The Best Jed Quotes

Jed: [in the mountains] Matt and I have been coming up to these mountains with our dad our whole lives. We can hunt, we can fish, we can stay up here a long, long time.
Robert: How long, Jed?
[fighters and bombers pass overhead]
Jed: [indicating the jets above them] Until we don't hear *that* no more.

Jed: My family would want me to stay alive. Your family would want you to stay alive. You think you're so smart, man, but you're just a bunch of scared kids.
Danny: So what do you think *you* are?
Jed: ...Alone, I guess.
Matt: [comes and stands with him] No, you're not.

Col. Andy Tanner: [Describing the invasion] West Coast. East Coast. Down here is Mexico. First wave of the Soviet attack came in disguised as commercial charter flights the same way they did in Afghanistan in January 1980. Only they were crack Airborne outfits. Now, they took these mountain passes in the Rockies.
Jed: So, that's what hit Calumet?
Col. Andy Tanner: I guess so. They coordinated with selective nuke strikes and the missiles were a hell of a lot more accurate than we thought. They took out the silos here in the Dakotas, key points of communication.
Darryl: Like what?
Col. Andy Tanner: Oh, like Omaha, Washington, Kansas City.
Darryl: Gone?
Col. Andy Tanner: Yeah. That's right. Infiltrators came up illegal from Mexico. Cubans mostly. They managed to infiltrate SAC bases in the Midwest, several down in Texas and wreaked a helluva lot of havoc, I'm here to tell you. They opened up the door down here, and the whole Cuban and Nicaraguan and Latin American armies come walking right through, rolled right up here through the Great Plains.
Robert: How far did they get?
Col. Andy Tanner: Cheyenne, Wyoming... . across to Kansas. We held them at the Rockies and the Mississippi. Anyway, the Russians reinforced with 60 divisions. Sent three whole army groups across the Bering Strait into Alaska, cut the pipeline, came across Canada to link up here in the middle, but we stopped their butt cold. The lines have pretty much stabilized now.
Robert: What about Europe?
Col. Andy Tanner: I guess they figured twice in one century was enough. They're sitting this one out. All except England, and they won't last very long.

Jed: How did you get shot down, Colonel?
Col. Andy Tanner: It was five to one. I got four.

Jed: [the Wolverines discover that Daryl has been "bugged" by the Russo-Cubans] Daryl... Where is it? Where is it?
[Jed grabs Daryl, gets in Daryl's face and shouts]
Jed: GOD-DAMMIT, WHERE'S THE BUG?
Darryl: They made me swallow it.
Matt: Daryl, what have you done?
Darryl: [nearly in tears] I went into town... and got caught.
Jed: [shaking him and screeching with rage] YOU WENT AND GOT CAUGHT! WHY?
Darryl: [His voice breaks] You said we couldn't...
Robert: You told them where we were, didn't you? You told them!
Darryl: [sobbing] My father turned me in. Oh God, they do things you can't imagine.
Jed: [throws him down, growling with rage] AAAAGGHHH! You SON OF A BITCH!

Jed: [having killed Colonel Strelnikov, who has mortally wounded Jed and Matt] You can rest now. Just hang on, Mattie. It's okay... Daddy'll be here soon. Come on, Mattie. I'll hold you as long as I can... You can lean on me, Mattie... I'm so tired...
[He and Matt die in each other's arms]

Tom: [at the Calumet Drive-in, which is now a Communist "re-education camp"] Remember when you used to go in the park and play... and I used to put you on the swings... and both of you were... so damn little?
Jed: I remember. I remember all of it.
Tom: [to Jed and Matt] I ain't gonna be around to pick you up when you fall now. Both of you gotta take care of each other now.

Jed: One thing's for sure now... No one can ever go home again. Never.

Jed: [at the execution of Daryl Bates and Stepan Gorsky] Do you want blindfolds?
Stepan: This violates the Geneva convention.
Jed: I never heard of it!
Stepan: Dogface! I show you how Soviet dies!
Robert: I've seen it before, pal.
Danny: [who is tied up in the distance, with the horses] This isn't happening! Jed, let him go! He was one of us!
Jed: Shut up, Danny! Shut up!
Robert: He told them where we were!
Jed: He did. Now get your rifles.
Matt: *No!*
Jed: WHAT DID YOU SAY?
Matt: *We're not doing it!*
Stepan: [to Daryl] Boy, say at me you are friend, so I will not die alone.
Matt: What's the difference, Jed?
Robert: I'll do it.
Matt: Shut up, Robert!
[to Jed]
Matt: *Tell me what's the difference between us and them!*
Jed: Because WE *LIVE* HERE!
[kills Stepan; Robert kills Daryl]

Matt: [after their flight from Calumet, Jed is fixing the radiator on his pickup-truck] Did you get it?
Jed: Yeah, I got it. Only thing is, we got one problem: we don't have any water.
Matt: How about pissing in it?
Jed: That's a good idea. Get up here.
[laughs]
Danny: How do you know it'll work?
Jed: How old are you, kid?
Danny: Fifteen. And the name's Danny, not "kid."
Jed: Well, when you grow up... then you'll know these things, Danny. Now get up here and piss in the radiator.

Jed: [they are surveying a wintery landscape, as several tanks gather on both sides to shoot it out] You got across *that*?
Col. Andy Tanner: Just part of it. I hope our guys are still there.
Jed: So this is the battlefield?
Col. Andy Tanner: It's a real war, kid. It's here every day.

Col. Andy Tanner: The Russians need to take us in one piece, and that's why they're here. That's why they won't use nukes anymore; and we won't either, not on our own soil. The whole damn thing's pretty conventional now. Who knows? Maybe next week will be swords.
Darryl: What started it?
Col. Andy Tanner: I don't know. Two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later, they're gonna fight.
Jed: That simple, is it?
Col. Andy Tanner: Or maybe somebody just forget what it was like.
Jed: Well... . who is on our side?
Col. Andy Tanner: Six hundred million screaming Chinamen.
Darryl: Last I heard, there were a billion screaming Chinamen.
Col. Andy Tanner: There were... .
[he throws whiskey on the fire; it ignites violently, suggesting a nuclear explosion]

Jed: [after the deaths of Aardvark and Colonel Tanner] It's kind of strange, isn't it? How the mountains pay us no attention at all. You laugh or you cry... The wind just keeps on blowing.
Matt: You're getting pretty low on feelings, aren't you?
Jed: I can't afford them.
Matt: Even if that had been me instead of Aardvark?

Tom: Boys.
Matt: Daddy. Dad.
Tom: Don't talk. Don't say anything. Let me look at ya. I knew I was right. I knew it. You're alive. I was tough on both of you. I did things that made you, made you hate me sometimes. You understand now, don't you?
Jed: What happened, dad? Why are you here? What'd you do?
Tom: It doesn't matter. One way or another, for one reason or another, we're all gone. It's all gone. Remember. Remember when you used to go in the park and play, and I used to put you two on the swings? Both of you were so damn little.
Jed: I remember. I remember all of it.
Tom: Well, I won't be there to pick you up when you fall now. Both of you have to take care of each other now.
Matt: We'll never see you again, dad.
Tom: Yes you will. I don't want to hear that, Maddy.
Matt: What happened to mom, dad? Where is she?
Tom: She's not here. I don't know where they took her. You can't afford to be crying anymore now. I don't want either one of you to ever cry for me again. Don't ever do it. Not as long as you live.
Robert: Where's my dad, Mr. Eckert? Is he here?
Tom: I don't know, son. I don't know. You all get going. Get out before they find you.
Jed: Dad, I love you.
Tom: I know you do, son. I love you too.
[Tom, Jed, and Robert Leave]
Tom: Boys! Avenge Me! Avenge Me!

[while giving guns to freed Americans]
Jed: C'mon! We're all going to die, die standing up!

Mr. Mason: [the Wolverines arrive at the Mason house, where they will be joined by Toni and Erica] We got us some outlaws here.
Jed: Wow, a house.
Mr. Mason: Go on and find a chair.
Robert: Last time we were in a house was five weeks.
Mr. Mason: You look it.