In the latter stages of the movie, Saving Private Ryan, a powerful exchange happens between Tom Hanks’ character, the leader of the group sent to find Ryan, Captain Miller. He is speaking to his Sergeant after they find Ryan, who then won’t leave the bridge he is ordered to defend. Stunned, the two men walk away from Ryan to figure out what to do next. While the entire exchange is powerful for various reasons, I have always loved the phrase Miller says when he tries to comprehend what is happening around him—“the world has taken a turn for the surreal.” Since today, that is how I feel and have felt for at least the past 5-7 years, this exchange needs to be read yet again:
Sergeant: What are your orders, sir?
Miller: Sergeant, we have crossed some sort of strange boundary here. The world has taken a turn for the surreal.
Sergeant: Clearly, but the question still stands.
Miller: I don’t know. What do you think?
Sergeant: You don’t want to know what I think.
Miller: No, Mike, I do.
Sergeant: Well, part of me thinks the kid’s right–what’s he done to deserve this. He wants to stay here, fine, let’s leave him and go home.
Miller: Yeah.
Sergeant: But, then another part of me thinks, what if my some miracle, we stay, and actually make it out of here. Some day we might look back on it and decide that, saving private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of the god-awful, shitty mess.
That’s what I was thinking sir. Like you said, Capt, we do that, we all earn the right to go home.
Miller: Oh brother.