the Bay of Pigs, he doesn't want the astronauts' image tarnished. Nothing these guys do is gonna be called a failure... But you'd think the public'd know that they're just doing what monkeys have done?
- Chuck Yeager: Monkeys? Think a monkey knows he's sitting on top of a rocket...” (continue)(continue reading)- Gus Grissom: What the hell does "astronaut" mean, anyway?
- Gordon Cooper: "Star Voyager".
- Gus Grissom: "Star Voyager" Gus Grissom. I kinda like the sound of that.“The Mercury program was over. Four years later, astronaut Gus Grissom was killed, along with astronauts White and Chaffee, when fire swept through their Apollo capsule. But on that glorious day in May 1963, Gordon Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American - 22 complete orbits around the world; he was the last American ever...” (continue)(continue reading)
“- Gordon Cooper: Yeah, but... nurse, how am I supposed to...
- Nurse Murch: The best results seem to be obtained through fantasization, accompanied by masturbation, followed by ejaculation.
- Gordon Cooper: Well, that sounds easy enough.”“- Alan Shepard: It sounds dangerous.
- Recruiter: It is! Extremely dangerous!
- Alan Shepard: Count me in!”“The government can spend all kinds of money teaching you how to be a fearless test pilot, but they don't spend a god-damned thing teaching you how to be the fearless wife of a fearless test pilot.”
“There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through...” (continue)(continue reading)
“- Chief Scientist: We would be in full control of this pod. It will go up like a cannonball, and come down like a cannonball, splashing down into the water, the ocean, with a parachute to spare the life of the specimen inside.
- Lyndon Johnson: Spaceman?
- Chief Scientist: Specimen.
- Lyndon Johnson: Well, what kind of specimen?
- Chief...” (continue)(continue reading)“- Alan Shepard: How am I doing?
- Gonzalez: I think you're going to make it, man. I think you're going to be an astronaut.”“- John Glenn: I'm talking about the playing around that's going on. I'm talking about the young girls. I'm talking about the cookies. I'm talking about keeping our pants zipped and our wicks dry around here!
- Alan Shepard: Mr. Glenn, you are way out of line. I'd advise you not to try and foist your view of morality on anybody else in this group.”“- John Glenn: I liked a girl in my class, but all the other guys liked her too and she didn't pay any attention. But I kept after her, Eddie.
- Game Show MC: Did you finally get her to notice you?
- John Glenn: Yes, I did. In fact, I finally got her to marry me.”“- Chuck Yeager: I'm a fearless man, but I'm scared to death of you.
- Glennis Yeager: Oh no you're not. But you oughta be.”“Isn't there anybody who can deal with a housewife?”
I went back east to a reunion and all my friends could talk about their husband's work. How "dog-eat-dog" and cutthroat it was on Madison Ave. Places like that. Cutthroat. I wondered how they would've felt if every time their husband went in to make a deal, there was a one in four chance he wouldn't come out of that meeting.
“I thought I was going to be Honorable Mrs. Astronaut, and I ended up being Honorable Mrs. Squirming Hatchblower.”
“Funding. That's what makes your ships go up. I'll tell you something, and you guys too: no bucks, no Buck Rodgers.”
“- Trudy Cooper: You're all set. I told her you were stable, well-adjusted, attentive, persevering... I lied.
- Gordon Cooper: That a girl! What'd she say?
- Trudy Cooper: She laughed! She knows you too well, Gordo.
- Gordon Cooper: Yeah, well some women just have a problem with men, you know?”
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