Quotes

Dialogue

Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair: Three tours in Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Desert Storm, three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and the Congressional Medal of– Jesus. This man is a hero. General Al Kramer: Well, I think "legend" might be a better description, Mr. Sinclair. Sinclair: Yeah, well, now we can add kidnapping and extortion to his list of accolades. Gen. Kramer: [mildly indignant] Mr. Sinclair, General Hummel is a man of honor.

Dialogue

General Al Kramer: Frank, it's Al Kramer. BG Francis Hummel: [chomps a cigar] Hi, Al, how you doin'? Kramer: I don't know, Frank. Ah, why don't you tell me. Got a lot of very, very worried people here, Frank. Hummel: I'll come straight to the point. Eighty-three Force Reconnaissance Marines have died under my various commands. Forty-seven in northern Laos and southern China. White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair: Southern China? We never admitted we sent troops into China. Hummel: Who is this? Identify yourself. Sinclair: White House Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair, General. Hummel: [stands up] How old are you, Chief of Staff Sinclair? Sinclair: I'm 33- Hummel: Well, Mr. Sinclair, you've probably got no fucking idea what I'm talking about. By your ninth birthday, I was running black ops into China. My men were responsible for over 200 enemy kills. Now put some rigging tape over Mr. Sinclair's mouth, he's wasting my time! Kramer: Ah you want to continue, Frank? Hummel: Remember Oper

Dialogue

Carla: You didn't really mean what you said about bringing a child into this world... being an act of cruelty, did you? Goodspeed: I meant it at the time. Carla: Stanley, "at the time"? You said it seven-and-a-half seconds ago! Goodspeed: Well... gosh. Kind of a lot's happened since then.

Dialogue

John Mason: So what do you have in store for me, Womack, when this is over? FBI Director James Womack: You'll get your life back, Mason. Mason: But you could have given my life back years ago. [walks away, but turns back to Womack] Why should I trust you now? Womack: You've got my word. Mason: Will you shake on it? [Womack nods. Both men shake hands but Mason attaches a rope on Womack's hand and throws him off the balcony.]

Dialogue

Commander Anderson: Have you ever been in a combat situation? Goodspeed: Define combat, sir. Anderson: Shep? LT Shepherd: An incursion underwater to re-take an impregnable fortress held by an elite team of US Marines in possession of 81 hostages and 15 guided rockets armed with VX poison gas. Goodspeed: Oh. In that case, no, sir. Excuse me a moment. [runs to the bathroom and throws up]

Dialogue

Goodspeed: You enjoying this? Mason: Well, it's certainly more enjoyable than my average day: Reading philosophy, avoiding gang rape in the washroom. Though it's less of a problem these days. Maybe I'm losing my sex appeal.

Dialogue

Commander Anderson: Stand Fast! Mercenary: Drop your weapons! General Hummel: Hold your fire! Agent Paxton: It's a fucking trap. General Hummel: This is General Hummel, drop your weapons... Drop 'em! Commander Anderson: Anderson here, General Hummel. Commander. Team Leader. General Hummel: Commander Anderson, if you have any concern for the lives of your men, you will order them to safety their weapons and place them on the deck. Agent Paxton: This is not happening... Commander Anderson: Sir, we know why you're out here. God knows, I agree with you. But like you, I swore to defend this country against all enemies— foreign, sir... and domestic. General, we've spilled the same blood in the same mud. And you know god damn well I can't give that order. Navy SEAL: We're dead! General Hummel: Your unit is covered from an elevated position, Commander. I'm not gonna ask you again. Don't do anything stupid. No-one has to die here. Commander Anderson: [raising his voice] You men following the Ge

Dialogue

FBI Agent Paxton: [to Womack discreetly] I need to talk to you, right now, alone. Agent Paxton: Now you told me I'm on a need-to-know basis. And I'm tellin' you right now, I need to know who the fuck John Mason is right now, sir? FBI Director James Womack: All right, you wanna know? 1962, J. Edgar Hoover is head of the FBl, some say the country. It's no secret he kept microfilm files on prominent Americans and Europeans: de Gaulle, British members of Parliament, even the prime minister. I mean, this guy had dirt on everybody in the world. Paxton: Yeah, I know all the cloak-and-dagger stories. Where does Mason fit in? Womack: Mason was the British operative who stole the files. But our Bureau agents caught him at the Canadian border. Of course, the British claimed, 'They'd never heard of him.' And we held him without trial until he gave up the microfilm... but he never did. Paxton: Well, I'm surprised Hoover didn't use his daughter as leverage. Womack: Hoover was dead in '72. She wasn't

Dialogue

Mason: [Gives Goodspeed a handgun] Are you sure you're ready for this? [walks up staircase] Goodspeed: I'll do my best. Mason: [stops and motions back to Goodspeed] Your best? Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen! Goodspeed: Carla was the prom queen. Mason: [faintly impressed] Really? Goodspeed: [Cocks his gun] Yeah!

Dialogue

Goodspeed: You've been around a lot of corpses. Is that normal? Mason: [looks at the twitching corpse] What, the feet thing? Goodspeed: Yeah, the feet thing. Mason: Yeah, that happens. Goodspeed: Well, I'm having kind of a hard time concentrating. Can you do something about it? Mason: Like what? Kill him again? Goodspeed: Listen, I'm just a biochemist. And most of the time I work in a glass jar and lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo--a beige one. But what I'm dealing with here, is one of the most deadly substances the Earth has ever known. So what do you say you cut me some friggin slack? Goodspeed: A really elegant string-of-pearls configuration. Unfortunately, incredibly unstable. Mason: And what exactly does this stuff do? Goodspeed: If the rocket renders it aerosol, it could take out an entire city of people. Mason: Really? And what happens if you drop one? Goodspeed: Happily, it'd just wipe out you and me. Mason: How? Goodspeed: It's a cholinesterase inhibitor. Stops the

Dialogue

Gen. Hummel: [thinking Mason is a SEAL] I thought I'd been in the service a long time... name and rank, sailor. Mason: It's Army, actually. Maj. Baxter: Answer the question. [Mason looks at him] And address him as "General, sir." Mason: Captain John Patrick Mason, General, sir, of her Majesty's SAS. Retired, of course. Gen. Hummel: You're a long way from home, Captain. How the hell are you involved in this? Mason: Oh, I have a unique knowledge of this prison facility. I was, uh...formerly a guest here. Gen. Hummel: Have they bothered to tell you who I am, why I'm doing this, or are they just using you like they do everybody else? Mason: All I know is, you were big in Vietnam; I saw the highlights on television. Gen. Hummel: Then you wouldn't have any fucking idea of what it means to lead some of the finest men on God's earth into battle and then see their memory betrayed by their own fucking government! Mason: I don't quite see how you cherish the memory of the dead by killing another

Dialogue

Goodspeed: [Holding VX nerve gas] Do you know how this shit works? Capt. Darrow: [Holding his knife] Do you know how this shit works?! [flashes his knife] Come on, come on, I don't need the gun. I'll put it down, come on. Let's play! Come on, come on! Goodspeed: Listen, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Stan Goodspeed, FBI. Uh, let's talk music. Do you like the Elton John song "Rocket Man"? Darrow: I don't like soft-ass shit! Goodspeed: Oh, oh, you don't, OK. Well, I only bring it up because, uh... it's you. You're the rocket man! [he fires the rocket out the window, taking Darrow with it] How do you like how that shit works?!

Dialogue

Stanley Goodspeed: Womack tore up your pardon, John. John Mason: But of course. I knew he would. Goodspeed: The S.D.U.s and the scuba gear should still be where we came ashore. If you can get to the Pan Pacific Hotel, there's clothes in my closet, $200 in the Bible, Room 26. Mason: Well, it's been a long time since I've said thank you to anybody... but thank you. Well, Stanley, I guess this is where we go our separate ways. I'm sure you understand the etymology of your name, "Goodspeed". Goodspeed: Yeah, God speed: To wish someone a prosperous journey. Why? Mason: Well, if you fancy a journey, I recommend Fort Walton, Kansas. Goodspeed: I was thinking of Maui. Mason: No... [puts something into Goodspeed's hand] Forget Maui. Goodspeed: [reads piece of paper] St Michael's Church, Fort Walton, Kansas. Front pew, right leg, hollow. Is this what I think it is-[looks back at Mason, but he's disappeared] MASON!?