Pearl Harbor (film)

Pearl Harbor is a 2001 American action-war film about two lifelong friends and a beautiful nurse who are caught up in the horror of an infamous Sunday morning in 1941.

Directed by Michael Bay. Written by Randall Wallace.

It takes a moment to change history. It takes love to change lives.taglines

Col. James Doolittle

[addressing a row of USAAF flight officers and crew] The mission I am asking you to volunteer for is exceptionally dangerous. Take a look at the man beside you. It's a good bet that in the next six weeks, you, or he, will be dead. Everyone brave enough to accept this...step forward. [all of the men go forward]

Your grandma could take a B-25 off a mile-long runway. Well, I'm gonna train you to do it at 467 feet, because at 468 feet, you're dead, and once you get it up, you're gonna learn to fly it like a fighter. Thirty feet off the ground. I want you to say hello to Lt Jack Richards, Navy Aviation. He's gonna help us lighten these fat ladies here.

Victory belongs to those who believe in it the most and believe in it the longest. We're gonna believe. We're gonna make America believe too.

Franklin Roosevelt

From Berlin, Rome and Tokyo, we have been described as a nation of weaklings and playboys who hire British or Russian or Chinese soldiers to do our fighting for us. Let them repeat that now. Let them tell that to General MacArthur and his men. Let them tell that to the soldiers who today are fighting hard in the far waters of the Pacific. Let them tell that to the boys in the Flying Fortresses. Let them tell that to the Marines.

Rafe McCawley

[to Evelyn] I should've died over there. When I was in that water, I made a deal with God. I told Him I was sorry, I told Him I knew I'd been a fool for leaving you and trying to go over there and be a hero, and I promised I'd never ask for anything again, if I could just see you one more time... And you know what? It was worth it. You kept me alive Evelyn; you brought me home. So I'm gonna stand by my end of the deal. I'm gonna walk away and I won't ask you for anything... but I just want to know why... Just tell me that will you please? Just tell me why.

Evelyn Johnson

Rafe I'm pregnant... I didn't even know until the day you turned up alive... and then all this happened... I haven't told Danny... I don't want him to know. All he needs to think about is how to do this mission and get back alive. Oh Rafe, all I ever wanted was for us to have a home and grow old together, but life never asked me what I wanted. Now I'm going to give Danny my whole heart... but I don't think I'll ever look at another sunset without thinking of you... I'll love you my whole life.

When the action is over and we look back, we understand both more and less. This much is certain. Before the Doolittle raid, America knew nothing but defeat. After it, nothing but victory. Japan realized, for the first time, that they could lose and began to pull back. America realized that she would win and surged forward. It was a war that changed America. Dorie Miller was the first black American to be awarded the Navy Cross, but he would not be the last. He joined a brotherhood of heroes. World War II, for us, began at Pearl Harbor, and 1,177 men still lie entombed in the battleship Arizona. America suffered, but America grew stronger. It was not inevitable. The times tried our souls...and through the trial, we overcame.

Dialogue

[Rafe and Danny undergo their eye exam]

Rafe: J, L, M, K, P, O, E, T, X. Eyes like an eagle, ma'am.

Evelyn: Slow down, flyboy. And instead of the bottom, read the very top. Both eyes.

Rafe: Yeah. C. Sorry, J. [clears throat] C, W, uh, Q, uh, Q

Evelyn: [smiles] Read the bottom line again, please, but read it right to left and every other letter.

Rafe: E, X...

Danny: X, E.

Rafe: X, E. X, E, ma'am. Ma'am, I know how this looks.

Evelyn: I'm sorry, Lieutenant. I really am, but Army and Navy requires 20/20 vision.

Rafe: Oh, I... It's not a problem with my eyes. I mean, I can see. I mean I can hit a runnin' rabbit with a three-dollar pistol. I got a problem with letters, that's all.

Evelyn: Well, maybe after some schooling, you could come back and take the test again.

Rafe: No, I had schooling. I mean, the teachers just never knew what to make of it, I... It's just letters. I mix 'em up sometimes. That's all. I mean, I just get 'em backward sometimes. Look here. My math and spatial reasoning and my verbal scores are all excellent.

Evelyn: But you barely passed the written exam.

Danny: Yeah, but he did pass it. So it's my turn now?

Evelyn: No, you'll wait your turn.

Danny: Yes, ma'am.

Rafe: Ma'am, I'm never gonna be an English teacher. But I know why I'm here: to be a pilot. And you don't dogfight with manuals. You don't fly with gauges. I mean, it's all about feeling and speed, and lettin' that plane become like a part of your body. And that manual says that a guy who's a slow reader can't be a good pilot. That file says I'm the best pilot in this room. Ma'am, please, don't take my wings.

Rafe: You are so beautiful, it hurts.

Evelyn: It's your nose that hurts.

Rafe: I think it's my heart.

Danny: [exiting from theater] Evelyn!

Evelyn: Danny!

Danny: Hey.

Evelyn: Some comedy, huh?

Danny: Yeah.

Evelyn: It's been a while.

Danny: Yeah, I've been logging a lot offlight hours.

Evelyn: I kinda been avoiding you too.

Danny: Yeah. Look, do you...

Evelyn: Do you...

Danny: Do you want to?

Evelyn: Yeah.

[FDR meets the Cabinet and military leadership about a counterstrike on the Japanese, but the officers are hesitant about actions]

Franklin Roosevelt: Gentlemen, most of you did not know me when I had the use of my legs. I was strong, and proud, and arrogant. Now I wonder, every hour of my life, why God put me into this chair, but when I see defeat in the eyes of my countrymen, in your eyes right now, I start to think that maybe He brought me down for times like these when we all need to be reminded who we truly are, that we will not give up or give in.

Adm. Chester Nimitz: Mr. President, with all respect, sir. What you're asking can't be done.

[FDR attempts to disengage his wheelchair leg braces and stand]

George Fields: [tries to aid the president] Mr. President...

Roosevelt: Get back, George. Get back. [struggles to stand but is able to stand erect; to officers] Do not tell me it can't be done.

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: I heard what you did.

Rafe: We can explain that, sir.

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Explain what?

Danny: Whatever it is you heard about us, sir.

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: You mean the hoola shirts you were flying in... or the seven planes you shot down.

Pilot: What if we have to bail out over Japan?

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Well, in that situation, I can't tell you what to do.

Rafe: What would you do, colonel?

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: I wasn't built to be a prisoner... so I would have my crew bail out. I'd find the sweetest military target I could and drive my plane right smack into the middle of it and kill as many of those bastards as I possibly could.

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Secretary of the Navy gave me these.

Danny: What are they?

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Friendship medals the Japanese gave us when they were pretending they wanted peace.

Rafe: What do you want me to do with them sir?

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: We're gonna wire them to the bombs and give them back.

[Lt. Colonel Doolittle is preparing to launch his B-25, notices his copilot praying]

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Where'd you find religion?

1st Lt Richard Cole: When you assigned me to this mission, sir.

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: I want you to do me a favor.

Cole: What's that, Colonel?

Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle: Pray for both of us.

[Rafe comforts Danny after he risks his life to save them from a Japanese patrol]

Rafe: Danny, you can't die. You can't die. You know why? Because you're going to be a father. You're going to be a daddy. I wasn't supposed to tell you. You're going to be a father. Please.

Danny: No, you are.

Quotes about Pearl Harbor

The film has been directed without grace, vision, originality, and although you may walk out quoting lines of dialogue, it will not be because you admire them.
- Roger Ebert, "Pearl Harbor", Chicago Sun-Times, 25 May 2001