Francis Crozier quotes from The Terror

Francis Crozier

As a trusted friend once put it... This place wants us dead.

Francis Crozier

Perhaps I would have done better to have played your game, Mr. Hickey, and gulled the world. I applaud you.

Francis Crozier

These words are not mine. They're Sir John's. He wanted you to hear them. And, lacking words of my own, I gave you his. His last. "In his flight, Jacob lighted upon a certain place and tarried there, because the sun was set. He thought it a terrible place. No house, no hearth. But that night, he dreamed: A ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reaching to the heavens. Behold, the Lord stood above it, and He said, 'I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places, wherever thou goest; for I will not leave thee.' And in Jacob's dream, he saw the invisible world, companion to the known one we perceive; with its rocks and moon, its ice fields and brute animals, and all the people we know... have ever known... and will ever know. So complete it would seem to leave no room for its invisible brother world, which is yet more immense than the one we see. For in this world dwell the angels who keep us, the Lord who will not leave us, and the departed who, though cleaved from the frame that carried them, yet live. Newest to their ranks, our bright Captain, Sir John, who in the virtue and strength of his every gesture showed himself the elect of the Lord, destined to reign with Christ forever. The invisible world of spirits, though unseen, was present for Jacob. Not future, not distant, but present. And it is now, and it is here, among us, if we open our eyes, and see His truth amongst us."

Francis Crozier

It feels like an omen. As I climbed the ridge I was thinking it. I could see the pattern. But I couldn't credit an animal with having that -

James Fitzjames

You're saying a bear staged a misdirection?

Francis Crozier

I'm saying I ordered that we split up into pairs to cover more ground. I did. And then I left him. I only took him with me because he was scared.

James Fitzjames

[gesturing to Crozier's drink] With all you're shouldering, perhaps you should you should curb that for now.

Francis Crozier

Does one not bring one's habits to Terror?

James Fitzjames

Why are you here, Francis? You've never believed in this cause. No one was ordered to this. We volunteered. You volunteered.

Francis Crozier

I was, in fact, ordered.

James Fitzjames

By whom? Not by the Admiralty. You were never Barrow's choice.

Francis Crozier

Keep Sir John safe and ensure his judgement. Those were my orders. It's what she asked me to do.

James Fitzjames

Lady Jane?

Francis Crozier

No. I don't owe her a bloody thing. Sophia.

James Fitzjames

Miss Cracroft? Miss Cracroft, who rejected you? Twice, as I heard it.

Francis Crozier

You discussed this?

James Fitzjames

Yes. Sir John discussed it with me. Well, he... Actually, he regretted how it had happened. Francis, he was burdened by it.

Francis Crozier

Burdened by the thought of a third attempt, no doubt.

James Fitzjames

That's why you're here. Good Christ, Francis.

Francis Crozier

Keep your pity. You're going to need all the pity you have for what's coming.

[about Tuunbaq] Do you know the word, Mr. Blanky?

Thomas Blanky

It's similar to a Yupik word I know from Russian America. "Tuunraq." A spirit.

Spirit?

Francis Crozier

That may not be her meaning.

Thomas Blanky

A spirit that dresses as an animal.

Francis Crozier

Help us stop it or you leave!

[Inuktitut] And who is going to stop you? You use the wind to carry you here. You use the forest to hide inside. You use all this and don't even want to be here. You don't want to live. Look at you. Even if I could help, you don't want it. Why do you want to die?

James Fitzjames

Francis -

Francis Crozier

Don't ever call me Francis again. You'll call me what I'm due to be called.

James Fitzjames

You stole 16 bottles of spirits from my ship. I don't know what you're due. I do know there hasn't been a single meal we've shared, a conversation when you weren't morbing on about what you're due. Your luck has changed, Francis. No one has you in harness any longer. You are commanding this expedition entire. So damn your eyes. What else do you require? Respect? Well, earn it. Or are you determined to be the worst kind of first as well?

Francis Crozier

I'm afraid I need to ask the four of you for a favor that will likely be a great imposition. And... There couldn't be worse timing, I understand. But there also couldn't be a greater need. I'm going to be unwell, gentlemen. Quite unwell, I expect. And I don't know for how long. A week? No. Two. Perhaps... Perhaps more. And not only must you draw the tightest possible curtain around what is happening, but you must also care for me as well, as I will not be able to care for myself.

Thomas Jopson

You needn't worry for a thing, sir.

Francis Crozier

I will be in no position to command. That will be for Captain Fitzjames, for all things. And you must be my proxy here, Edward.

James Fitzjames

Francis -

Francis Crozier

No. I'm sorry, but we mustn't stop until it is finished. I mustn't stop, and you mustn't let me. I may, I may beg you. Take this out to the spot where the thing's blood is and pour it out there.

Thomas Jopson

How do you feel?

Francis Crozier

Like Christ, but with more nails.

Francis Crozier

Friend, mother, lover, all the things they say a ship is to a captain, and they miss the only thing that matters: Confessor. This ship knows everything about me, Thomas.

Thomas Blanky

In '37, when George Back wrecked it, tugged it home across the Atlantic, she was barely afloat. No one could believe she kept herself up. She may well triumph.

Francis Crozier

Because it is needed, and because it is deserved, I am making a promotion this morning. An emergency measure, if you will. But one that is wholly sincere. To my knowledge, this has never been done. But then much of what we are now doing has never been done, so I don't want there to be any confusion over this. Someone on this expedition has earned our trust, respect and confidence in a way that merits absolute a place at this table. Well, gentlemen, we have a new lieutenant to welcome this morning. James.

Francis Crozier

Let me clarify, Jopson. I mean a third lieutenant. There is some modicum of protocol that must be observed, even here.

James Fitzjames

Look at your face. Congratulations, Jopson.

James Fitzjames

Do you know, after the war, I asked permission to walk home to London from Nanking, through Tibet and Russia. I wanted to try my hand at being an overland spy. I was the best walker in the Service. I told Sir John Barrow that once without blushing. I was quick to want the world rid of its fools an hour ago. I forget sometimes how much an exemplar I am among them.

Francis Crozier

That's not how I see you.

James Fitzjames

Francis, do you know how I was appointed to this expedition? I saved Sir John Barrow's son from a scandal. By chance, in Singapore. I paid to have a very base matter settled that would have blackened the Barrows' name, and the Admiralty's by association. As soon as I returned to London, I was promoted to commander. When the Admiralty announced there would be another attempt at the Passage, well, I only had to say the word.

Francis Crozier

That only makes you a man.

James Fitzjames

Does it?

Francis Crozier

What you describe is a surplus of political luck. Not a dearth of courage.

James Fitzjames

I am a fake, brother.

Francis Crozier

I challenge any biographer to tally up your acts of valor and then call you a fake.

James Fitzjames

Francis, a man like me will do amazing things to be seen. My... My father... My father was a ridiculous man. Ruined himself with debts. He was a consul general in Brazil, and he and his wife would mix with the wealthy Portuguese families in exile there. My mother was probably from one of those families. I was never told more. I was born out of an affair. And my father's cousins had to find people to raise me. My name... Even my name was made up, for my baptism. "James Fitzjames." Like a bad pun. I'm not even fully English.

Francis Crozier

I didn't know any of that.

James Fitzjames

I've never said it out loud before now. I always felt I deserved more. So I went to sea aged 12, and I began to build myself a great gilded life that didn't humiliate me to live. And so all of those stories that you would have my biographer tally as courage? It's all vanity. It always has been. And we are at the end of vanity.

Francis Crozier

Then you are free. Mine your courage from a different lode now. Friendship. Brotherhood.

James Fitzjames

Are we brothers, Francis? I would like that very much.

Francis Crozier

Are you comfortable, James?

James Fitzjames

I'm sorry.

Francis Crozier

What in heaven for? How on earth you were walking at all will puzzle me the rest of my days. You've got holes in you, James.

James Fitzjames

That shot was fired six years ago. It's going to murder me yet.

Francis Crozier

If it doesn't, it's going to make that Chinese sniper story you're so fond of recounting a half hour longer to tell.

Francis Crozier

We need high ground. Put all the sick in the middle, then face it down with all the ammo we've got.

Thomas Blanky

[nodding] I've got a strategy, Francis. You cut inland a bit, and I drive it back out onto the ice.

Francis Crozier

Not possible.

Thomas Blanky

It is. I smell like a thousand-year-old armpit.

Francis Crozier

I mean permission not granted! I'm not saying goodbye to two friends in one day.

Thomas Blanky

Between me and you, Francis, I'm done for.

Francis Crozier

If you need to ride in a damn boat, I'll put you there myself! [Blanky pulls up his pant-leg, showing his peg leg is cracked] Mr. Weeks can make another one.

Thomas Blanky

They're gonna have to cut it a lot higher this time. And that's only for the time being. [pulls his pant-leg up further to show his stump has gone gangrenous] Let's not make me or Mr. Bridgens go through that, shall we?

Francis Crozier

[voice breaking] Bleedin' hell, Thomas, why didn't you speak up?!

Thomas Blanky

I kept it tidy. No one could've done a better job.

Francis Crozier

[anguished sigh] Jesus Christ!

Thomas Blanky

Francis, we both know what's comin' for me now! At least love me enough to admit it! [limps over to Crozier and puts an arm around his shoulders]

Francis Crozier

[quietly] What do you need?

Thomas Blanky

I've got half a pouch for me last smoke. That'll do for me. Oh, I'll take some forks off you and the men. Forty or fifty.

Francis Crozier

[incredulous] Forks?

Thomas Blanky

Aye, and a piece of rope. Enough to go around me a few times. [Crozier suddenly realizes what he's asking] Fifteen feet should do it. [starts laughing as Crozier shoves him off]

Francis Crozier

You're mad! [Blanky nods as he laughs uproariously; after a moment, Crozier joins him, and the two men embrace for the last time]