"When the World Trade towers fell on September 11, 2001, there was one refrain I heard over and over again, a common response that was both automatic and indicting: “It looked like something out of a Michael Bay movie.” More specifically, the explosions and citywide carnage resembled Armageddon, the Bay-directed action vehicle that had come out four summers prior and contained scenes of epic metropolitan mayhem that were still something of a cinematic novelty at the time. We pray that nothing on the scale of 9/11 will ever happen again, but if something actually did, we’d now have a sickening number of summer movies to compare it to. This weekend’s Man of Steel is only the latest film this year to exploit familiar 9/11 imagery in ways that are far more extreme and blatant than anything we’ve seen on the big screen before, as though Hollywood feels the need to out-9/11 itself. It’s lazy, it’s cheap, it’s deadening, and it needs to stop."

"I address you tonight not as the President of the United States, not as the leader of a country, but as a citizen of humanity. We are faced with the very gravest of challenges. The Bible calls this day "Armageddon"; the end of all things. And yet, for the first time in the history of the planet, a species has the technology to prevent its own extinction. All of you praying with us need to know that everything that can be done to prevent this disaster is being called into service. The human thirst for excellence, knowledge. Every step up the ladder of science, every adventurous reach into space, all of our combined modern technologies and imaginations, even the wars that we've fought have provided us the tools to wage this terrible battle. Through all the chaos that is our history, through all of the wrongs and the discord, through all of the pain and suffering, through all of our times, there is one thing that has nourished our souls, and elevated our species above its origins, and that is our courage. Dreams of an entire planet are focused tonight on those 14 brave souls traveling into the heavens. And may we all, citizens the world over, see these events through. Godspeed, and good luck to you."

"[briefing Harry and Grace Stamper on the situation] When the rogue comet went through the asteroid belt, it sent shrapnel right for us. For the next 11 days, the Earth's in a shooting gallery. Even if the asteroid itself hits the water, it's still hitting land, it'll flashboil millions of gallons of seawater and slam into the ocean bedrock. Now if it's a Pacific Ocean impact, which we think it will be, it will create a tidal wave about three miles high, travelling a thousand miles an hour, covering California and washing up in Denver. Japan is gone, Australia is wiped out. Half of the Earth's population will be incinerated by the heat blast, the rest will freeze to death in a nuclear winter."

"[addressing staff on the NASA flight center network after the space shuttle Atlantis is destroyed] Okay, I want three groups. One: internal malfunction; get the log tape and start working back; maybe it's a glitch. Two: I want NORAD, Space Command and the 50th Tactical comparing all the space junk you tracked in every orbit. I want you to check, re-check and then do it all over again. Number three: wild cards, anything and everything alright? Now, Big Russ, I want you to get on the phone and wake up 11,000 people. Walt, get 'em going."

"[last words as he activates the manual detonator] We win, Gracie!"

"[After Freedoms Armadillo is destroyed] Get a hold of Truman, and prepare the world for bad news."

"[After informing his crew on the current situation] The United States government just asked us to save the world... Anybody want to say 'no'?"

"Chief Engineer Quinn: I'll bet any quantum mechanic in the service would give the rest of his life to fool around with this gadget."

"Richard Anderson — Chief Engineer Quinn"

"Earl Holliman — Cookie (the Ship's Cook)"

"Marvin Miller — Robby the Robot (voice)"

"Frankie Darro — Robby the Robot (stunt)"

"Warren Stevens — Lt. 'Doc' Ostrow"

"Jack Kelly — Lt. Jerry Farman"

"Leslie Nielsen — Commander John J. Adams"

"Anne Francis — Altaira Morbius"

"Walter Pidgeon — Dr. Edward Morbius"

"Doc Ostrow: [while showing the captain a plaster cast of a monster foot print] Anywhere in the galaxy this is a nightmare."

"Doc Ostrow: Monsters! Monsters from the id!"

"Cookie: Another one of them new worlds. No beer, no women, no pool parlors, nothin'. Nothin' to do but throw rocks at tin cans, and we gotta bring our own tin cans."

"I am monitored to admit no one at this hour."

"If you do not speak English, I am at your disposal with 187 other languages along with their various dialects and sub-tongues."

"For your convenience, I am monitored to respond to the name "Robby"."

"Would 60 gallons be sufficient?"

"Quiet please. I am analyzing."

"Alta, about a million years from now the human race will have crawled up to where the Krell stood in their great moment of triumph and tragedy. And your father's name will shine again like a beacon in the galaxy. It's true, it will remind us that we are, after all, not God."

"I'm in command of 18 competitively selected super-perfect physical specimens with an average age of 24.6 who have been locked up in hyperspace for 378 days. It would have served you right if he ... they ... oh go on, get out of here before I have you run out of the area under guard — and then I'll put more guards on the guards."

"Guilty! Guilty! My evil self is at that door, and I have no power to stop it!"

"The fool, the meddling idiot. As though his ape's brain could contain the secrets of the Krell."

"Yes, a single machine, a cube 20 miles on each side."

"In times long past, this planet was the home of a mighty and noble race of beings which called themselves the Krell. Ethically, as well as technologically, they were a million years ahead of humankind. For in unlocking the mysteries of nature, they had conquered even their baser selves. And when in the course of eons they had abolished sickness, and insanity, and crime, and all injustice they turned, still with high benevolence, outward toward space. Long before the dawn of man's history, they had walked our Earth, and brought back many biological specimens. The heights they had reached... But then, seemingly on the threshold of some supreme accomplishment which was to have crowned their entire history, this all-but-Divine race perished in a single night. In the two thousand centuries since that unexplained catastrophe, even their cloud-piercing towers of glass, and porcelain, and adamantine steel have crumbled back into the soil of Altair IV, and nothing, absolutely nothing remains above ground."

"How ironic that a simple scholar, with no ambition, beyond a modest measure of seclusion, should out of the clear sky, find himself besieged by an army of fellow creatures, all grimly determined to be of service."

"In the final decade of the 21st century, men and women in rocket ships landed on the moon. By 2200 AD, they had reached the other planets of our solar system. Almost at once, there followed the discovery of hyperdrive, through which the speed of light was first attained, and later greatly surpassed. And so at last, mankind began the conquest and colonization of deep space. United Planets Cruiser C-57D — now more than a year out from Earth Base, on a special mission to the planetary system of the great main-sequence star, Altair."

"The Emperor has made a critical error and the time for our attack has come. The data brought to us by the Bothan spies pinpoints the exact location of the Emperor's new battle station. We also know that the weapon systems on this Death Star are not yet operational. With the Imperial fleet spread throughout the galaxy in a vain effort to engage us, it is relatively unprotected. But most important of all, we have learned that the Emperor himself is personally overseeing the final stages of the construction of his Death Star. Many Bothans died to bring us this information."

"James Earl Jones — Darth Vader"

"Frank Oz — Yoda"

"Alec Guinness — Obi-Wan Kenobi"

"David Prowse — Darth Vader"

"Luke Skywalker has returned to his home planet of Tatooine in an attempt to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt. Little does Luke know that the GALACTIC EMPIRE has secretly begun construction on a new armored space station even more powerful than the first dreaded Death Star. When completed, this ultimate weapon will spell certain doom for the small band of rebels struggling to restore freedom to the galaxy..."

"Ian McDiarmid — Emperor Palpatine"

"/ — Anakin Skywalker"

"Peter Mayhew — Chewbacca"

"Anthony Daniels — C-3PO"

"— Lando Calrissian"

"Carrie Fisher — Leia Organa"

"Harrison Ford — Han Solo"

"Mark Hamill — Luke Skywalker"

"Coming May 25, 1983 to your galaxy. [Second Advance poster]"

"The Empire falls..."

"The saga continues..."