Murder on the Orient Express Best Quotes – ‘I see evil on this train.’

Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Johnny Depp, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley

OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆

Story:

Mystery crime drama directed by Kenneth Branagh based on Agatha Christie’s famous novel of the same name, which follows the famous Belgian Detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh), as he takes a lavish trip through Europe on the Orient Express it becomes a race against time as he must solve the murder of a wealthy American, Ratchett (Johnny Depp). Everyone’s a suspect as Poirot sifts through thirteen strangers to find the killer before another is murdered.

Read the movie review here.

Our Favorite Quotes:

Best Quotes

British Police Chief Inspector: How did you know it was him, sir? From just a tiny crack on the wall.
Hercule Poirot: I have the advantage. I can only see the world as it should be. And when it is not, the imperfection stands out like the nose in the middle of a face. It makes most of life unbearable. But it is useful in the detection of crime.
British Police Chief Inspector: But it’s as though you see into their hearts and divine their true natures.
Hercule Poirot: And whatever people say, there is right, there is wrong. There is nothing in between.

Edward Ratchett: Well, hello.
Mrs. Hubbard: Eyes linger any longer and I’ll have to charge for rent.
Edward Ratchett: I’ll pay.
Mrs. Hubbard: Have another drink.
Edward Ratchett: Are you insulted?
Mrs. Hubbard: Disappointed. Some men have a good look. All they have to do is keep their mouth shut, and they can take home any prize they want. Still the mouth opens.
[Ratchett leans in close to Hubbard for a moment before turning and walking off]

Bouc: You know there’s something about a tangle of strangers pressed together for days on end, with nothing in common, but the need to go from one place to another, then never to see each other again. Boredom plus anonymity plus a constant, gentle rocking.
Hercule Poirot: With your hobbies, you will never amount to anything.

Bouc: You know, with your books and your capers, you are missing out on romance.
Hercule Poirot: Romance never goes unpunished. There was someone once.

Gerhard Hardman: [to Pierre Michel, referring to Arbuthnot] I would prefer, in the future, to be sat not with that man. Like should be seated with like. We are not alike.
Miss Mary Debenham: Not all of us are so concerned with the separateness of races, Professor.
Gerhard Hardman: It is out of respect for all kinds that I prefer to keep them separate. To mix your red wine and the white would be to ruin them both.
Miss Mary Debenham: [pours her red wine into her white wine glass] I like a good rosé.

Edward Ratchett: Hey, how you doing? Would you mind if I join you? You know, dessert is an indulgence and I feel kind of silly and stupid indulging alone.
Hercule Poirot: I am at my happiest alone. But, for a small piece of your fragelité, please join me.

Edward Ratchett: You’re a strange, peculiar man.
Hercule Poirot: I am of an age where I know what I like and what I do not like. What I like, I enjoy enormously. What I dislike, I cannot abide.

Edward Ratchett: I would like to offer you a job. “The avenger of the innocent.” It’s what they call you in the papers.
Hercule Poirot: And you are innocent?
Edward Ratchett: I’m a businessman.

Hercule Poirot: [declining Ratchett’s job offer] It’s a generous offer, Mr. Ratchett. I must decline.
Edward Ratchett: Fifteen thousand?
Hercule Poirot: You didn’t hear me. I decline.
Edward Ratchett: Oh, I get it. It’s not flashy enough for the great Hercules Poirot, huh? No flashbulbs.
Hercule Poirot: You sell fakes to gangsters. You’re suffering the consequences. I detect criminals. I do not protect them.
Edward Ratchett: So you say no to my dirty money.
Hercule Poirot: I say no to you, Mr. Ratchett.
Edward Ratchett: Business with the gun, right? Is that what it was?
Hercule Poirot: It is far more personal than that. I do not like your face. If you will excuse me.
Edward Ratchett: You liked my cake, didn’t you?
Hercule Poirot: The cake was excellent. Have a pleasant afternoon, Mr. Ratchett.

Pilar Estravados: Yes, some things, they are in God’s hands. It is not for us to say if we deserve to arrive safely at our destination, or if, like Lucifer, we must fall.

Hercule Poirot: [to Bouc] I do not approve of murder, my friend. Every day, we meet people the world could do better without, yet we do not kill them. We must be better than the beasts. So let us find this killer.

Bouc: Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to… It appears that our bad luck has worsened. That is…
Hercule Poirot: A passenger has died on the train. Monsieur Ratchett.
Hector MacQueen: Looks like they got him after all.
Hercule Poirot: You assume he was killed?
Hector MacQueen: No, no. I just mean he was in perfectly good health. He had his enemies, that’s all.
Hercule Poirot: Indeed, he did. He was murdered.
Miss Mary Debenham: Good, God. Murder, here?
Hercule Poirot: Alas, madame.
Pilar Estravados: God rest his soul.
Caroline Hubbard: Someone was rummaging around my cabin in the middle of the night. Nobody would believe me.
Princess Dragomiroff: What is going on?
Hercule Poirot: As we are snowbound, I have elected to take the case and find for my friend, Monsieur Bouc, the criminal.
Gerhard Hardman: And why you?
Hercule Poirot: My name is Hercule Poirot, and I am probably the greatest detective in the world. I will speak to all of you in time. For the moment, I must recommend that you remain in your compartments with the doors locked.
Caroline Hubbard: I feel like a prisoner here.
Hercule Poirot: It is for your own safety. If there was a murder, then there was a murderer. The murderer is with us, on the train, now.

Hercule Poirot: Did you know of any specific enemies Ratchett might have had?
Hector MacQueen: Gosh. Pick a number.

Hercule Poirot: Now, I prefer to understand why a clue is left rather than what the object is. We seek the truth from within, not without. In this case, however, I may welcome a little scientific assistance.

Hercule Poirot: Ah, Mrs. Hubbard, I’m sorry to have kept you. You have a head full of steam and a mouth full of words.
Caroline Hubbard: You’re goddamn right, I do. What I have been trying to tell you all day. The murderer was in my compartment last night. I thought I’d be killed. It turns out I might have been, only he got Ratchett instead. I woke up in the dark, and I knew there was a man in my room.
Hercule Poirot: You are certain it was a man?
Caroline Hubbard: I know what it feels like to have a man in my bedroom. I told your conductor, and he wouldn’t believe me. I said, “Check the communication door between my room and Ratchett’s. He must have left through there.” Sure enough, it was unbolted. I know I locked it after what Ratchett said. He made a rather overt overture.

Hercule Poirot: What did you think of the dead man?
Miss Mary Debenham: I can’t say I did think about him.

Hercule Poirot: When did you first meet Miss Debenham?
Dr. Arbuthnot: We met when we shared the railway convoy car from Kirkuk to Nissibin.
Hercule Poirot: She claims otherwise, and she has made herself problematically suspicious. Excusez-moi.
Dr. Arbuthnot: Mary is a lady. Leave her out of this. I can vouch for her character.
Hercule Poirot: As you have vouched for MacQueen’s time?
Dr. Arbuthnot: You won’t listen to reason.
Hercule Poirot: Never.

Caroline Hubbard: [to the other passengers] Accosting Mr. MacQueen and the real killer is right here. One of you people. I don’t know who you are. I said nothing. Please, leave me alone.

Bouc: My friends, the tracks will be cleared by morning. Please, return to your rooms.
Miss Mary Debenham: I’m sleeping here, where everyone can see me and I can see everyone.
Hercule Poirot: You should all do the same. Conserve heat. Remain in the open, safely in view, until morning. A killer will never hesitate to kill again. I will convey the same message to the Andrenyis diplomatic, immunity or not.

Hercule Poirot: I have a list of ten questions I am no nearer to answering and the train is about to leave. You have a clear mind and I thought that you might produce an insight. Please.
[the sit down and Mary looks at Poirot’s notes]
Miss Mary Debenham: Hmm. “The handkerchief. The pipe cleaner. The scarlet kimono. The uniform. The time on the watch. Was he murdered then? Earlier or later? By one person or more? Which of them?” Sorry, I can’t help you.
Hercule Poirot: [she gives back his notebook] Merci.
Miss Mary Debenham: Perhaps there is an eleventh question you don’t know to ask yet, that will give you the answer to the rest.
Hercule Poirot: Perhaps.

Hercule Poirot: You knew the doctor before traveling?
Miss Mary Debenham: Dr. Arbuthnot? No.
Hercule Poirot: But such instant attraction? We are not in America, Miss Debenham. There are no laws against what you may feel.
Miss Mary Debenham: Nor are there laws against silence, of which I hold mine. I’ve never been to America.

Hercule Poirot: Perhaps I may ask about some words I overheard? You and the stranger, Arbuthnot, are closer than strangers might be. You said, “Not now. When we are done. Then no one can touch us.” What did you mean?
Miss Mary Debenham: You think I meant murder? To a man with a hammer, every problem is a nail. You live crime. You see evil every day.
Hercule Poirot: Not so. I see enough crime to know that the criminal act is the anomaly. I believe it takes a fracture of the soul to murder another human being. I ask again, what did you mean?
Miss Mary Debenham: As we established, there are no laws against my silence.
Hercule Poirot: Very well.

Hercule Poirot: [to the passengers] A murder should have one victim. When Ratchett kills Daisy Armstrong a dozen lives are broken, deformed, ended. They demand justice! Of all these wounded souls, we must finally answer, who among them is a killer? Who takes up the knife? The answer is, no single one of you could have done it. Nor any pair. It can only have been done by all of you. Together. Together.

Hercule Poirot: Even when the avalanche changes everything as does the detective, plans must change. The kimono, the uniform. A remarkable improvisation. The doctor who knows how to wound without killing. Each has their part to play.

Caroline Hubbard: Let it end with me. They’re not killers. They’re good people. They can be good again.
Hercule Poirot: There was right, there was wrong. Now there is you. I cannot judge this. You must decide. You wish to go free without punishment for your crime, then you must only commit one more. I will not stop you.

Hercule Poirot: My dear, Colonel Armstrong. Finally, I can answer your letter at least with the thoughts in my head and the feeling in my heart that somewhere, you can hear me. I have now discovered the truth of the case, and it is profoundly disturbing. I have seen the fracture of the human soul. So many broken lives, so much pain and anger, giving way to the poison of deep grief, until one crime became many. I have always wanted to believe that man is rational and civilized. My very existence depends upon this hope, upon order and method and the little gray cells. But now, perhaps, I am asked to listen, instead to my heart.

 Hercule Poirot: [to the passengers] Ladies and gentlemen, I have understood in this case that the scales of justice cannot always be evenly weighed. And I must learn, for once to live with the imbalance. There are no killers here. Only people who deserve a chance to heal. The police have accepted my first solution to the crime, the lone assassin who made his escape. I will leave the train here to conclude formalities. You are all free to go. May you find your peace with this. May we all.

British Military Officer: [as Poirot has left the train] Hello. I’m looking for a Mr. Poirot. He’s needed on a very urgent matter.
Hercule Poirot: Ah. He is on holiday. The Kassner case again?
British Military Officer: No, sir, far worse. I have to take him to Egypt straight away. There’s been a murder, sir, right on the bloody Nile. Are you the detective?
Hercule Poirot: [reluctantly] Yes. I am the detective. Could you please straighten your tie? I will see you at the car.

Trailer: