- "Hoot": When I go home people'll ask me, "Hey Hoot, why do you do it man? What, you some kinda war junkie?" You know what I'll say? I won't say a goddamn word. Why? They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the men next to you, and that's it. That's all it is.
- "Hoot": Y'know what I think? Don't really matter what I think. Once that first bullet goes past your head, politics and all that shit just goes right out the window.
- [voice-over, spoken with the credits]
- Shughart: My love, stay strong and you will do well in life. I love you and my children deeply. Today and tomorrow let each day grow and grow. Keep smiling and never give up even when things get you down. So in closing my love, tonight tuck my children in bed warmly. Tell them I love them, then hug them for me and give them both a kiss goodnight for daddy.
- Eversmann: Look, these people, they have no jobs, no food, no education, no future. I just figure that we have two things we can do. Help, or we can sit back and watch a country destroy itself on CNN. Right?
- "Hoot": Once that first bullet goes past your head, politics and all that shit just goes right out the window.
- [after the briefing]
- Matthews: What's the matter Danny? Something you don't like?
- McKnight: No Spectre gunships, daylight instead of night, late afternoon when they're all fucked up on Khat, only part of the city Aidid can mount a serious counter-attack on short notice...
- [chuckles]
- McKnight: What's not to like?
- Harell: Life's imperfect.
- McKnight: Yeah, for you two, circling above it at five hundred feet it's imperfect. Down in the street, it's unforgiving.
- Steele: Sergeant, what's the meaning of this?
- [Thinking he's talking about the unauthorized pig picking]
- "Hoot": Just a little aerial target practice, sir. Didn't want to leave 'em behind.
- Steele: I'm talking about your weapon, soldier. Now Delta or no-Delta, that's still a hot weapon. Your safety should be on at all times.
- "Hoot": This is my safety, sir.
- [He holds up his index finger and bends motions as if squeezing a trigger and then walks off]
- Sanderson: Let it alone, sir. He hasn't eaten in a few days.
- [imitating Cpt. Steele]
- Pilla: Speak up, you say this is your safety? Well, this is my boot, son, and it will fit up your ass with the proper amount of force!
- "Hoot": See you're thinking. Don't. 'Cause Sergeant, you can't control who gets hit or who doesn't or who falls out of a chopper or why. It ain't up to you. It's just war.
- "Hoot": Sergeant, you got your men this far. You did it right today. Now you gotta start thinking about getting them out of here.
- Atto: You shouldn't have come here. This is a civil war. This is our war, not yours.
- General Garrison: 300,000 dead and counting. That's not a war Mr. Atto. That's genocide.
- [Captain Steele has caught Sgt. Pilla mocking him]
- Steele: Quick word, Specialist.
- Dominick Pilla: Sir.
- [Steele puts Pilla in a headlock, while Pilla surreptitiously gives the middle finger to the other Rangers]
- Steele: Tell me, Pilla. You understand why we have a chain of command, don't you?
- Dominick Pilla: Roger that, sir.
- Steele: 'Cause if I ever see you undermining me again, you'll be cleaning latrines with your tongue 'til you can't taste the difference between shit and french fries. Are we clear?
- Dominick Pilla: Hoo-ah, sir.
- Cliff Wolcott: Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Cliff "Elvis" Wolcott, I'll be your pilot this afternoon. Federal regulations designate this a "non-smoking" Black Hawk helicopter. For those of you who have the "Mogadishu Frequent Flyer" program, you'll be earning a hundred free credits this afternoon, and as always, the air sickness bags are located in the seat-back, in front of you.
- McKnight: [over the radio] How are things going? Things okay there, Struecker?
- Struecker: I don't wanna talk about it now, Colonel. I'm busy!
- [Pilla is shot and falls into the humvee]
- Thomas: Sergeant Pilla's hit! Christ, he's fucked up!
- McKnight: Is anybody hit? Struecker, talk to me!
- Struecker: It's Sergeant Pilla!
- McKnight: What's his status? What's his status?
- "Hoot": He's dead!
- Struecker: He's dead. Pilla's dead, sir.
- McKnight: C2, this is McKnight, we have a KIA: Dominick Pilla, over.
- Harell: Roger that.
- Struecker: Get on that fifty! Someone get on that fifty!
- "Hoot": It's mine!
- Eversmann: I was talking to Blackburn the other day, and he asked me "What changed? Why are we going home?" and I said "Nothing." That's not true either; I think everything's changed. I know I've changed.
- [sigh]
- Eversmann: You know a friend of mine asked me before I got here; it's when we were all shipping out. He asked me "Why are you going to fight somebody else's war? What, do you think you're heroes?" I didn't know what to say at the time, but if he'd ask me again I'd say no. I'd say there's not way in hell. Nobody asks to be a hero.
- [beat]
- Eversmann: It just sometimes turns out that way.
- General Garrison: This is Garrison. Now I want to be sure y'all understand what your asking for, so say it out loud and clear.
- Shughart: We're asking to go in and set-up a perimeter until ground support arrives.
- Busch: Three guys with RPGs! Coming up on your side! Now!
- [Somalis fire the RPG, striking Super 6-1's tail rotor. 6-1 is now spinning out of control]
- Cliff Wolcott: Stay with it!
- Cliff Wolcott: [on radio] This is 6-1. I'm hit. I'm hit.
- Matthews: Super 6-1 is hit. He is hit. Wolcott's bird is hit.
- Cliff Wolcott: Hey Bull, you want to pull those PCLs offline or what?
- Briley: Right, babe.
- [6-1 is still spinning wildly]
- Cliff Wolcott: 6-1 going down, 6-1 going down.
- Matthews: Super 6-1 is going down. He is going down.
- [Various radio chatter repeating "6-1 going down", showing the Rangers on the ground looking up in disbelief at the spiraling chopper]
- Cliff Wolcott: Hold on!
- [6-1's crew are bracing for impact]
- Cliff Wolcott: [Chopper strikes a building] Ahhh!
- [6-1 crashes, blades flying everywhere]
- Harell: We've got a Black Hawk down, we've got a Black Hawk down.
- Matthews: Super 6-1 is down. We've got a bird down in the city.
- Steele: What the fuck are you doing out there?
- Sanderson: Doing my job! We got to get to that crash site! We got to get on that street, and we got to move! And you have got to keep up, sir!
- Steele: Don't you ever give me orders, Sergeant! We are combat ineffective, you understand me? We got too many wounded to move!
- Sanderson: Then give me some shooters and I'll circle us to the bird.
- Steele: Grimes! You're with Chalk Four?
- Grimes: Yes, sir!
- Steele: All right, hook up with Delta! Rejoin with Sergeant Eversmann. The rest of you, secure this position! Treat the wounded. We'll wait for the convoy! Then we'll rally at the crash site.
- Sanderson: My guys, let's go!
- Pilot: Mike Durant, we won't leave you behind.
- Yurek: [ducking behind a car after being shot at by Nelson] Rangers?
- Twombly: Who?
- Yurek: It's Yurek! You fucking assholes!
- Nelson: [Twombly turns to Nelson and taps his own flag patch to indicate "friendly"] Fuck!
- Twombly: Dude, we almost fucking killed you! Well, come to us!
- Yurek: Fuck you! Come to me!
- Smith: I'm sorry.
- Eversmann: You have nothing to be sorry about. You saved Twombly, you did it perfect.
- Smith: You okay Twombs?
- Twombly: Yeah, I'm okay, Jamie.
- Eversmann: See, you did what you were trained to do. You should be proud of that, be proud of that.
- Smith: Ev?
- Eversmann: Yeah.
- Smith: Do me a favor, okay? Tell my parents that I fought well today. And tell them that I... that I... that I fought hard.
- Eversmann: You're gonna tell them yourself okay, Jamie?
- Smith: Are... are the humvees here?
- Eversmann: They're coming, Jamie. They're coming. You just gotta hold on for a little longer. Can you do that?
- Smith: I can, I can. It's nothing. It's nothing.
- [Durant and Wolcott talk over the intercom as they fly past each other in their helicopters]
- Durant: Six-One, this is Six-Four, go to UHF secure. I've got some bad news.
- Cliff Wolcott: Limo is a word, Durant. I don't want to hear about it.
- Durant: It is not a word. It's an abbreviation of a word.
- Cliff Wolcott: Limo is a word in common usage. That is the key phrase in scrabble, my friend, common usage.
- Durant: No! If it's not in the dictionary, it doesn't count.
- Cliff Wolcott: It doesn't have to be in the dictionary!
- Durant: It does have to be in the dictionary! Listen, when we get back to base, it's coming off the board.
- Cliff Wolcott: You touch my limo and I'll spank you, Night Stalker. You hear me?
- Durant: Yeah. Promises.
- [Durant is being interrogated]
- Durant: My government will never negotiate for me.
- Abdullah 'Firimbi' Hassan: Then perhaps you and I can negotiate, huh? Soldier to Soldier.
- Durant: I am not in charge
- Abdullah 'Firimbi' Hassan: Course not, you have the power to kill, but not negotiate. In Somalia, Killing is Negotiation.
- Abdullah 'Firimbi' Hassan: Do you think if you get General Aidid, we will simply put down our weapons and adopt American democracy? That the killing will stop? We know this. Without victory, there will be no peace. There will always be killing, see? This is how things are in our world.
- Grimes: It's all in the grind, Sizemore. Can't be too fine, can't be too coarse. This, my friend, is a science. I mean you're looking at the guy that believed all the commercials. You know, about the "be all you can be." I made coffee through Desert Storm. I made coffee through Panama while everyone else got to fight, got to be a Ranger. Now it's "Grimesy, black, one sugar" or "Grimesy, got a powdered anywhere?"