"Move 'em back," they said. "Leave it safe." "Special access," they said.
Gwen Cooper: For who?
Torchwood.

John: Who are you?
Jack: Tell me, what was it like when you died? What did you see? John, tell me what you saw.
Suzie Costello: Ten seconds.
John: Nothing. I saw nothing. Oh my god, there's nothing.

Yvonne: The only Captain Jack Harkness on record is American.
Gwen: That's it—he's American.
Yvonne: Which you forgot to tell me.
Gwen: So who is he?
Yvonne: American volunteer. Royal Air Force. RAF Squadron. Except he disappeared. Vanished off the records, and presumed dead.
Gwen: When was that?
Yvonne: 1941 at the height of the Blitz. On the morning of January 21, 1941, Captain Jack Harkness failed to report for duty.

Jack: Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper.
Owen: Dr. Owen Harper, thank you.
Jack: Toshiko Sato, computer genius. Suzie Costello. She's second-in-command. And this is Ianto Jones. Ianto cleans up after us and and gets us everywhere on time.
Ianto: I do my best.
Jack: And looks good in a suit.

Gwen: I'm getting tired of following you.
Jack: No you're not. And you never will.

Gwen: The thing is I just don't understand—
Jack: No, I'll tell you what I don't understand. You're going to rattle on with that "How can this be true?" kind of shtick. What's it going to take for you people? If you want evidence of aliens, how about that great big spaceship hovering over London on Christmas Day? What about the battle of Canary Wharf? A Cyberman in every home.

Gwen: And who are you then?
Jack: Captain Jack Harkness.
Gwen: I did some research. And there's only one Captain Jack Harkness on record. And he disappeared in 1941.
Jack: Well that couldn't be me. Could it?

Jack: We don't just catch aliens. We scavenge the stuff they leave behind, find ways of using it. arming the human race for the future. The twenty-first century is when it all changes. And you've got to be ready.
Gwen: But who's in charge of you? Is it the government or what?
Jack: We're separate from the police, outside the government, beyond the United Nations. Because if one power got 'hold of this stuff they could use it for their own purposes.

Gwen: So go on then. How the hell did you end up in Cardiff?
Jack: This is Torchwood Three. Torchwood One was London—destroyed in the battle. Torchwood Two is an office in Glasgow—a very strange man. Torchwood Three, Cardiff. Torchwood Four has kinda gone missing but we'll find it one day.
Gwen: So you just fancied Cardiff?
Jack: There's a rift in space and time running right through the city.

Jack: You were right. We could do more to help. What do you think, do you want to join up?
Gwen: Yeah. I do. Yes.

Jack: Alright, usual formation.
Gwen: What's the usual formation?
Owen: Varies.
Gwen: How can the usual formation vary?

Gwen: God, this has been the worst first day ever.
Jack: We've all made mistakes. Get over it.

PC Andy: Gwen?
Gwen: Hi.
PC Andy: Bloody hell. Look at you all posh. Special Ops? We were wondering.
Gwen: I meant to call. It's been a bit of a whirlwind.

Gwen: C'mon then. Where are you from and why are you trying to invade Earth? Because you can forget about enslaving us.
Carys: Who said anything about "enslavin'"?
Gwen: Well that's what you lot do, aliens.... Isn't it?

Owen about Jack: So what's he told you?
Gwen: What about?
Tosh: Himself.
Gwen: You've been here longer than I have.
Tosh: We were banking on you.
Owen: You're a copper, you're trained to ask questions.
Gwen: You don't know anything?
Owen: Not who he is, not where he's from. Nothing, except him being gay.
Gwen: No, he's not. Really, do you think?
Tosh: No. Owen does. I don't.
Ianto: And I don't care.
Owen: Period military is not the dress code of a straight man.
Gwen: I think it suits him. Sort of classic.
Tosh: Exactly! I've watched him in action. He'll shag anything if it's gorgeous enough.

Gwen: After all I said, a severed hand is more important to you than Carys' life.
Jack: You want to prove yourself? Find her. Get your old pals in the police to do something useful for once.
Gwen: Alright, I'll give them a call. Put out an APB: woman possessed by gas knobbing fellas to death.

Carys: Do you love me, Eddie? Did you ever love me?
Eddie: No.
Carys: You could've saved yourself.
Eddie: What?

Gwen: We're too late.
Jack: Tosh was right, though. She went for the ex-boyfriend. Lucky she's young. Work your way through my back catalog, we'll be here 'til the sun explodes.

Owen: The strain on her body's too much. Any second now she's rat jam.

Jack: That was just the kiss. Imagine the buzz you get from the rest. Carys faints. That wasn't exactly the reaction I'd anticipated.

Jack: Gwen? Are you all right?
Gwen: I've just seen a ghost.

Jack: Run a full check. Births, marriages, deaths. Criminal record, passports. However long it takes, wherever he is, we'll find him.
Owen: Found him.... He's in the phonebook.

Rhys: Gwen, I can live with all the Secret Squirrel stuff, but if you can't even tell me if you're coming home—
Gwen: Well, nagging isn't helping.

Jack: Human emotion is energy. You can't always see it or hear it, but you can feel it. Ever had deja vu? Felt someone walk over your grave? Ever felt someone behind you in an empty room? Well there was. There always is.
Gwen: A ghost.

Gwen: I'm sorry, it's just... I don't even kill spiders in the bath.
Jack: Nor do I. Not with a gun.

Jack: The problem with seeing the future is you can't just sit and look at it. You've got to try and change things.

Dr. Tanizaki: Tell me, what happened?
Ianto: She worked for Torchwood London. It was the end of the Canary Wharf battle. The Cybermen needed soldiers fast. They started upgrading whole bodies instead of transplanting brains, using earth technology. Lisa was halfway through the process when the machine was shut down.

Dr. Tanizaki: What is the last thing you remember before coming here?
Lisa: Pain. I remember my body burning with pain.

Jack: Keep your comms open at all times. Any doubt, shoot first.

Gwen: What the hell is it?
Owen: It's wrong. It's beyond wrong. It shouldn't be here.

Owen: These things brought down Torchwood One. They were all destroyed. Why is there one in our bloody basement?!
Gwen: Just tell me what it does.
Owen: It's the remnants of a conversion unit. This machines turns humans into Cybermen.

Ianto: Her name's Lisa. She's my girlfriend.
Gwen: Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped you.
Ianto: Torchwood exists to destroy alien threats. Why would I tell you about her?

Jack: You need to figure out whose side you're on here. Because if you don't know, you're not going to make it out of this alive.

Owen: You should be dead.
Jack: I'm a stubborn man.

Jack: What have you got?
Ianto: Funny sort of weather patterns.

Estelle: Fairies are shy, you see. But I know in my heart that they're friendly, loving creatures. She ends the lecture. Thank you.
Jack: Wrong. She always gets it wrong.

Gwen: Well I suppose one person's good could be somebody else's evil.
Estelle: That's what his father used to say.

Lynn: You must never walk home alone. Do you understand? It's not safe.
Jasmine: It's alright, mum. No one can hurt me.

Gwen: Are we talking alien?
Jack: Worse.
Gwen: How come?
Jack: Because they're part of us—part of our world. Yet we know nothing about them. So we pretend to know what they look like. We see them as happy. We pretend they have tiny little wings and are bathed in moonlight.
Gwen: But they're not?
Jack: No. Think dangerous. Think something you can only half-see. Like a glimpse, like something out of the corner of your eye. With a touch of myth, a touch of the spirit world, a touch of reality, all jumbled together. Old moments and memories that are frozen in amongst it. Like the breeze spinning around a ringed planet, tossing, turning, whirling. Backwards and forwards through time. If that's them, we have to find them. Before all hell breaks loose.

Tosh: So where's this sighting then?
Jack: In a place called Roundstone Wood.
Owen: Oh, I know it. It has an odd history.
Jack: How do you mean "odd"?
Owen: It's always stayed wild. In the ancient times it was considered bad luck to walk in there, even collect timber. Even the Romans stayed clear of it.

Owen: I hate the countryside. It's dirty, it's unhygienic. And what is that smell?
Gwen: That would be grass.
Owen: It's disgusting.

Jack: No other race in the universe goes camping. Celebrate your own uniqueness.

Tosh: Call me suspicious but this has all the hallmarks of a trap.
Jack: Yeah. I was just thinking the same thing. Anyone fancy a walk?

Owen: Just lie back and think of Torchwood.

Toshiko: We won't need rescuing. I haven't met a cell yet I couldn't get out of.

Toshiko: That's why there was nothing left on the body. They need to eat. pause. We're food.

Owen: Okay. So this means the Rift is spreading and it's dumping aliens and psychos wherever it lands.
Jack: Looks like that.
Owen: Great. This conversation's cheered me up no end.

Tosh: They're all involved. They've all been doing it.
Evan: This is our harvest.
Owen: Only in the bloody countryside. You sick fuckers.

Gwen: Is it alien?
Jack: And how. I'm picking up traces of ilminite, pyroxine and even dark matter.
Gwen: Any idea what it is?
Jack: Not a clue. Could be a weapon. Or a really big stapler.

Tosh to Mary: What's most amazing are the similarities with our own culture. But that can be horrible because we find lots of weapons, and it just makes you think, my god, everything wages war. It's not just a trait of ours, but a trait of existence. It makes you feel so hopeless.

Tosh: I've never seen anything like this. It's incredible!
Mary: It's more than incredible. With this you can read people's minds. It levels the pitch between man and God.

Tosh: The things I heard. What they thought of me, they really thought. God, these are people that are supposed to like me!
Mary: They do like you. People are complicated.

Owen: So I start looking into, ah, devil worship and stuff from that era, see if there's anything about plucking out hearts. And would you believe it, there's nothing. They ate eyeballs, they drank blood, they had sex with animals. But they did not pluck out each other's hearts. 'Cause, obviously, that would have been weird.

Jack: You do this all the time? So you secretly fight crime, is that it, Tosh?
Tosh: I didn't want it to look like I was showing off.
Jack: The guy they arrested, Henderson said you heard him muttering to himself as he was walking along, and that's what tipped you off.
Tosh: Mm. I couldn't really work out what he was saying at first, and then it was like, Jesus!
Jack: That's weird. Because when I'm about to murder someone I'm really careful not to talk to myself about it while I'm in the street.
Tosh: No, sure. I mean, that's lesson one.

Tosh: So. I'm shagging a woman and an alien.
Mary: Which is worse?
Tosh: Well I know which one my parents would say.

Mary: You smell... different. To them.
Jack: That's nothing. It's when you compare teeth with a British guy, that's when it's really scary.
Mary: What are you?
Jack: I don't know.

Detective Swanson: Tell me something, are you always this dressy for a murder investigation?
Jack: What, you'd rather me naked?
Detective Swanson: God help me. The stories are true.

Detective Swanson: Looks like somebody wants your attention.
Jack: They've got it.

Detective Swanson: It was only a matter of time.
Jack: What was?
Detective Swanson: Torchwood walks all over this city like you own it. Now these people are paying the price.

Gwen: The first time I met Torchwood, you had that glove.
Jack: Uh uh. No way.
Owen: Not after what it did to Suzie.
Gwen: It brings people back to life. Just for two minutes. We could question the murder victims.
Owen: That's exactly what she said. She was one of us, we trusted her, and now she's dead because of that thing.
Jack: The glove stays in the safe where it belongs.
Gwen: These murders are happening because of Torchwood, so Torchwood has got to do something.

Owen: Give Ianto a stop watch and he's happy.
Ianto: It's the button on the top.

Tosh: Jack, did I hear that right?
Owen: Could be anyone. Must be lots of women called Suzie.
Jack: Not connected to this case. We've been talking to the wrong corpse.

Jack: Tread carefully, people. With respect. This is the life of Suzie Costello.
Tosh: That's all we are in the end. A pile of boxes.

Suzie: Who's using the glove?
Gwen: I'm sorry.
Suzie: Wouldn't you know it, Gwen bloody Cooper.

Ianto: Um, excuse me. I'm still counting.
Owen: There's not much point. Suzie's dead.
Ianto: No. According to your equipment, she's just unconscious.

Suzie: It's all my fault, isn't it? It never bloody stops being my fault. Can't you just let me die?
Jack: You don't get off that easy.

Suzie: Funny thing is, you always imagine when you’re dead, “Oh they're gonna miss me at work. Indispensable.” And look what happened. I got replaced. By someone better.

Jack: We gotta kill her. Suzie's gotta die.
Tosh: Again?
Owen: Who's gonna do it?
Jack: Like you said, I'm the boss.

Suzie about Jack: Do you ever wonder?
Gwen: What?
Suzie: Who is he?
Gwen: All the time.

Gwen: What's happening to me?
Suzie: Sorry, Gwen. You're getting shot in the head. Slowly. Believe me, it hurts.

Suzie: “Captain, my Captain.” Do you want to know a secret? There’s something moving in the dark and it's coming, Jack Harkness. It’s coming for you.

Ianto: If you're interested, I've still got a stopwatch.
Jack: So?
Ianto: Well. Think about it. Lots of things you can do with a stopwatch.
Jack: Oh yeah. I can think of a few.
Ianto: There's quite a list.
Jack: I'll send the others home early. See you in my office in ten.
Ianto: That's ten minutes. And counting.

Ianto: Oh, Jack? What do you want me to say on the death certificate?
Jack: Good question.
Ianto: She had quite a few deaths in the end.
Jack: I don't know. “Death by Torchwood.”
Ianto: I'll put a lock on the door. Just in case she goes walking again.
Jack: Nah. No chance of that. The Resurrection Days are over, thank God.
Ianto: Oh, I wouldn't be too sure. That's the thing about gloves, sir. They come in pairs.

Eugene Jones: The speed of light is two hundred and ninety-nine million, seven hundred and ninety-two thousand, four hundred and fifty-eight meters per second. Pain travels through the body at three hundred and fifty feet per second. Even a sneeze can reach a hundred miles an hour. And as for life? Well, that just bloody whizzes by. So then. This is me. Eugene Jones.

Jack: Anything on his phone from today?
Gwen: Just some pictures of random shoes.

Eugene: So ... So, uh... Wow, this is so weird. I used to follow you around. Now you're following me.

Eugene to Gwen: I'd trust you with my life. If, you know, I still had one.

Josh: I checked the bid history. Mr. C. Blackstaff is a collector of alien ephemera and Nazi memorabilia. Also, Beanie Babies. Teeny bit cuckoo, but endearingly rich.

Eugene: All those cars. All those lives moving through space. All that humanity whizzing by in a frenzy of... burgers and chips, bank holiday fun, burst tires, screaming kids. And sudden heart attacks. Apart from a buzzing in my ear where Josh whacked me, I felt good. I was running across a field on a Saturday morning. The smell of exhaust and banana milkshake. A slight nausea, heart beating too fast 'cause I wasn't that fit. All the stuff that tells you you're alive. By rights, I should be well pissed off. My mates had cheated me and I didn't meet any aliens. But I realized that when I swallowed the eye at the Happy Cook, I was given a chance to look back on my life and see it for what it really was.

Eugene: In an average lifetime, the human heart will beat two million times. You'll produce over eight thousand gallons of saliva, and grow three hundred and fifty miles of hair. You'll eat the equivalent in weight of six elephants. Ah, isn't life amazing!

Eugene: The average life is full of near misses and absolute hits. Of great love and small disasters. It's made up of banana milkshakes, loft insulation and random shoes. It's dead ordinary and truly, truly amazing. What you've got to realize is, it's all here, now. So breathe deep and swallow it whole. Because take it from me: life just whizzes by, and then, all of a sudden, it's—

Jack: When did you leave?
Diane Harris: About half an hour ago.
Jack: Which date?
Diane Harris: Today. December the eighteenth.
Jack: Which year? Which year? I need to know.
Diane Harris: 1953.

Diane: If all this is true, then how do we get back?
Jack: You don't. According to history your plane never returned. I'm sorry.

Jack: Your background story should incorporate the skills you already have. For instance, John, you could have run a corner shop.
John: No.
Jack: We can fake references.
John: You can't take away our names. For God's sake, man, it's all we've got left.

Diane Harris amazed at the door opening: How did it do that?
Ianto: It's automatic. It knows you're there.
Diane: But how?
Ianto: There are wave bouncing detectors which emit high-frequency radio waves and then look for reflections—
Diane: Bananas!
Ianto: Of course bananas are far more interesting.

John: How do you end up here. Doing whatever it is that you do?
Jack: It's a long story.
John: I'm a slow drinker. You know everything about me, what's the problem?
Jack: It's... complicated.
John: What, did you fall through time too?
Jack: Yeah, you could say that.

Rhys: What worries me is how easy it seems to be for you to lie to me, Gwen.

Gwen: It's like two worlds. There's Torchwood, and then there's real life.
Emma: That's why you've got to let me go.

Gwen: Owen's still not answering his phone.
Tosh: Well, he's been even more erratic than usual since that thing with Diane.
Gwen: Since the what?
Tosh: It's none of my business.

Jack about Janet: Owen's been studying this one. He thinks they have a low level of telepathic ability to share emotion across distance.
Ianto: You mean it might be feeling the pain of another Weevil?
Jack: Kinda hope we're wrong, though.
Ianto: Why?
Jack: Because that would mean somebody's not only kidnapping Weevils, they're causing them pain.

Owen: This is Owen's voicemail. Don't leave a message.
Jack: Nice try, Owen.

Gwen: What time will you be back?
Rhys: Not sure.
Gwen: But, I'm in tonight.
Rhys: Well I'm not.

Mark Lynch: It's closer than you think. Something's coming. Out there. In the darkness. Something is coming.

Gwen: I need to tell you something.
Rhys: What sort of thing?
Gwen: I've been sleeping, I've been having sex with someone else from work. His name's Owen. I mean, he’s a bit of a tosser actually, and it's all gonna stop but, um—
Rhys: Shut up—
Gwen: I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.
Rhys: You wouldn't do that!
Gwen: But I have.
Rhys: Then, then why are you telling me?
Gwen: Because I'm ashamed. And I'm angry. And I want, I want... I need— I need you to forgive me.

Tosh: Where's the SUV? Has it been stolen?
Jack seeing a flyer for 1941: No. We have.

Tosh: We really are in 1941. What if we can't get back?
Jack: Flotsam and jetsam slips through all the time. We'll get back. Look on the bright side. Gives you one hell of an excuse not to go to your party.

The Captain and Jack simultaneously: I'm Captain—
Jack: You go first.
Captain Harkness: I'm Captain Jack Harkness. 133rd Squadron.

Tosh: This period—you look like you fit in. Have you been here before?
Jack: Yeah. I can't explain, but I served in the war in 1941. I was undercover. I needed a false identity, so I took his name.
Tosh: Who were you before you took his name? Why him?
Jack: It was convenient.
Tosh: But if you chose his identity to steal, then he... ?
Jack: Dies. In battle.
Tosh: When?
Jack: Tomorrow.

Ianto: Open the Rift now and the whole world could suffer. We could all get sucked in. Who knows what will come out.

Jack: Go after her. Kiss her goodbye. Anything can happen tomorrow.
Captain Harkness: It's just a routine training exercise. I'm hardly gonna die.
Jack: That's when they catch you, when you least expect it. You don't know what's ahead. Kiss her goodbye.

Gwen: Tosh has written a message at the end. It says, "Tell my family I love them."

Ianto: You can't open the safe. You've got no right.
Owen: I'm second-in-command. I have got every fucking right.
Ianto: There's stuff in there we don't know about. That's how Jack likes it.
Owen: I'm not going to play with his toys, Ianto!

Owen: I'm tired of being in awe of the Rift. I'm tired of living with Jack's secrets. We don't even know who he is.
Ianto: He's our leader.
Owen: Not anymore.

Tosh: He would have been so proud that you took his name. Because here you are, saving the world. She raises her glass. To Captain Jack.
Jack: To Captain Jack.

Woman on TV: People didn't believe us. Now they should. This is the end of days.

Jack: The cracks in time trace back here to the Rift. The city—this hub—is the center. What you're seeing around the world are ripples and aftershocks. The Rift is splintering because of you.
Owen: What?
Jack: You opened the Rift without knowing what you were doing. You've caused the temporal cracks to widen. Time is seeping through.

Andy: Everyone's saying it, you know. In work, on the streets. Do you think this is the end of the world?
Gwen smiling reassuringly: Oh, Andy, don't be silly. Do you think the world's gonna end on your shift?
Andy: I've seen you use that smile on a lot of people.
Gwen: What smile?
Andy: The smile you use to reassure people when deep down you know everything's gone to shit.

Owen: No, come on. You're all thinking it too. You're the big man here. You keep all the secrets. Well now's the time to tell us a few and tell us how the hell we're gonna get out of this!
Jack: You want to know a secret? There is no solution. I can't fix this. Because this was never meant to happen. The first thing you learned when you joined Torchwood was "Don't mess with the Rift." But you disobeyed those orders and now everything that's happening is down to you.

Jack: If I can't rely on you—if I don't have your complete trust—you don't belong here. That goes for the rest of you. Anyone who agrees with Owen, leave now!

Owen: We're relieving you of your command, Captain. We're opening that Rift and getting back what we lost! Jack gets up. Stay down!
Jack: You gonna be in charge Owen? You've gotta have significantly bigger balls. Owen shoots him in the forehead.

Bilis: From out of the darkness, he is come.
Gwen: What is he talking about?
Bilis: Son of the Great Beast. Cast out before time, chained in rock and imprisoned beneath the rift.
Gwen: What?!
Bilis: All hail Abaddon, the Great Devourer. Come to feast on life! The whole world shall die beneath his shadow.

Gwen: The visions we had. We all saw people we loved. What did you see?
Jack: Nothing. There was nothing.
Gwen: Jack. What would have tempted you? What visions would have convinced you to open the rift?
Jack: The right kind of Doctor.

Gwen: Something's taken him. Jack's gone.