Robert Stack credited as playing...
Captain Rex Kramer
- Rex Kramer: [talking to Steve McCroskey] Our only hope is to build this man up. We gotta give him all the confidence we can.
- [to Striker]
- Rex Kramer: Striker, have you ever flown a multi-engine plane before?
- Ted Striker: No, never.
- Rex Kramer: [to McCroskey, with the microphone still on] Shit! This is a goddamn waste of time! There's no way he can land this plane!
- Rex Kramer: Do you know what it's like to fall in the mud and get kicked... in the head... with an iron boot? Of course you don't, no one does. It never happens. Sorry, Ted, that's a dumb question... skip that.
- Air Controller Macias: Captain, maybe we ought to turn on the searchlights now.
- Rex Kramer: No... that's just what they'll be expecting us to do.
- Rex Kramer: Don't be a fool, Striker, you know what a landing like this means, you more than anybody. I'm ordering you to stay up there.
- Ted Striker: No dice, Chicago. I'm giving the orders and we're coming in. I guess the foot's on the other hand now, isn't it, Kramer?
- [reading newspaper headlines]
- Rex Kramer: Passengers certain to die!
- Steve McCroskey: Airline negligent.
- Johnny: There's a sale at Penney's!
- Rex Kramer: Steve, I want every light you can get poured onto that field.
- Steve McCroskey: Bein' done right now.
- [On the runway, a truck dumps a full load of lamps onto the ground]
- Rex Kramer: [talking on the phone to the airport control tower] No, we can't do that, the risk of a flame-out is too great. Keep 'em at 24,000. No, feet.
- Steve McCroskey: Gunderson, check the Radar Range. Anything yet?
- Gunderson: [gets up and opens the door of the Radar Range microwave, which is roasting a turkey] About two more minutes, chief.
- Steve McCroskey: Two more minutes? They could be miles off course!
- Rex Kramer: That's impossible. They're on instruments!
- [cuts to the cockpit, where Striker, Elaine, Randy and Rumack are all playing musical instruments]
- Rex Kramer: Striker, listen, and you listen close: flying a plane is no different than riding a bicycle, just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes.
- Rex Kramer: Later we'll run down the landing procedures.
- [flicks his cigarette out the window, causing it to strike something and explode]
- Rex Kramer: [points out the window] There he is. Striker, you're coming in too fast!
- Ted Striker: I know, I know!
- Elaine Dickinson: [relaying] He knows, he knows.
- Rex Kramer: All right, I'll need three men up at the tower. You, Neubauer. You, Macias.
- Johnny: Me, John, big tree!