Barnes: Ya smoke this shit so to escape from reality? Me, I don't need this shit. I am reality. There's the way it ought to be, and there's the way it is.
Sgt. Elias: I love this place at night. The stars ... there's no right or wrong in them. They're just there.
[Chris has just gotten to Vietnam. Some passing veterans shout at him.] Soldier 1: You're gonna love the Nam. Soldier 2: For fucking ever. Sgt. Barnes: You all take a good look at this lump of shit, remember what it looks like. You fuck up in a firefight and I goddamned guarantee you a trip out of the bush - in a body bag! Out here, assholes, you keep the shit wired tight at all times. And that goes for you, shit-for-brains. You don't sleep on no fucking ambush. And the next son'bitch I catch coppin Z's in the bush, I personally am gonna take an interest in seeing them suffer. I shit you not. Doc, tag 'em and bag 'em.
[King is writing a letter to his girlfriend.] Francis: It ain't D-E-R-E, it's D-E-A-R. And "Sarah" ain't got no two R's, King. Damn you're dumb. King: It don't make no difference, she know what I mean. She don't read too good nohow.
[Refering to Vietnam.] Chris: Somebody once wrote: "Hell is the impossibility of reason." That's what this place feels like. Hell.
[Elias, Barnes and O'Neill argue about what to do with the "cherries."] Sergeant Elias: They don't know shit, Barnes, and chances are we're gonna run into something. Think about it. O'Neill: That's just great Bob. Whadda you want me to do? Send one of my guys out to get zapped so some lameass just in from the world can get his beauty sleep? Nah! Sergeant Elias: Hey O'Neill, take a break! You don't have to be a prick every day of you life, you know.
[Chris explains why he went to Vietnam] Chris: I figured why should just the poor kids go out in the war and the rich kids always get away with it? King: Oh, I see. What we got here is a crusader. Crawford: [laughing] Sounds like it. King: Shit, you gotta be rich in the first place to think like that. Everybody know, the poor always being fucked over by the rich. Always have. Always will. Junior: Simple, free your mind and the ass will follow. Bunny: Hey, I can dig it, man. When you smoke that shit everything kind of gets weird, you know what I mean? You heard that story about the gooks putting chemicals in the grass so we don't fight and become pacifists? Junior: Yeah, but don't you worry Bunny, 'cos you're used to kill anyway, man. Bunny: Yeah, but I still like a piece of pussy once in a while. Ain't nothing like a piece of pussy, except maybe the Indy 500. Junior: The only way you get some pussy man, is if a bitch dies and wills it to you. And then, maybe!
[Manny has been killed and the platoon is looking for revenge.] Chris: The village, which had stood for maybe a thousand years, didn't know we were coming that day. If they had, they would've run. Barnes was the eye of our rage. And through him, our captain Ahab, we would set things right again. That day we loved him. Sgt. Elias: What happended today was just the beginning. We're gonna loose this war. Chris: Come on! You really think so? Us? Sgt. Elias: We've been kicking other peoples asses for so long I figured it's time we got ours kicked. Chris: Day by day I struggle to maintain not only my strength but also my sanity. It's all a blur. I have no energy to write. I don't know what's right or wrong anymore. The morale of the men is low, a civil war in the platoon. Half the men with Elias, half with Barnes. There's a lot of suspicion and hate. I can't believe we're fighting each other, when we should be fighting them.
[Refering to Elias] Rhah: And if there's a heaven and God I hope there is, I know he's sitting up there, drunk as a fucking monkey and smoking shit. Because he left his pains down here. King: Somewhere out there is the beast and he's hungry tonight. Chris: Have you ever gotten into a mistake that you just can't get out of, King? King: There is a way out of everything, man. Just keep your pecker hard and your powder dry and the world will turn. Bunny: You know Junior, some of the things we've done, man...I don't feel like we've done something wrong. Sometimes, man...I get this bad feeling. I told the padre the truth man, I like it here. Get to do what you want, nobody fucks with you. The only worry you got is dying. And if that happens you won't know about it anyway. So what the fuck man? Junior: Shit! I gotta be in this hole with you man? I just know I shouldn't come. Sgt Barnes: What's the matter boy? He ain't gonna bite you. That's a good gook; good and dead. Sgt Barnes: Death? What you all know about death? Sgt. Elias: Police up your spare rounds and frags. Don't leave nothin' for the dinks. Tex: It's gonna piss on us all night. Gonna put a serious case of crotch-rot on that ugly face of yours, Junior. Junior: Goddamn, break your ass for the white man. Ain't no justice around here.
[last lines] Chris Taylor: I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy, we fought ourselves. The enemy was in us. The war is over for me now, but it will always be there, the rest of my days. As I'm sure Elias will be, fighting with Barnes for what Rhah called "possesion of my soul." There are times since, I've felt like a child, born of those two fathers. But be that as it may, those of us who did make it have an obligation to build again. To teach to others what we know, and to try with what's left of our lives to find a goodness and a meaning to this life. Sergeant O'Neill: Bob, I got a bad feeling on this one, all right? I mean I got a bad feeling! I don't think I'm gonna make it outta here! D'ya understand what I'm sayin' to you? Sergeant Barnes: Everybody gotta die some time, Red. Sergeant Barnes: Martin, get your boots on. And the next time I catch you spraying skeeter repellent on your fuckin' feet, I'm gonna court martial your nigger ass. Junior: Well then court-martial me motherfucker! Fuck my ass, send me to fucking Long Binh! You do your fucking work! You white folks have got your last klick out of Junior! Sergeant Barnes: O'Neil, get me that centipede. Sergeant O'Neill: Sarge? Sergeant Barnes: Yeah, that long hairy red and black bastard I found in the ammo creek. I'm gonna put it in this boy's crotch, see if he can walk. Doc: This is bad, man. I've got bad vibes here. Chris Taylor: It's the way the whole thing works, people like Elias get wasted, people like Barnes just go on making up the rules any way they want. So what do we do? Sit in the middle and suck on it. We just don't add up to dry shit, King. King: Whoever said we did, man? All you got to do is make it out of here. It's all gravy, everyday the rest of your life, gravy. Chris Taylor: He killed him, I know that he killed him, I saw his eyes when we came back in. Rhah: How do you know the dinks didn't get him? You've got no proof, man. Chris Taylor: The proof is in the eyes, when you know you know. Rhah: Elias didn't ask you to fight his battles for him. And if there's a heaven, and God I hope there is, I know he's sittin' up there drunk as a fuckin' monkey and smokin' shit, cause he done left his pains down here. Chris Taylor: Anyway you cut it, Barnes is a fucking murderer! King: Right on. Rhah: Taylor, I remember when you first came in here, telling me how much you admired the bastard. Chris Taylor: I was wrong. Rhah: Wrong? You ain't never been right, about nothing! And dig this you assholes, and dig it good. Barnes has been shot seven times and he ain't dead, does that mean anything to you, huh? Barnes ain't meant to die! The only thing that can kill Barnes is Barnes. Chris Taylor: [narrating] Well, here I am, anonymous all right. With guys nobody really cares about. They come from the end of the line, most of 'em. Small towns you never heard of: Pulaski, Tennessee; Brandon, Mississippi; Pork Van, Utah; Wampum, Pennsylvania. Two years' high school's about it, maybe if they're lucky a job waiting for them back at a factory, but most of 'em got nothing. They're poor, they're the unwanted, yet they're fighting for our society and our freedom. It's weird, isn't it? They're the bottom of the barrel and they know it. Maybe that's why they call themselves grunts, cause a grunt can take it, can take anything. They're the best I've ever seen, Grandma. The heart & soul. Chris Taylor: [narrating] Maybe I finally found it, way down here in the mud. Maybe from down here I can start up again, be something I can be proud of, without having to fake it, be a fake human being. King: Hey, Taylor, how in the fuck you get here anyway? You look educated. Chris Taylor: I volunteered for it. King: You did what? Chris Taylor: I volunteered. I dropped out of college, told 'em I wanted the infantry, combat, Vietnam. Crawford: You volunteered for this shit, man? Chris Taylor: Believe that? King: You's a crazy fucker, giving up college? Chris Taylor: Didn't make much sense, I wasn't learning anything. I figured why should just the poor kids go off to war and the rich kids always get away with it. King: Oh, I see, what we got here is a crusader. Crawford: Sounds like it. King: Shiiit, you gotta be rich in the first place to think like that. Ever'body know, the poor are always being fucked over by the rich. Always have, always will.
[Chris Taylor takes his first hit of marijuana] Sergeant Elias: First time? Chris Taylor: Yeah. Sergeant Elias: Then the worm has definitely turned for you, man. Feel good? Chris Taylor: Yeah, it feels good. I got no pain in my neck now. Sergeant Elias: Feelin' good's good enough. Bunny: I told the padre the truth, man: I like it here. You get to do what you want. Nobody fucks with you. The only worry you got is dyin', and if that happens you won't know about it anyway. So what the fuck, man? Sergeant Elias: Barnes believes in what he's doing. Private Chris Taylor: And you? Sergeant Elias: Back in '66? Yeah. What happened today is just the beginning. We're gonna lose this war.