Pearl Harbor (2001)

Ben Affleck: Rafe McCawley

Photos 

Quotes 

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

  Danny : No, you are.

• Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle : You know what top secret is?"

  Rafe : Yes, sir. It's the kind of mission where you get medals, but they send 'em to your relatives.

• Rafe : Not anxious to die sir, just anxious to matter.

• Rafe : 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.

• Rafe : You are so beautiful it hurts.

  Evelyn : It's your nose that hurts.

  Rafe : I think it's my heart.

• 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.

• A 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.

• Rafe : She loves me.

• 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] 

  Rafe : 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 $3.00 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 backword 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 : That's what I want to come home to, that's what I want to have to think about and dream about. I wanna know that the best part of my life is still ahead of me.

• Danny : You're a rotten drunk... always have been.

  Rafe : Well, you're a lousy friend... that's a new development.

• 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.

• Rafe : Hold on a second, Miss, I really, really lick you.

  [covers mouth] 

  Rafe : Like you. I didn't mean to say that, and I just wanted to know if I could donate dinner, well, buy you dinner.

  Evelyn : This isn't your chart.

  Rafe : No that's this guy right here I think he left.

  Evelyn : Have you already had this shot?

  Rafe : Yea well once already yea. Well, I mean can I ask you out?

  Evelyn : No.

  Rafe : Uh...

  [Bangs his nose into the tray of supplies] 

  Rafe : Oh.

  Nurse Barbara : Oo. What'd you do to him?

• Rafe : [in a letter to Evelyn]  It's not easy making friends here. Two days ago I had a beer with a couple of the RAF pilots. Yesterday both of them got killed.

• Rafe : Alright Danny we gonna show 'em how to fly. We gonna play chicken. You ready?

  Danny : This ain't the farm and these ain't no crop dusters, I'm not playin chicken with ya.

  Rafe : Ah, come on, now don't be a baby.

  Danny : Not doin it Rafe.

  Rafe : Well, I'm comin right at ya, you can turn or you can hit me. It's up to you.

  Danny : Aah, why you always bustin my ass Rafe?

  Danny : [sighs] 

  Danny : Which way ya goin?

  Rafe : Uh, right, no left. Left. I'll go left.

  Danny : Okay, we're goin left right?

  Rafe : Right, right?

  Danny : Right, like we're goin left, or right like we're goin right?

  Rafe : Well, now you got me all mixed up, I dunno make up your mind!

  Danny : God, Rafe, we're goin right. Righty-Tighty!

• Evelyn : You're acting like I didn't love you.

  Rafe : Evelyn, loving you kept me alive.

• Rafe : Danny get me to a goddamn plane!

• Evelyn : Are you gonna be a bad influence?

  Rafe : Of course I'm a bad influence.

• Rafe : I almost did die, you little son-of-a-bitch. And her face was the last thing that went through my mind.

• Rafe : Dolittle assigned me. He wanted me to get some... some real combat training.

  Danny : Well guess what? It isn't training over there, it's war. Where losers die and there aren't any winners, just guys who turn into broken-down wrecks like my father. Now if trouble awaits me, I'm ready. But why go looking for it?

• 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 it's apart 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 : Returning from the dead wasn't all that I expected... but that's life.

• Rafe : Earl, I said get some guns in that goddamn tower

  Earl : Right, guns in the tower, ten stories high. It's a long son-of-a-bitch

• Rafe : Danny, Lets play some chicken with these Jap suckers.

  Danny : Alright I'm with you.

• Rafe : I've got some genuine French champagne. From France.