Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Karl Hardman: Harry Cooper

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ben : How long have guys you been down there? I could have used some help up here!

  Harry Cooper : That's the cellar. It's the safest place.

  Ben : You mean you didn't hear the racket I was making up here?

  Harry Cooper : How were we supposed to know what was going on? It could have been those things for all we knew!

  Ben : That girl was screaming. Surely you know what a girl screaming sounds like? Those things don't make any noise. Anybody would know somebody needed help!

  Tom : Look, it's kind of hard to know what's going on from down there.

  Harry Cooper : We thought we could hear screams, but for all we knew, that meant those things were in the house after her.

  Ben : And you wouldn't come up here and help?

  Tom : Well, if there were more of us...

  Harry Cooper : That racket sounded like the place was being ripped apart. How were we supposed to know what was going on?

  Ben : Now wait a minute. You just got finished saying you couldn't hear from down there. Now you say it sounded like the place was being ripped apart. It would be nice if you get your story straight, man!

  Harry Cooper : All right, now you tell me! I'm not gonna take that kind of a chance when we've got a safe place! We lock up into a safe place, and you're telling us that we gotta risk our lives just because somebody might need help, huh?

  Ben : Yeah, something like that.

• Harry Cooper : [referring to everybody else, who are all upstairs]  Let them stay upstairs. Let them. Too many ways those monsters can get in here. We'll see who's right. We'll see, when they come begging me to let them in down here.

  Helen Cooper : That's important, isn't it?

  Harry Cooper : What?

  Helen Cooper : To be right, everybody else to be wrong.

  Harry Cooper : What do you mean by that?

• Harry Cooper : Did you hear me when I told you those things turned over our car?

  Ben : Oh, hell! Any good five men could do that!

  Harry Cooper : That's my point! There's not going to be five, or even ten of them! There's going to be twenty, thirty, maybe a hundred of those things out there, and as soon as they find out we're here, this place'll be crawling with them!

  Ben : Well, if there's that many, they'll probably get us wherever we are.

• Harry Cooper : [to Barbara]  Now you'd better watch this and try to understand what's going on.

  [Ben looks at him] 

  Harry Cooper : I don't want anyone's life on my hands.

  Helen Cooper : Is there anything I can do...?

  Ben : I don't wanna hear any more from you, Mister! If you stay up here, you take orders from ME! And that includes leaving the girl alone!

• Harry Cooper : [complaining]  This place is ridiculous! Look at this. There's a million weak spots up here. And they talk about these windows. I can't see a damned thing. There could be 15 million of those things out there. That's how much good these windows are.

• Harry Cooper : Helen! I have to get that gun!

  Helen Cooper : Haven't you had ENOUGH?

  Harry Cooper : Look, two people are already dead on account of that guy! Take a look out that window!

• Ben : I'm telling you they can't get IN here!

  Harry Cooper : And I'm telling you they turned over our car! We were damn lucky to get away at all! Now you're telling me these things can't get through a lousy pile of wood?

• Newscaster : Reports, incredible as they may seem, are not the results of mass hysteria.

  Harry Cooper : "Mass hysteria?" What do they think, we're imagining all this?

  Ben : Shut up!

• Harry Cooper : Look! You two can do whatever you like! I'm going back down to the cellar, and you'd better decide! 'Cause I'm gonna board up that door, and I'm not going to unlock it again no matter what happens!

  Tom : Now wait a minute, Mr. Cooper.

  Harry Cooper : NO, I'm not going to wait! I've made my decision, now you make yours!

  Tom : Now WAIT a minute! Let's think about this! We can make it to the cellar if we have to! And if we do decide to stay down there, we'll need some things from up here! So let's at LEAST consider this a while!

• Harry Cooper : [complaining that the boarded-up windows don't make the house safe]  Man, you're really crazy, you know that? You got a million windows up here!

• [Harry Cooper sees the zombies eating the flesh of the late Tommy and Judy] 

  Harry Cooper : Good Lord!

• [Tom has just brought Judy up from the basement] 

  Harry Cooper : You gonna let them get her too, huh?

• Ben : Do you know anything about this area at all? I mean, is Willard the nearest town?

  Helen Cooper : I don't know. We were driving and just trying to get to a motel before dark. That's when we spotted a group of those things on the road...

  Ben : You said those things turned your car over. Do you think we can get it back on its wheels and drive it? Where is it?

  Helen Cooper : It seems like it's pretty far. After we got away, we just ran and ran until we spotted this farmhouse and...

  Harry Cooper : Forget it! It's at least a mile.

  Barbra : [still delusional]  Johnny has the keys.

  Harry Cooper : [to Barbra]  Oh, are you going to carry our kid a mile... through that army of things out there?

  Ben : I can carry the kid. What's wrong with her? How'd she get hurt?

  Helen Cooper : One of those things grabbed her...

  Harry Cooper : Bit her on her arm.

  [Ben sighs with worry] 

  Helen Cooper : What's wrong?

  Ben : Who knows what kind of diseases those things carry? Is she conscious?

  Helen Cooper : Barely.

  Harry Cooper : She can't walk. She's too weak.

  Ben : [after a short pause]  Well... one of us should try to get to the car!

  Harry Cooper : Are you gonna turn it over by yourself?

• Ben : [after seeing a message about rescue stations]  Willard. Willard Medical Center. I saw a sign that said Willard.

  Tom : It's a large town only about 17 miles from here.

  Ben : You seem to know this area. Are you from around here?

  Tom : Judy and I are both from around here. We were on our way up to a lake to go swimming. Judy had a small radio and we heard the first reports about all this going on. We knew about this old farmhouse so we walked here, came in and found the old lady upstairs dead. Then a short while later, this other couple, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, came. We all went down to the basement and put a heavy iron bar across the door. The bar is pretty strong.

  Harry Cooper : How can we possibly get away from here? We've got a sick child, two women... . one woman out of her head, and three men with this whole house surrounded by these things!