Filed Away

For no particular reason I found myself thinking about speeches delivered by fictional presidents in movies and I realized this was hands-down one of my favorites:

I address you tonight, not as the president of the United States, or as the leader of a country, but as a citizen of humanity.

We are faced with the very gravest of challenges. The Bible calls this day Armageddon, the end of all things. And yet, for the first time, in the history of the planet, a species has the technology to prevent its own extinction. All of you praying with us need to know that everything that can be done to prevent this disaster is being called in to service. The human thirst for excellence, knowledge, every step up the ladder of science, every adventurous reach into space, all of our combined modern technologies and imaginations, even the wars that we’ve fought have provided us with the tools to wage this terrible battle.

Through all the chaos that is our history, through all of the wrongs and the discord, through all of the pain and suffering, through all of our times, there is one thing that has nourished our souls and elevated our species above its origin. And that is our courage. The dreams of an entire planet are focused tonight on those fourteen brave souls traveling into the heavens. And may we all, citizens the world over, see these events through. God speed and good luck to you.

Video

It is from the movie Armageddon, an action movie of moderate entertainment value so long as one does not insist the science in it make any sense, but the thing I always remember about it is this speech. I’m sure there are others- I always thought the speech in Independence Day was a little forced, and the various speeches in Deep Impact were too numerous for one to really stand out. I also note my choices seem to focus on End of The World movies… probably just my frame of mind these days ;).

Anyone have other great fictional speeches that come to mind?