The Rock (1996)

John Spencer: F.B.I. Director Womack

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Quotes 

• General Hummel : Remember Operation Desert Storm? Those surgical hits made by our smart bombs that were covered so well on CNN? It was my men on the ground that made those hits possible by lazing the targets. Twenty of those men were left to rot outside Baghdad after the conflict ended. No benefits were paid to their families. No medals conferred. These men died for their country and they weren't even given a goddamn military burial. This situation is unacceptable. You will transfer one hundred million dollars from Grand Cayman Red Sea trading company to an account I designate. From these funds, one million dollars will be paid to each of the eighty-three marines' families. The rest of the funds, I will disperse at my discretion. Do I make myself clear?

  Womack : Except for the Red Sea Trading Company. What is that?

  General Hummel : Identify yourself.

  Womack : This is FBI Director Womack, General.

  General Hummel : It's a slush-fund where the Pentagon keeps proceeds from illegal arms deals...

  General Al Kramer : Jesus, Frank, this is classified information!

  General Hummel : You alert the media, I launch the gas. You refuse payment, I launch the gas. You've got forty hours, until noon, day after tomorrow, to arrange transfer of the money. I am aware of your countermeasure. You know and I know it doesn't stand a chance. Hummel from Alcatraz, out.

• FBI Director Womack : What do you know about V.X. gas?

  Dr. Stanley Goodspeed : Liquid; failed pesticide; discovered by mistake in 1952. Uhh, actually, it's kind of like champagne that way. The Franciscan monks thought they were making white wine. Somehow the bottle carbonated. Voila, champagne, and uhh, then the whole thing...

  FBI Director Womack : The gas, Dr. Goodspeed.

  Dr. Stanley Goodspeed : It's very, very horrible sir. It's one of those things we wish we could disinvent. This isn't a training exercise, is it?

• FBI Director Womack : Just clippers, no scissors.

  Paul the Hotel Barber : No scissors, you've got to be kidding me, no scissors. I mean, did they tell Picasso "no brush"?

  FBI Director Womack : With scissors, this man could kill you.

  John Mason : I can't cut off anyone's balls with a trimmer, now can I? Why don't we do this outside? Get some sun.

• Agent Paxton : Congratulations, Dr. Goodspeed. You did it.

  Dr. Stanley Goodspeed : Thank you, sir.

  Agent Paxton : You know, for a while there, I didn't think you were going to make it. Well done, son. So where's Mason?

  Dr. Stanley Goodspeed : Vaporized. Blown out to sea.

  Agent Paxton : Blown out to sea, huh?

  Dr. Stanley Goodspeed : Yeah.

  Agent Paxton : [smiles]  Poor bastard.

  [They share a knowing glance] 

  FBI Director Womack : [appears]  Goodspeed, where's Mason? Where's his body? I want to see that son of a bitch.

  Agent Paxton : Vaporized, sir. Excuse me, gentlemen.

  [leaves] 

  FBI Director Womack : What? Vaporized? A body can... vaporize?

  Dr. Stanley Goodspeed : Oh, yeah! Absolutely, sir.

• Stanley Goodspeed : You mean I'm going out there, under the water?

  Womack : Well earlier today you wanted a gun. Now you're getting a gun and a wet suit.

• FBI Director Womack : Great job, Goodspeed.

  Agent Paxton : [sarcastically, jokingly]  Why don't you throw in a trip to Tahiti while you're at it?

  FBI Agent : Okay, I'll deliver this to the Attorney General...

  FBI Director Womack : [Interrupts and takes the contract from Hunt]  Ah, no. You'll give that to me, there's a car waiting outside for you, thank you.

  [He rips up the contract] 

  Stanley Goodspeed : That's a signed federal document, sir. Isn't that illegal?

  FBI Director Womack : You're not acquainted with the full facts, Goodspeed.

  Stanley Goodspeed : With all due respect, sir, I'd like clarification. I gave that man my word.

• Stanley Goodspeed : I'm unarmed sir. I am unarmed, sir.

  Womack : Where's your issue?

  Stanley Goodspeed : I left it in my...

  [clears throat] 

  Stanley Goodspeed : sock drawer.

• Chief Justice : [Talking privately, referring too releasing Mason to aid in the rescue of the hostages]  This is for the sake of national security.

  FBI Director Womack : No! Its the sake of national security that got us here in the first place thirty three years ago. I knew some day this would come back to bite us. Forget it! He does not exist.

  Chief Justice : [referring to Mason]  he does exist! We just choose to forget him for thirty years. We locked him up and threw away the key.

  FBI Director Womack : A lot of god damn good it did us. He broke out of two maximum security prisons. And if he hits the streets...

  Chief Justice : He's not going to hit the streets, Jim. Thirty years ago he was a highly trained SAS operative. He is my age now, for Christ sake! I have to get up three times a night to take a piss.

  FBI Director Womack : We can't risk letting him out. He's a professional escape artist. He has no identity in the United States.

• Agent Paxton : [talking privately, after the Navy Seals were killed by Hummel and his Marines]  Now you tell me I'm on a need-to-know basis. And I'm telling you right now, I need to who the fuck John Mason is, right now sir!

  Womack : You want to know? Okay. 1962: J. Edgar Hoover is the head of the FBI, some say the country. It's no secret that he kept secret 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.

  Agent Paxton : Yeah, I know all of 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 that they never heard of him. So we held him without trial until he gave up the microfilm. But he never did.

  Agent Paxton : Well, I'm surprised Hoover didn't use his daughter as leverage.

  Womack : Hoover was dead in '72, she wasn't born yet. Today... it's a different Bureau.

  Agent Paxton : So, you held this guy without trial his whole life. No wonder he's pissed.

  Womack : This man knows our most intimate secrets from the last half century! The alien landing at Roswell, the truth behind the J.F.K. assassination. Mason's angry, he's lethal, he's a trained killer... and he is the only hope that we have got.

• Womack : [being pulled up to the hotel balcony]  Watch it, you fuckhead! You're gonna pull my arm out!

• FBI Director Womack : [showing Mason his arm in a sling]  Cocksucker! If I had my way, you would be shipped back to Wolfburg and held in leg irons for the rest of your natural fucking life! You wrecked half the city!

• FBI Director Womack : What did Hummel mean by your "countermeasure," General?

  General Al Kramer : Standard poison is countered by napalm. It burns it up, consumes it upon impact. Now the problem with VX poison gas is that it's designed specifically to withstand napalm, which is where thermite plasma comes in. General Peterson?

  General Peterson : Thermite plasma incendiary systems can burn hot enough to consume VX, but they're still in the test phase, it's not operational. Hummel knows this. We are dealing with one smart son of a bitch.

  General Al Kramer : What's it going to take to equip a flight of F-18s with thermite plasma within the next thirty-six hours?

  General Peterson : An act of God.

  General Al Kramer : Excuse me?

  General Peterson : ...All right, we can try. But I strongly urge you to consider this as a secondary initiative.

• Womack : Damn it, you're on a need-to-know basis, and you don't need to know.