The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man Quotes

A sheriff investigating the disappearance of a young girl from a small island discovers there's a larger mystery to solve among the island's secretive, neo-pagan community.

Edward Malus: [a bee helmet has been placed onto his head and bees are being poured inside] OH, NO! NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES! AAAAAHHHHH! OH, THEY'RE IN MY EYES! MY EYES! AAAAHHHHH! AAAAAGGHHH!
Edward Malus: [holding Rowan's doll] Is this hers? How'd it get burned? How'd it get burned? HOW'D IT GET BURNED, HOW'D IT GET BURNED?
Sister Willow: I-DON'T-KNOW!
Edward Malus: [before his legs are broken] THIS IS MURDER! *MURDER!* YOU'LL ALL BE *GUILTY!* AND YOU'RE DOING IT FOR *NOTHING!* KILLING ME WON'T BRING BACK YOUR GODDAMN HONEY!
Edward Malus: BITCHES! YOU BITCHES!
Lord Summerisle: Do sit down, Sergeant. Shocks are so much better absorbed with the knees bent.
Edward Malus: [seeing some of the women holding a bloody bag] What's in the bag? A shark, or something?
Edward Malus: [Pointing gun at Rose] Step away from the bike!
Sergeant Howie: Your lordship seems strangely... unconcerned.
Lord Summerisle: Well I'm confident your suspicions are wrong, Sergeant. We don't commit murder here. We're a deeply religious people.
Sergeant Howie: Religious? With ruined churches, no ministers, no priests... and children dancing naked!
Lord Summerisle: They do love their divinity lessons.
Sergeant Howie: [outraged] But they are... are *naked*!
Lord Summerisle: Naturally! It's much too dangerous to jump through the fire with your clothes on!
Lord Summerisle: I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self-contained. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God. Not one of them kneels to another or to his own kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one of them is respectable or unhappy, all over the earth.
Edward Malus: You little liars. Rowan Woodward IS your classmate, isn't she? ISN'T SHE? That is HER desk! And you're the biggest liar of them all. I am warning you, you tell me another and I'll arrest you myself. That is a promise, MISS...
Sister Rose: Rose, SISTER Rose.
Edward Malus: Of course, another plant! Rose!
Sergeant Howie: What religion can they possibly be learning jumping over bonfires?
Lord Summerisle: Parthenogenesis.
Sergeant Howie: What?
Lord Summerisle: Literally, as Miss Rose would doubtless say in her assiduous way, reproduction without sexual union.
Sergeant Howie: Oh, what is all this? I mean, you've got fake biology, fake religion... Sir, have these children never heard of Jesus?
Lord Summerisle: Himself the son of a virgin, impregnated, I believe, by a ghost...
Sergeant Howie: Don't you see that killing me is not going to bring back your apples?
Edward Malus: [Waking up from the second dream in a row] Goddamn it!
Edward Malus: [a cracking sound is heard] Ahhh, my legs!
Edward Malus: [showing his badge to a classroom of young girls] I'm a policeman... see my badge?
Edward Malus: [runs over to help Rowan and pulls off the mask of his bear costume] My name is Edward. I'm gonna save you.
Sergeant Howie: I believe in the life eternal, as promised to us by our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Lord Summerisle: That is good. For believing what you do, we confer upon you a rare gift, these days - a martyr's death.
Village Sister: You wait a minute! Do you have permission to charge in and disturb...
Edward Malus: No! I don't need anybody's goddamn permission! I'm gonna search every inch of this town and anybody who interferes will be brought up on murder charges, got that? You have my permission to stay out of the fucking way!
Lord Summerisle: Come. It is time to keep your appointment with the Wicker Man.
Sister Rose: And Daisy, will you tell us what man represents in his purest form?
[pause]
Sister Rose: Yes?
Chorus of schoolgirls: [whole classroom raises hand] Phallic symbol! Phallic symbol!
Edward Malus: [laughs awkwardly]
May Morrison: You'll simply never understand the true nature of sacrifice.
Edward Malus: [to the girl in his bear suit] DON'T BE FRIGHTENED! I'm here to help!
Willow: A man who would come here of his own free will.
Librarian: A man who has come here with the power of a king. By representing the law...
Willow: A man who would come here as a virgin...
Librarian: A man who has come here as a fool!
Lord Summerisle: [singing] Summer is icumen in, loudly sing cuckoo. Grows the seed and blows the mead, and springs the wood anew. Sing, cuckoo! Ewe bleats harshly after lamb, cows after calves make moo.
Lord Summerisle: [referring to sacrifices] Animals are fine, but their acceptability is limited. A little child is even better, but not *nearly* as effective as the right kind of adult.
Daisy Pringle: The little old beetle goes 'round and 'round. Always the same way, y'see, until it ends up right up tight to the nail. Poor old thing!
Sergeant Howie: 'Poor old thing'? Then why in God's name do you do it, girl?
Sergeant Howie: If the crops fail, Summerisle, next year your people will kill you on May Day.
Lord Summerisle: [Shaken] They will not fail!
Sergeant Howie: And what of the TRUE God? Whose glory, churches and monasteries have been built on these islands for generations past? Now sir, what of him?
Lord Summerisle: He's dead. Can't complain, had his chance and in modern parlance, blew it.
[outside, several young girls are dancing naked over a fire]
Lord Summerisle: Good afternoon, Sergeant Howie. I trust the sight of the young people refreshes you.
Sergeant Howie: No sir, it does NOT refresh me.
Sergeant Howie: You are despicable little liars!
Sergeant Howie: [upon seeing the Wicker Man for the first time] O, God! O, Jesus Christ!
May Morrison: Can I do anything for you, Sergeant?
Sergeant Howie: No, I doubt it, seeing you're all raving mad!
Edward Malus: Maybe you could stop bullshitting me, especially when a little girl's life is at stake - MY little girl, as you may have guessed!
Sister Summersisle: As a matter of fact, yes.
Edward Malus: Are you the barmaiden, or barkeep, or whatever you call it around here?
Sister Beech: I am Sister Beech, yes.
Edward Malus: Have you seen what she's drawn? Under her desk? It's... pretty disturbing.
Willow: Some things in their natural state have the most VIVID colors.
Rowan Morrison: Did I do it right?
Lord Summerisle: You did it beautifully!
Miss Rose: The building attached to the ground in which the body lies is no longer used for CHRISTIAN worship, so whether it is still a CHURCHYARD is debatable.
Sister Summersisle: They nearly had you.
Edward Malus: Excuse me?
Sister Summersisle: Our little friends, the bees. They almost did you in.
Edward Malus: Yeah.
Sister Summersisle: Pity.
[first lines]
Sergeant Howie: [yelling] Will you send a dinghy, please?
Sister Summersisle: Welcome, Mr. Malus. You have come of your own free will to keep your appointment with the Wicker Man.
Edward Malus: What happened to her?
Sister Rose: She'll burn to death.
Edward Malus: Excuse me, what did you say?
Sister Rose: Precisely what I meant to say: "She burned to death."
[last lines]
Sister Honey: When you go home, promise you'll take me with you?
Harbor Master: Much has been said of the strumpets of yore / Of wenches and bawdy house queens by the score / But I sing of a baggage that we all adore / The landlord's daughter!
[song continues sung by islanders drinking at the Green Man Inn pub... ]
Lord Summerisle: [Irritably, to Howie who is disguised as a jester and holding a "bladder" or balloon] Cut some capers, man! Use your bladder!
Edward Malus: Okay, look, how 'bout you take all of us there?
Sea Plane Pilot: What do you mean "all"?
Edward Malus: [pulling bills from his wallet] Well, me, Mister Grant here, and his twin brother Ulysses.
Sister Summersisle: Prepare the drone!
Edward Malus: Whose desk is this?
[he opens up the desk and birds suddenly fly out]
Edward Malus: What the...

Popular Movies view all

The Shawshank Redemption The Godfather The Godfather: Part II The Dark Knight The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Schindler\'s List Pulp Fiction Fight Club 12 Angry Men The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back Inception