The Best Jack Ryan Quotes

Skip: [looking at photos of Red October which show the doors in the front and back of the sub] I'll be... this... this could be a caterpillar.
Jack: A what?
Skip: Uh, a caterpillar drive. Magneto hydrodynamic propulsion. You follow?
Jack: No.
Skip: It's like a... a jet engine for the water. Goes in the front, gets squirted out the back. Only it has no moving parts, so it's very, very quiet.
Jack: Like how quiet?
Skip: It's doubtful our sonar would even pick it up. And if it did, it'd sound like... whales humping or some kind of seismic anomaly. Anything but a submarine. We messed with this a couple years ago. Couldn't make it work. They really built this? This isn't a mock-up or anything?
Jack: She put to sea this morning.
Skip: When I was twelve, I helped my daddy build a bomb shelter in our basement because some fool parked a dozen warheads 90 miles off the coast of Florida. This thing could park a couple of hundred warheads off Washington and New York and no one would know anything about it until it was all over.

Jack: Well... Ramius trained most of their officer corps, which would put him in a position to select men willing to help him. And he's not Russian. He's Lithuanian by birth, raised by his paternal grandfather, a fisherman. And he has no children, no ties to leave behind. And today is the first anniversary of his wife's death.
General: Oh, come on. You're just an analyst. What can you possibly know what goes on in his mind?
Jack: I know Ramius, General. He's nearly a legend in the submarine community. He's been a maverick his entire career. I actually met him once at an embassy dinner. Have you ever met Captain Ramius, General?

Jack: [in the shower]
[imitating the Admiral]
Jack: "The average Ruskie, son, don't take a dump without a plan." Wait a minute. We don't have to figure out how to get the crew off the sub. He's already done that, he would have had to. All we gotta do is figure out what he's gonna do. So how's he gonna get the crew off the sub.
[later, shaving]
Jack: They have to want to get off. How do you get a crew to want to get off a submarine? How do you get a crew to want to get off a nuclear sub...
[eureka!]

Jack: [to himself, imitating Ramius] "Ryan, some things in here don't react well to bullets." Yeah, like me. I don't react well to bullets.

Captain: Ryan, sit here.
Jack: I'm not a Naval officer! I'm with the CIA!
Captain: CIA?
Jack: I'm not an agent, I just write books for the CIA!
Captain: Whatever. Sit here and do exactly what I tell you.

Adm. Painter: What's his plan?
Jack: His plan?
Adm. Painter: Russians don't take a dump, son, without a plan.

[last lines]
Captain: "... and the sea will grant each man new hope, as sleep brings dreams of home." Christopher Columbus.
Jack: Welcome to the New World, Captain.

Capt. Bart Mancuso: How did you know that his next turn would be to starboard?
Jack: I didn't. I had a 50/50 chance. I needed a break. Sorry.
Capt. Bart Mancuso: That's all right, Mr Ryan. My Morse is so rusty, I could be sending him dimensions on Playmate of the Month.

Helicopter: Fuel status says we turn back now.
Jack: Wait a minute. Fuel status? You have a reserve, don't you?
Helicopter: Yes, sir. I've got a ten minute reserve... but I'm not allowed to invade that except in time of war.
Jack: Listen, mister, if you don't get me on board that goddamn submarine, that just might be what you'll have! You got me? Now you have ten more minutes' worth of fuel, we stay here ten more minutes!

Jack: Where are we going, anyway?
Admiral: Briefing for Jeffrey Pelt, the President's National Security Advisor. Most of the Joint Chiefs will be there, along with a few other people.
Jack: Who's giving the briefing?
Admiral: You are.

Jeffrey: I can't ask any of these characters to go. One, they don't believe in it. Two, they'd never stake their reputation on a hunch. Whereas you...
Jack: ...are expendable.
Jeffrey: Something like that.

Jeffrey: You slammed the door on the General pretty hard, didn't you?
Jack: That was not my intention.
Jeffrey: Oh, yes, it was! He was patronizing you, and you stomped on him! And in my opinion, he deserved it!

[the Russian Alpha submarine shoots a torpedo at the Red October]
Capt. Vasili Borodin: Torpedo impact, 20 seconds.
Captain: [to Ryan] What books?
Jack: [confused] Pardon me?
Captain: What books did you write?
Jack: I wrote a biography of, of Admiral Halsey, called "The Fighting Sailor", about, uh, naval combat tactics...
Captain: I know this book!
Capt. Vasili Borodin: Torpedo impact...
Captain: Your conclusions were all wrong, Ryan...
Capt. Vasili Borodin: ...10 seconds.
Captain: ...Halsey acted stupidly.
[Ryan is dumbfounded that Ramius' mind is about book criticism, while they are about to be hit by a torpedo within a few seconds]
Capt. Vasili Borodin: 9, 8, 7, 6...
[Ryan looks worriedly at captain Mancuso]
Capt. Vasili Borodin: 5, 4, 3, 2...
[everyone prepares for the impact]
Capt. Vasili Borodin: Torpedo impact... now.
[the torpedo slams into the bow of Red October and breaks up harmlessly on impact. The Red October is unharmed. The broken shards of the torpedo drift away]
Capt. Bart Mancuso: I'll be damned.
Jack: What happened?
Capt. Bart Mancuso: Combat tactics, Mr. Ryan. By turning into the torpedo, the Captain closed the distance before it could arm itself.

Jack: [after a torpedo broke up harmlessly on the Red October's hull] What happened?
Capt. Bart Mancuso: Combat tactics, Mr. Ryan. By turning into the torpedo, the captain closed the distance before it could arm itself.
Jack: So that's it?
Captain: Not quite. Right now, Captain Tupolev is removing the safety features on all his weapons. He won't make the same mistake twice.

[Shootout in the missile room]
Captain: Hey, Ryan, be careful what you shoot at. Most things in here don't react too well to bullets.
Jack: Right.
[Moves closer to enemy, who fires several shots at him]
Jack: *I* have to be careful what *I* shoot at?

[to himself, just before being lowered off a helicopter]
Jack: Next time, Jack, write a goddamn memo.

Capt. Bart Mancuso: [Ramius comments in Russian to Borodin that Mancuso is a "buckaroo". Ryan laughs] What's so funny?
Jack: Ah, the Captain seems to think you're some kind of... cowboy.
Captain: [spoken "You parle ruski"] You speak Russian.
Jack: [in Russian] A little. It is wise to study the ways of ones adversary. Don't you think?
Captain: [in English] It is.