- Col. Ferguson: No one moves very far out of line. When you're young you think you're blazing a trail. One day you look down and notice it's a beaten track.
- Learoyd: Don't cry, little one. Don't cry. I'll be with you in the songs they sing in the longhouses. And then when you're older and you have children, well, you'll sing the songs to them. And then they'll sing to their children. And the songs, the songs will make you strong. And you won't need me anymore.
- [last lines]
- Capt. Fairbourne: I'll always know that he's out there. A free man. I hope he found his valley, somewhere. Farewell, my king. Farewell.
- Capt. Fairbourne: If you were a communist how could you be king?
- Learoyd: Only a communist would think of it.
- Learoyd: I have a special relationship with the spirits. I died once. I had to. I had to give up everything, even the will to live.
- [first lines]
- Learoyd: [coming ashore] He's dead. He's dead.
- Sgt. Conklin: Lights! It's a village.
- Learoyd: No, no. That's Japanese.
- Sgt. Conklin: There's no choice!
- Learoyd: No, I've had enough. Bataan. Corregidor. You were wrong! We're free now. We're free. Free to go our own ways.
- Capt. Fairbourne: Listen, you can no longer avoid history! I'm sorry. I've said that!
- Learoyd: Shut up. History? The world's so full of crap, sooner or later, you're gonna step in it. You call that history?
- Gen. MacArthur: History is written by unusual men. Some who even become kings, and some who make no more mark than that of a stone thrown into an ocean. What we have here... Well, we just don't know, do we?
- Capt. Fairbourne: Do you trust me?
- Learoyd: Yes... If I have a choice between the good or bad in the man, I choose to believe the good.
- Capt. Fairbourne: The 'warrior king'.
- Learoyd: No, YOU're the warrior. I'm just king.
- Capt. Fairbourne: [Narrating] Borneo. For most of you, Borneo doesn't exist. An imaginary name on a map, like Tibet or Tierra del Fuego. The ends of the earth. But I know the island exists. You see, I was there near the end of the Second World War. My war. My youth. I was a botanist before. I've been a botanist ever since.
- Capt. Fairbourne: [narration continues] That's why they chose me, I suppose. Special Operations trained me. I was to help lead the tribes against the Japanese. But I didn't lead them, really. No, that was someone else. I knew him. He was the last King of Borneo. It's all right to tell his tale now. The wind has swept away the stench of the corpses. And all that we remember is the flare of our youth.
- [first lines]
- Title Card: THE COAST OF BORNEO - April 1942 / Shortly after the fall of the Philippines the Japanese are triumphant in the Pacific
- Capt. Fairbourne: What do you want.
- Learoyd: Freedom, to be like we are.
- Capt. Fairbourne: Anything else?
- Learoyd: Guns. So they can't take the freedom away.
- Capt. Fairbourne: Well, I'll see what I can do.
- Learoyd: And grenades, mortars and mines, so they can't take the guns away.
- Capt. Fairbourne: The death agony of the Japanese army in Borneo was as sad as the sinking of a great ship. Bullets, explosives, poisoned arrows. Men stumbling through the night, mumbling incoherently. Hunger. Men eating weeds, leeches, insects - and each other. Despair, madness. For me, for us, the same period was as thrilling as a cavalry charge. May God forgive us.
- Capt. Fairbourne: [after the Japanese have sacked Learoyd's village] Vengeance is futile. It never ends. You told me that. It's not man that counts, it's life, Learoyd. It's life!
- Learoyd: [Brushing right past him] Blood must be answered with blood.
- Learoyd: Who's Vivienne? You kept mentioning her name.
- Capt. Fairbourne: She's my fiancée.
- Learoyd: So that's why you wouldn't... I said I never trusted a man who had no woman. I was beginning to worry about you.
- Capt. Fairbourne: [pushing Learoyd onto the deck] Turn around: now give me those.
- Learoyd: I thought it was you.
- Capt. Fairbourne: [takes Learoyd's cuffs off] How well do you swim?
- Learoyd: Well enough. They'll take away your DSO.
- Capt. Fairbourne: They've already given it to me, besides with a bit of luck, they'll never know.
- Learoyd: Why are you doing this?
- Capt. Fairbourne: [grinning] For King and Country. God bless, now get going!
- Learoyd: [Grins] Life, English!
- [jumps overboard]
- Capt. Fairbourne: Life, Rajah.
- [smiles as he sees Learoyd has made it safely to shore]