Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin Quotes in Flicka (2006)

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: The stories we hear about how the West was won are all lies. The history of the West was written by the horse. Wherever a settler left his footprint there was a hoof print beside it. Men came further and further west to stake their claim on the great American wilderness. But they encountered a strength that couldn't be tamed - wild horses. Mustangs. The settlers called them parasites that would strip the land and starve their own herds. They couldn't domesticate them so they destroyed them. Isolated and hungry, they were on their way to disappearing from the face of the earth. Sometimes when the light disappears an afterimage remains - just for a second. Mustangs are an afterimage of the West, no better then ghosts, hardly there at all. No one really wants them, not ranchers, not city people - that's their destiny. Let them disappear once and for all, along with all the other misfits, loners, and relics of a wilderness no one cares about anymore. Lucky for us a few mustangs survived, hidden away in the mountains. We need to protect them, for they are the hope of some kind of living memory of what the promise of America used to be - and could be again. I believe there is a force in this world that lives beneath the surface, something primitive and wild that awakens when you need an extra push just to survive, like wildflowers that bloom after fire turns the forest black. Most people are afraid of it, and keep it buried deep inside themselves. But there will always be a few people who have the courage to love what is untamed inside us. One of those men is my father. There was once a time when Americans came West to discover their destiny. Today they seem to move around every which way, restless and unsettled. But I think they're still looking for the same thing - a place where they can be optimistic about the future, a place that helps them to be who they really want to be, where they can feel that this life makes sense, a place where they can feel what I feel when I'm riding Flicka - because when we're riding, all I feel... is free.

[last lines]

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: [narration] I believe there is a force in this world that lives beneath the surface, something primitive and wild that awakens when you need an extra push just to survive, like wildflowers that bloom after a fire turns the forest black. Most people are afraid of it and keep it buried deep inside themselves. But there will always be a few people who have the courage to love what is untamed inside us. One of those men is my father. There was once a time when Americans came west to discover their destiny. Today, they seem to move around every which way, restless and unsettled. But I think they're still looking for the same thing - a place where they can be optimistic about the future, a place that helps them to be who they really want to be, where they can feel that this life makes sense, a place where they can feel what I feel when I'm riding Flicka - because when we're riding, all I feel... is free.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Are you going to kill Flicka?

Rob McLaughlin: I'm just going to have a look at her, baby.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: It's okay, Daddy. You can shoot us.

[first lines]

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: [narration] I live on top of the world... in the Never Summer Mountains of Wyoming, 8,000 feet closer to the sky. In my mountains when spring finally comes to save me from a perpetual winter, the world comes to life again and I remember what it is I'm here for. I'm the only daughter in a long line of ranchers and when we let our horses out for the first time every spring, I love to watch them rediscover the world. I can see in them an expression of my own restless spirit. Charged with an appetite for adventure, they take to the land without hesitation. They are pure power. When I see them running wild and free, I often think of the first horses and how they were the true pioneers of America.

Howard McLaughlin: Hey, keep your voice down!

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Nobody can hear us way out here.

Howard McLaughlin: You didn't know? He's got hidden cameras and microphones everywhere!

[Pretends to use a walkie-talkie in the fence post]

Howard McLaughlin: Can you read me, Dad? Over. What's that? Yeah, yeah Dad, I'll tell her. Okay. Over and out. He said he doesn't need me. He said you're the one he needs... he just doesn't realize it yet.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Calm down, Flicka.

Nell McLaughlin: You named her?

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Flicka. That is the word, isn't it?

Gus: Oh, yeah. Beautiful um... young girl.

Jack: Well, you got the girl part right.

Howard McLaughlin: You can have Chariot.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: It's not the same thing.

Howard McLaughlin: Well, four legs and a tail. Food goes in the front, out the back.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: He doesn't listen when he's this mad!

Nell McLaughlin: You know what they say: "Anger is just fear on the way out."

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Nice try. He's not afraid of anything.

Nell McLaughlin: I don't know, you could scare the heck out of anybody.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Yeah, right.

Nell McLaughlin: When you were three, you climbed out of bed, unlatched the kitchen door, and walked outside. He found you in Lightning's stall. That horse was crazy, he could've killed you and you were laughing.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: I don't remember that.

Nell McLaughlin: Yeah, well he does. Parents have this kind of... selective memory. Sometimes I think I can't remember what I did yesterday and then I swear I can remember every injury, every close-call, every 'another inch and they could've been killed' that ever happened to my children. Try and understand what it feels like to be responsible for something you love so much.

Rick Koop: Sweetie, everything changes in this life. You know, one day some lucky guy's gonna marry you. What are you gonna do if he doesn't want a ranch?

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Break off the engagement.

Rick Koop: [laughs] Oh, wait 'til you fall in love, sweetie.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Well, then I guess I won't fall in love.

Jack: [Jack finds Katie in the corral taming Flicka] You're not supposed to go in there!

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: What's it to you?

Jack: You could get hurt. Besides, it's what your father says.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: How long are you gonna be afraid of my father?

Jack: Um. Forever. And you? Why are you sneaking out here in the middle of the night if you're not scared?

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Because I have to.

Jack: The, I'll let nobody stop you.

Rob McLaughlin: [to Nell] You're not protecting her, you're crippling her and she'll end up being as useless as that dang mustang.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: [to Rob] Flicka isn't useless! She wants to learn.

Rob McLaughlin: No, she doesn't. You want something that doesn't exist. It's time you see her for what she is.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: I know what she is!

Rob McLaughlin: How do you know a dang thing about that creature?

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Because we're the same!

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: [to Rob about seeing a mountain lion] I don't know where I saw it exactly, but it was there.

Jack: Did you see Sasquatch, too?

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Did somebody ask for your opinion?

[Jack shuts up]

Rob McLaughlin: Help me understand something, Katie. He said he gave you the topic to your final essay in advance, and you turned in a blank paper. Not one word, and two hours for the exam.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: I wrote it in my head-just didn't put it down.

Rob McLaughlin: In your head.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Wouldn't have made a difference anyway. They just want us to spit back exactly what they wanna hear. I have an opinion, it's just not their opinion.

Rob McLaughlin: Well, their opinion is that you should repeat the year, just throw it away. Do you realize what this family does without so that you can go to a private school? Truck's passing 200,000 miles. Well, let's see if it'll do another 50. The barn roof's about to blow away. We'll patch it again for the umpteenth time and all so you can go to a fancy boarding school. But I'll go along because your mother wants you to go to college.

Nell McLaughlin: Hey, your father wants it, too.

Rob McLaughlin: Well, now we'll have to worry if she'll even graduate.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: [tearfully, to Howard about him leaving for Boston University] And now you're going away.

Howard McLaughlin: Come on. I'm changing time zones, not solar systems.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: The people have spoken.

Howard McLaughlin: No, the inmates have taken over the asylum.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: [to Rob] But you said if I don't get back into school then...

Rob McLaughlin: Yes, that's what I said and I meant it.

Howard McLaughlin: So Dad sent them your essay.

Rob McLaughlin: Told 'em I didn't know much about writing, but I sure as heck know about the west and so does my daughter and it's right there in her essay. Every opinionated, ornery, hot-blooded part of it.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: What did they say?

Nell McLaughlin: What does anyone say to your father?

Howard McLaughlin, Nell McLaughlin: Yes, sir!

[all laugh]

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: A trim, split ends. That's it.

Nell McLaughlin: Sweetheart, just a few inches for the summer.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: No.

Nell McLaughlin: You stop it. I get better reasoned arguments from the hens.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Short hair makes me look like a boy.

Nell McLaughlin: No. That would be impossible, you're so beautiful. What was that thing that uh, Gus said? You're a... a flicka.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: A flicka?

Nell McLaughlin: Yeah. 'Pretty girl'.

[changes the subject]

Nell McLaughlin: So how's your friend Stephanie?

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Shallow. Vain.

[Nell laughs]

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: The usual.

Nell McLaughlin: Since when?

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: Since Eric. Or was it Justin? I lost track.

Nell McLaughlin: Well, you never know what'll happen. People can surprise you.

[pours bucket of water on Katie's head]

Nell McLaughlin: Surprise!

[Katie shrieks and chases Nell, both are laughing]

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: [to Nell] That's the wild horse. Isn't she beautiful?

Nell McLaughlin: Well, she's something, that's for sure.

Rob McLaughlin: That's a dangerous animal.

Katherine "Katie" McLoughlin: She's just scared.

Nell McLaughlin: I'd say she's about two years-old.

Rob McLaughlin: Yeah, two years wild.