Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Cliff Robertson: Higgins

Photos 

Quotes 

• Higgins : It's simple economics. Today it's oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food. Plutonium. Maybe even sooner. Now, what do you think the people are gonna want us to do then?

  Joe Turner : Ask them?

  Higgins : Not now - then! Ask 'em when they're running out. Ask 'em when there's no heat in their homes and they're cold. Ask 'em when their engines stop. Ask 'em when people who have never known hunger start going hungry. You wanna know something? They won't want us to ask 'em. They'll just want us to get it for 'em!

• [Wabash talks about his entry into the US intelligence field] 

  Mr. Wabash : I go even further back than that. Ten years after The Great War, as we used to call it. Before we knew enough to number them.

  Higgins : You miss that kind of action, sir?

  Mr. Wabash : No, I miss that kind of clarity.

• Higgins : Oh, you... you poor dumb son of a bitch. You've done more damage than you know.

  Joe Turner : I hope so.

• [last lines] 

  Higgins : Hey, Turner! How do you know they'll print it? You can take a walk. But how far if they don't print it?

  Joe Turner : They'll print it.

  Higgins : How do you know?

• Higgins : It'd have to be somebody in the community.

  Joe Turner : Community.

  Higgins : Intelligence field.

  Joe Turner : Community! Jesus, you guys are kind to yourselves. Community.

• Joe Turner : This is no God damn book! Somebody or something is rotten in the Company!

  Higgins : You never complained 'til yesterday.

  Joe Turner : You didn't start killing my friends until yesterday!

• Joe Turner : Hey, Higgins? Let's say, for the purposes of argument, I had a .45 in one of my pockets, and I wanted you to take a walk with me, you'd do it, right?

  Higgins : Which way?

• Joe Turner : Just look around. They've got it. That's where they ship from. They've got all of it.

  Higgins : What? What did you do?

  Joe Turner : I told them a story. You play games, I told them a story.

• Joe Turner : [into telephone]  Hey, Higgins?

  Higgins : Yeah, I'm right here...

  Joe Turner : Who is Leonard Atwood?

  Higgins : [no response] 

  Joe Turner : Where ARE you, Higgins?

  Higgins : [no response] 

  Joe Turner : ...ain't we pals, anymore?

  [hangs up] 

• Higgins : I'm sorry.

  Joe Turner : You're sorry? You're sorry. Oh, I get it. I get it. You expect me to draw fire, like one of those penny arcade bears that parades back and forth waiting for somebody, somebody very good just to take another shot, and you're just gonna hang around and pick him up just before he does it? Or just after?

  Higgins : I'll try and find out what's going on; I'm gonna cross-check all those names...

  Joe Turner : Nice talking to you, Higgins. Have a nice day.

• Joe Turner : Do we have plans to invade the Middle East?

  Higgins : Are you crazy?

  Joe Turner : Am I?

  Higgins : Look, Turner...

  Joe Turner : Do we have plans?

  Higgins : No, absolutely not. We have games. That's all. We play games. 'What if?' 'How many men?' 'What would it take?' 'Is there a cheaper way to destabilize a regime?' That's what we're paid to do.

  Joe Turner : Supposing I hadn't stumbled onto a plan; say, nobody had?

  Higgins : Different ballgame... the fact is, there was nothing wrong with the plan. No, the plan was alright; the plan would've worked!

• Higgins : It didn't have to end this way.

  Joe Turner : Of course it did.

• Higgins : You're about to be a very lonely man... it didn't have to end this way.

  Joe Turner : Of course it did!

• Higgins : You served with Col. Donovan in the OSS, didn't you, sir?

  Mr. Wabash : I sailed the Adriatic with a movie star at the helm. It doesn't seem like much of a war now, but it was.

• Higgins : Two years military service. Signal Corps. Telephone lineman, long lines, switchboard maintenance - six months overseas. Separated 9/61. Worked at Bell Labs Communication Research. College on the G.I. bill.

  Mr. Wabash : The question was, Mr. Higgins, is he qualified with a handgun?

  Higgins : No handgun, sir.

• Higgins : [on the phone]  Hello, Condor.

  Joe Turner : Who is this?

  Higgins : Deputy Director Higgins, New York Center. I'm controlling now, Condor. Where are you?

  Joe Turner : How come I need a code name, and you don't?

  Higgins : Where are you, Turner?

  Joe Turner : Here.