20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

Paul Lukas: Prof. Pierre Aronnax

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Quotes 

• [Observing the slave island] 

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : What is in those sacks they are carrying?

  Captain Nemo : Nitrates and phosphate for ammunition. The seeds of war. They're loading a full cargo of death. And when that ship takes it home the world will die a little more. I was once one of those pitiful wretches you see down there. Look at it again, Professor, I don't want you to forget what you've seen here today.

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : I've seen enough.

  Captain Nemo : It's burned everlastingly in my memory.

• Captain Nemo : Accept one of these cigars, Professor.

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : Thank you.

  [He lights it] 

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : Delightful smoke. Different somehow. Havana?

  Captain Nemo : Seaweed.

• Captain Nemo : Do you know the meaning of love, Professor?

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : I believe I do.

  Captain Nemo : What you fail to understand is the power of hate. It can fill the heart as surely as love can.

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : I'm sorry for you. It's a bitter substitute.

• Captain Nemo : I asked you to leave, Professor.

  Prof. Pierre Arronax : You also asked me ashore, to show me man's inhumanity to man. Why? To justify this? You are not only a murderer, you are a hypocrite! The proof lies out there!

  Captain Nemo : [anguished]  YOU CALL THAT MURDER? Well, I see murder, too, not written on those drowned faces out there, but on the faces of dead thousands! They are the assassins, the dealers in death; I am the avenger!

• [Boarding the Nautilus for the first time] 

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : There is great genius behind all this.

  Conseil : Yes, and great evil. Don't forget this, this is an engine of destruction.

• Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : A strange twilight world opened up before me, and I felt as the first man to set foot on another planet, an intruder in this mystic garden of the deep.

• Captain Nemo : Would you care to come along, Professor?

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : No, thank you. The last time I went ashore it was a prelude to murder.

• Captain Nemo : You have a great deal to learn, Professor. Your book is brilliant... but it lacks scope. You have carried your work as far as terrestrial science permits. But the REAL story of the ocean depths begins where *you* left off. Wonders... that defy my powers of description... the secrets that are mine alone. Which I am willing to share with you.

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : At the cost of my friends' lives?

  Captain Nemo : I'm sorry... but you'll have to choose between them and me.

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : I cannot accept.

  Captain Nemo , Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : Professor, I regret your choice.

  [to first mate] 

  Captain Nemo , Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : Take him up. Secure for sea.

• Ned Land : [after Captain Farragut announces that he is ending the search]  Cheer up, Professor. You'll forget all about fishing when you see the gals in Saigon.

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : I thought they promised you a bonus if you harpooned this monster, Mr. Land.

  Ned Land : Knowing full well I couldn't collect it. When I get back, I'm shipping out on the first whaler that'll take me. I won't get rich, but I won't be sitting around picking my teeth with my harpoon.

  Conseil : Maybe we are lucky. It might have sunk us.

  Ned Land : You scare me. Be a good loser, Professor. The fish that got away is always the biggest one.

  Conseil : Ah, what a pity, Professor. I know you had visions of that monster mounted in the National Museum.

• Captain Nemo : Ah, we're almost at the island of Crespo. All this was once an island. Although it is now sunk, it is nevertheless fertile. We do our hunting and farming here.

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : Underwater?

  Captain Nemo : The sea supplies all my wants.

• [last lines] 

  Ned Land : [as Vulcania explodes]  Sorry I had to wallop you, Professor. But there wasn't time to stop for souvenirs.

  Prof. Pierre Arronax : Perhaps you did mankind a service, Ned.

• Sailor : [the warship's crew arrives too late to aid another ship after it explodes]  I'm thinking she went down with all hands.

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : Poor devils. Not a living soul left. What could have caused such a fearsome explosion?

  Sailor : Black powder, and worse, a whole shipload of the stuff.

  Ned Land : What could have set it off, though? She must have struck something.

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : Or could it be that something struck the ship?

• Ned Land : Hey, Professor, where are ya going?

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : My journal!

  Ned Land : The island's gonna blow up any second!

  Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator : I must get my journal!

  [Ned Land punches him and carries him out of the flooding chart room]