John Preston Quotes in Equilibrium (2002)

Mary: Let me ask you something.

[Grabs his hand]

Mary: Why are you alive?

John Preston: [Breaks free] I'm alive... I live... to safeguard the continuity of this great society. To serve Libria.

Mary: It's circular. You exist to continue your existence. What's the point?

John Preston: What's the point of your existence?

Mary: To feel. 'Cause you've never done it, you can never know it. But it's as vital as breath. And without it, without love, without anger, without sorrow, breath is just a clock... ticking.

John Preston: I'll do what I can to see they go easy on you.

Partridge: We both know they never "go easy".

John Preston: Then, I'm sorry.

Partridge: No, you're not. You don't even know the meaning. Its just a vestigial word for a feeling you've never felt.

John Preston: There's no war. No murder.

Partridge: What is it you think we do?

John Preston: No. You've been with me, you've seen how it can be - the jealousy, rage.

Partridge: A heavy cost. I pay it gladly.

[Reaches for his gun]

[last lines]

DuPont: Wait! Wait! Look at me. Look at me. I'm life. I live... I, I breathe... I feel. Now that you know it... can you really take it? Is it really worth the price?

[Preston sees a flash of Mary's face]

John Preston: I pay it gladly.

DuPont: And you, Preston, the supposed savior of the resistance, are now its destroyer, and, along with them, you've given me yourself... calmly... coolly... entirely without incident.

John Preston: [Polygraph machine scribbling rapidly] No.

[Polygraph suddenly registers Preston completely in control]

Polygraph Technician: Oh... Shit.

John Preston: Not without incident.

Robbie Preston: Looking for something. If I were you I'd be more careful in future.

John Preston: How long?

Robbie Preston: Since mom

John Preston: And Lisa

Robbie Preston: Of course

John Preston: How did you know?

Robbie Preston: You forget. It's my job to know what you're thinking.

John Preston: And you know what I'm gonna do now.

Brandt: Always practicing, Cleric. Maybe that's why you're the best.

John Preston: Maybe I'm just better.

John Preston: When we return from the Nether it always reminds me of why we do what we do.

Partridge: It does?

John Preston: [pauses; He takes notice of Partridge's intonation] I beg your pardon?

Partridge: [Withdraws Prozium-administering device from his pocket and injects himself with it] It does.

Jurgen: Will you do it?

John Preston: Yes.

Jurgen: Can you?

John Preston: I don't know.

Robbie Preston: [Mutes TV] John?

John Preston: Yes?

Robbie Preston: I saw Robbie Taylor crying today. He didn't know, but I saw. Do you think I should report him?

John Preston: Unquestionably.

[trying to convince a group of rebels that he's letting them escape]

John Preston: Go. Go, damn you!

[sees another rebel being shot and knows this group will be next]

John Preston: Get out of here, God damn it! If you don't, you're dead!

Rebel: Don't do it. He'll shoot us in the back.

John Preston: If I was gonna shoot you, I'd shoot you in the face. Now go.

John Preston: You're an offender!

Reading Room Proprietor: I'm not!

John Preston: No? Then why are you so scared of me?

Mary: You can't do this! You cannot do this!

John Preston: Tetragrammaton. There's nothing we can't do.

DuPont: It is not the will of the Council, it is the will of Father and he is law.

John Preston: Sir... without the logic of process, is it not just mayhem - what we have worked so hard to eradicate?

DuPont: You must understand, Preston, that while you - and even I - may not always agree with it,it is not the message that is important, it is our obedience to it. Father's will. Call it faith. You have it, I assume?

John Preston: Yes. I have it.

DuPont: Good.

Mary: What... what'll you do?

John Preston: ...I don't know.

John Preston: Then I have no choice but to remand you to the Palace of Justice for processing.

Mary: Processing. You mean execution, don't you?

John Preston: Processing.

John Preston: I'm coming.

John Preston: You're absolutely 100% right, sir.

DuPont: Of course I am.

John Preston: Interesting...

[knocks a man into a wall]

John Preston: Watch out!

John Preston: *Acting* Director-General. Bernard Hemmings isn't dead yet.

Brian Harcourt-Smith: [through growing, though restrained anger] Look, Preston, let's get one thing perfectly clear. If, or rather *when*, I am confirmed as head of this department, you are simply going to disappear, without trace!

John Preston: I will bear that in mind.

Brian Harcourt-Smith: Meantime, I want another report, complete in every detail, on my desk, before you go home!

John Preston: Would that include this meeting, sir?

Brian Harcourt-Smith: [finally losing his temper] DO IT!

John Preston: Have they told you anything?

Captain Lyndhurst: Just that he's a terrorist.

John Preston: Oh, he's more than just a terrorist. He is a top Soviet agent, a pro.

Captain Lyndhurst: Is he alone?

John Preston: Maybe there's a woman in there. He's armed with a bomb.

Captain Lyndhurst: How big a bomb?

John Preston: Atomic bomb.

[Lyndhurst and the other SAS stop what they're doing and look at John in stunned silence]

John Preston: [to Karpov] You and Irvine set it up, didn't you?. You gave us Petrovsky in exchange for the evidence you will use to destroy Govershin. You could very well become the next Chairman of the KGB.

Sir Nigel Irvine: Preston, you're out of your depth.

John Preston: It's just a game to you, isn't it? You both don't give a shit about anything except your lousy careers! It's about time they put you in a fucking museum!

General Karpov: [as Preston walks away] Do you think he'll talk?

Brian Harcourt-Smith: [after Preston finds out about the polonium disc and presents his report] I regard this report as alarmist, irresponsible and lacking sufficient evidence.

John Preston: [surprised and irritated] Evidence? Can't you read?

[Forcefully]

John Preston: That metal disc can only be used as part of trigger for an atom bomb...

Brian Harcourt-Smith: That remains to be seen. Don't think I don't know what's goin' on Preston. You're trying to worm your way back into favours by dreaming up some far fetched story of which you naturally are the hero...

John Preston: And you're trying to kick out anyone who doesn't make themselves available to get your arse. But if you were to look at this thing straight, just for a moment, you'd find that there is something goin' on out there...

Brian Harcourt-Smith: It is my prerogative as the head of this country's security service...

[interrupted by a visibly disgusted John Preston]

John Preston: *Acting head* sunshine. And if you ask me you're acting like a complete asshole.

Brian Harcourt-Smith: [after a brief pause a fuming but restrained Harcourt-Smith takes the report and writes as he speaks aloud] NO FURTHER ACTION. And you are suspended for insubordination, indefinately.

[a frustrated Preston has a resigned look on his face]

John Preston: [Livid, on seeing a defenceless Valeri being assassinated by SAS] WE NEEDED TO TALK TO HIM!

Captain Lyndhurst: [Matter of factly] Sorry Boss... orders!

Wynne-Evans: It's polonium.

John Preston: What's polonium?

Wynne-Evans: Well, when combined with lithium, the two together form an "initiator." That's... a detonator for a bomb.

John Preston: A bomb?

Wynne-Evans: An atomic bomb.