A character in War of the Worlds
Played by Richard Chaves
War of the Worlds · 63 quotes
3rd most-quoted character in War of the Worlds: in 13 of its 63 quotes
Most scenes with: Dr. Harrison Blackwood (12), Dr. Suzanne McCullough (9), Norton Drake (4)
I am not uptight! I am a professional!
Who does not know how to follow orders. Now you were supposed to stay out of sight in the woods!
You neglected to tell me that those things, aliens or whatever they are, would be crawling all over! By the time I worked my way down here, you and the Colonel were doing your off-road routine, so I figured this would be the best place to wait things out! Where are they?
IronhorseLong gone.
IronhorseThis is weird stuff we're dealing with here, Blackwood! Bolas! Terrorists that don't... act like terrorists! Terrorists that don't die like terrorists! I actually saw a body dissolve after I shot it!
We all saw some fairly extraordinary phenomenon, Colonel!
IronhorseWell, when in God's name is somebody gonna start explaining things to me?!
I've already explained as much of it as I understand myself!
IronhorseYou've explained nothing, mister! I don't believe in ghosts, and I sure as hell don't believe in aliens from another planet!
IronhorseYou expect me to climb into the heads of these, these creatures; you've got to give me more to go on.
Okay, they're soldiers... the same as you. Now you tell me. How do soldiers think?
IronhorseI spent four years at the point, fifteen more active duty. Hell, Doctor, I'm not sure I do think anymore. I... I react.
Okay, start there. You're their leader. React to their situation.
IronhorseOkay, I... need good intelligence. Know your enemy. Communications. They already seem to have that. Supplies. They gotta keep the troops fed. Weapons.
Definitely weapons.
IronhorseThey don't have it. Or at least none that amount to anything. That's their primary weakness.
Which makes it our strength. Have you ever heard of Hangar 15?
IronhorseNo.
The place where the Air Force stores all its UFO evidence.
IronhorseYou mean Hangar 18. The... building 18 at Wright-Patterson? Forget it, Doctor. That's all a myth.
No. Hangar 18 is the myth, Colonel. That's disinformation created by the military. Hangar 15... that's the real mccoy.
IronhorseI don't believe it.
Dr. Forrester did; it's in his papers. I think now might be the time to call General Wilson. Ask him if it's a myth.
IronhorseAccording to General Wilson, the U.S. Government has had three of the alien ships mothballed in Hangar 15 since 1953. You want to guess as to the location of Hangar 15?
Kellogue Air Force Base.
IronhorseRight smack dab in the middle.
You've read the material, Colonel. You know what happens if the aliens get their hands on those ships!
[hearing a noise outside the hangar] What is it?
IronhorseHelicopter.
Bad guys or good guys?
IronhorseConsidering what we're doing, Doctor, even the good guys are bad guys.
[the helicopter blows open the entrance with a missile]
Bad, bad guys!
IronhorseGeneral Wilson is taking care of the joint military forces board of inquiry. I'm told that, unofficially, of course, the board is predisposed to lay the blame on an unnamed terrorist organization.
A whole lot closer to the truth than they'll ever realize.
I'm just glad all of this is behind us.
Is it? Is it really?
Without tissue samples, most of this is just educated guessing, but I think I understand how an alien blends with whoever happens to be unfortunate enough to get in its way. It's a combination of osmosis and cell-phase matching. Watch. Through osmosis, alien cells invade the human body. These cells then spread out, seeking human cells that they can bond to. This bonding allows all the genetic information from the individual human cells to communicate to the alien cells.
Killing the human cells in the process?
Yes, but apparently not before it absorbs all of the intelligence of the human victim.
We're talking Night of the Living Dead here, folks. Not only do these guys get to pick our brains; they also get to use our bodies as a perfect disguise.
IronhorseI don't call open sores and radiation sickness a perfect disguise. I mean, it's not exactly difficult to spot these things in a crowd.
For now, maybe. But it's only a matter of time until they figure out a better way to protect themselves, and conceal themselves.
IronhorseIf any more of them are still around.
Mrs. Pennyworth sets a wonderful table, don't you think?
Yes. She and Mr. Kensington have made us all very comfortable.
You never know it, but Mrs. Pennyworth was a very valuable asset in the American section of Berlin during the last war. Her husband did the same thing with the Brits! [chuckles] Rumor has it they met one night when they were both trying to infiltrate the Russian sector. Oh, that woman has seen a lot of history. Even helped brighten some of the two. And this house has had its own share of history as well. A few nuclear physicists lived here in the early days of the Manhattan Project. And just before you, we kept a KGB defector here. I wonder who the next occupants will be.
[laughs] Harrison, does that sound suspiciously like an eviction notice to you?
I wouldn't look at it that way, Mr. Drake. All missions eventually come to an end, and that's why I'm here...to thank you all, personally, for a job well done.
I'm sorry, General, but the job isn't done!
Well, I'm completely satisfied with everything you've accomplished.
We've hardly accomplished a thing.
Uncle Hank, I can't believe you're cutting us off!
Suzanne, your own research suggests the aliens were susceptible to radiation poisoning.
How do you know that? I haven't released that data yet!
IronhorseI don't think it takes a scientist to realize that any of those creatures that weren't blown up with their ships have died from radiation poisoning.
General, if you shut us down now, you're going to be repeating the same mistake that was made 35 years ago!
On the contrary, the aliens are finished! And now, I suggest you all get on with the rest of your lives.
How much of this is your doing, Colonel?
IronhorseThe General asks me to make reports; I make reports. I'm just doing my job, Doctor.
I wish to God you would let me do mine!
IronhorseThis is really sick, Blackwood!
They're reviving new aliens! This whole town's been set up to recruit host bodies for aliens!
It's like an alien Bates Motel.
[referring to the aliens] Gone. They're all gone.
We did everything we could!
It's not good enough, Suzanne.
IronhorseHe's right. If we keep losing like this, we're dead meat on this planet.
They must've revived a thousand of them. And now, they're out there. They're out there among us!
Now, Colonel, what is it that has you so hot and bothered?
IronhorseWashington just replied to an inquiry I made, Mr. Drake! It seems that since 1980, the good doctor has had a girlfriend no one knew about. I don't know how the hell we missed that in the security check!
Aren't you blowing this just a little out of proportions, Paul? I mean, if he's got a girlfriend, isn't that his business?
IronhorseI'm not talking cheap thrills and Valentine's Day cards, Suzanne! This girlfriend is an important scientist! An important Russian scientist!
I just want you both to know... we are God-fearing Christians who have never been in trouble a day in our lives.
I'd appreciate it if you just tell me what happened.
We were out at our cabin, while we have a cabin on Saturday pond in Maine. We were watching the sun go down, like we do, when, for some reason, we started to walk through... to the woods.
That's where we saw them.
There were six of them. We were about to walk over to them when we heard them speak. We've never heard anything like it. It sounded like... I could hear it, but I don't think I could ever describe it. They had this strange thing. It looked almost like one of those old vacuum cleaners from the 30s. And they were... looking around for something.
IronhorseHow do you know that?
You could tell... by the way they were moving it across the ground.
What did they look like?
I know this sounds crazy. We've had a lot of time to think about it. It looked like a cross between a giant green frog... and a huge slimy walnut.
With three fingers on each hand.
Other people have seen them, haven't they?
35 years ago, a great invasion force of aliens nearly obliterated mankind in an all-out attack from the stars. They came here in these spaceships, and they fell from the sky dead... or so we all thought. Earth was saved from interstellar conquest by the presence of common bacteria found on this planet, but they were not dead, as my adopted father, Dr. Forrester, tried to warn everyone. They were only asleep. Dr. McCullough?
They are capable of inhabiting human bodies, a perfect cover which allows them to roam our cities undetected, unnoticed.
IronhorseWe are at war, gentlemen, and we had better win.
There won't be any second chance.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's War of the Worlds pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
