William Adama quotes from Battlestar Galactica (2003)

Roslin

Too bad we're bluffing.

Adama

Are we?

Adama

Mr. Hoshi, order nuclear ground-strike missiles into launch tubes 4-10.

[On the intercom] Aye sir, This is a nuclear mission order...

Roslin

What are you doing?

Adama

Nuking the planet.

Adama

You took the Cylons to the Temple. To the Eye of Jupiter. What did it tell them? What did it tell them about Earth?

Baltar

I wasn't looking for..

Adama

What were you looking for, doctor? What were you looking for?

Baltar

Their faces but they wouldn't show them to me.

Roslin

Their faces? Whose faces?

Baltar

Five. Final Five.

Roslin

The Final Five.. Cylons?

Baltar

I thought I might be one of them. I told them I wanted to be one of them.

Roslin

A Cylon? Why?

Baltar

All my sins forgiven. A new beginning.

Roslin

Are you a Cylon, doctor Baltar?

Baltar

[After a lengthy pause] No..

Adama

What the hell were you doing out there? I gave you an order. To do a job.

Excuse me, I was doing my job.

Adama

Yeah, being led around by the nose! That bastard yanked your chain and you jumped.

He wanted files from the Colonial One.

Adama

It was the middle of the night.

You assigned me to security.

Adama

Yeah. And there was a bomb on that ship and you missed it.

After what you did to Tigh, you're the last person I'd confide in.

Lee

Me? I didn't do anything to Tigh. He was drunk. It's really not my fault.

You told Lampkin about Ellen.

Lee

I didn't even know about Ellen.

Yeah, right.

Lee

You're calling me a liar?

I'm calling you a liar and a coward. One who doesn't have the guts to go after the man himself. Instead you hand the shiv to a stranger. Let him stab Tigh in the back. And for what? Traitor, piece of garbage, Gaius Baltar. Doesn't even deserve a trial.

Lee

I refuse to serve under a man who questions my integrity.

I refuse to have a man who has none.

William Adama

I've been going through Cain's log and from a tactical perspective it's hard to find fault in anything she did. Or that Kendra Shaw did.

Lee Adama

They butchered innocent civilians, Dad. Come on. How can you ignore that?

William Adama

I know that I didn't have to face any of the situations that she did. I had the President in my face, arguing for the survival of the civilian fleet. I've Colonel Tigh keeping me honest, balancing my morality and my tactics. And I had you. Now...you don't have any children, so you might not understand this, but you see yourself reflected in their eyes. And there are some things that I've thought of doing with this fleet, but I've stopped myself, because I knew I'd have to face you the following day.

William Adama

Saul. Saul! What the hell is wrong with you?

Saul Tigh

Nothing, Bill. [Tigh pulls out a gun and aims it at Adama.] I've never felt better in my entire life. [Tigh shoots Adama through his right eye.]

Gaeta

Sir, the Cylon strike force has just turned back to their ships. Baseships are spinning up.

Tigh

They're pulling out.

Adama

I'd do the same damn thing before they change their mind. Helo, have our fighters cover our withdrawal.

Yes, sir.

Tigh

They had us. Game over. Why the hell did they let us go?

Maybe something's changed.

Adama

[on Kara Thrace's words] What if she's telling the truth? She was supposed to die out there. She didn't. I can't explain it. What if she was meant to help us? And this was a--

Roslin

A what? A miracle? Is that what you want to call this? Go ahead,say it. Grab your piece of the golden arrow. I want to hear admiral atheist say that a miracle happened.

Adama

You shot at her and missed at close range.

Roslin

Doloxan fraks with your aim.

Adama

So does doubt.

Roslin

Lee has no idea. He really has no idea. There are pragmatic realities he refuses to face.

Adama

Well, that's a problem of course. He'd say what he thinks is right.

Roslin

Well yeah. He is Lee. Thing is, it probably is the right thing, but...sometimes the right thing is a luxury. And it can have profoundly dangerous consequences. And it's almost as if he doesn't want that to be true.

Roslin

Imagine, once they're gone they can't come back. Mortal enemies.

Before we blow the Hub we need to get a team in, to unbox D'Anna.

Tigh

Well no, maybe we just don't. Maybe we just forget the godsdamn Boxing Facility.

Adama

Lie to the rebels?

Tigh

Well, they're lying to us!

Lee said you once gave him something before a mission, a lighter.

Adama

Belonged to my father. Foolish to think a hunk of metal could keep him safe.

And yet that's what we do isn't it. Hang onto hope in every hopelessly irrational way that we can, but not like those poor bastards, giving away their luck just when they need it most. Its like they've given up.

Adama

If you've never been in combat you have no idea what they are thinking.

I always imagined you a realist, Admiral. Not one to indulge a vain hope at the cost of lives, but then everyone has his limits. Sine qua non as they say.

Adama

Without which not.

Yes, those things we deem essential, without which we cannot bear living. Without which life in general loses its specific value. Becomes, abstract.

Adama

You may have a point counselor.

Well, while I'm on a roll, Tom Zarek may not be an ideal president, but we could do worse.

Adama

You're right, there are limits to my realism. Goodbye counselor.

Colonel Saul Tigh

Bill, you gotta scrub this mission.

Admiral William Adama

What the hell are you doing here? You're supposed to be in the CIC.

Tigh

The Cylons will kill every godsdamn hostage before we put one pair of boots aboard their ship. Laura Roslin will be the next to die, Bill.

Adama

I'm looking for options. You got one?

Tigh

Yeah. I should've told you when I first found out, but I didn't have the guts.

Adama

What's wrong with you, Saul?

Tigh

You remember back at the nebula when I told you about that frakking music? I thought it was in the ship. I was wrong. It was a signal. Some kind of crazy, frakked-up Cylon signal switched me on. I can't turn it off.

Adama

[not wanting to understand] Switched you on.

Tigh

Like Boomer. I'm one of the Five.

Adama

The Five.

Tigh

One of the Cylons D'Anna's after.

Adama

[rising from his desk] Quit frakking with me. Colonel, I've known you for 30 years. When I met you, you had hair. I've never heard of a Cylon aging.

Tigh

Doesn't mean they don't. Before the attack on the Colonies, we didn't know the skinjobs existed. Turns out there's another kind of Cylon we didn't know about, and I'm one of them.

Adama

[desperate] On New Caprica, you were in captivity. They did something to you, they... An implant, a post-hypnotic suggestion that makes you feel this way. Let's go talk to Doc Cottle...

Tigh

[grabs Adama by the shoulders] Listen to me! It is not a delusion. It is not a chip in my head. I am a Cylon. I've fooled you for months now. I didn't want to, but I did.

Adama

Get your hands off of me.

Tigh

[releasing him] If I'd had the guts to airlock myself when I first found out, we wouldn't be in this mess. But that's the way out. Not this suicidal attack. I am one of the Final Five. D'Anna will back down if you threaten to flush me out an airlock.

Lee Adama

Okay. Dad, Dad, Dad, listen. No one suspected. No one. Not with his record, what he did on New Caprica. His eye, what happened to his wife... [tries to haul his father back to his feet] Come on, let's get up.

William Adama

What have I done? All the people I've sent to die, for what? For what?

Lee

For Earth.

There is no Earth. It's a frakking joke. There is no Earth.

Lee

Okay, Dad, listen to me. Listen to me! Pull it together.

I can't.

Lee

Yes you can!

I can't... I can't kill him. I can't kill the bastard. I can't. I can't.

Lee

Okay, Dad. It's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. I'll take care of it.

Adama

We've gotta do something. Morale's going down the toilet. [sees the book] What are you doing? [realizes what the book is] Pythian prophecy. [sits down beside Roslin] Cottle told me that you didn't show up for your Doloxan treatment.

Roslin

[flatly] That's right.

Adama

Do you wanna tell me why?

Roslin

I didn't feel like it.

Adama

You're gonna reschedule.

Roslin

I don't think so.

Adama

Laura, you need your treatments.

Roslin

No, I don't.

Adama

What are you doing? Are you just gonna lie down and quit? You're the one who made me believe in this-

Roslin

You shouldn't have listened to me. When the Cylons first attacked, you should've held your ground and kept fighting. Because I was wrong. I was wrong about everything. And all those people who listened, and they trusted me, and they followed me, all those people... they're dead. [Adama reaches out to stop her burning the book, but she brushes his hand away] Don't. Stop. Stop. [breaking down] Don't touch me. Just go. [Adama walks out of the room] Burn. Just burn.