John Carter Quotes

Tardos Mors: Dejah, ever since you were a little girl you've always met the expectations placed on you...
[Dejah gently places her hand on his]
Tardos Mors: It's Sab's terms.
Dejah Thoris: What are they?
Tardos Mors: He will spare Helium if you accept his hand in marriage.
[Places his hand upon

hers but Dejah quickly takes it away]
Dejah Thoris: No. He is a monster! You must refuse him!
Tardos Mors: He's already on his way here.
Dejah Thoris: But all of my work... I just need a little more time.
Tardos Mors: Dejah.
Dejah Thoris: How can you... You can't just bow down to

Zodanga!
Tardos Mors: A wedding will save the city!
Dejah Thoris: Perhaps but it could lose you Barsoom!
Tardos Mors: Dejah.
Dejah Thoris: With no one to stop Zodanga will be the beginning of the end! You are a Jeddak of Helium! You must find another way!
Tardos Mors: There is

not another way!

Sola: Where are you going?
Dejah Thoris: To your temple.
Sola: No! No, you cannot enter here! It is forbidden! You are not Thark!
[Dejah and John enter so she follows]
Sola: Dotar Sojat, it is forbidden. It is forbidden!
Dejah Thoris: Well, you speak for the goddess. What does

she say?
John Carter: [Seeing the engraving on the temple's wall] You called me a thern. Is that what she is?
Sola: No! She is Issus. Therns are holy messengers of the goddess. In the time of oceans they walked among us, guiding us. We must not offend. Let us go!

Dalton: [after receiving Carter's telegraph, his nephew Edgar Rice Burroughs arrives at his estate to find out that Carter had died] His death came as a shock to all of us, he was a model of health and vigor. He just dropped dead in his study, not five minutes after sending word for me and the doctor. When I arrived he was already gone.
Dalton: [Burroughs

looks around at Carter's office in awe as he sees all the strange and exotic findings from all over the world] The man never stopped digging. All over the world. No sooner he started digging one hole then he was off to Jaava or the Orkney Islands digging another. He said it was pure research, but it always seemed to me like he was looking for something. Well, God granting, he's found it now.

Dalton: [Burroughs picks up a photo of Carter and looks at it] Every inch a Cavalry man, to the very end.
Edgar Rice Burroughs: My mother always said that Jack never really came back from the war. That it was only his body that went West. He used to tell me the most wondrous stories.
[he turns to Dalton]
Dalton: I'd like to

pay my respects.

Dalton: [Dalton and Burroughs stand outside Carter's tomb] You won't find a keyhole, thing only opens from the inside. He insisted, no embalming, no open coffin, no funeral. Well, you don't acquire the kind of wealth your uncle commanded by being like the rest of us, huh? Come, let's go inside.
[Dalton turns and leave, but Burroughs hesitates, walks towards the tomb and

places his hand on the door]

Dalton: [back at Carter's estate, Dalton reads from Carter's will] And lastly, I hereby direct, that my estate shall be held in trust for twenty five years. The income to benefit my beloved nephew, Edgar Rice Burroughs. At the end of which term, the principal will revert to him, in full.
Edgar Rice Burroughs: [Burroughs looks shocked] Of course, I always

adored him, but it's been so long. Why me?
Dalton: He never offered an explanation, I never asked him for one.
[Dalton passes an old looking journal to Burroughs]
Dalton: It was his private journal. He was most explicit that you, and only you, would read its contents. You might possibly find some kind of explanation in here. I'll leave you

now.
[Dalton stands and offers his hand to Burroughs]
Dalton: Again, my condolences.
[Dalton turns and leaves]

Tars Tarkas: [on Barsoom, Carter discovers due to his different bone density and planet's low gravity, he's able to jump high, after which he runs into the Tharks and their leader, Tars Tarkas]
[subtitled]
Tars Tarkas: Hello! Don't run. Don't run away.
John Carter: [Carter hides behind some rocks not understanding anything

Tarkas is saying]
Tars Tarkas: [subtitled] Hello. Don't run. Don't run away.
John Carter: [Tarkas slowly walks towards Carter and Carter comes out from behind the rocks] Alright. You've got me. I surrender.
Tars Tarkas: [Tarkas points to himself] Jeddak.
John Carter: Jeddak?
Tars

Tarkas: Jeddak. Tars Tarkas
John Carter: [Carter salutes as he introduces himself] Captain John Carter, Virginia.
Tars Tarkas: Vir... ginia. Virginia!
John Carter: No. My name is John Carter. I'm from Virginia.
Tars Tarkas: [subtitled] Virginia. Jump as you did before.
John

Carter: [not understanding what Tarkas is saying Carter repeats the word for jump] Sak?
Tars Tarkas: [subtitled] Jump, yes?
[Tarkas mimes the motion of jumping with his hands]
Tars Tarkas: Sak.
John Carter: Sak! Yes, sir.
[Carter salutes and jumps and as he lands he grabs the weapon that Tarkas had

thrown to the ground]

Tars Tarkas: [shouting to his men as Carter points the weapon at Tarkas]
[subtitled]
Tars Tarkas: Don't shoot it! Don't shoot it! Don't shoot it!
[as Tarkas lunges himself onto Carter, one of his soldiers shoots Carter in the butt, after which Tarkas takes him prisoner, straps him to one of their alien horse creatures, along with some Thark

hatchlings]
John Carter: [shouting] What is this place? Where am I?
Tars Tarkas: [subtitled] Virginia. It's okay, just relax.
John Carter: Where's my damn gold?
Young Thark Warrior: [one of Tarkas' soldiers walks up to him to inform him about the eggs]
[subtitled]
Young Thark

Warrior: Eighteen have not yet hatched, Jeddak.
Tars Tarkas: [subtitled] Then they are not our kind. Leave nothing for the white apes.
John Carter: [Carter watches as Tarkas' soldiers shoot the unhatched eggs] Where on earth am I?

Tardos Mors: Dejah, ever since you were a little girl, you've always met the expectations placed on you. It's Sab's terms.
Dejah Thoris: What are they?
Tardos Mors: He will spare Helium, if you accept his hand in marriage.
Dejah Thoris: No! He is a monster! You must refuse him!
Tardos

Mors: He's already on his way here.
Dejah Thoris: But all of my work! I just need a little more time!
Tardos Mors: Dejah.
Dejah Thoris: How can you...? You can't just bow down to Zodanga!
Tardos Mors: A wedding will save the city!
Dejah Thoris: Perhaps! But it could lose

you Barsoom!
Tardos Mors: Dejah!
Dejah Thoris: With no one to stop Zodanga it will be the beginning of the end!
Tardos Mors: We do not... we do not have the luxury.
Dejah Thoris: [shouting] You are the Jeddak of Helium! You must find another way!
Tardos Mors: [shouting] There is

no other way!
[Dejah looks away from Tardos]
Tardos Mors: If there were, I would risk anything to cease it. This is the chance we have been given. Perhaps it is the will of the Goddess.
Dejah Thoris: No. It is your will. When I was little and we would look up at the stars, and you would tell me of the heroes whose glory was written in the sky.

How there was a star up there for me. Is this what you imagined would be written on it?
Tardos Mors: [before Tardos answers her Kantos enters with his men]
Kantos Kan: My Jeddak, Sab Than's Corsair approaches the city. They signal for permission to land.
Tardos Mors: Grant it.
[Dejah turns away from Tardos in

disappointment and sadness]
Tardos Mors: And let us prepare ourselves for a wedding.

John Carter: [as the trio arrive the Gates of Iss which looks like a giant umbrella-like rock formation] Professor.
Dejah Thoris: Impossible! I've never seen this kind of structure before.
John Carter: I wanna get a better look.
[suddenly Carter grabs Dejah and leaps to the top of the rock formation]
Dejah

Thoris: Carter, your feet!
[the medallion Carter carries lights up blue and as they look down they notice the center of the rock begins to lower and a set of stairs emerges, the stairs lead into a cave where the walls form blue webbed material]
Dejah Thoris: This is not the work of Gods. These are machines. Your medallion.
John

Carter: [Carter gives her the medallion and Dejah places it on the glowing spider carving on the cave ground] The spider.
Dejah Thoris: [nine blue glowing rays suddenly appear out of the spider symbol] Nine. Nine rays. Nine! The Ninth Ray is real! It can be harnessed, do you see? This entire structure runs on Ninth Ray isolates. The Iss is such power, and somehow

Zodanga has it. The Therns, they must be real. And you, you are John Carter of Earth?
John Carter: Yes, ma'am.
Dejah Thoris: And the ships that sail on the sea, you've seen them?
[Carter nods his head]
Dejah Thoris: That must be a beautiful sight.
John Carter: It truly is.
[as Carter steps

on the blue ray light suddenly the set of symbols connects and the solar system appears on the ground]
Dejah Thoris: It's our solar system!
John Carter: [Carter steps on the symbol of Earth and a set of symbols connects the planet to Barsoom] What's it saying?
Dejah Thoris: I'm not sure.
John Carter:

Okay. What do you think it says?
Dejah Thoris: It appears to be... a kind of technical diagram. Here is Barsoom, there is Jasoom. This bit here, it's like our symbol for a transcription. A copy, sent along these lines here, between the worlds. Like...
John Carter: A telegram. You're saying I was telegraphed here. I'm a copy of myself.

Dejah Thoris: Possibly. Making these words here, the command for travel.
Dejah Thoris: [referring to the symbols they've just discovered] I don't like guessing. I need more information, I need charts, codices.
[Carter looks at Dejah with suspicion]
John Carter: Right. And where might we find those?

Sola: [as they follow Dejah who is supposed to be taking them to the river Iss] Dotar Sojat. Carter! I do not think she leads us to the Iss.
John Carter: Alright then, Sola. Just play along.
John Carter: [Carter rides his lizard-horse creature closer to Dejah and suddenly grabs her rains] What do you think I'd do once I saw your city

and not some river?
Dejah Thoris: What do you mean?
Sola: Cloras Anthorea, they should be at our backs by now. You lead us toward Helium!
Dejah Thoris: Once we reach there, you would see for yourself the virtue of our cause.
Dejah Thoris: Everyone thinks their cause is virtuous, professor.

[suddenly he grabs her stuff and throws her off her lizard-horse creature and he and Sola take off leaving her behind]
Dejah Thoris: What are you doing? No! John Carter! You can't!
Sola: [as they pretend to leave her] I like this plan better.
John Carter: Just wait. She'll come around.

John Carter: [as they are pursued by the Thark tribe, Carter touches Dejah's hand and has flashback to coming home after the war to find his home burned with his wife and his daughter inside]
Sola: Dotar Sojat!
Dejah Thoris: What are you doing?
John Carter: [he jumps off the lizard-horse creature] Sola, get

her out of here.
Dejah Thoris: No! Carter!
John Carter: I was too late once. I won't be again.
Dejah Thoris: No! No! No! No!
[Carter tries to force Woola to flee with the women, but Woola remains, as the Thark tribe reach him, Carter leaps in the air and onto the warriors, with each slash of his sword he flashbacks to

burying his wife and daughter and placing his wife's wedding ring on his hand, then the Tharks begin to overwhelm him and Carter disappears under a pile of Thark warriors]

Tardos Mors: [In Zodanga the wedding procession is taking place, Dejah walks towards her father] I know that this is not the fate you'd have chosen for yourself, or for Helium. But choice is a luxury, even for a Jeddak of Barsoom. Even if in your heart...
Dejah Thoris: The heart is a luxury.
[Tardos starts walking Dejah down the isle towards Sab

Than]
Tardos Mors: Steady.
Matai Shang: [Matai Shang is next to Sab Than as they watch Dejah and her father walk towards them] Remember, she is not the prize. The prize is Barsoom.

John Carter: John Carter of Earth.
[he tosses the medallion over the balcony]
John Carter: Yep. John Carter of Mars sounds much better.
[Carter turns to go back to Dejah, but a guard stops to him to thank him]
Humble Guard: Sire, I must express the deepest of gratitude for saving Helium. Please, the honor is mine.

[suddenly the guard morphs into Matai Shang]
Matai Shang: Fair enough, Earthman. Now it's your move.
[Matai Shang touches Carter, repeats the command phrase and sends Carter back to earth]