Contact (1997)

Tucker Smallwood: Mission Director

Quotes 

• Mission Director : [Machine systems integration test: Unusual vibrations are occurring]  David, we're not seeing anything abnormal down here.

  David Drumlin : No good! Hold the sequence. I'm gonna take a direct reading.

  Mission Director : What the hell's he talking about?

  Technician : Can anyone say "grandstanding"?

  2nd Technician : He sure knows *he's* on TV.

  Communications : [heavy Texas accent]  Back home, that's what we call a "overcooked ham".

• Dynamics : 100% target velocity.

  Electrical : Steve, picking up tremendous E.M.I. levels around the machine. All field measurements are pegged off-scale high.

  Dynamics : Steve, we're approaching our abort limits.

  [Mission director reaches for the abort switch] 

  Ellie Arroway : Okay to go!

  [Mission director unlocks abort control and prepares to push the button] 

  Dr. Kent Clark : I hear her! I hear her. Barely, but, but she's there.

  Ellie Arroway : [weakly]  Okay to go...

  Dr. Kent Clark : She says she's okay to go.

  Dynamics : Steve, we're real close.

  Mission Director : Electrical, what's your reading on the core?

  Electrical : [puzzled]  The internal environment looks normal. Inside the core, the... weather's beautiful.

  [Mission director re-locks abort control] 

  Ellie Arroway : [softly]  I'm okay to go... okay to go... I'm okay to go...

  Mission Director : Initiate drop sequence on my mark. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three two...

  Ellie Arroway : I'm okay to go...

  [pod drops into machine] 

  Ellie Arroway : OH GOD!