Over two decades after its release,Saving Private Ryanremains among the best war movies ever made, with its story of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), sent behind enemy lines in France during World War II to retrieve Private James Ryan (Matt Damon), the last member of his family left, as his brothers had all been killed in combat. It’s also one of the most successful war movies ever made and was the highest-grossing film in America in 1998. It was inspired by a true story and was directed bySteven Spielberg.
AlthoughSaving Private Ryanis known in part for its infamous, brutal, and graphic depiction of D-Day, it also holds up as a great film. Like all great films, war or otherwise,Saving Private Ryanfeatures some memorable dialogue. And like all great dialogue, the best of it says something bigger not just about the film’s story and characters but about humanity itself. Even if audiences can’t relate to the exact circumstances the characters find themselves in, they can still find something meaningful in the movie’s best quotes.
Saving Private Ryan
10"Sergeant, we have crossed some strange boundary here. The world has taken a turn for the surreal."
Captain John Miller
Miller and his men succeed in locating Private Ryan, only for Ryan to object to leaving his own squad behind—especially in the middle of a mission to protect a crucial bridge. Miller is then faced with the difficult decision to either leave or stay and help defend the bridge, and when Horvath asks for his orders, Miller comments on the strange situation they’ve found themselves in, one they certainly didn’t expect when their mission began.
Ryan’s reaction is a baffling one, at least at first—surely anyone would jump at the chance to go home, where they’re safe. Miller is certainly surprised and somewhat confused by it and sarcastically notes that they’ve entered into a “surreal” world, signaling that he doesn’t understand Ryan’s attitude towards the situation and wouldn’t make the same choice if their roles were reversed. But thequote from the war moviecan just as easily be applied to war itself.
9"This Ryan better be worth it. He’d better go home and cure some disease or invent a longer-lasting lightbulb or something."
As Miller’s squad seeks shelter for the night, he and Horvath have a moment together—first, they reminisce and laugh, then Miller turns more serious and discusses how many men have died under his command and how he copes with that, especially now that Caparzo (Vin Diesel) is among those men Miller has lost. He comments that Ryan better be worth their efforts and even some death and that he’d rather have his men with him, still alive.
Although Miller generally avoids expressing his true feelings about their mission, he does just that in a vulnerable moment with Horvath.But it’s also a lighthearted moment—although Miller shares his squad’s opinion that saving Private Ryan had better be worth it, he cites inventing a long-lasting lightbulb as one of Ryan’s possible accomplishments which would justify their struggle. It’s a sentiment Ryan would take to heart and reference later.
8"You see, when…when you end up killing one of your men, you see, you tell yourself it happened so you could save the lives of two or three or ten others. Maybe a hundred others. Do you know how many men I’ve lost under my command?"
In a quiet moment at night, after losing one of his men—Caparzo—Miller reflects on the ways he as a leader does what he can to make peace with death under his command. One man’s death might mean countless other men make it home. Miller notes that he distinguishes between the mission and the man, but he still keeps a count of how many men he’s lost, a total of 94.
The moment is a vulnerable one for Miller, givingTom Hanks a chanceto show off his acting chops. It showed that even if Miller rationalizes the deaths under his command and chooses to see them as a sacrifice for the greater good,he’s still affected by each one. His word choice also indicates the level of blame he puts on himself for each loss—he sees himself as responsible for their deaths as the person who made the choices that led them there.
7"If God be for us, who could be against us?"
Corporal Timothy Upham
As the men talk while taking shelter for the evening, they note that one of them falls asleep easily, no matter where they are, something they attribute to his “clear conscience.” Reiben mentions a saying about God being on their side, and Upham cites the full quote: “If God is for us, who could be against us?” The men then share anecdotes about their lives before the war, and Miller and Upham share a moment themselves.
Although it’s a bit of a lighthearted moment for the squad—they’re commenting on sleep habits—the quote hints at the difficulties they’re up against, both in their mission to find Ryan and in the war itself. It’s also a good moment for the characters of Reiben and Upham, as it gives them some common ground when up to that point, they’d been shown to be polar opposites. It also hints at Upham’s knowledge of literature.
6"We all have orders, and we have to follow ‘em. That supersedes everything, including your mothers."
As Miller and his squad begin theirjourney to find Private Ryan, one of them questions the logic of risking eight lives to save one, and when Miller asks if anyone has an answer, one of the other men mentions Ryan’s mother—only to be reminded that they all have mothers who would grieve their deaths. Miller reminds them that despite their mothers’ desires to have them home, their orders are more important.
In the military,an order is an order and the men have their duty as soldiers, no matter how they may feel about it, something Miller reminds his men of when they object to their task of finding Private Ryan. The moment is also Miller’s way of asserting his authority without being too harsh, and it’s a moment of camaraderie among the soldiers, even if they don’t agree with each other about the importance of the mission.
5"Like finding a needle in a stack of needles."
After Miller receives his orders to find Private Ryan, he begins assembling the squad that will accompany him. As he describes the mission, a soldier notes how difficult the task of finding one specific soldier will be, a task Miller says is like “finding a needle in a stack of needles.” The mission is complicated by the fact that they have no idea where Ryan is—they have a vague idea of his location but know little else.
Miller takes the old adage “like finding a needle in a haystack” and tweaks it todescribe just how difficult finding Private Ryan will be,and it’s an apt comparison. They have no way of knowing exactly where he is or what he looks like, and he’ll be impossible to distinguish from the other soldiers out in the field, as he won’t stand out. The moment sets the stage for what they’re facing.
4"Someday, we might look back on this and decide that saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole godawful, shitty mess."
Sergeant Mike Horvath
As they begin their mission, much of Miller’s squad sees the mission to find Private Ryan as pointless and an unnecessary risk to their own lives. But by the time they find him—and bythe end of the film—some have changed their minds. To complicate matters, Ryan is unwilling to leave his own squad behind, and they’re waiting for reinforcements as they attempt to maintain strategic control of a bridge.
The squad’s feelings are a regular source of tension throughout the film, and when given the option to leave or help Ryan’s squad, Miller is conflicted. Horvath sees both sides of the argument—but most importantly, he sees the benefit of saving Private Ryan.He recognizes that they’d be doing a good thing and saving a life in the midst of an awful, messy war, meaning they’d be making a difference, albeit a small one.
Private James Ryan
When Miller and his men finally find Private Ryan, he’s reluctant to leave—he doesn’t feel his brothers’ deaths should award him the opportunity to go home, and he doesn’t want to leave his fellow soldiers. Ryan feels the other men fighting alongside him deserve to go home just as much, and when Miller tries to get Ryan to consider how his mother would feel if he died, Ryan says he thinks she’d understand.
Private Ryan’s reaction to being told his brothers have been killed and he’s being sent home speaks volumes as to his character. He doesn’t see himself as more deserving of being sent home just because he’s the last member of his family left, despite the heartbreak his death would surely cause his mother. He also considers the men fighting alongside him to be his brothers, and he’s determined to stand by them until the very end.
2"Earn this. Earn it."
After deciding to stay with Ryan and his squad, Miller and his men get caught up in one last brutal battle, the Battle at Ramelle. They suffer one loss after another, until finally, Miller himself is shot in the chest, moments before reinforcements finally arrive. In his final moments—after defiantly shooting at an approaching tank with his pistol—he speaks directly to Private Ryan, saying simply, “Earn this. Earn it.”
One of themost profound quotes inSaving Private Ryanis also the shortest and simplest—“Earn it.” Miller’s final words have become an iconic line for good reason. Throughout the film, Miller and his men have expressed that Ryan had better be worth their strife and sacrifice,and Miller’s dying words to Ryan are a culmination of all of those frustrations. Ryan takes those words to heart, shown through the film’s final scene.
1"I tried to live my life the best that I could. I hope that was enough. I hope that, at least in your eyes, I’ve earned what all of you have done for me."
Saving Private Ryanboth begins and ends with the now-elderly Ryan visiting a cemetery with his family. In the final scene, he spends a somber moment at Miller’s grave and speaks to him, saying he tried to live his life the best he could and hopes he’s earned what they did for him. After his wife joins him, he asks for her assurances that he lived a good life and is a good man.
The ending scene is noteworthy for the reveal that the old man in the beginning was Ryan all along, but it’s made even more poignant by Ryan’s dialogue. Ryan not only hopes he’s lived a life good enough to have earned the sacrifice of Miller and the others, but he’s desperate for validation.He hasn’t taken their sacrifice for granted, and the gravity of it still affects him decades later.
