"[...] how was a girl from Earth to fully understand? The amount of fuel will not power an EDS with a mass of m plus x safely to its destination. To him and her brother and parents she was a sweet-faced girl in her teens; to the laws of nature she was x, the unwanted factor in a cold equation."
— Tom Godwin, The Cold Equations
Rembrandt: It's just one more name!
Wade: It's more than that! If Malcolm goes on the list, that means someone comes off. You have no idea what it's like knowing that each name that you erase off the screen means that person dies. You know, all you think about is saving one life. All I'm thinking about are the people I'm not.
Wade: It's more than that! If Malcolm goes on the list, that means someone comes off. You have no idea what it's like knowing that each name that you erase off the screen means that person dies. You know, all you think about is saving one life. All I'm thinking about are the people I'm not.
— Sliders, "Exodus"
Tommy: It's not fair.
Alex: Survival's not fair.
Highlander: No, it's shit. It's fear, and it's greed. Fate pushed through the bowels of men. Shit.
Tommy: He saved our lives!
Alex: And he's about to do it again. [grabs Gibson] Somebody's got to get off, so the rest of us can live.
Alex: Survival's not fair.
Highlander: No, it's shit. It's fear, and it's greed. Fate pushed through the bowels of men. Shit.
Tommy: He saved our lives!
Alex: And he's about to do it again. [grabs Gibson] Somebody's got to get off, so the rest of us can live.
— Dunkirk
Gamora: We were happy on my home planet.
Thanos: Going to bed hungry? Scrounging for scraps? Your planet was on the brink of collapse. I'm the one who stopped that. You know what’s happened since then? The children born have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies. It’s a paradise.
Gamora: Because you murdered half the planet.
Thanos: A small price to pay for salvation.
Gamora: You're insane.
Thanos: Little one, it’s a simple calculus. This universe is finite — its resources, finite... If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correction.
Gamora: You don't know that!
Thanos: I'm the only one who knows that. At least, I’m the only one with the will to act on it.
Thanos: Going to bed hungry? Scrounging for scraps? Your planet was on the brink of collapse. I'm the one who stopped that. You know what’s happened since then? The children born have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies. It’s a paradise.
Gamora: Because you murdered half the planet.
Thanos: A small price to pay for salvation.
Gamora: You're insane.
Thanos: Little one, it’s a simple calculus. This universe is finite — its resources, finite... If life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correction.
Gamora: You don't know that!
Thanos: I'm the only one who knows that. At least, I’m the only one with the will to act on it.
"Ship ran an analysis of the Fallen One and discovered that the life energies released when he took down a world could cause him pain. If we could channel that energy, we stood a chance of bringing him down. That meant generating the energy. That meant sacrificing the lives of thousands to save the lives of millions. We decimated the mining colony and funneled the energy surge through Ship's ordnance matrix. And if that sounded cold in the telling... well, we had no other choice. At least, that's what I keep telling myself."
— Star-Lord, Annihilation: Conquest, Star-Lord 1
Data: Would you choose one life over one thousand, sir?
Picard: I refuse to let arithmetic decide questions like that.
Picard: I refuse to let arithmetic decide questions like that.
Vila: Plasma bolt fired [at us].
Soolin: 30 seconds to impact.
Dr. Plaxton: [from the engine room, where she's connecting the Stardrive] One more connection to—
[Avon cuts her off and presses some buttons.]
Tarrant: What are you doing?
Avon: Programming in the main circuit drive.
Dayna: You can't do that! That main drive will fire as soon as she makes the final connection.
Avon: We can outrun that bolt. She's dead either way.
Soolin: 30 seconds to impact.
Dr. Plaxton: [from the engine room, where she's connecting the Stardrive] One more connection to—
[Avon cuts her off and presses some buttons.]
Tarrant: What are you doing?
Avon: Programming in the main circuit drive.
Dayna: You can't do that! That main drive will fire as soon as she makes the final connection.
Avon: We can outrun that bolt. She's dead either way.
"We're running out of time! They're going to produce heavy water; they're going to get the Bomb. You realise who these people are? They're not going to play nice! What they did to London is going to be a walk in the park compared to what they're going to do if they get heavy water and develop a Bomb. So think about that—fifty people? Five hundred million people will go! The world will end as we know it, and we're arguing about a valley, in Norway!"
— Major General Pritchard, The Heavy Water War
Hacker: It says here smoking related diseases cost the NHS an additional £165,000,000 a year.
Sir Humphrey: Yes but we've been into that. It has been shown, that if those extra 100,000 people had lived to a ripe old age, they would have cost us even more in pensions and social security than they did in medical bills. So financially speaking, it's unquestionably better that they continue to die at about the present rate.
[...]
Hacker: Humphrey we're talking about 100,000 deaths a year.
Sir Humphrey: Yes but cigarette taxes pay for a third of the cost of the National Health Service. We're saving many more lives than we otherwise could because of those smokers who voluntarily lay down their lives for their friends.
Sir Humphrey: Yes but we've been into that. It has been shown, that if those extra 100,000 people had lived to a ripe old age, they would have cost us even more in pensions and social security than they did in medical bills. So financially speaking, it's unquestionably better that they continue to die at about the present rate.
[...]
Hacker: Humphrey we're talking about 100,000 deaths a year.
Sir Humphrey: Yes but cigarette taxes pay for a third of the cost of the National Health Service. We're saving many more lives than we otherwise could because of those smokers who voluntarily lay down their lives for their friends.
"If you're asking if I would kill three people to save eight billion... wouldn't you?"
— Jensen, The Cloverfield Paradox
"There isn't enough room up here!"
— Gelatin before throwing people overboard, Battle for Dream Island
Carruthers: You honestly believe I'd murder nine of my closest friends to survive on Mars?
Van Heusen: Isn't it logical, Colonel? The Challenge 141 cracks up in landing. You know you're marooned indefinitely on Mars until another ship is sent. If another ship is sent. You know the food and supplies aboard would last the entire crew only a year. But they'd last you ten years...if the others were dead.
— It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)
