- [Mera and Arthur find an Atlantean device in the desert]
- Mera: [can't activate it] Nothing.
- Arthur Curry: Of course it's not working. It's been sitting here gathering dust since before the Sahara was a desert!
- Mera: Before the Sahara was a desert... You do your best thinking when you're not thinking at all. Hold still.
- [extracts sweat from Arthur]
- Mera: We need water. You're the closest source.
- [uses the water to get the device working]
- Arthur Curry: Show-off. I could've just peed on it.
- Orm: People of Atlantis, hear me! My brother has come from the surface... to challenge me for the throne! Let us settle this in the ancient way: by bloodshed do the gods make known their will!
- [Mera destroys the device]
- Arthur Curry: WAIT! Shouldn't we have written it down?
- Mera: I memorized it. Didn't you?
- Arthur Curry: Uh, yeah.
- Mera: What did it say?
- Arthur Curry: Something something trident.
- [Mera jumps from a plane into a desert]
- Cargo Pilot: She jumped! She didn't have a parachute!
- Arthur Curry: Redheads! You gotta love 'em.
- [jumps after her]
- [last lines]
- Arthur Curry: [narrates] My father was a lighthouse keeper. My mother was a queen. They were never meant to meet. But their love saved the world. They made me what I am: a son of the land, a king of the seas. I am the protector of the deep. I am... Aquaman.
- Arthur Curry: We should turn back. We can still warn the surface, try and prepare them for what's coming...
- Mera: Turn back?
- Arthur Curry: Look, I learned from a young age not to show weakness, okay? I solve my problems with my anger and my fists. I'm a blunt instrument and I'm damn good at it. I've done nothing but get my ass kicked this whole trip. I'm no leader. I'm not a king. I do not work or play well with others. And I can't let you die, trying to turn me into something I'm not.
- Mera: You think you're unworthy to lead because you're of two different worlds? But that is exactly why you are worthy! You are the bridge between land and sea! I can see that now. The question is, can you?
- Arthur Curry: [narrates] My mother had fled an arranged marriage, left her whole world behind, but in my father's lighthouse, she had found something unexpected. And my father found the love of his life.
- Mera: [browsing a bookstall on Sicily] I just learned something very interesting.
- [holds up a copy of "Pinocchio"]
- Mera: "Pinocchio." You risked our lives based on something you read in a *children's book*?
- Arthur Curry: Wait, it's a book? How about that? I got it from a movie.
- Young Arthur (13): I already know how to swim.
- Nuidis Vulko: Not even close. You have to forget all the teaching of the surface world, go deeper to discover your Atlantean instincts.
- [from trailer]
- Queen Atlanna: [to young Arthur] Legend has it that one day... a new king will come. Who will use the power of the trident to put Atlantis back together again.
- Mera: Atlantis has always had a king. Now it needs something more.
- Arthur Curry: Well, what could be greater than a king?
- Queen Atlanna: A hero. A king fights only for his own nation. You fight for everyone.
- Orm: The Trident doesn't change what you are! You're a half-breed bastard! Atlantis will never accept you as its king!
- Arthur Curry: Then by bloodshed, do the gods make known their will!
- Queen Atlanna: [to Thomas] I will return to you when it's safe. One day, right here, at sunrise, we'll be together again.
- Arthur Curry: What's the plan?
- Mera: The plan *was* to get the Trident first, *then* challenge Orm for the throne!
- Arthur Curry: So we did things out of order, shit happens!
- [Jesse Kane is trapped under a missile]
- David Kane: Wait! You can't leave him here! Help me! Please!
- Arthur Curry: You killed innocent people! Ask the sea for mercy!
- [Arthur defeats Orm]
- Orm: Finish it!
- Arthur Curry: Yield the throne.
- Orm: Mercy is not our way.
- Arthur Curry: Maybe you haven't noticed, brother...
- [lowers the trident]
- Arthur Curry: ... but I'm not one of you.
- Orm: Do it!
- [tears off his helmet]
- Orm: KILL ME!
- Queen Atlanna: NO! That is enough killing!
- Orm: ...Mother?
- [Orm and Arthur tap their tridents together, to begin their duel]
- Orm: You wield our mother's trident. Powerful, but flawed. Like her. I wield my father's, and it has never known defeat!
- King Atlan: [transmission] In this trident resides the power of Atlantis. In the wrong hands, it would bring destruction. In the hands of the true heir, it will unite all our kingdoms above and below. If you seek my power, you must prove your worth. Journey beyond the edge of the world to the hidden sea. Look inside the bottle for the chartered path. Only in the hands of the true king can he truly see.
- [in a bar]
- Arthur Curry: How is it that I can breathe underwater, but you can still drink me under the table?
- Thomas Curry: That's *my* superpower.
- [they laugh]
- Cue Ball: Hey, buddy. You the Fish Boy from the TV?
- Arthur Curry: It's "fish man." What do you want?
- Cue Ball: [menacing] I'll tell you what I want...
- [friendly]
- Cue Ball: Could we get a picture with you?
- Mera: [in a plane for the first time] I've never been this high before... or this far away from home.
- Manta: [quotes Lovecraft] Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men!
- Mera: My obligation isn't to love; it's to my family and my nation, and I've turned my back on both. Sometimes we have to do what's right, even if our heart aches against it.
- David Kane: I scavenge the high seas. You're the Aquaman. We were bound to meet at some point!
- Arthur Curry: Let's not make it a habit.
- Arthur Curry: We got a bogey on our tail!
- Mera: What does that even mean?
- Arthur Curry: Bad guys behind us!
- Mera: Why didn't you just say that?
- Arthur Curry: Bad guys behind us!
- Orm: Down here, we have a legend about the Karathen, an ancient sea monster so powerful that even King Atlan himself couldn't contain it. So he imprisoned it in the depths of the ocean. In that abyss, the creature bides its time, waiting to rise again. Atlantis has been lying in wait, and now the beast has awakened.
- Arthur Curry: You know, there was a time when I wanted to meet you one day, get to know my little brother, let him know that he wasn't alone, and we could hang out together. If only I'd know what a dick you'd turn out to be.
- Orm: You were the reason our mother was executed. And I've hated you for it ever since. But I do not want to kill you, Arthur. I am going to give you one chance. Go home. Do not ever come back to Atlantis. You are not going to win this. A war is coming to the surface whether you like or not. And I am bringing the wrath of the Seven Seas with me.
- Arthur Curry: You know I can't let that happen.
- Orm: I know.
- [underwater training]
- Nuidis Vulko: The ocean is not just our home, it is who we are.
- Young Arthur (Nine Years Old): You can talk underwater!... Wait, I can talk underwater too! This is awesome!
- Nuidis Vulko: We can do so much more than talk. Being Atlantean is more than just being able to breathe under water, your body is equipped to survive in the extreme cold and pressure, and your eyes adjust to see in the darkness.
- [first lines]
- Arthur Curry: [narrates] Jules Verne once wrote: "Put two ships in the open sea, without wind or tide... they will come together". That's how my parents met: like two ships destined for each other.
- King Nereus: Violence has always plagued the surface. They will destroy themselves.
- Orm: Not before destroying us first. We have been hiding long enough. The time has come for Atlantis to rise again.
- Fisherman Princess: [sees Arthur in action] The Trench! He commands the Trench!
- King Nereus: Impossible!
- [Arthur knocks down Jesse Kane]
- David Kane: DAD!
- Arthur Curry: Dad?
- [to Jesse]
- Arthur Curry: That's your kid? Shame on you.
- Mera: You must defeat Orm.
- Arthur Curry: And what if I can't?
- Mera: Last time you fought him on his ground. This time, fight him on yours.
- [Mera kisses Arthur]
- Arthur Curry: [stunned] What was the plan again?
- Mera: [smiles] The plan is not to get killed.
- [Arthur approaches the Trident of Atlan]
- Karathen: You do not belong here. I have guarded the Trident against false kings since the beginning and for a thousand years. I have seen the greatest champions try and failed, but never have I sensed one as unworthy as you. You dare to come here with your tainted mongrel blood to claim Atlantis's greatest treasure?
- [Arthur goes for the Trident, but is swatted away]
- Karathen: So be it. Half-breed! You thought yourself worthy? You thought yourself king? You dishonor this place with your presence!
- Arthur Curry: Stop! You're right, I am a half-breed mongrel. But I did not come here because I thought I was worthy. I know I'm not.
- Karathen: [surprised] You understand me?
- Arthur Curry: I do.
- Karathen: No mortal has conversed with me since King Atlan. Who are you?
- Arthur Curry: I'm nobody. I came because I have no choice. I came to save my home, and the people that I love. I came because the Trident is our only hope. And if that's not good enough... then screw you!
- Karathen: [withdraws] No man has ever freed the Trident from Atlan's grip. Should he deem you unworthy... well, I haven't feasted in eons, and I am famished.
- Arthur Curry: You're the guy from the sub!
- Manta: That's right!
- [stabs him]
- Manta: But now I have Atlantean steel! Call me... Black Manta!
- [Arthur finds Thomas at the pier at sunrise]
- Arthur Curry: I always know where to find you.
- Thomas Curry: Old habits.
- Jesse Kane: [holds up a dagger to his son] Here.
- David Kane: I can't take that piece of junk. It's the love of your life.
- Jesse Kane: I never told you the story behind it. This was your grandfather's. He was one of the Navy's first frogmen during World War II. He was so stealthy in the water, his unit nicknamed him Manta. But after the war, his country forgot about him, so he went back to the sea, scavenging and surviving with his wit and this knife. He gave it to me when I was your age. And now it's yours, son.
- Nuidis Vulko: Your mother loved you more than anything in the world, but she had to return to Atlantis to keep you safe. Her marriage to King Orvax was arranged a long time ago so she had to marry him and bear him a son, Prince Orm. But Orvax eventually found out about you, he became overwhelmed with jealousy and sacrificed her to the creatures of the Trench.
- Young Arthur (Sixteen Years Old): Are you saying they executed her because she had me?
- Orm: Vulko, my trusted vizier, you have stood by the throne since my father sat upon it. Have you any advice for me, as this war begins?
- Nuidis Vulko: I have already given it, my king. But I will stand by your decision, as always.
- Orm: My decision. To protect it... while you betray it? You think I do not know of your treachery, that you were ever loyal to my mother's bastard son, that you have spent years training him to take the throne from me. Do not deny it!
- [guards surround Vulko]
- Nuidis Vulko: I do not.
- Orm: Why? I am pure of blood! I have dedicated my entire life to Atlantis! He wanted nothing to do with it! You swore to serve the throne!
- Nuidis Vulko: I do serve it! Arthur may only be half-Atlantean, but he's already twice the king you'll ever be!
- Orm: [to guards] Take him. But make sure he gets a view.
- [from trailer]
- Arthur Curry: [to Mera] This is the exact spot where Vulko gave me my first swimming lesson.