Matthias Quotes in Mission: Impossible (1996)

Ethan Hunt: I thought I was going to see Max.

Matthias: You misunderstood. No one sees Max.

Ethan Hunt: Then what am I doing here?

Matthias: Allowing Max to see you and hear what you've got to say.

Ethan Hunt: I don't communicate very well through a shroud.

Matthias: If Max doesn't like what you have to say, you will be wearing that shroud indefinitely.

Matthias: Mr. Hauser, What is it you want?

Doug Quaid: I want to help you.

Matthias: That is not the only reason you are here.

Doug Quaid: I want to remember.

Matthias: Why?

Doug Quaid: So I can be myself, be who I was.

Matthias: It is each man's quest to find out who he truly is, but the answer to that lies in the present, not in the past. As it is for all of us.

Doug Quaid: But the past tells us who we've become.

Matthias: The past is a construct of the mind. It blinds us. It fools us into believing it. But the heart wants to live in the present. Look there. You'll find your answer.

Matthias: The past is just a mental construct.

[describing Neville]

Matthias: One creature, caught. Caught in a place he cannot stir from in the dark, alone, outnumbered hundreds to one, nothing to live for but his memories, nothing to live with but his gadgets, his cars, his guns, gimmicks... and yet the whole family can't bring him down from that, that...

Zachary: Honky paradise, brother?

Matthias: Forget the old ways, brother, all the old hatreds.

Matthias: Definition of a scientist - a man who understands nothing until there was nothing left to understand.

Neville: So, there is a little light in the forest after all.

Matthias: You are discarded. You are the refuse of the past.

Neville: You are full of crap!

Matthias: Here is the instrument of cleansing, my brethren. And nothing quite cleanses like fire.

[the members of the Family smashes and destroys Neville's penthouse apartment, rendering it as evil and as a thing of the past while Matthias and newly possessed Lisa watches on]

Matthias: We waited for you, Neville, so you could see this: The end. The end of all you done. You see, none of it was real. It was illusion. Your art, your science, it was all a nightmare. And now it's done. Finished. My brethren, our task is nearly complete. He was the last of those who brought the punishment to us. We have cleansed and purged his world. Now we must build.

Robert Neville: [defiant] Build coffins. That's all you'll need.

Matthias: Bring him!

Matthias: Take him to the little room... for questioning.

Matthias: Now we must build.

Robert Neville: Build coffins, that's all you'll need.

[Matthias throws a spear at Neville, hitting him and leaving a big gash in his chest]

Matthias: The bad dream is over, friend Neville. Now we can sleep in peace.

Robert Neville: [raspy] Lisa!

Lisa: [weakly] Robert, you're evil. I-I-I'm part of the Family, Robert. I'm sorry.

Lisa: [drowsy] The Family, Robert. Y - Uh... You don't understand. Oh... Robert...

[Members of the Family enter the room as Matthias is about to sentence Robert]

Matthias: He has confessed all, brothers: Murder, Use of forbidden tools, Practice of prescribed rights, Emit science, Medicine, Weapons, Machinery, Electricity. He has not shared the punishment. He does not bear the marks.

Robert Neville: Marks?

Matthias: Show him, my children. Show him the pretty marks.

[the members take off their sunglasses, revealing their albino, near-blind eyes]

Matthias: These are the marks, Mr. Neville. The punishment which you and those like you brought upon us. In the beginning, we tried to help one another, those that were left. We tried to clean things up, set things straight. We buried things and burned. Then it came to me and we were chosen. Chosen for just this work: To bury what was dead. To burn what was evil. To destroy what was dangerous.

Robert Neville: You're barbarians.

Matthias: Barbarians? You call us barbarians? Well... it is an honorable name. We mean to cancel the world you civilized people made. We will simply erase history from the time that machinery and weapons threaten more than they offered. And when you die, the last living reminder of hell will be gone. Gone! Brother Zachary?

Zachary: We are ready, brother.

[At the deserted Dodger Stadium, Neville is tied up in an auto de fe and about to be burned at the stake]

Matthias: Here is evil.

Followers: Evil. Evil.

Matthias: Is this not the place where all the dead were burned?

Followers: Yes.

Matthias: [points to Neville] And this is the last of the dead! And what shall we do with him, my brethren?

Followers: Burn. Burn!

Matthias: Yes, burn. BURN!

Matthias: And, oh, brothers and sisters, I ask you to look at him. Does he have the marks? Do you see them?

Followers: No.

Matthias: You see him as we were before the punishment. Before we gained grace. You see lying there the last of scientists, of bankers, of businessmen. The users of the wheel.

Followers: Yes.

Matthias: Do we use the tools of the wheel as he does?

Followers: No.

Matthias: Is he of the Family?

Zachary, Followers: No.

Matthias: Is he of the sacred society?

Followers: No.

Matthias: Then what is he?

Followers: Evil!

Matthias: [stands up] He is part of the dead. He has no place here. He has the stink of oil, maletrical circitry about him. He is obsolete.

[Neville comes to]

Matthias: [points to him] You are discarded. You are the refuse of the past!

Robert Neville: You're full of crap.

Matthias: How hard it is to admit the truth. Take him to the little room... for the questioning.

Matthias: We Shall Cleanse the World!

Matthias: Look, I don't think it ought to be blasphemy, just saying "Jehovah".

[Everyone gasps]

Jewish Official: You're only making it worse for yourself!

Matthias: Making it worse? How could it be worse? Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!

Jewish Official: I'm warning you! If you say "Jehovah" once more...

[Gets hit with a rock]

Jewish Official: Right! Who threw that? Come on, who threw that?

Stoners: She did! She!

[Suddenly speaking as men]

Stoners: Him! Him. Him.

Jewish Official: Was it you?

Stoner: Yes.

Jewish Official: Right...

Stoner: Well you did say "Jehovah".

[Crowd throws rocks at the stoner]

Jewish Official: Stop it! Stop! Stop, will you... stop that!

[Jumps angrily]

Jewish Official: Stop it! Now look: no one is to stone anyone until I blow this whistle, do you understand? Even - and I want to make this absolutely clear - even if they do say "Jehovah".

[Crowd stones the Jewish Official to death]

Stoners: Gotcha!

Centurion: You know the penalty laid down by Roman law for harboring a known criminal?

Matthias: No.

Centurion: Crucifixion!

Matthias: Oh.

Centurion: Nasty, eh?

Matthias: Could be worse.

Centurion: What you mean "Could be worse"?

Matthias: Well, you could be stabbed.

Centurion: Stabbed? Takes a second. Crucifixion lasts hours. It's a slow, horrible death.

Matthias: Well, at least it gets you out in the open air.

Centurion: You're weird!

Matthias: [Answering the summons of the door] My legs are old and bent, my ears are grizzled, yes?

Centurion: There's one place we didn't look. Guards!

[the guards troop into the house]

Matthias: ...Nose is knackered.

Centurion: Have you ever seen anyone crucified?

Matthias: Crucifixion's a doddle.

Centurion: ...Don't keep saying that.

Lead Search Guard: [Guards troop out, last guard pauses] Found this spoon, sir.

Centurion: Well done, Sergeant!

Centurion: We'll be back... Oddball...

Matthias: All I did was say to my wife, "That piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah!"

Matthias: Crucifixion's a doddle.

Centurion: Don't keep saying that.

Centurion: We'll be back, weirdo.

Matthias: [quietly] Bignose.

Centurion: Watch it!