"This is not a blockade. This is language. A new vocabulary, the likes of which the world has never seen! This is President Kennedy communicating with Secretary Khrushchev!"

"[The night prior to the beginning of the U.S. Navy's military "quarantine" of Cuba] You know, last summer, I read a book, The Guns of August. I wish every man on that blockade line had read that book. It's World War I, there's thirteen million killed; it was all because the militaries of both alliances believed they were so highly attuned to one another's movements and dispositions, they could predict one another's intentions, but all their theories were based on the last war. And the world and technology had changed, and those lessons were no longer valid, but it was all they knew, so the orders went out, and couldn't be rescinded. And your man in the field, his family at home; they couldn't even tell you the reasons why their lives were being destroyed. But why couldn't they stop it? What could they have done? Here we are, fifty years later. Think if one of their ships resists the inspection, and we shoot out its rudder, and board, they shoot down one of our planes in response, so we bomb their anti-aircraft sites, and in response to that, they attack Berlin...so we invade Cuba...and they fire their missiles...and we fire ours."

"I am the commander in chief of the United States, and I say when we go to war!"

"(Theatrical Poster) On the nuclear submarine USS Alabama, one man has absolute power. And one man will do anything to stop him."

"Steve Zahn - William Barnes"

"What'd you think, son? That I was just some crazy old coot, putting everyone in harm's way as I yelled "YEE-HA!"?"

"Rick Schroder - Lt. Paul Hellerman"

"Eric Bruskotter - Bennefield"

"Lillo Brancato - Petty Officer Third Class Russell Vossler"

"Danny Nucci - Petty Officer First Class Danny Rivetti"

"Scott Burkholder - T.S.O. Billy Linkletter"

"Michael Milhoan - Chief of the Watch Hunsicker"

"Jaime Gomez - Officer of the Deck Mahoney"

"Rocky Carroll - Lt. Darik Westergard"

"James Gandolfini - Lt. Bobby Dougherty"

"Viggo Mortensen - Lt. Peter 'Weps' Ince"

"Matt Craven - Lt. Roy Zimmer, USS Alabama Communications Officer"

"George Dzundza - Chief of the Boat"

"Gene Hackman - Capt. Frank Ramsey"

"We're here to preserve democracy—not to practice it."

"Denzel Washington - Lt. Commander Ron Hunter"

"On the brink of nuclear war, two men clash over the fate of the world."