The Black Hole (1979)

Anthony Perkins: Dr. Alex Durant

Photos 

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  V.I.N.CENT : [beep]  2130; day 547. Unscheduled course correction due at 2200. Pre-correction check: rotation axis plus three degrees. Nitrous oxide pressure: 4100 rising to 5,000. Quad jet C and D on preselect. Rotor ignition sequence beginning in 3-0. Thruster line reactors on standby.

  Captain Dan Holland : V.I.N.CENT, notify me with 15 to go. Alex?

  Dr. Alex Durant : Yes, Dan?

  Captain Dan Holland : Have you determined a difference in ETAs with and without our correction?

  Dr. Alex Durant : Working on it. You know, we shouldn't be needing a correction at this time. V.I.N.CENT, run a confirmation on the last inertial fix and check it with another celestial, please.

  V.I.N.CENT : [beep]  I have. It is correct. But I think I've found the reason for our present variation. Mr. Pizer?

  Lieutenant Charles Pizer : Yes, V.I.N.CENT?

  V.I.N.CENT : [beep]  Mr. Pizer, I think you should come up here.

• Kate McCrae : Alex, I will not have you throw your life away for this!

  Dr. Alex Durant : He can do it, Kate. I know he can.

  Kate McCrae : Oh, God, Alex!

  Dr. Alex Durant : There's an entirely different universe beyond that black hole. A point where time and space as we know it no longer exists. We will be the first to see it, to explore it, to experience it!

  [Inside the Palomino] 

  Harry Booth : Damn it all, Dan! If we wait for Alex, we may be too late! Don't you see? He's hypnotized by that man!

  Captain Dan Holland : V.I.N.CENT!

  V.I.N.CENT : Yes, Captain?

  Captain Dan Holland : Tell Kate I want her back here fast, with or without Alex. Tell her why.

• Dr. Hans Reinhardt : [Durant removes a reflective mask from one of the Cygnus's hooded crew members... whose human face is blank and expressionless due to being lobotomized. Kate reacts in terror as Reinhardt sees what's happening]  What are you doing...? He would be dead by now. They *all* would be dead. This was the only way to keep them alive - one of my greatest achievements.

  Dr. Alex Durant : Then... Why did you tell us the crew had *left* the ship?

  Dr. Hans Reinhardt : Some cause must have created all this; but what *caused* that cause?

  Dr. Alex Durant : Come on, Kate; let's get out of here!

  [Maximilian cuts them off and slays Durant] 

• Harry Booth : My God! Right out of Dante's Inferno.

  Dr. Alex Durant : Yes. A most destructive force - in the universe, Harry. Nothing can escape it, not even light.

  Kate McCrae : I had a professor who predicted that eventually black holes would devour the entire universe.

  Dr. Alex Durant : Why not? When you can see giant suns sucked in and disappear without a trace.

• Dr. Alex Durant : Did you ever meet Commander Reinhardt?

  Harry Booth : Collided with him would be a more accurate description.

  Dr. Alex Durant : He's a legend.

  Harry Booth : So he himself believed!

• Dr. Alex Durant : You will be remembered as one of the greatest space scientists of all time.

  Dr. Hans Reinhardt : I've never doubted that.

• Dr. Hans Reinhardt : It's about time that people learned about their failures and my successes.

  Dr. Alex Durant : So why not come back with us, and enjoy the recognition for those successes?

  Dr. Hans Reinhardt : Because that's not the sort of recognition I enjoy anymore.

• Dr. Alex Durant : Fascinating.

  Kate McCrae : From a distance.

  Dr. Hans Reinhardt : Are you interested in black holes?

  Dr. Alex Durant : How can one not be overwhelmed by the deadliest force in the universe.

  Kate McCrae : That long dark tunnel to nowhere.

  Dr. Hans Reinhardt : Or somewhere! These are exactly answers yet to be explored.

• Dr. Hans Reinhardt : Tonight, my friends, we stand on the brink of a feat unparalleled in space exploration. If the data on my returning probe matches my computerized calculations, I will travel where no man has dared to go.

  Dr. Alex Durant : Into the black hole?

  Dr. Hans Reinhardt : In - thorough - And beyond!

• Kate McCrae : Alex, I'm beginning to feel you want to go with him.

  Dr. Alex Durant : On a glorious pilgrimage straight into what may be the mind of God. I do. I do.

  Dr. Hans Reinhardt : "And darkness was on the face of the deep. And the spirt of God moved upon the face of the waters."

• Dr. Hans Reinhardt : I'm ready. Ready to embark on man's greatest journey.

  Kate McCrae : It's certainly his riskiest.

  Dr. Hans Reinhardt : The risk is incidental compared to the possibility to posses the great truth of the unknown. There - long cherished laws of nature - simply do not apply. They vanish!

  Dr. Alex Durant : And - life?

  Dr. Hans Reinhardt : Life? Life forever!

• Dr. Hans Reinhardt : We never knew what happened to the others.

  Dr. Alex Durant : You've lived out here for 20 years? Alone?

  Dr. Hans Reinhardt : Twenty years? Twenty *Earth* years. But I didn't live exactly alone. I've created companions, of a sort. They look a bit medieval... but I'm a romantic.