Sinclair Quotes in Turbulence (1997)

Sinclair: Wait a minute, wait a minute. You've got a 747 beat to hell by level 6 turbulence, your flight crew is dead, you've got an armed convicted serial killer loose on board, eight passengers have disappeared, and your stewardess is locked in the goddamned cockpit. Have I left anything out?

Controller: You forgot about the truck.

[it's stuck to the landing gear]

Sinclair: How's a fucking stewardess going to land the plane?

Rachel Taper: She's a flight attendant!

Sinclair: Man, if we get outta this thing, I want you to come to the States. I'll show you some stuff that you'll never believe.

Vodovsky: No way, my friend. I'm told in the States they shoot Communists in the streets.

Sinclair: Hell, man. In Detroit, my hometown, they shoot EVERYBODY in the streets!

Sinclair: Those fools in the tower know exactly what they're doing which is more than I can say for you bunch of idiots.

Sinclair: They brought you all here to fail!

Gen. Stillmore: [watching mission slides noticing Sinclair coming in the room] Pull up a chair! This is one hell of a mess isn't it? I know you've done your best, General, but in light of this catastrophe I'm going to have to recommend that this mission be canceled. It all seemed harmless enough at the time didn't it? Russian Military General, U.S. Defense secretary they get together. They figure a small tactical force would save more lives than the plan we offered them. Hell anyone could buy that, huh? But then they decide on this joint-forces bullshit cause they think it'll get us a little further down the road to detente'. That's when I had to part company. You more than anyone Sinclair, you can see how that road leads to disaster.

Sinclair: You set us up didn't you?

Gen. Stillmore: What are you saying?

Sinclair: You know damn well what I'm saying. You had the deck stacked against us from the get go. You sent me the biggest bunch of misfits you could find. Knowing full well they couldn't get along with each other much less the Russians.

Gen. Stillmore: You're out of your mind.

Sinclair: Am I? I got proof right here.

[holding up a file]

Sinclair: It's Major Bush's file. Open it.

Gen. Stillmore: Now look here...

Sinclair: Open it!

Gen. Stillmore: What the hell am I supposed to find in here?

Sinclair: Something that's not in there. Bush's medical record. I called his former C.O., told me all about it, said Bush has acute claustrophobia in tight terrain. That's something you boys conveniently left out of his flight record. He should never have been chosen for this mission! How could you do that?

Gen. Stillmore: What would you've done you self-righteous son-of-a-bitch? Put us in bed with the Communists? Somebody's gotta do what's right for this country!

Sinclair: Yeah. Well. I'm sure Stratford is gonna want to hear that.

Gen. Stillmore: Hear about what? That you failed? Ha! He knows that. Anything else you tell him it'll be your word against ours. You really think he's gonna listen to a one star General put out to pasture?

Sinclair: May I be dismissed, sir?

Gen. Stillmore: Gladly!

Col. Vardovsky: [sitting at the bar and noticing Sinclair coming over] Mmmm! A drink General!

Sinclair: How much of this did you know, Colonel?

Col. Vardovsky: What? I have been relieved of my command just like you.

Sinclair: Oh, God you don't get it do you? They used you, man. They used me too.

Col. Vardovsky: Used us for what?

Sinclair: To fail, god damn it! God! Isn't it obvious by now? Look at this you got Yuri Lebanov, three times reprimanded by The Party. Georgi Koshkin: five years disciplinary duty in Siberia.

Col. Vardovsky: Thousands of innocent lives.

Sinclair: What?

Col. Vardovsky: Didn't they tell you?

Sinclair: No what?

Col. Vardovsky: Our military commander is flying a plane to the target with full nuclear payload. Your military is doing the same. The fallout will wipe out every village within hundreds of miles of that gorge.

Sinclair: Well I'm not in the habit of failing. Our men are due to rotate out of here in the morning? You get them on the tar-mac first thing in the morning.

Col. Vardovsky: Ohh...

Sinclair: You do it! You fill them in you tell them the story. Do it!

[slams a shot glass on the bar like a gavel]

Sinclair: [walking up to Vardovsky on the tar-mac on the morning of flying back home] Did you tell them?

Col. Vardovsky: Everything.

Sinclair: Well now you know.

Graves: Yes, sir.

Sinclair: That suits me just fine. I'm sick and tired of workin with a bunch of Commies anyway.

[Downs starts lauging and Chappy joins in]

Sinclair: Hey, here's your chance.

[holds up an Uzi 9mm]

Sinclair: Shoot one of them commie bastards.

[Downs and Chappy laughs as Chappy gives him an Uzi]

Sinclair: Shoot one of them! Ohhh I get it you don't want to shoot an unarmed man! Koshkin come here.

[gives Koshkin an Uzi, Koshkin shoots down at the ground]

Sinclair: What's the matter! Don't any of you have the guts to shoot the enemy? Hey Cooper, Lebanov come here.

[holds both Uzis for them to take]

Sinclair: Here you go. Come on! Well, come on!

[neither takes a step towards Chappy for a gun]

Sinclair: That's what I thought. Nobody has the guts! You're losers that's what they said. They sent you guys here because they knew you were gonna fail, and you know what they picked right! But I'm grateful to you, you know I'm very grateful because you taught me something today you taught me something about courage. It took a lot of courage to come over here with a bunch of people from the other side when deep down you hated what they stood for! You know I'm really grateful it took a lot of courage to hold on to that prejudice when we fought so hard to cut it out of you! Very grateful, people. But as you fly out of here today I want you to ask yourselves one thing. Where was that courage when you had the chance to stop them from killing thousands of people who had no reason to die? Ah! Well you're transports will leave here in an hour, and you'll go home a bunch of failures and a bunch of losers!

[walks away from the bunch]

Cooper: [turns to face Chappy with Zuyenko] General!

[tears the flag patch off of his flight suit and Zuyenko does as well as the rest of them]

Sinclair: All right we have less than 24 hours to prepare. We have to beat a couple bombers to the target.

[rips the flag patch off his uniform]

Sinclair: [they all look down at the ground where the U.S. and Russian flag patches lay]

Hawkins: Morning Governor Sinclair.

Sinclair: Tell me Hawkins, who made my breakfast this morning?

Hawkins: That new Cook, Sir. Was there a problem?

Sinclair: Yes Hawkins, there was. Several in fact. My fruit salad had no Paw Paw, my pheasant eggs were cold, mild at best, and this Earl Gray tastes as if it's been pissed from a dead baby.

Hawkins: I'll forward your complaints to him, Sir.

Sinclair: Don't do that Hawkins. Just have the man killed.

Sinclair: We spend too much time thinking about the end of the world. It isn't going to happen. Today. I promise you. Not before lunch.

Sinclair: She's lying to me, all the time. When people lie to you, you suddenly can't think of anything else.

Richard: You've spotted little signs, have you?

Sinclair: ...little signs... didn't need to. She's been carrying around a giant placard saying, "I've been fucking somebody else."

Sinclair: Something tells me its the end of the party.

Sinclair: I knew there was something extraordinary between you two, something which had to be purged. I don't want to know. There is a limit beyond which I can't go.

Sinclair: Those fires, a typical end to summer.

Natalie: I certainly wouldn't call this summer typical.

Natalie: Oh, go on, you can read it, I can see you edging toward it.

Sinclair: Just one chapter. It's the only thing that shuts me up.

Sinclair: How's the food?

Natalie: Food? You would ask that.

Natalie: I love you.

Sinclair: Of course you do.

Natalie: Do you love me?

Sinclair: Of course I do.

Sinclair: Other people's children are wonderful, aren't they?

Sinclair: These ashtrays are interesting, they're ridiculously large. People proclaim their importance in such a crass fashion. What will historians make of these ashtrays?

Richard: You're interested in everything, Sinclair.

Sinclair: These lists, ashtrays, this secretary here, you.

Sinclair: I do believe, I have to confess, in spending money , not just hoarding it.