The Insider (film) Quotes

The Insider (film) is a television show that appeared on TV in 1970 . The Insider ended in 1970.

It features Michael Mann, and Pieter Jan Brugge as producer, Lisa Gerrard; Pieter Bourke in charge of musical score, and Dante Spinotti as head of cinematography.

The Insider (film) is recorded in English and originally aired in United States. Each episode of The Insider (film) is 157 minutes long. The Insider (film) is distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.

The cast includes: Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace, Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman, Bruce McGill as Ron Motley, Stephen Tobolowsky as Eric Kluster, Gina Gershon as Helen Caperelli, Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand, Philip Baker Hall as Don Hewitt, Lindsay Crouse as Sharon Tiller, Colm Feore as Richard Scruggs, Debi Mazar as Debbie, Michael Gambon as Thomas Sandefur, and Cliff Curtis as Sheikh Fadlallah.

The Insider (film) Quotes

Lindsay Crouse as Sharon Tiller

• (Lindsay Crouse) "You won."
• (Al Pacino) "Yeah? What did I win?"

• (Lindsay Crouse) "Get some perspective, Lowell."
• (Al Pacino) "I got perspective."
• (Lindsay Crouse) "No, you do not."
• (Al Pacino) "From my perspective, what's been going on and what I've been doing is ridiculous. It's half-measures."
• (Lindsay Crouse) "You're not listening. Really know what you're gonna do before you do it."

Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace

• (Christopher Plummer) "You heard Mr. Sandefur say before Congress that he believed nicotine was not addictive."
• (Russell Crowe) "I believe Mr. Sandefur perjured himself because I watched those testimonies very carefully."
• (Christopher Plummer) "All of us did, and it was this whole line of people, whole line of CEOs up there, all swearing."
• (Russell Crowe) "Part of the reason I'm here is that I felt that their representations clearly misstated; at least within Brown and Williamson's representation; clearly misstated what is common language within the company: "We are in the nicotine delivery business.""
• (Christopher Plummer) "And that's what cigarettes are for."
• (Russell Crowe) "A delivery device for nicotine."
• (Christopher Plummer) "A delivery device for nicotine. Put it in your mouth, light it up, and you're gonna get your fix."
• (Russell Crowe) "You're gonna get your fix."
• (Christopher Plummer) "You're saying that Brown and Williamson manipulates and adjusts the nicotine fix not by artificially adding nicotine but by enhancing the effect of nicotine through the use of elements such as ammonia?"
• (Russell Crowe) "The process is known as "impact boosting". While not spiking nicotine, they clearly manipulate it. There was extensive use of this technology known as "ammonia chemistry". It allows for the nicotine to be more rapidly absorbed in the lung and therefore affect the brain and central nervous system. The straw that broke the camel's back for me, and really put me in trouble with Sandefur, was a compound called coumarin. When I came on board at B. and W., they had tried the transition from coumarin to a similar flavor that would give the same taste, and had been unsuccessful. I wanted out immediately. I was told that it could affect sales, so I should mind my own business. I constructed a memo to Mr. Sandefur indicating I could not in conscience continue with coumarin, a product we now know and we had documentation was similar to coumadin, a lung-specific carcinogen."
• (Christopher Plummer) "And you sent the documents to Sandefur?"
• (Russell Crowe) "I sent the documents forward to Sandefur. I was told that we would continue to work on a substitute but we weren't going to remove it as it would impact sales, and that was his decision."
• (Christopher Plummer) "In other words, you were charging Sandefur and Brown and Williamson with ignoring health considerations consciously?"
• (Russell Crowe) "Most certainly."
• (Christopher Plummer) "And on March 24th, Thomas Sandefur, CEO of Brown and Williamson, had you fired. And the reason he gave you?"
• (Russell Crowe) ""Poor communication skills.""
• (Christopher Plummer) "And you wish you hadn't come forward? You wish you hadn't blown the whistle?"
• (Russell Crowe) "Yeah, at times I wish I hadn't done it. There were times I felt compelled to do it. If you ask me would I do it again, do I think it's worth it? Yeah, I think it's worth it."

• (Christopher Plummer) "No that's fame. Fame has a fifteen minute half-life, infamy lasts a little longer."

• (Christopher Plummer) "And that's what cigarettes are for?"
• (Russell Crowe) "A delivery device for nicotine."
• (Christopher Plummer) "A delivery device for nicotine. Put it in your mouth, lit it up and you're gonna get your fix?"
• (Russell Crowe) "You're gonna get your fix."

• (Christopher Plummer) "Where's the rest? Where the hell's the rest?"
• (Christopher Plummer) "You cut it. You cut the guts out of what I said."
• (Stephen Tobolowsky) "It was a time consideration, Mike."
• (Christopher Plummer) "Time? BULLs***. You corporate LACKEY. Who told you your incompetent little fingers had the requisite skills to edit me. I'm trying to band-aid a situation here, and you're too dim to --"
• (Gina Gershon) "Mike -- Mike -- Mike --"
• (Christopher Plummer) "Mike? "Mike." Try "Mr. Wallace". We work in the same corporation doesn't mean we work in the same profession. What are you going to do now? You're gonna finesse me, lawyer me some more? I've been in this profession 50 f***ING YEARS. You, and the people you work for, are destroying the most-respected, the highest-rated, the most-profitable show on this network."

• (Christopher Plummer) "Who are these people?"
• (Al Pacino) "Ordinary people under extraordinary pressure, Mike. What the hell do you expect? Grace and consistency?"

• (Christopher Plummer) "Did I get you up?"
• (Al Pacino) "No, I usually sit around my hotel room dressed like this at 5:30 in the morning, sleepy look on my face."

• (Christopher Plummer) "Sheikh Fadlallah. Thank you so much for seeing us. Are you a terrorist?"
• (Cliff Curtis) "Mr. Wallace, I am a servant of God."
• (Christopher Plummer) "A servant of God? Really? Americans believe that you, as an Islamic fundamentalist, that you are a leader who contributed to the bombing of the US Embassy --"

• (Christopher Plummer) "You cut it. You cut the guts out of what I said."
• (Stephen Tobolowsky) "It was a time consideration, Mike --"
• (Christopher Plummer) "Time? Bulls***. You corporate lackey. Who told you your incompetent little fingers had the requisite skills to edit me?"

• (Christopher Plummer) "Will you tell him that when I conduct an interview, I sit anywhere I damn please."

• (Christopher Plummer) "And do you wish you hadn't come forward? Do you wish you hadn't blown the whistle?"
• (Russell Crowe) "There are times when I wish I hadn't done it. There are times when I feel com -- compelled to do it. If you asked me, would I do it again, do I think it's worth it? Yeah I think its worth it."

• (Christopher Plummer) "Do me a favor, will you; spare me, for God's sake, get in the real world, what do you think? I'm going to resign in protest? To force it on the air? The answer's "no". I don't plan to spend the end of my days wandering in the wilderness of National Public Radio. That decision I've already made."

• (Christopher Plummer) "Am I missing something?"
• (John Harris) "What do you mean, Mike?"
• (Christopher Plummer) "I mean, he's got a corporate secrecy agreement; give me a break. I mean, this is a public health issue. Like an unsafe airframe on a passenger jet or some company dumping cyanide into the East River, issues like that. He can talk, we can air it. They've got no right to hide behind a "corporate agreement". Pass the milk."

• (Christopher Plummer) "In the real world, when you get to where I am, there are other considerations."
• (Al Pacino) "Like what? Corporate responsibility? What, are we talking celebrity here?"
• (Christopher Plummer) "I'm not talking celebrity, vanity, CBS. I'm talking about when you're nearer the end of your life than the beginning. Now, what do you think you think about then? The future? In the future I'm going to do this? Become that? What future? No. What you think is "How will I be regarded in the end?" After I'm gone. Now, along the way I suppose I made some minor impact. I did Iran-Gate and the Ayatollah, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Saddam, Sadat, etcetera, etcetera. I showed them thieves in suits. I've spent a lifetime building all that. But history only remembers most what you did last. And should that be fronting a segment that allowed a tobacco giant to crash this network? Does it give someone at my time of life pause? Yeah."

Philip Baker Hall as Don Hewitt

• (Philip Baker Hall) "Are you suggesting that she and Eric are influenced by money?"
• (Al Pacino) "No, no, of course they're not influenced by money. They work for free. And you are a volunteer executive producer."

Colm Feore as Richard Scruggs

• (Colm Feore) "I'd be lying to you if I did not tell you how important it was in a court of public opinion."
• (Al Pacino) "And I'd be lying if I did not tell, I'm about out of moves, Dick."

• (Colm Feore) "I know what you're facing, Jeff. And, I think I know how you're feeling. In the Navy I flew A-6's off carriers. In combat, events have a duration of seconds, sometimes minutes. But what you're going through goes on day in and day out. Whether you're ready for it or not, week in, week out. Month after month after month. Whether you're up or whether you're down. You're assaulted psychologically. You're assaulted financially, which is its own special kind of violence because it's directed at your kids. What school can you afford? How will that affect their lives? You're asking yourself, "Will that limit what they may become?" You feel your whole family's future's compromised, held hostage. I do know how it is."

Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand

• (Russell Crowe) "How did a radical journalist from Ramparts Magazine end up at CBS?"
• (Al Pacino) "I still do the tough stories. 60 Minutes reaches a lot of people."

• (Russell Crowe) "Up to you, Jeffrey. That's the power you have, Jeffrey. Vital inside information the American public need to know. Lowell Bergman, the hotshot who never met a source he couldn't turn around."

• (Russell Crowe) "So, what you're saying is it wasn't enough to fire me for no good reason. Now you question my integrity? On top of the humiliation of being fired, you threaten me? You threaten my family? It never crossed my mind not to honor my agreement. And I will tell you, Mr. Sandefur -- and Brown & Williamson too; f*** me? Well, f*** you."

• (Russell Crowe) "I have to put my family's welfare on the line here, my friend. And what are you puttin' up? You're puttin' up words."
• (Al Pacino) "Words? While you've been dickin' around at some f***ing company golf tournaments, I been out in the world, giving my word and backing it up with action."

• (Russell Crowe) "You manipulated me into where I am now; staring at the Brown and Williamson Building. It's all dark except the tenth floor. That's the legal department, where they f*** with my life."

• (Russell Crowe) "I find chemistry to be magical. I find it an adventure, an exploration into the physical building blocks of our universe."

• (Russell Crowe) "Stay away from me. Stay away from me."

• (Russell Crowe) "I'm just a commodity to you, aren't I? I could be anything. Right? Anything worth putting on between commercials."
• (Al Pacino) "To a network, probably, we're all commodities. To me? You are not a commodity. What you are is important."

• (Russell Crowe) "I can't seem to find the criteria to decide. It's too big a decision to make without being resolved in my own mind."
• (Al Pacino) "Maybe things have changed."
• (Russell Crowe) "What's changed?"
• (Al Pacino) "You mean since this morning?"
• (Russell Crowe) "No, I mean since whenever."

• (Russell Crowe) "f*** it. Let's go to court."

• (Russell Crowe) "I told the truth."

Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman

• (Al Pacino) "I'm Lowell Bergman, I'm from 60 Minutes. You know, you take the 60 Minutes out of that sentence, nobody returns your phone call."

• (Al Pacino) "Alright -- ABC Telemarketing Company?"
• (Russell Crowe) "ABC?"
• (Al Pacino) "ABC Telemarketing Company."
• (Russell Crowe) "A can opener. A $39.95 can opener. I cancelled payment -- it was junk. You ever bounce a check, Lowell? You ever look at another woman's tits? You ever cheat a little on your taxes? Whose life, if you look at it under a microscope, doesn't have any flaws?"
• (Al Pacino) "Well that's the whole point, Jeffrey. That's the whole point. Anyone's. Everyone's. They are gonna look under every rock, dig up every flaw, every mistake you've ever made. They are going to distort and exaggerate everything you've ever done, man. Don't you understand?"
• (Russell Crowe) "What does this have to do with my testimony?"
• (Al Pacino) "That's not the point."
• (Russell Crowe) "What does this have to do with my testimony? I told the truth. It's valid and true and provable --."
• (Al Pacino) "That's not the f***ing point, whether you told the truth or not --. Hello?"
• (Russell Crowe) "I told the truth -- I told the truth -- I've got to teach class. I've got to go. I've got to teach class."
• (Al Pacino) "And I've got to refute every f***ing accusation made in this report before The Wall Street Journal runs -- I am trying to protect you, man."
• (Russell Crowe) "Well, I hope you improve your batting average."

• (Al Pacino) "I did not burn you. I did not give you up to anyone."
• (Russell Crowe) "This is my house -- In front of my wife, my kids? What business do we have?"
• (Al Pacino) "To straighten something out with you. Right here. Right now."
• (Russell Crowe) "So, you didn't mention my name? You haven't talked to anybody about me?"
• (Al Pacino) "Why am I gonna mention your name?"
• (Russell Crowe) "How did Brown & Williamson know I spoke to you?"
• (Al Pacino) "How the hell do I know about Brown & Williamson?"
• (Russell Crowe) "It happened after I talked to you. I do not like coincidences."
• (Al Pacino) "And I don't like paranoid accusations. I'm a journalist. Think. Use your head. How do I operate as a journalist by screwing the people who could provide me with information before they provided me with it?"
• (Russell Crowe) "-- You came all the way down here to tell me that?"

• (Al Pacino) "You'd better take a good look, because I'm getting two things: pissed off and curious."

• (Al Pacino) "I never left a source hang out to dry, ever. Abandoned. Not 'til right f***ing now. When I came on this job, I came with my word intact. I'm gonna leave with my word intact. f*** the rules of the game."

• (Al Pacino) "I'm not touching my film."
• (Stephen Tobolowsky) "I'm afraid you are."
• (Al Pacino) "No, I'm not."
• (Stephen Tobolowsky) "We're doing this with or without you, Lowell. If you like, I can sign another producer to edit your show."
• (Al Pacino) "Uh, since when has the paragon of investigative journalism allowed LAWYERS to determine the news content on 60 Minutes?"

• (Al Pacino) "In all that time, Mike, did you ever get out a plane, walk into a room and find that a source for a story changed his mind? Lost his heart? Walked out on us? Not one f***ing time. You want to know why?"
• (Christopher Plummer) "I see a rhetorical question on the horizon."
• (Al Pacino) "I'm gonna tell you why: because when I tell someone I'm gonna do something, I deliver."

• (Al Pacino) "I fought for you and I still fight for you."
• (Russell Crowe) "You fought for me? You manipulated me. Into where I am now; staring at the Brown & Williamson building, it's all dark except for the tenth floor. That's the legal department, that's where they f*** with my life."
• (Al Pacino) "Jeffrey, where are you going with this? Where are you going? (Pause) You are important to a lot of people, Jeffrey. You think about that, and you think about them. (Pause) I'm all out of heroes, man. Guys like you are in short supply."
• (Russell Crowe) "Yeah, guys like you, too."

• (Al Pacino) "What does this guy have to say that threatens these people?"
• (Christopher Plummer) "Well, it isn't that cigarrettes are bad for you."
• (Al Pacino) "Hardly new news."
• (Christopher Plummer) "No s***."

• (Al Pacino) "Are you a businessman? Or are you a newsman?"

• (Al Pacino) "'Tortious interference?' That sounds like a disease caught by a radio."

• (Al Pacino) "You go public, and 30 million people hear what you gotta say, nothing; I mean nothing; will ever be the same again. You believe that?"
• (Russell Crowe) "No."
• (Al Pacino) "You should. Because when you're done, the judgement is gonna go down in the court of public opinion, my friend. And that's -- the power you have."
• (Russell Crowe) "You believe that?"
• (Al Pacino) "I believe that? Yes, I believe that."
• (Russell Crowe) "You believe that because you get information out to people, something happens?"
• (Al Pacino) "Yes."
• (Russell Crowe) "Maybe that's what you've been telling yourself all these years to justify having a good job. Having status. Maybe for the audience, its just voyeurism, something to do on a Sunday night. And maybe it won't change a f***ing thing. And people like myself, and my family are left hung out to dry, used up, broke, alone."
• (Al Pacino) "Are you talking to me, or did somebody else just walk in here? I never forced any of that --"
• (Russell Crowe) "I don't really understand, exactly --"
• (Al Pacino) "Don't evade a choice you gotta make by questioning my reputation or 60 Minutes with this cheap skepticism."
• (Russell Crowe) "I have to put my family's welfare on the line here, my friend, and what are you putting up? You're putting up words."
• (Al Pacino) ""Words." While you've been dicking around some f***ing company golf tournaments, I've been out in the world, giving my word -- and backing it up with action. Now, are you gonna go and do this thing, or not?"
• (Russell Crowe) "I said I'd call the kids before they went to bed."

• (Al Pacino) "Now are you going to go and do this thing or not?"

• (Al Pacino) "I am trying to protect you, man."
• (Russell Crowe) "Well I hope you improve your batting average."

• (Al Pacino) "You pay me to go get guys like Wigand, to draw him out. To get him to trust us, to get him to go on television. I do. I deliver him. He sits. He talks. He violates his own f***ing confidentiality agreement. And he's only the key witness in the biggest public health reform issue, maybe the biggest, most-expensive corporate-malfeasance case in U.S. history. And Jeffrey Wigand, who's out on a limb, does he go on television and tell the truth? Yes. Is it newsworthy? Yes. Are we gonna air it? Of course not. Why? Because he's not telling the truth? No. Because he is telling the truth. That's why we're not going to air it. And the more truth he tells, the worse it gets."

Bruce McGill as Ron Motley

• (Tobacco Lawyer) "Mr Motley, we have rights here."
• (Bruce McGill) "Oh you have rights, and lefts, ups, downs and middles. So what?"

• (Tobacco Lawyer) "Dr. Wigand, I am instructing you not to answer that question in accordance to the terms of the contractual obligations undertaken by you not to disclose any information about your work at the Brown and Williamson tobacco company, and in accordance with the force and effect of the temporary restraining order that has been entered against you by the court in the State of Kentucky. That means you don't talk. Mr. Motley, we have rights here."
• (Bruce McGill) "Boy, you got rights -- and lefts. Ups and downs and middles. So what? You don't get to instruct anything around here. This is not North Carolina, not South Carolina, nor Kentucky. This is the sovereign State of Mississippi's proceeding. WIPE THAT SMIRK OFF YOUR FACE. Dr. Wigand's deposition will be part of this record. And I'm gonna take my witness' testimony whether the hell you like it or not."

• (Tobacco Lawyer) "Object."
• (Bruce McGill) "Is there an echo in here? Your objection's been recorded. She typed it into her little machine over there. It's on the record. So now I'll proceed with my deposition of my witness. Does it act as a drug?"

Michael Gambon as Thomas Sandefur

• (Michael Gambon) "I joined Brown & Williamson, came up through sales. I was the best salesman they ever had, and do you know why? I never made a promise I couldn't keep."

Gina Gershon as Helen Caperelli

• (Gina Gershon) "Our standards have to be higher than anyone else because we are the standard of everyone else."

Debi Mazar as Debbie

• (Debi Mazar) "The subheading reads, 'Brown and Williamson has a 500 page dossier attacking chief critic.' It quotes Richard Scruggs calling it, 'the worse kind of an organized smear campaign against a Whistleblower'. 'A closer look at the file and independent research by this newspaper into its key claims indicate that many of the serious accusations against Mr Wigand are backed by scant or contradictory evidence'."

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