Swordfish
Swordfish

[first lines]
Gabriel: You know what the problem with Hollywood is? They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit. Now I'm not some grungy wannabe filmmaker that's searching for existentialism through a haze of bong smoke or something. No, it's easy to pick apart bad acting, short-sighted directing, and a purely moronic stringing together of words that many of the studios

term as "prose". No, I'm talking about the lack of realism. Realism; not a pervasive element in today's modern American cinematic vision. Take Dog Day Afternoon, for example. Arguably Pacino's best work, short of Scarface and Godfather Part 1, of course. Masterpiece of directing, easily Lumet's best. The cinematography, the acting, the screenplay, all top-notch. But... they didn't push the

envelope. Now what if in Dog Day, Sonny wanted to get away with it, REALLY wanted to get away with it? What if - now here's the tricky part - what if he started killing hostages right away? No mercy, no quarter. "Meet our demands or the pretty blonde in the bellbottoms gets it the back of the head." Bam, splat! What, still no bus? Come on! How many innocent victims splattered across a window would

it take to have the city reverse its policy on hostage situations? And this is 1976; there's no CNN, there's no CNBC, there's no internet! Now fast forward to today, present time, same situation. How quickly would the modern media make a frenzy over this? In a matter of hours, it'd be biggest story from Boston to Budapest! Ten hostages die, twenty, thirty; bam bam, right after another, all caught

in high-def, computer-enhanced, color corrected. You can practically taste the brain matter. All for what? A bus, a plane? A couple of million dollars that's federally insured? I don't think so. Just a thought. I mean, it's not within the realm of conventional cinema... but what if?

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Swordfish

Gabriel: Have you ever heard of Harry Houdini? Well he wasn't like today's magicians who are only interested in television ratings. He was an artist. He could make an elephant disappear in the middle of a theater filled with people, and do you know how he did that? Misdirection.
Stanley: What the fuck are you talking about?
Gabriel:

Misdirection. What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes.

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Swordfish

Stanley: War? Who are we at war with?
Gabriel: Anyone who impinges on America's freedom. Terrorist states, Stanley. Someone must bring their war to them. They bomb a church, we bomb ten. They hijack a plane, we take out an airport. They execute American tourists, we tactically nuke an entire city. Our job is to make terrorism so horrific that it becomes

unthinkable to attack Americans.

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Swordfish

Gabriel: Don't confuse kindness with weakness.

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Swordfish

Ginger: You're not too good at this golf thing, are you, Stan?
Stanley: You're fucking up my chi.

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Swordfish

Axl Torvalds: He exists in a world beyond your world. What we only fantasize, he does. He lives a life where nothing is beyond him. But you know what? It's all a facade. For all his charm and charisma, his wealth, his expensive toys... he's a driven, unflinching, calculating machine. He takes what he wants, when he wants... and disappears.

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Swordfish

Gabriel: Oh she's good isn't she!

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Swordfish

Gabriel: Big Stan! Nice suit.
Stanley: Thanks.
Gabriel: They say it's the suit that makes the man.
Stanley: Buy it?
Gabriel: Hope not!

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Swordfish

Stanley: What are you still doing here? Look, I'm beginning to lose my sense of humor about all this.
Ginger: Ok, then I'll cut to the chase. If you want a chance in hell at getting your daughter back you better listen up. Unless of course, you want to stay here, in this loser existence, while your daughter grows up to be a fluffer in her new daddy's

videos.
Stanley: With the courtesy of not confusing your own childhood with my daughter's.

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Swordfish

Stanley: How can you justify all this?
Gabriel: You're not looking at the big picture Stan. Here's a scenario. You have the power to cure all the world's diseases but the price for this is that you must kill a single innocent child, could you kill that child Stanley?
Stanley: No.
Gabriel: You disappoint me,

it's the greatest good.
Stanley: Well how about 10 innocents?
Gabriel: Now you're gettin' it, how about a hundred - how about a THOUSAND? Not to save the world but to preserve our way of life.
Stanley: No man has the right to make that decision; you're no different from any other terrorist.
Gabriel: No,

you're wrong Stanley. Thousands die every day for no reason at all, where's your bleeding heart for them? You give your twenty dollars to Greenpeace every year thinking you're changing the world? What countries will harbor terrorists when they realize the consequences of what I'll do? Did you know that I can buy nuclear warheads in Minsk for forty million each? Hell, I'd buy half a dozen and even

get a discount!

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Swordfish

Gabriel: I have been told that the best crackers in the world can do this under 60 minutes but unfortunately I need someone who can do this under 60 seconds.

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Swordfish

Ginger: Surprised that a girl with an IQ over seventy can give you a hard on?

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Swordfish

Ginger: You know, you should really have let me buy you a suit, Stanley.
Stanley: I'm happy with what I'm wearing, thank you.
Ginger: Ignorance is bliss.

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Swordfish

Marco: [looks at Stanley while packing away a rocket launcher] What?
[pauses then looks to a hostage]
Marco: I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: If that launcher was a suppository, would that bad man stick it up my ass? Well, you eyeball me once more boy,
[puts a handgun to the hostage's head]
Marco: and i'll

stick it so far up your ass you'll be begging me for this bullet.

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Swordfish

Stanley: [Stanley is going to drive Gabriel's car during a shoot-out with the police] I can't drive this thing!
Gabriel: Learn!

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Swordfish

Ginger: I'm not here to suck your dick, Stan.

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Swordfish

Stanley: And you are?
Ginger: I'm Ginger.
Stanley: Where's Gilligan?

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Swordfish

Gabriel: Well, this looks friendly.

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Swordfish

Gabriel: Twenty... She's dying Stanley.
Stanley: Shut the FUCK up!

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Swordfish

Stanley: [Bus busts through set up barracades] Wait... where are we going?
Gabriel: Ever see the movie "Sugarland Express"?
[Stanley shakes his head]
Gabriel: Didn't like the way it ended.
[Bus is lifted into the air by a transport helicopter and becomes airborne]
Gabriel: Everybody hold on!