Memorable quotes for
The Last Castle (2001)

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Irwin: [Winter is trying to compromise with Irwin] No. Not OK! It's too late, Colonel.
Winter: Too late for what?
Irwin: For your offer. The men don't want to salute. They don't want to use rank. They don't want better food and they don't want more TV. They just want your resignation... and so do I.
Winter: My resignation?
Irwin: You're a disgrace, Colonel! A disgrace to the uniform! You should not be allowed to retain your command!
Winter: Then I guess I'd better go pack.
Irwin: I think you should.
Winter: Tell me, Mr. Irwin. What's to stop me from simply placing you in the HOLE for say six months?
Irwin: Nothing. If that's the way you want to win.

---

[first lines]
Irwin: Take a look at a castle. Any castle. Now break down the key elements that make it a castle. They haven't changed in a thousand years. 1: Location. A site on high ground that commands the territory as far as the eye can see. 2: Protection. Big walls, walls strong enough to withstand a frontal attack. 3: A garrison. Men who are trained and willing to kill. 4: A flag. You tell your men you are soldiers and that's your flag. You tell them nobody takes our flag. And you raise that flag so it flies high where everyone can see it. Now you've got yourself a castle. The only difference between this castle and all the rest is that they were built to keep people out. This castle is built to keep people in.

---

Gen. Wheeler: You know, I've been hearing some pretty disturbing things about what goes on in here, but now I'm hearing them from a man I trust and who's opinions I respect!
Winter: May I speak freely, sir?
Gen. Wheeler: Granted.
Winter: With all due respect, I don't know what you've been 'hearing'. But until you've spent some time in the yard with those animals you have no idea what happens in here.
Gen. Wheeler: Point taken, Colonel. Nevertheless, if I hear of anyone else dying under your command, you are THROUGH here. Do YOU understand ME?
Winter: Yes, sir.

---

Irwin: I'm not fighting anyone or anything, anymore.

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Irwin: Colonel. I'm taking command of your prison.
Winter: Like hell you are!

---

Yates: I thought there was one thing that you should know, when they take the castle the are going to hang the flag upside down.
Winter: Upside down?
Yates: It's the international code of distress.
Winter: Yes I know what it means. Where exactly do the plan to get a flag?
Yates: They already have one... Yours.
Winter: My Flag?...
[goes to his flag box, sees that the flag is gone]
Winter: Peretz who was in here yesterday?
Yates: I took it you murdering fuck!
Winter: I thought you were smarter than that.
Yates: Ya I know you did.

---

Doc: You call a three star general, "Man?" What are you going to call him next? "Dude?"

---

[Irwin and Enriquez are playing chess]
Irwin: Hmm, pretty good. You have check-mate in five moves.
[moves a piece]
Enriquez: [pause] How come you're still playing if I have check mate in five moves?
Irwin: 'Cause I have check-mate in three.

---

Irwin: [while looking at Winter's military collection] Any man with a collection like this is a man who's never set foot on a battlefield. To him a minié ball from Shiloh is just an artifact. But to a combat vet, it's a hunk of metal that caused some poor bastard a world of pain.

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[on having his hands visible all the time during Gen. Wheeler's visit]
Irwin: I guess that rules out the hand-job.

---

Gen. Wheeler: You thought he was going to try to take me hostage?
Winter: Yes, sir, it was a precautionary move.
Gen. Wheeler: What the hell kind of grab-ass unit are you running here, Colonel?

---

[observing Irwin "leading" the inmates in rebuilding the wall]
Winter: Bring him to my office!
Capt. Peretz: Who's that?
Winter: The Prince of Venezuela! Who do you think I mean?
Capt. Peretz: General Irwin.
Winter: *Mr* Irwin!

---

Yates: I've never crashed one before.

---

Winter: What are your expectations from this prison?
Irwin: I just want to do my time, and then leave.
Winter: That is the perfect answer.

---

Yates: My father was with you in Hanoi.
Irwin: What's your name?
Yates: Yates.
Irwin: Yates? Sam Yates?
Yates: That's right.
Irwin: Good man.
Yates: Nah, he wasn't.
Irwin: After 30 years everyone's a good man. It's the law.

---

Winter: See, I too share the burden of command. You may not think that I've ever set foot on a battlefield, but that's because you've never sat behind this desk. This desk! My men and I are vastly outnumbered. We spend every day behind enemy lines because, make no mistake about it, Mr. Irwin, they are the enemy!

---

Winter: Tell me, Mr. Yates, how does a man like you get into West Point?
Yates: My father was a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, sir.
Winter: [with disdain] Oh, right. Sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree.

---

Winter: Tell me, how does a man like you get into West Point?
Yates: My father won the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Winter: Oh, well, I guess in your case the apple really does fall far from the tree.

---

Winter: Give me back my flag!
Irwin: It's not your flag.

---

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