Snowpiercer (2013)
Ed Harris: Wilford
Photos
Quotes
-
Wilford : Have you ever been alone on this train? When was the last time you were alone? You can't remember, can you? So please do. Take your time.
-
Wilford : When's the last time you got laid? Like Gilliam said, holding a woman is much better with two arms.
-
Wilford : I believe it is easier for people to survive on this train if they have some level of insanity. As Gilliam well understood, you need to maintain a proper balance of anxiety and fear and chaos and horror in order to keep life going. And if we don't have that, we need to invent it. In that sense, the Great Curtis Revolution you invented was truly a masterpiece.
-
Wilford : The front and the tail are supposed to work together.
-
Wilford : We don't have time for true natural selection. We would all be hideously overcrowded and starved waiting for that. The next best solution is to have individual units kill off other individual units. From time to time, we've had to stir the pot, so to speak. The Revolt of the Seven, the MacGregor Riots, the Great Curtis Revolution. A blockbuster production with a devilishly unpredictable plot. Who could have predicted your counterattack with the torch in the Yaketerina Tunnel? Pure genius. That wasn't what Gilliam and I had in our plan.
Curtis : What?
Wilford : Oh, don't tell me you didn't know. Gilliam and I... our plan.
Curtis : Gilliam?
Wilford : Gilliam.
-
Wilford : Our original agreement was for the insurgency to end at the Yaketerina Tunnel. And all the survivors would go back to the tail section to enjoy much more space.
Curtis : You're a fucking liar. Gilliam would never do that.
Wilford : Well, it all worked out in the end. Your counterattack actually made the insurgency ten times more exciting. Unfortunately, the front suffered more losses than anticipated, and Gilliam had to...
[clicking his tongue and pantomiming shooting himself in the head]
Wilford : ...pay the price. Ironic, isn't it? How people dramatically cross that thin barrier between life and death.
-
Curtis : There's not a soul on this train who wouldn't trade places with you.
Wilford : Would you trade places with me?
Curtis : Fuck you.
Wilford : Curtis, dear boy, the fact is that we are all stuck inside this blasted train. We are all prisoners in this hunk of metal.
[indicating the steaks he's grilling]
Wilford : Medium rare? And this train is a closed ecosystem. We must always strive for balance. Air, water, food supply, population must always be kept in balance. For optimum balance, however, there have been times when more radical solutions were required. When the population needed to be reduced, rather... drastically.
-
Wilford : You've seen what people do without leadership. They devour one another.
-
Wilford : I am old. I want you to take my Station. It's what you've always wanted. It's what Gilliam wanted too. You must tend the Engine... Keep her humming. Look, Curtis. Beyond the gate... Sections after sections percisely where they've always been and where they'll always be. All adding up to what? The train. And now the perfectly correct number of human beings... All in their proper places, all adding up to what? Humanity. The train is the world. We the humanity. And now you have the sacred responsibility to lead all humanity. Without you, Curtis, humanity will cease to exist. You've seen what people do without leadership. They devour one another. Look at them. That's how people are. You know. You've seen this. You've been this. Ridiculous. Pathetic, aren't they? You can save them from themselves. This is what Gilliam saved you for. Curtis. This is your destiny.
-
Wilford : The space only allows for a very small person. Young children under 5. The engine lasts forever but not to all of it's parts. That piece of equipment went extinct recently. We needed a replacement. Thank goodness the tail section manufactured us a steady supplies of kids. So we can keep going manually.
-
Wilford : [just before explosion] Nice.
