Jed Eckert Quotes in Red Dawn (2012)

Jed Eckert: Marines don't die, they go to hell and regroup.

Jed Eckert: You fucked with the wrong family.

Jed Eckert: I'm going to fight. I'm going to fight. Now, this is easier for me because I'm used to it. The rest of you are gonna have a tougher choice. Look, I don't want to sell it to you; it's too ugly for that. It's ugly, and it's hard. But when you're fighting in your own backyard, and you're fighting for your family, it all hurts a little less and it makes a little more sense. And for them, this is just some place, but for us? This is our home.

Jed Eckert: When I was overseas we were the good guys. We enforced order. Well, now? We're the bad guys, and we create chaos.

Jed Eckert: Even the tiniest flea can drive a big dog crazy.

Jed Eckert: [walking past Tanner] We're the Wolverines.

Tanner: [to himself after Jed, Robert & Matt have passed] I was afraid of that.

Tanner: We're trying to link up with a group of insurgents working in the area. Call themselves Wolverines. You ever hear of them?

Julie: Yeah, we've heard of them.

Jed Eckert: You here to help them out?

Tanner: No. Actually, we were hoping they can help *us* out.

Col. Andy Tanner: [Describing the invasion] West Coast. East Coast. Down here is Mexico. First wave of the attack came in disguised as commercial charter flights same way they did in Afghanistan in '80. Only they were crack Airborne outfits. Now they took these passes in the Rockies.

Jed Eckert: So that's what hit Calumet.

Col. Andy Tanner: I guess so. They coordinated with selective nuke strikes and the missiles were a helluva lot more accurate than we thought. They took out the silos here in the Dakotas, key points of communication.

Darryl Bates: Like what?

Col. Andy Tanner: Oh, like Omaha, Washington, Kansas City.

Darryl Bates: 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 & Nicaraguan armies come walking right through, rolled right up here through the Great Plains.

Robert: How far did they get?

Col. Andy Tanner: Cheyenne, 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.

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 Bates: 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 Eckert: That simple, is it?

Col. Andy Tanner: Or maybe somebody just forget what it was like.

Jed Eckert: ...Well, who *is* on our side?

Col. Andy Tanner: Six hundred million screaming Chinamen.

Darryl Bates: 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 Eckert: How did you get shot down, Colonel?

Col. Andy Tanner: It was five to one. I got four.

Jed Eckert: [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 Eckert: GOD-DAMMIT, WHERE'S THE BUG?

Darryl Bates: They made me swallow it.

Matt Eckert: Daryl, what have you done?

Darryl Bates: [nearly in tears] I went into town... and got caught.

Jed Eckert: [shaking him and screeching with rage] YOU WENT AND GOT CAUGHT! WHY?

Darryl Bates: [His voice breaks] You said we couldn't...

Robert: You told them where we were, didn't you? You told them!

Darryl Bates: [sobbing] My father turned me in. Oh God, they do things you can't imagine.

Jed Eckert: [throws him down, growling with rage] AAAAGGHHH! You SON OF A BITCH!

Jed Eckert: [at the execution of Daryl Bates and Stepan Gorsky] Do you want blindfolds?

Stepan Gorsky: This violates the Geneva convention.

Jed Eckert: I never heard of it!

Stepan Gorsky: 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 Eckert: Shut up, Danny! Shut up!

Robert: He told them where we were!

Jed Eckert: He did. Now get your rifles.

Matt Eckert: *No!*

Jed Eckert: WHAT DID YOU SAY?

Matt Eckert: *We're not doing it!*

Stepan Gorsky: [to Daryl] Boy, say at me you are friend, so I will not die alone.

Matt Eckert: What's the difference, Jed?

Robert: I'll do it.

Matt Eckert: Shut up, Robert!

[to Jed]

Matt Eckert: *Tell me what's the difference between us and them!*

Jed Eckert: Because WE *LIVE* HERE!

[kills Stepan; Robert kills Daryl]

[while giving guns to freed Americans]

Jed Eckert: 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 Eckert: 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.

Matt Eckert: [after their flight from Calumet, Jed is fixing the radiator on his pickup-truck] Did you get it?

Jed Eckert: Yeah, I got it. Only thing is, we got one problem: we don't have any water.

Matt Eckert: How about pissing in it?

Jed Eckert: That's a good idea. Get up here.

[laughs]

Danny: How do you know it'll work?

Jed Eckert: How old are you, kid?

Danny: Fifteen. And the name's Danny, not "kid."

Jed Eckert: Well, when you grow up... then you'll know these things, Danny. Now get up here and piss in the radiator.

Jed Eckert: You got a family?

Col. Andy Tanner: I don't know.

Jed Eckert: 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 Eckert: ...Alone, I guess.

Matt Eckert: [comes and stands with him] No, you're not.

Jed Eckert: [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 Eckert: [indicating the jets above them] Until we don't hear *that* no more.

Jed Eckert: [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 Eckert: So this is the battlefield?

Col. Andy Tanner: It's a real war, kid. It's here every day.

Jed Eckert: [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 Eckert: You're getting pretty low on feelings, aren't you?

Jed Eckert: I can't afford them.

Matt Eckert: Even if that had been me instead of Aardvark?

Tom Eckert: [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 Eckert: I remember. I remember all of it.

Tom Eckert: [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 Eckert: [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]

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

Alicia: They're looking for you.

Jed Eckert: Who?

Alicia: The KGB.

Jed Eckert: The Russians?

Alicia: And the Cubans.