The Iron Giant (1999)

Christopher McDonald: Kent Mansley

Photos 

Quotes 

• General Rogard : That missile is targeted to the giant's current position! WHERE'S THE GIANT, MANSLEY?

  Kent Mansley : [notices the giant is standing just a few feet away. It glares at him]  Oooh... We can duck and cover! There's a fallout shelter not far from...

  General Rogard : There's no way to survive this thing, you idiot!

  Kent Mansley : You mean we're all going to...

  General Rogard : To die, Mansley. For our country.

  Kent Mansley : Screw our country! I WANT TO LIVE!

  [he jumps into a jeep and attempts to drive away, but the giant stops him by slamming his hand down like a roadblock. As Mansley recovers from the crash, some of the soldiers train their rifles on him] 

  General Rogard : Hold him, men! Make sure he stays here... like a good soldier...

• Kent Mansley : You know, Hogarth, we live in a strange and wondrous time: the Atomic Age. But there's a dark side to progress, Hogarth. Ever hear of Sputnik?

  Hogarth Hughes : Yeah, first satellite in space.

  Kent Mansley : Foreign satellite, Hogarth, and all that that implies. Even now it orbits overhead - Boop! Boop! - watching us. We can't see it but it's there, much like that giant thing in the woods. We don't know what it is or what it can do. I don't feel safe, Hogarth. Do you?

  Hogarth Hughes : What are you talking about?

  Kent Mansley : What am I talking about?

  [Loses patience] 

  Kent Mansley : What am I talking about? I'm talking about your goldarned security, Hogarth! While you're snoozing in your widdle jammies, back in Washington we're wide awake and worried! Why? Because everyone wants what we have, Hogarth! Everyone! You think this metal man is fun, but who built it? The Russians? The Chinese? Martians? Canadians? I don't care! All I know is we didn't build it, and that's reason enough to assume the worst and blow it to kingdom come! Now, you are going to tell me about this thing, you are going to lead me to it, and we are going to destroy it before it destroys us!

  [Mansley's stomach rumbles, having been unknowingly given ice cream laced with Ex-Lax] 

  Kent Mansley : [racing to the bathroom]  Just hold that thought and stay right there!

• Kent Mansley : The biggest thing in this town is probably the homecoming queen.

  [suddenly seeing half of his car gone] 

  Kent Mansley : Oh my GOD!

• Kent Mansley : Your mom's working late tonight, Hogarth, so it's just us guys, and we're gonna have a little chat. Sit down!

  [shoves Hogarth onto a chair and shines a bright light on him] 

  Kent Mansley : How's that? A little too bright? Good. Forgive me, Hogarth. I wanted you to learn something.

  Hogarth Hughes : What can I learn from you?

  Kent Mansley : You can learn this, Hogarth. That I can do anything I want, whenever I want if I feel it's in the people's best interest. The giant metal man. Where is it?

  Hogarth Hughes : I don't know what you're talking about.

  Kent Mansley : You don't? Does this ring a bell?

  [lays down the picture Hogarth took of the aluminum siding he used to lure the Giant] 

  Kent Mansley : No? How about this?

  [lays down the photo Hogarth accidentally took of himself - with the Giant behind him] 

  Kent Mansley : You've been careless, Hogarth.

  Hogarth Hughes : It doesn't prove anything.

  Kent Mansley : It's enough to get the army here with one phone call.

  Hogarth Hughes : Then what's stopping you?

  Kent Mansley : [angry]  Where's the giant?

  [Grabs Hogarth by the jaw] 

  Kent Mansley : You can't protect him, Hogarth, anymore than you can... protect your mother.

  Hogarth Hughes : My mom?

  Kent Mansley : It's difficult to raise a boy all alone. We can make it more difficult. In fact, we can make it so difficult that it would be irresponsible for us to leave you in her care, and all that that implies. You'll be taken away from her, Hogarth.

  Hogarth Hughes : You can't do that!

  Kent Mansley : Oh, we can, and we will.

  Hogarth Hughes : He's at the junkyard. McCoppin's Scrap off Culver Road.

  Kent Mansley : The junkyard, of course! Food for the metal eater. I wouldn't worry about this, Hogarth. This isn't really happening. It's only... a bad dream.

  [puts a chloroform rag on Hogarth's mouth, leaving him unconscious] 

• Kent Mansley : [after his first meeting with the Hughes family]  HoGARTH? What an embarrassing name. Might as well call him Zeppo, or something like that. What kind of sick person would name a kid Hogar...

  [stops and looks over to Hogarth's smashed B-B gun. It reads part of Hogarth's name: Hog- Hug-] 

  Kent Mansley : Hog Hug. HOG HUG? HOGARTH HUGHES!

  [stops the car he was driving] 

• Marv Loach : What department is that again?

  Kent Mansley : Frankly, I'm not at liberty to divulge the particulars of the agency I work for, and all that that implies.

  Marv Loach : You mean, national security?

  Kent Mansley : Let me put it this way. Every so often things happen that can't be rationalized in a conventional way. People wanna know their government has a response. I am that response.

• Kent Mansley : The army arrives in the morning, Hogarth. Don't get cute.

• Annie Hughes : Strange. He's so tight-lipped now, and yesterday he wouldn't stop talking. I mean, hundred-foot robots and whatnot.

  Kent Mansley : Hundred-foot robot? He, he. That's nutty.

  [they both laugh] 

  Kent Mansley : What else did he say?

• Kent Mansley : Hey there, scout! Kent Mansley, I work for the government.

• [Hogarth groans as he struggles to push the giant's hand out the bathroom window] 

  Kent Mansley : You know, this sort of thing is why it's important to always chew your food.

• Kent Mansley : Launch the missile now!

• Kent Mansley : Please, Sir, I've got a feeling about this one.

  General Rogard : That's nice, Mansley, but let me explain how things are supposed to work. If you had, say, a footprint, I might be able to send over an expert to make a plaster cast of it. Hell, you get me a photograph of this thing, I can send some troops down there! But you tell me you've got a feeling...

  Kent Mansley : All right... you want evidence? I'll get you evidence. And when I do, I'm gonna want a memo distributed!

  General Rogard : That's just swell, Mansley.

  Kent Mansley : And I'm gonna want that memo carbon copied and distributed...

  [Rogard hangs up] 

• Dean McCoppin : Don't shoot! There's a kid in his hand! Kent, he only acts defensively. If you don't shoot, he's harmless. You gotta tell the general.

  Kent Mansley : This is your fault, beatnik. If you haven't interfered...

  Dean McCoppin : Will you just listen? Tell the general to stop. He's got the kid with him.

  Kent Mansley : I'll take care of it.

  [Dean leaves; Kent goes over to General Rogard] 

  Kent Mansley : He said the monster has killed a kid. Sir, we must stop it at all costs.

  General Rogard : [On walkie-talkie]  Go to Code Red! Repeat, Code Red!

• [Dean is trying to convince the General of the Giant's true nature] 

  General Rogard : [Shocked]  What are you saying, he's friendly?

  Dean McCoppin : Yes! Attacking him is triggering a defense mechanism.

  Kent Mansley : Don't listen to him, General! Destroy the monster while we still have a chance!

  [the Giant approaches in the mist as the soldiers ready their weapons] 

  Dean McCoppin : General, you shoot now and the whole thing starts all over again.

  Kent Mansley : Stop it *now*, General! Our future's at stake!

  Soldier : Orders, sir?

  Dean McCoppin : Which is why you have got to stop, General!

  Soldier : It's getting closer! Orders, sir?

  Hogarth Hughes : [in the Giant's hand, emerging from the mist]  Don't shoot! Don't shoot!

  Annie Hughes : Hogarth!

  General Rogard : Hold your fire! The boy's alive?

  Kent Mansley : [now almost completely crazed]  It's a trick! Launch the missile!

  General Rogard : Are you mad, Mansley? All units, stand down!

  [on walkie talkie] 

  General Rogard : Rogard to Nautilus. Come in, Nautilus.

  Nautilus Captain : [over walkie talkie]  This is Nautilus, standing by.

  [Kent looks up to see the Giant glaring at him. Finally having lost all reason, Kent grabs the walkie talkie out of the General's hands and screams...] 

  Kent Mansley : LAUNCH THE MISSILE NOW!

  [With a flip of a switch, the Nautilus fires off one of its atomic missiles into the sky] 

• General Rogard : [the U.S. Military proves unable to take down the Giant]  Nothing can stop this thing! We've hit it with everything we got!

  Kent Mansley : Not everything, General. The Bomb. The Nautilus has first strike capability and is anchored just off shore.

  General Rogard : [Taken aback]  ... You scare me, Mansley. You want us to bomb ourselves in order to kill it?

  Kent Mansley : General, the giant seems to follow whatever attacks it. We can lure it away from the town, then destroy it.

  General Rogard : [Considers the thought for a moment, then to a soldier]  Radio the Nautilus. Tell them to target the robot and await my command.

• Kent Mansley : Two nights ago, at approximateley 1900 hours, S.A.T com radar detected an unidentified flying object entering Earth's atmosphere, losing contact with it two-and-a-half miles off the coast of Rockwell. Some assumed it was a large meteor, or a downed satelite, but my office in Washington received a call from someone reporting an actual encounter with the object. This is no meteor, gentlemen. This is something much more serious.

• Hogarth Hughes : [opens the door for Kent]  Kent Mansley, you work for the government.

  Kent Mansley : I... wasn't going to say that. I have something for you, Hogarth.

  Annie Hughes : Your B-B gun. Where did you find it?

  Kent Mansley : Over at the power station.

  Annie Hughes : Hogarth was there the other night.

  Kent Mansley : Really? See anything unusual there, Hogarth?

  Hogarth Hughes : No... thing unusual, really.

  [the toilet upstairs flushes] 

  Hogarth Hughes : Gotta use the bathroom!

• Marv Loach : United States Government, eh? That must mean something big is happening here.

  Kent Mansley : No, Marv. Big things happen in big places, and the sooner I file my report, the sooner I can get back to them.

  [Later, after Mansley's car has been eaten by the Giant, proving he exists] 

  Marv Loach : What, uh... What are we looking at here, Mr. Mansley?

  Kent Mansley : Something big, Marv. Something big.

• [over the telephone] 

  Kent Mansley : Sir, this thing is a menace. It destroyed a power station, it... it caused a train wreck!

  General Rogard : What did, Mansley? Tell me again, and this time, listen to yourself.

  Kent Mansley : [sighs]  A giant... metal monster.

  [Rogard laughs uncontrollably over the phone] 

• Kent Mansley : Hey, where you going? Where you going, champ, chief, slugger? Where you going? Where you going?

  Hogarth Hughes : I'm going out!

  Annie Hughes : Well, why don't you take Mr. Mansley with you? You can show him the sights.

  Hogarth Hughes : Awwww, Mom, the sights?

• Annie Hughes : For some reason the army is parked in our front yard, Mr. Mansley.

  Kent Mansley : Please, call me Kent.

• [repeated line] 

  Kent Mansley : ...and all that that implies.