The King’s Man (2021) Best Quotes

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Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Rhys Ifans, Gemma Arterton, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Charles Dance, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Djimon Hounsou, Stanley Tucci

OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆

Story:

Action adventure prequel directed by Matthew Vaughn. The King’s Man (2021) follows a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds as they gather to plot a war to wipe out millions. Now, one man must race against time to stop them.

Our Favorite Quotes:

'Reputation is what people think of you. Character is what you are.' - Orlando Oxford (The King's Man) Click To Tweet

Best Quotes

Young Conrad: Why are we here, Mother?
Emily Oxford: Do you remember why King Arthur and his knights had a round table? Because it meant that all men were equal. It’s important that people born into privilege lead by example. That’s why your father and I are patrons of the Red Cross. Helping others, not hiding behind our status. Never forget that.

Young Conrad: This terrible war would be over, Shola, if King Arthur and his noble knights were still here.
Shola: Of course. And which one would you be?
Young Conrad: I’d be Lancelot. Father would be Arthur. Mother, Guinevere. And you, the mighty Merlin.

Kitchener: [referring to Emily] Thank God she’s on our side.
Orlando Oxford: Well, on my side, at least.
Kitchener: She’s more of a force than any of our enemies.

Emily Oxford: [after she’s been shot] Protect our son. Protect him from this world. And never let him see war again. Promise me.
Orlando Oxford: I promise.

Orlando Oxford: Remember what happened to Icarus, Conrad, when he flew too close to the sun.
Conrad Oxford: Well, I remember him needing to escape, no?
Orlando Oxford: Well, he got burned. I think we both see that story differently.

Conrad Oxford: Ready for your maiden flight yet, Shola?
Shola: Well, if God wanted man to fly, he would have given him wings.
Conrad Oxford: Yes, I suppose. But you drive Father’s car? You haven’t any wheels.

Orlando Oxford: You think that my fear for Conrad’s safety is a weakness.
Polly: Fear is natural. The problem is, the more you fear something, the more likely it is to come true.
Orlando Oxford: So, then, we’re both in need of a nanny.
Polly: So it would seem.

Orlando Oxford: [to Conrad, as they’re standing outside the Kingsman] My father also brought me here for my first suit. Kingsman, world’s finest tailor.

'Fear is natural. The problem is, the more you fear something, the more likely it is to come true.' - Polly (The King's Man) Click To Tweet

Orlando Oxford: You know, Conrad, our ancestors, they were terrible people. They robbed, lied, pillaged, and killed, until one day, they found themselves noblemen. But that nobility, it never came from chivalry. It came from being tough and ruthless. Back then, to be called a “gentleman” would have been a death sentence. Not the mark of honor it is today. We are Oxfords, not rogues.

Orlando Oxford: Conrad. You’re going to need that shooting suit after all.

Shepherd: [to his men] What is trust? Trust is having confidence in the honesty of another. That will be our weapon to change the world. Who do I trust? Animals. They never let me down, and they follow my commands blindly. The question I now have is can I trust you to behave like them?

Orlando Oxford: Only a fool ignores a friend’s warning.

Orlando Oxford: I shouldn’t have brought you here. We need to get home, where I can protect you.
Conrad Oxford: I just protected you. I don’t need protecting.
Orlando Oxford: Yes, you do, Conrad. I’m sorry, but you think you know what the world is like. But the truth is, you’re just a boy who has no idea what men are capable of.
Conrad Oxford: What? Watching my mother die wasn’t a good enough introduction?

Conrad Oxford: It’s just Serbia. I mean, it’s such a small part of the world. Why do they care?
Orlando Oxford: Well, because small things can grow into big problems.

Conrad Oxford: My lord, it would be my honor to volunteer.
Orlando Oxford: Honor?
Kitchener: Fine words, young Conrad. But therein lies the problem. Legally, you’re not old enough to join up.
Orlando Oxford: But still young enough to believe it’s an honorable thing to die for one’s country.
Kitchener: The object of war is not to die for one’s country, but to make the enemy die for theirs!

Orlando Oxford: Conrad, this is not a war. Do you understand? It’s not like any war that we’ve ever seen.
Conrad Oxford: I don’t care! I should be fighting!
Orlando Oxford: It’s not fighting. It’s dying! Much like this conversation.
Conrad Oxford: Tell that to Kitchener.

Orlando Oxford: Reputation is what people think of you. Character is what you are.

Kitchener: [after Kitchener’s been killed, Orlando reads his letter] My dear Oxford. I wanted to apologize for our recent fracas. In my opinion, Conrad is a fine young man. Always ready to face the world. But I shall, of course, respect your wishes, and do everything I can to keep him out of harm’s way. If all parents shared your outlook, there would be no wars. But until that day comes, I will no doubt be kept busy. I remain your friend, Kitch.

'Only a fool ignores a friend's warning.' - Orlando Oxford (The King's Man) Click To Tweet

Conrad Oxford: Your incessant need to protect me will not redeem your own failure to protect Mother. I’m sorry, Father.

Polly: [to Conrad] Well, about time. Welcome to the club.

Orlando Oxford: My reputation is of a man not wanting to be involved, which means that my character finds it much easier to be involved unnoticed. Just like domestic servants everywhere who are seen but not heard. Essentially invisible. Unless they’re part of the Oxford family, of course. Shola and Polly have gathered a network of domestics such as the world has never seen. While British intelligence listens at keyholes, our people are actually in the room.
Conrad Oxford: Very clever.

Orlando Oxford: [to Conrad] So, the only way to honor the vow I made to your mother is to break the vow I made to myself. I’m afraid we have no other choice. It is time for us to kill Grigori Rasputin.

Shola: Conrad will entice Rasputin to a private dessert in the summer room, where nanny’s legendary Bakewell tart, laced with poison, will be waiting for him.
Orlando Oxford: Polly, get baking.
Conrad Oxford: Yes. And don’t forget the poison.

'Small things can grow into big problems.' - Orlando Oxford (The King's Man) Click To Tweet

Orlando Oxford: [to Conrad] Tonight we will be rogues, not Oxfords.

Grigori Rasputin: Are you waiters or Englishmen? Whatever you are, get me a f***ing drink.
Orlando Oxford: Are you a monk or a ballet dancer? I see you’ve mastered the Beryozka glide. Why don’t you glide over there and get me a f***ing drink?

Grigori Rasputin: But I am just a humble monk.
Orlando Oxford: A humble monk that this whole room reveres, or fears.
Grigori Rasputin: I only make decisions when my stomach is full, or my balls are empty.
Orlando Oxford: Well, thank God dinner is being served.

Conrad Oxford: What is it that you Russians do that an Englishman can enjoy?
Grigori Rasputin: Well, everything. Food, music, ballet, tobacco, art. But most of all, we like to f*** like tigers.

Grigori Rasputin: Change seats with your father.
Conrad Oxford: I’m so sorry if I’ve offended you.
Grigori Rasputin: Only if you consider being boring offensive.

See more The King's Man Quotes

Grigori Rasputin: You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say your son was trying to f*** me.
Orlando Oxford: More likely you were trying to f*** him. Your reputation precedes you.

Grigori Rasputin: [as he’s trying to kill Orlando] If you really knew my reputation, you’d know I take a little poison for breakfast to keep myself immune!

Grigori Rasputin: [as Shola and Conrad enter the room] Now, that’s more like it. Time to dance on your graves.

Grigori Rasputin: [to Orlando, as he’s lifting Conrad by his neck] I fixed your leg. Which is more than I can say for your son’s neck.

Polly: [as she shoots and kills Rasputin] Why is it that boys are always so messy?

Shola: Today your father broke his vow of pacifism.
Conrad Oxford: But it was the right thing to do.
Shola: Right or wrong, it doesn’t make it any easier.

Orlando Oxford: A toast to our successful mission, and my new leg.

Conrad Oxford: [referring to volunteering to fight in the war] Father, your wishes were only granted because of my age. There’s nothing you can do to stop me now. All I ask for is your blessing, at least.
Orlando Oxford: I’m sorry, Conrad. But you’re asking for the one thing that I cannot and I will not give you.

Sandhurst Chaplain: Godspeed to you all. And remember, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.”
Sandhurst Cadet: What does that mean?
Conrad Oxford: “It’s sweet and proper to die for one’s country.”

British Officer: Lucky man. You’ve been assigned back to London.
Conrad Oxford: Sir, there must be some mistake.
British Officer: No. Fortune favors the brave. Or those under the king’s gaze.

Shola: And your name, sir?
Archie Reid: Good question. It’s a complicated answer. I can only tell the duke in person.
Shola: Well, I still need a name.
Archie Reid: This is going to sound stupid. But according to Conrad, I’m Lancelot. You’re Merlin, and I’m requesting an audience with King Arthur.
Shola: Follow me, sir.

Conrad Oxford: [as Orlando reads Conrad’s note] Dear Father. I too can play games. I’ve swapped places with Archie Reid, the man in front of you. He’s a good man, who is simply following my orders, and is possibly as confused as you are. Please ensure my actions don’t get him into any trouble. Tomorrow I finally fulfill my wish to go to the front. And in the meantime, I enclose a poem which I thought you might appreciate.

Orlando Oxford: [reads the poem Conrad sent him] Bent double, like old beggars under sacks. Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge. Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs. And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, but limped on blood-shod. All went lame. All blind. Drunk with fatigue, deaf even to the hoots of tired outstripped five-nines that dropped behind.

Conrad Oxford: I thought I knew what I wanted. My father warned me. My father warned me. I didn’t listen. And now it all makes sense. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.

Sergeant Major Atkins: You’re not Archie Reid. Lance Corporal Archie Reid’s a friend of mine. And I’ve been looking for him all night. So who are you?
Conrad Oxford: Yes, yes. You’re right. There’s a simple explanation. I’m not Archie Reid.
Sergeant Major Atkins: F***ing German spy.
Conrad Oxford: I’m Conra…
[suddenly Atkins shoots him the head, killing Conrad]

Orlando Oxford: [at Conrad’s funeral] If in some smothering dreams you too could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in. And watch the white eyes writhing in his face. His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin. If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood, come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs. Obscene as cancer. Bitter as the cud, of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues. My friend, you would not tell with such high zest. To children ardent for some desperate glory. The old Lie. “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country.

Polly: [to Orlando] The documents Conrad recovered turned out to be the German ambassador’s original handwritten telegram that I cracked. It’s the concrete proof America needed.
Shola: America will now have to join the war. Conrad succeeded where we all failed.

Shepherd: I like a man who will admit to his mistakes, I do. But I like more a woman who can fix them.

Polly: [to Orlando, referring to Conrad] Enough of this self-pitying poppycock. If it were just you, you and I, in our grief, I’d say do as you will. Drown in drink, and I’d join you. But he’s watching. And he would have been such a better man. But he can’t. He won’t be that. Not anymore. So, you must, in his stead, be the man your son would have been.

Polly: Regretfully, I can no longer remain in your service.
Polly: [to Emily’s portrait as she kisses Orlando] Forgive me, my lady. My heart is broken as well.
Orlando Oxford: Polly. Polly. I do not accept your resignation. But I will accept a very strong cup of tea.

Orlando Oxford: I believe it’s ungentlemanly to hurt a woman, but since the fate of the world hangs in the balance, I’m going to bend the rules. Now tell me who’s behind this, or so help me you’ll never breathe again.
Mata Hari: You will have to kill me.

United States Ambassador: [referring to Mata Hari] Is she dead?
Orlando Oxford: No. She has an extreme case of hypoxia. She’ll be fine, and so will you, as long as we have an honest conversation.

Orlando Oxford: Shola, we’re going into the cashmere business.

Orlando Oxford: [to Polly and Shola] This is called a parachute. It means that one can jump out of a plane safely.

Shola: Sir, I could do anything for you, but I cannot jump out of an airplane. And it’s not that I wouldn’t try, it’s that I know I’d let you down.
Orlando Oxford: Yes. Well, I appreciate your fear of heights, but I am the only one who can fly, so.
Polly: But you wouldn’t have to land the plane. You just have to land yourself.
Orlando Oxford: Well, it would be bad form to ask a man to do something that I wouldn’t do myself. Alright, Shola. Get ready for my signal. We go at dawn.

Orlando Oxford: [to Shola] Thank God you’re here. This plan hasn’t exactly gone by the numbers.

Orlando Oxford: Enough of dealing with tentacles, Shola. It’s time to cut off the head.
Shola: It’s good to have you back, sir.

Shepherd: [to Orlando] You have got to be f***ing kidding me. The thorn in my side has just been a peace-loving English rose.

Shepherd: [to Orlando] You are the very symbol of everything I’m trying to destroy. Aristocrats like you stole my parents mill in Scotland when I was a lad. Entitlement has “title” in it for a reason, no? Huh! I’m going to f***ing love killing you. Come to papa, you posh p**ck!

Shepherd: It’s my understanding that you, Duke, are a formidable swordsman. What say we end this s**te as gentlemen? After all, manners maketh man.
Orlando Oxford: A gentleman does not hide in the shadows.
Shepherd: [as he reveals himself to be Morton] Aye.

Morton: You see, a little misplaced trust allows one to get away with murder. And in poor Kitchener’s case, quite literally.
Orlando Oxford: Spoken like a true traitor.
Morton: As far as I’m concerned, his blood, that’s on your grubby hands.

Morton: [to Shola and Orlando] Two on one? Behaving like a true gentleman.
Orlando Oxford: You’re delusional. And you’ve killed millions.
Morton: What say one more, for good measure?

Morton: [as he’s about to throw a grenade at Orlando] F*** this gentleman s**te!

Morton: [as Orlando is holding him against the edge of a cliff] You can’t do it. You can’t let me fall. It goes against your every belief. You are a pacifist. And I’m now completely reliant on your mercy, old boy.
Orlando Oxford: You’re right. I shouldn’t let you fall. Only now I have become the man that my son would have been.
[he lets Morton fall off the cliff]

Orlando Oxford: So, you’d jump in front of a bullet for me, but not out of an airplane?
Shola: So it would seem.
Orlando Oxford: Thank you, my friend.
Shola: My pleasure.

Orlando Oxford: All of us here today are united, sadly, in losing our sons and friends in this terrible war. What happened to this generation of young men must never happen again. I believe the terms of Versailles are too onerous, too extreme, and could precipitate another war. What the world needs is an organization that can channel its resources towards preserving peace and protecting life. An independent intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion, above the politics and bureaucracy of government-run spy organizations. To that end, I have acquired this shop. And I propose that we become the founding members of the Kingsman agency.

Orlando Oxford: My code name will be Arthur. And if you agree to join me, you may turn over your place card, where you will find your own code name.
Polly: I am Galahad.
Archie Reid: I am Lancelot.
United States Ambassador: I am Bedivere.
King George: I am Percival.
Orlando Oxford: [referring to Shola] Excellent. And this is Merlin, who will be our quartermaster.

Erik Jan Hanussen: [mid-credits lines, to Lenin] Now it’s time to address the balance of my new flock. Thanks to you, Comrade, our left hand is strong. But as you once said, our right hand now needs strengthening.

Erik Jan Hanussen: This young man will come to rival your position in this world, my friend.
Young Adolf Hitler: It is an honor, Comrade Lenin.
Vladimir Lenin: And your name?
Young Adolf Hitler: Adolf Hitler.

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