War of the Worlds (TV Series)

The Prodigal Son (1989)

John Colicos: Quinn

Quotes 

• Harrison Blackwood : Why do you hate humans so much, Quinn?

  Quinn : I have nothing really against humans; some of my best friends are humans. But as a group, they stink and you know it. I say kill them all.

  Harrison Blackwood : Is this the only way to end the war, Quinn? Why can't we start here and now, between you and me, some interspecies dialogue which, for all we know, might bring peace?

  Quinn : Dialogue, no. Demand, yes. You will tell the U.N. Security Council leaders tomorrow night that 10% of the human race will be allowed to live, only if they follow my orders. The rest will be poisoned. Otherwise, total annihilation is inevitable. It's an offer you can't refuse.

  Harrison Blackwood : That's not a peace offer, Quinn; that's the slaughter of billions of innocent people!

  Quinn : This is a fact.

  Harrison Blackwood : Why? Why our planet?

  Quinn : We come from an ancient world, Harry. A garden planet called Mor-Tax. But our sun is dying. And without light, there is no life. Earth is the closest planet by far to continue our eternity under a new sun in a new world. A world you don't deserve. A paradise your kind treats like a toilet! You're all vermin! A plague this planet can well do without.

  Harrison Blackwood : We belong here, Quinn. You don't!

  Quinn : We are the future, Harry! In less than five years, three million colonists will arrive here from Mor-Tax, and an army of thousands up there right now works to slaughter all of you. But I offer mankind a compromise!

  Harrison Blackwood : What happens to the ones that you spare, Quinn?

  Quinn : I will have them put on reservations far from my kind. The world will be a better place for it, and we will live life immortal.

  Harrison Blackwood : Even if I was to convey this grisly offer to the U.N., how do I know that your kind would accept this idea, especially coming from a renegade like you?

  Quinn : Because I am Muura-esuk, one who knows. Supreme Commander of the army. I sacrificed everything. I left my mate, my children, my home, to come here to make a refuge for my dying race. But our ruling class thought only of its own glory, ignoring the warnings of our scientists.

  Harrison Blackwood : Yes, I know that problem well.

  Quinn : The army will accept me to quickly win this war. Earth is a new world with new rules. We are thousands ruled by only three, the Advocacy. But now, Harry, I will rule alone.

  Harrison Blackwood : And me?

  Quinn : You... You will make the final selection: Who among you lives... and who dies.

• Harrison Blackwood : Do you realize that you're unique?

  Quinn : What's your point, Harry?

  Harrison Blackwood : My point is that you've lived here for so long that you're more human than you are alien.

  Quinn : Don't try my patience; I've very little left.

  Harrison Blackwood : That's what I mean. The truth is that you've lived here for 35 years in torment, in suffering, in a terrible kind of loneliness. Now you're revolting against your condition. Despite the pain, you want to live, Quinn. That's a human feeling!

  Quinn : What I've done, I've done to survive, no matter what you read into it!

  Harrison Blackwood : From what I know of your people, they are short on humor and they are long on murder. Do you think that millions of alien society are going to, going to accept that body? That mind and its human feelings, let alone allow a half-breed like you to lead them? No, Quinn; your kind is intolerant in their superiority!

  Quinn : Your kind murders anything different from its own. Yours is the killer race, Harry, not mine!

  Harrison Blackwood : But we have learned the value of tolerance, Quinn. And your species hasn't! Tolerance is, and always will be, the saving grace of humanity.

  Quinn : Tolerance, Harry. What good is tolerance to me?

  Harrison Blackwood : Because if you want to live, Quinn, humans will tolerate you. They might even celebrate your half-alien identity, but your kind, your kind will squash you! They will kill you out of fear!

  Quinn : I will rule this planet, and anybody who stands in the way will die.

  Harrison Blackwood : That's been tried before, Quinn. Maybe not by one man operating all by himself!

  Quinn : Oh, but I've more than one, Harry. I have you. And if you're good, really good tonight, Harry, the United Nations will end this war.

  Harrison Blackwood : And put you on the throne?

  Quinn : You'd better pray that they do. Because if this fails, you'll be extinct... along with all the rest of your God-forsaken species.