Robert Horton: Flint McCullough

The Steve Campden Story

Flint McCullough

Flint McCullough: The brave man is not he who feels no fear, for that were stupid and irrational; But he, whose noble soul its fear subdues, and bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.

Major Seth Adams: Well?
Charlie Wooster: It got so cold up there I thought my intestines turned to icicles.
Major Seth Adams: You wanted to go.
Flint McCullough: It's no good, Major. Another five miles and the snow will be up to the wagon beds.
Major Seth Adams: That bad, huh?
Flint McCullough: Yeah, sometimes you can't even follow the trail.
Major Seth Adams: Flint, if we have to winter here, half the stock won't make it through to Spring and a lot people won't either.
Flint McCullough: There are other routes.
Major Seth Adams: Such as?
Flint McCullough: The old fur trappers had a way of getting into the Green River country. In Jim Bridger's day it was a pretty good trail.
Major Seth Adams: Yeah, that was 30 years ago.

Flint McCullough: Sort of a reconnaissance mission.
Major Seth Adams: Which way are you going to reconnoitre?
Flint McCullough: South towards Green River country. Any objection?
Major Seth Adams: Ah, I suppose not. But you be back here before sundown tomorrow. You hear?
Flint McCullough: I won't be late.
Major Seth Adams: If your guess is wrong, you get word back to me before then.
Flint McCullough: It's no guess.
Major Seth Adams: No?
Flint McCullough: It's a calculated risk. First principle of tactics. Remember?
Major Seth Adams: Get out of here.

Flint McCullough: What're you doing here?
Steve Campden II: On a bloody hunting trip. You know: climb some, shoot some, great sport all round.
Flint McCullough: Not in this weather.
Steve Campden II: How well I know.
Flint McCullough: You alone?
Steve Campden II: Oh, no. We had guides, porters, horses, the whole show, very impressive.

Steve Campden II: Lord Stephen Campden.
Flint McCullough: Never heard of him.
Steve Campden II: You know the type, climb the highest mountain, shoot the largest tiger. May I say I'm Steve Campden too. No medals though. Just Little Steve.
Flint McCullough: Maybe it's time you outgrew it.
Steve Campden II: Believe me, I tried.

Flint McCullough: [Flint writes a note that he pushes into his saddlebags and rearranges Little Buck's reins] Now you go back to the Major and if he asks you any questions, you just don't answer
[He slaps his rump and the horse is gone]

Steve Campden II: Mark was his son. He was my older brother. He was just like him. Climb the sheerest cliff, shoot the biggest buff. He was his kind of man.
Flint McCullough: Then why isn't he with him?
Steve Campden II: Mark died over in India, during the mutiny. Big Steve was his commanding officer, got him the Victoria Cross, posthumously, of course. For conspicuous gallantry in the face of the enemy. Mark was his son.

Lord Steve Campden: As a matter of fact, I doubt there's a peak this side of the Himalayas that I can't manage to master, correction that we can't.
Flint McCullough: We, huh?
Lord Steve Campden: You. Me. my son.

Flint McCullough: Where're you heading?
Lord Steve Campden: El Arrepentimiento, the Spanish call it, Repentance Mountain. Indians got another name for it, Peak of the Angered God. I say, that's a mountain, McCullough. I say that's my kind of mountain: sharp enough, high enough, mean enough. I've come 7,000 thousand miles for that mountain.
Flint McCullough: Been climbed.
Lord Steve Campden: Indians perhaps. Not the West face. I'm after the West face. How about it, McCullough? Care to come along?
Flint McCullough: Not a chance.
Lord Steve Campden: Scared?

Flint McCullough: I fight better when I can see.
Lord Steve Campden: We've got ears, brains.
Flint McCullough: Two 45s, a candle, and a box matches. I don't like the odds. Or the company
[they all hear the sound of the creatures]

Lord Steve Campden: Not too bad a kill. Darkness. A moving target.
Flint McCullough: It's a cat, all right. An albino.
Lord Steve Campden: Probably blind. Hunts by sound and smell. A form of puma, maybe.
Flint McCullough: I never saw a puma with teeth like that.
Lord Steve Campden: Know anything about the Ice Age, McCullough?
Flint McCullough: No.
Lord Steve Campden: This is a leftover. Very suitable to a cave too. A pale white remnant of the Age of the Caves.
Flint McCullough: Meaning what?
Lord Steve Campden: Throwback, McCullough. Throwback to the sabre-toothed tiger.

Lord Steve Campden: You were lucky. You hit that ledge.
Flint McCullough: It's about as lucky as you get. I can't see how you got me up here.
Lord Steve Campden: The boy pulled and I carried you.
Flint McCullough: Thanks. That's not much to say but.
Lord Steve Campden: Ah, nonsense. You'd have done it for me, any man. Had to be done.
[He stikes a match so that Flint can see his broken leg]
Lord Steve Campden: It'll have to be set. It'll take the two of you.
Flint McCullough: At least.

Flint McCullough: I don't like gentlemen, McCullough, I never did. Too many manners, too few guts. I don't need you, McCullough. I don't need anyone.. I never have and I never will. You ever been to Australia?
Flint McCullough: No.
Lord Steve Campden: I was born there. My father was a deportee, convict. New South Wales. My mother died. Ha ha. That made her lucky. I ran away from home when I was 13, hit the London docks with 3 shillings in my pocket, no family, no friends. But I knew where I was headed, the top of the heap. And I got there. Alone. I don't need you, McCullough, I don't need anyone.
Flint McCullough: All right, you got it.

Flint McCullough: Maybe having courage is more than just not being afriad. A man who's never been afraid, maybe he isn't brave. Maybe he's just lucky. Maybe having courage means, maybe it means being scared, scared to death. But still climbing.