The Ghost and the Darkness Quotes

  • Mahina: You know, I also have killed a lion.

    Angus Starling: How many shots did you need?

    Mahina: I used my hands.

  • John Patterson: You don't enjoy killing, do you?

    [Remington ignores the question by taking a swig from his flask]

    Hawthorne: Then why do it?

    Charles Remington: Because I've got a gift.

  • Angus Starling: Well, we all worked together. Worthy deeds were accomplished.

  • Charles Remington: Well, I'm a very considerate man. My mother taught me that.

    [Samuel laughs]

    Charles Remington: Now, what the hell you laughing about? You don't think I'm considerate?

    Samuel: I don't believe you had a mother.

  • Hawthorne: I wouldn't have thought bravery would be a problem for you.

    Charles Remington: Well, you hope each time it won't be... But you never really know.

  • Charles Remington: Oh, you're right. The devil has come to Tsavo. Look at me! I am the devil.

  • [Samuel hands John a letter from his wife]

    Samuel: You like her?

    John Patterson: Very much.

    Samuel: I don't like any of mine.

  • [after they discover the Lion's Den filled with skeletons, and are terrified]

    Charles Remington: Lions don't do this. Lions... never had a lair like this. They're doing it for the pleasure.

    John Patterson: They'll know we've been here.

  • Samuel: Mzee! John! Where do you think you're going?

    John Patterson: [John cocks his rifle] I'm going to sort it out.

    [He fires a shot]

    John Patterson: I'm going...

    [He fires again]

    John Patterson: to sort it out.

    [He shoots into the air, again, walks onto the bridge, and continues firing]

  • John Patterson: Darling... you know how God invented liquor so the Irish wouldn't rule the world. Well, I think he may have invented being stubborn so we can be the best at something.

  • John Patterson: What better job in all the world than build a bridge? Bring land over water. Bring worlds together.

  • John Beaumont: I'm a monster. My only pleasure is tormenting those people who work for me.

  • Charles Remington: We have an expression in prize fighting: "Everyone has a plan until they've been hit." Well my friend, you've just been hit. The getting up is up to you.

  • Helena Patterson: You build bridges, John. You have to go where the rivers are.

  • John Beaumont: I don't care about the thirty dead. I care about my knighthood.

  • John Patterson: Have you ever failed?

    Charles Remington: Only at life.

  • John Patterson: The females of the species are larger. All the animals here are like that. they have to be to survive.

  • Angus Starling: Their suffering is merely transitory. It ends once they accept God into their hearts.

  • John Patterson: Well then you go too, you lack the courage to lead. Go! Tell all your men to go. But I will kill the lions and I will build the bridge. And you? You must go home and tell the wives of the men who died here that you fled with the others because you could not master your fear.

  • [last lines]

    Samuel: [narrating] Patterson did hold his son high. People came back. Patterson finished the bridge. People went their ways. If you want to see the lions today, you must go to America. They are at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Even now, if you dare lock eyes with them, you *will* be afraid.

  • [first lines]

    Samuel: [narrating] This is the most famous and true African adventure. Famous because what took place at Tsavo never happened before. Colonel John Patterson was there when it began. A fine Irish gentleman, a brilliant engineer. He was my friend. My name is Samuel. I was there. Remember this: even the most impossible parts of this story really happened.

  • John Beaumont: I've made you with this assignment, don't make me break you.

    John Patterson: You won't have the opportunity. Any other words of encouragement?

  • Hawthorne: David Hawthorne. I'm um, this is my hospital. And my advice to you is, don't get sick.

  • John Patterson: I will sort this out. I will kill the lion, and I will build he bridge.

    Abdullah: Of course you will.

    [as he walks away]

    Abdullah: You're white, you can do anything.

  • Abdullah: [gun to his head] I am a man of peace!

    Charles Remington: You sound like a man who wants to live.

  • Charles Remington: [melancholy] My life was shaped because someone invented gunpowder, and that's what took me around the world. But the memory that I wanted, that was the family that I lost.

    John Patterson: You know Charles, you're a rather cheerful fellow when you get to know you.

    [all start laughing]

  • Nigel: Patterson the lion killer. I do wish I had been here for the hunt.

    John Patterson: No, you don't.

  • Samuel: [narrating] The men called them the Ghost and the Darkness. There were two of them, and that had never happened before because man-eaters are always alone. They owned the night but they also attacked in daylight. Alone or together. Without fear or reason. Some thought they were not lions at all, but the spirits of dead medicine men come back to spread madness. Or they were the devil sent to stop the white man from owning the world. I believed this... that they were evil. What better ground for evil to walk than Tsavo? Because this is what the word Tsavo means; "a place of slaughter".