ALL A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #

Three Days of the Condor

Three Days of the Condor quotes

33 total quotes

Kathy Hale
Mr. Wabash




View Quote Turner: You wouldn't also happen to be acquainted with a tall gentleman, 6'4", blond hair, strong like a farmer. He's not American, has an accent. Country, toward Germany, maybe Alsace-Lorraine.
Higgins: I want to see that report, Turner.
Turner: No, no..Higgins. C'Mon! ..Do you know him?
Higgins: Professionally, yes.
Turner: Professionally, he kills people.
Higgins: Yes! Yes.
Turner: He works for the company?
Higgins: He did once. He's a contract agent.
Turner: Contract agent.
Higgins: Freelance. Where did you see him?
Turner: Uh-uh.
Higgins: It would help if I knew.
Turner: Who would it help? Who'd hire him now?
Higgins: Anybody.
Turner: Terrific answer.
Higgins: I wouldn't accept it, either.
Turner: What's his name?
Higgins: When I knew him, Joubert.
Turner: Come on, Higgins. Who'd hire him? You don't look up Joubert in the yellow pages.
Higgins: That's right. It'd have to be somebody in the community.
Turner: Community?
Higgins: Intelligence field.
Turner: Community! Jesus, you guys are kind to yourselves. Community.
Higgins: I want to see that report, Turner.
Turner: That report was sent to headquarters and disappeared.
Higgins: Who read it?
Turner: You mean besides Wicks? You tell me. I pick up traces of what I think's an intelligence network the company doesn't know about, and I report it. Now, why is that going to make anybody mad? Unless it was the company's network and you didn't want it blown, even to your own guys. Unless somebody is lying, Higgins. Come on. Why is everybody so shy?
Higgins: I'm not shy. I don't know. That's what worries me. I don't know.
Turner: Ask Wicks.
Higgins: Wicks died. Someone yanked him off the life support system at Guvenor Hospital.
Turner: Get me in, Higgins.
Higgins: What good would that do if you're right, and they are inside? What good would it do to bring you in?
Turner: What am I supposed to do?
Higgins: I'm sorry.
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 good, to take another shot. You'll pick him up before he does it, or just after?
View Quote Major: [on the phone] This is the Major.
Turner: This is Joe Turner.
Major: Identification.
Turner: What?
Major: Identification.
Turner: My name's Turner. I work for you.
Major: Identify yourself.
Turner: I-- I don't--
Major: What is your designation?
Turner: Uh, Condor. Section 9, Department 17. The section's been hit.
Major: What level?
Turner: What level?
Major: Level of damage.
Turner: Everybody. Dr. Lappe, Janice, Ray, Harold. Harold was in the, uh--
Major: Are you on a company line?
Turner: No, I'm in a phone booth. I'm in the street.
Major: You're in violation of secure communication procedures, Condor.
Turner: Listen, you son of a bitch! I came back with lunch. The house was murdered. Everybody is dead.
Major: Has the incident been discovered by anyone outside the company?
Turner: I don't-- I don't know. I don't think so.
Major: Are you damaged?
Turner: Damaged? No.
Major: Are you armed?
Turner: I don't-- I have Mrs., uh-- I can't remember her code name. Nightingale. She kept a gun in her desk. I've got the gun.
Major: Identify the armament.
Turner: It's a .38 automatic. Will you bring me in, please? I'm not a field agent. I just read books.
Major: Leave the area.
Turner: All right. Well-- Do I come in to headquarters now?
Major: Negative. Find a secure location.
Turner: Where?
Major: Avoid any place you're known. Do not go home. Do not go home. Surface again in two hours. And call the Major. That'll be 1430 your time.
Turner: Wait-- Wait a minute. All right. 2:30 right?
Major: Walk away from the phone. Don't hang it up.
Turner: Don't--
[Click]
View Quote Turner: You're funny. You take pictures of empty streets and trees with no leaves on them.
Kathy: It's winter.
Turner: Not quite winter. They look like November. Not autumn, not winter. In-between. I like them.
Kathy: Thanks.
View Quote Atwood: [delivering money] That includes Condor, of course.
Joubert: Yes. I owe you Condor.
Atwood: Otherwise--
Joubert: Otherwise does not exist.
Atwood: Will Condor take long?
Joubert: Do you want an estimate?
Atwood: There is a time factor.
Joubert: Always with you people. Condor is an amateur. He's lost, unpredictable...perhaps even sentimental. He could fool a professional. Not deliberately, but precisely because he is lost. Doesn't know what to do, unlike Wicks who has always been entirely predictable. The man Condor killed in the alley?
Atwood: Some friend of his.
Joubert: Close friend?
Atwood: I suppose. Why?
Joubert: It interests me. What was his name?
Atwood: I don't know. He was nobody.
Joubert: Right.
Atwood: What about Wicks?
Joubert: You want the firm to question him? They will, you know.
Atwood: We don't want that.
Joubert: Cost you nothing. I was careless with Condor. Wicks will be done for nothing.
View Quote Turner: I'd like to go back to New York.
Joubert: You have not much future there. It will happen this way. You may be walking. Maybe the first sunny day of the spring. And a car will slow beside you, and a door will open, and someone you know, maybe even trust, will get out of the car. And he will smile, a becoming smile. But he will leave open the door of the car and offer to give you a lift.
Turner: You seem to understand it all so well. What would you suggest?
Joubert: Personally, I prefer Europe.
Turner: Europe?
Joubert: Yes. Well, the fact is, what I do is not a bad occupation. Someone is always willing to pay.
Turner: I would find it… tiring.
Joubert: Oh, no — it's quite restful. It's… almost peaceful. No need to believe in either side, or any side. There is no cause. There's only yourself. The belief is in your own precision.
Turner: I was born in the United States, Joubert. I miss it when I'm away too long.
Joubert: A pity.
Turner: I don't think so.
...
[Joubert pauses, then holds out a gun to Turner]
Joubert: For that day.
View Quote Turner: Why?
Joubert: I don't interest myself in "why". I think more often in terms of "when", sometimes "where"… always "how much". I suspect he was about to become an embarrassment. As you are.
Turner: So you're not finished.
Joubert: Pardon? Oh, no. I have no arrangement with the company concerning you. They didn't know you'd be here. I knew you'd be here.
Turner: But didn't you send the mailman?
Joubert: That was a business arrangement with Atwood, but you see.
View Quote Mr. Wabash: Why aren't you further along, Mr. Higgins?
Higgins: With the Company, you mean?
Mr. Wabash: You seem perfect for it.
Higgins: Thank you, sir.
Mr. Wabash: Are you perfect for it, Mr. Higgins?
Higgins: I try to be.
Mr. Wabash: Were you recruited out of school?
Higgins: No, sir. The Company interviewed a few of us in Korea. You were with Mr. Donovan's OSS, weren'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. 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: Nope. I miss that kind of clarity.
View Quote Kathy: [reading Turner's card] Tentrex Industries.
Turner: It's a cover. I work for the CIA.
Kathy: Oh, Jesus. Your assignment for today was to go out and kidnap a girl.
Turner: Look it up. Look it up. Tentrex Industries. Then look up the number for the CIA.
Kathy: They're listed, like my Aunt Gladys?
Turner: Under " U.S. Government Agencies." Go on. So is this what you do? This photography?
Kathy: O.K., uh--It's the same number. You could have had the card made--
Turner: Yes, I could have, but I didn't.
View Quote Turner: Do we have plans to invade the Middle East?
Higgins: Are you crazy?
Turner: Am I?
Higgins: Look, Turner…
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.
Turner: So Atwood just took the games too seriously. He was really going to do it, wasn't he?
Higgins: A renegade operation. Atwood knew 54/12 would never authorize it, not with the heat on the company.
Turner: What if there hadn't been any heat? Suppose I hadn't stumbled on their plan?
Higgins: Different ballgame. Fact is, there was nothing wrong with the plan. Oh, the plan was all right, the plan would've worked.
Turner: Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?
Higgins: No. It's simple economics. Today it's oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food. Plutonium. And maybe even sooner. Now, what do you think the people are gonna want us to do then?
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!
Turner: Boy, have you found a home. There were seven people killed, Higgins.
Higgins: The company didn't order it.
Turner: Atwood did. Atwood did. And who the hell is Atwood? He's you. He's all you guys. Seven people killed, and you play ****ing games!
Higgins: Right. And the other side does, too. That's why we can't let you stay outside.
View Quote Higgins: Hello, Condor.
Turner: Who is this?
Higgins: Deputy Director Higgins, New York Center. I'm controlling now, Condor. Where are you?
Turner: How come I need a code name, and you don't?
Higgins: Where are you, Turner?
Turner: Here.
Higgins: You all right?
Turner: Are you insane? Everybody's dead.
Higgins: Take it easy. Just take it easy, and we'll bring you home. Here's how we'll do it. Do you know the Ansonia Hotel?
Turner: Broadway and, uh...74th st.
Higgins: Broadway and 73rd. There's an alley behind the hotel. One hour from now at exactly 1520, enter that alley from the 73rd Street side.
Turner: Will you be there?
Higgins: The head of your department just came from D.C. He'll bring you home.
Turner: I've never met him.
Higgins: Don't worry. He's studying your photos now. Turner?...Turner!
Turner: I don't know you, either.
Higgins: We'll meet. He'll be carrying a Wall Street Journal in his left hand.
Turner: There were two guys at my house.
Higgins: What were you doing there? You were told not to go there!
Turner: I was homesick. Who were they?
Higgins: They were ours.
Turner: What were they doing in my house? I'm not going into any alley. **** the Wall Street Journal!
Higgins: It's been a long day. You've been under--
Turner: Damn right I've been under.
Higgins: All right, Turner. We'll bring along a familiar face, somebody you know.
Turner: Who's left?
Higgins: Got a friend in statistics named Sam Barber.
Turner: Sam. You guys are something.
Higgins: Will he do?
Turner: Yes, Sam will do.
Higgins: All right, Turner. Stay well for 60 minutes, and you're home.
Turner: Can I ask a question?
Higgins: Sure.
Turner: What is happening?
Higgins: I'll talk to you in 60 minutes.
View Quote Kathy: Sometimes, I— I take a picture that… isn't like me, but I took it, so it is like me. It has to be. I put those pictures away.
Turner: I'd like to see those pictures.
Kathy: We don't know each other that that well.
Turner: Do you know anybody that well?
Kathy: I don't think I want to know you very well. I don't think you're gonna live much longer.
Turner: Well, I may… surprise you. Anyway, you're not telling the truth.
Kathy: What do you mean?
Turner: You'd rather be with somebody who's not going to live much longer, at least somebody who would be on his way.
Kathy: I'm not--
Turner: You take pictures. Beautiful pictures, but of empty streets and trees with no leaves--November. Why haven't you asked me to untie your hands?
Kathy: H-How much doyou want...
Turner: I just...want to stop it. For a few hours. For the rest of the night. And then I'll go.
View Quote Kathy: You didn't sleep well.
Turner: You didn't?
Kathy: No, you didn't. You're up early.
Turner: Oh, I had--I had some thoughts. I've got a plan. I don't know if it'll work or not, but...I'll need your help.
Kathy: Have I ever denied you anything?
Turner: Hey.
Kathy: Well, when things quiet down...you're really a very sweet man to be with. You had bad dreams. Talked in your sleep.
Turner: What did I say?
Kathy: Who's Janice? Well, was she a volunteer or a draftee like me?
Turner: She was...a friend. She's dead.
Kathy: Do I have permission to take a shower?
Turner: You don't have to help, you know?
Kathy: Oh no, I'll help. You can always depend on the ol' spy-****er.
Turner: OK
Kathy: I'm sorry.
Turner: No.
Kathy: No, I didn't mean… I didn't mean to say that. I'm really sorry. I'd like to help you.
View Quote Kathy: I'm scared!
Turner: So am I!
Kathy: Why? You've got the gun!
Turner: Yes! Yeah, and it's not enough. Listen. I work for the CIA. I'm not a spy. I just read books. We read everything that's published in the world, and we-- we feed the plots-- dirty tricks, codes into a computer, and the computer checks against actual CIA plans and operations. I look for leaks, new ideas. We read adventures and novels and journals. I-- I can-Who'd invent a job like that? I-- Listen! People are trying to kill me!
Kathy: Who?
Turner: I don't know, but there's a reason. There is a reason! And I just need some safe, quiet time to pull things together.
Kathy: Here.
Turner: Here.
Kathy: That's only fair.
View Quote Kathy: [about Higgins] Do you trust him?
Turner: [shakes his head] Trust.
Kathy: Does he trust you?
Turner: He's in the suspicion business. He can't trust anybody.
Kathy: How could anybody fool them?
Turner: Maybe nobody did.
Kathy: Then--
Turner: Maybe there's another CIA...inside the CIA.
View Quote Major: Got him.
Higgins: Let me see that. What's he doing in Brooklyn?
Mr. Wabash: Condor.
Higgins: We can get a unit--
Mr. Wabash: Wait.
Higgins: What's going on, Major?
Major: Son of bitch wired together 50 phones.
Higgins: What?
Major: Everybody in Brooklyn's talking to each other.