Quotes

Dialogue

Isley: [referring to Dr. Robert Verne and Maggie] These people are from the Environmental Protection Agency. I'd appreciate being let through. Hawks: No car from the lumber company gets through here. Isley: This is against the law, John. Hawks: The law has not brought justice. Isley: The Supreme Court has issued a restraining order against this blockade. Hawks: And which Supreme Court is that, Mr. Isley? Isley: The Supreme Court of the United States. Hawks: Yes, we've tried that Supreme Court. Now we're going to one that's higher.

Dialogue

Hawks: The environment is us. And it's being mangled. And I'm gonna make something very clear to you. My people are violently ill. They're beginning to lose their faculties. They stagger and they fall, and this has nothing to do with alcohol, as these villagers claim. My people are fishermen; their lives are clean. Ramona: I'm a midwife, and I've seen children born dead, born deformed. Hawks: So badly, some have had to be put to death. Ramona: Three times we have been to the Government, and three times they've turned us away. Hawks: You see, the end of this forest is the end of my people. Don't talk about the environment as though it had nothing to do with us.

Dialogue

M'Rai: This camp is as the old people did it. I'm teaching these young people so that someone here will remember. There are underground tunnels beneath the frost line to store perishables. The forest provides more food than a man could possibly need. Here, everything grows big—real big. Robert: Well, I saw a salmon that, uh, took my breath away. M'Rai: It is the garden of Eden. I've let no one come here. You are the first to see it. Maggie: It's magical. Hawks: We were once a magical people. Ramona: It's true. When I was a child, every rock, every tree had a story. The whole forest was filled with legends. Maggie: We heard about one of them. Ramona: Yes? Maggie: Uh, katydah, something. Ramona: Katahdin. M'Rai: Katahdin is no legend. Ramona: My grandfather is the oldest person in our tribe. It's his duty to foster these beliefs. M'Rai: I have seen him. Maggie: And what does he look like? M'Rai: He is part of all things created. And he bears a mark of each of God's creatures. Maggie: You

Dialogue

Maggie: [referring to Bethel Isley] I believe him. Robert: Why? Maggie: Why would he have offered to let you test the water? Robert: Maybe it wasn't in the water. Maggie: Huh? Robert: Maybe it's heavier than the water. That silvery stuff on your boot... is it dry? Maggie: Yes. Robert: They gave us a trick question in medical school. What's the only liquid in the world that isn't wet? Maggie: What was the answer? Robert: Mercury.

Dialogue

Maggie: Rob, what is it? Robert: It's methylmercury poisoning, that's what it is. This whole place has been contaminated. Maggie: How do you know? Robert: The Indians eat the fish, and they behave like they're drunk when they haven't had a drop of liquor. That raccoon convulsing and turning vicious, its brain turned to mush. Even that old man, that Indian, you saw the burns on his fingers. Maggie: Is that from mercury? Robert: It's from cigarettes; the reason he didn't feel it is from mercury. You see, it acts on the nervous system; it destroys the brain.

Dialogue

Maggie: Jumps the placental barrier. What does that mean? Robert: [referring to methylmercury] It's a mutagen. Maggie: A mutagen. What is that? Robert: Freakism! Freakism! That's what's been going on out there. That's why there's a goddamn salmon five feet long, and a tadpole the size of what a bullfrog should be! And stillbirths. Maggie: What? Robert: That's what that Indian woman said. And deformed children. And God knows what else has been going on out there. Maggie: So if a pregnant animal ate some fish, it could— Robert: Yes. My God. Is it possible? Maggie: Yes. Robert: The size of a dragon. Maggie: What? Robert: The size of a dragon. Isn't that what Isley said at the airport? And something about eyes, cat's eyes. And the old man, the Indian. Didn't he describe that creature as being a... part of everything in God's creation? Isn't that what he said? Maggie: Yes.

Dialogue

Robert: What's going on here? Isley: There were more killings in the forest last night. We're not waiting for any more. Robert: Who was killed? Isley: [referring to the dismembered campers] A family up at Mary's Bend. Robert: [referring to John Hawks and the people of the Indian village] What makes you think these people had anything to do with it? Isley: They're guilty as hell, Vern. Sheriff: [speaking through his megaphone] I want the following people to step forward as their names are read! John Hawks! Robert: Where's the evidence? Isley: The evidence is at the hospital! It's in baskets!

Dialogue

Robert: Can these people help us? Hawks: They can send someone from the village. Robert: Send them. Tell them to get people here. I want people to see this. Is there a newspaper in town? Hawks: Yes. Robert: Get them here with a camera... and people from that paper mill... and that sheriff. Hawks: Not that sheriff. I can't do that. Robert: Hawks! He'll see the truth here and you have more here at stake in this truth than I have.