Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Robert Redford: Turner
Photos
Quotes
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[after Joubert unexpectedly kills someone]
Joe Turner : Why?
Joubert : I don't interest myself in "why". I think more often in terms of "when", sometimes "where"; always "how much".
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Joe 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.
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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!
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Joubert : Well, the fact is, what I do is not a bad occupation. Someone is always willing to pay.
Joe 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.
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Higgins : Oh, you... you poor dumb son of a bitch. You've done more damage than you know.
Joe Turner : I hope so.
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[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?
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Kathy : Sometimes 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.
Joe Turner : I'd like to see those pictures.
Kathy : We don't know each other that well.
Joe 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 going to live much longer.
Joe Turner : I may surprise you.
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Kathy : You... you have a lot of very fine qualities. But...
Joe Turner : What fine qualities?
Kathy : You have good eyes. Not kind, but they don't lie, and they don't look away much, and they don't miss anything. I could use eyes like that.
Joe Turner : But you're overdue in Vermont. Is he a tough guy?
Kathy : He's pretty tough.
Joe Turner : What will he do?
Kathy : Understand, probably.
Joe Turner : Boy. That is tough.
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Joe Turner : Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?
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Kathy : I wish I knew more. About you. About yesterday. Today.
Joe Turner : I don't remember yesterday. Today it rained.
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Joe Turner : Listen. I work for the CIA. I am 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, I look for new ideas... We read adventures and novels and journals. I... I... Who'd invent a job like that?
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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.
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Joe Turner : 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?
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Joubert : [answering phone] Yes?
Joe Turner : I'm doing a survey... do you believe the Condor is really an endangered species?
[hangs up]
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Kathy : You're not entitled to personal questions! That gun gives you the right to rough me up; it doesn't give you the right to ask me...
Joe Turner : Wh- wh- Rough you up? Have I roughed you up?
Kathy : Yes! What are you doing in my house?
Joe Turner : Have I? Have I?
Kathy : Going through all my stuff? Force...
Joe Turner : Have I raped you?
Kathy : The night is young.
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Joe Turner : Ice! The murderer pours water into a .38 caliber mold, freezes it, and keeps it solid until the crime. Then he shoots the guy with the ice bullet. Cops show up, there's just a few drops of water. No bullet, no ballistics.- That's great.
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Kathy : You had bad dreams. Talked in your sleep.
Joe Turner : What did I say?
Kathy : Who's Janice? Well, was she a volunteer or a draftee like me?
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Joe Turner : What does Operations care about a bunch of damn books? A book in Dutch. A book out of Venezuela. Mystery stories in Arabic.
Atwood : Wait!
Joe Turner : What the hell is so important about...
[He stops as he sees the connection]
Joe Turner : Oil fields. Oil. That's it, isn't it? This whole damn thing was about oil! Wasn't it? Wasn't it?
Atwood : Yes, it was.
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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!
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Joe Turner : I'm not going into any alley with you or anybody. And fuck the Wall Street Journal!
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Kathy : I don't think you'll live much longer.
Joe Turner : I may surprise you.
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Joe Turner : Are you sure about this ideogram?
Janice : Look at this face. Could I be wrong about an ideogram?
[Turner laughs]
Joe Turner : It's a great face. But it's never been to China.
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Jimmy : Hey, Shakespeare! How's it going?
Joe Turner : Terrific. I'm building up a great collection of rejection slips.
Jimmy : [as he prepares Turner's lunch order] Yeah, I know the feeling. I always wanted to be Escoffier.
Joe Turner : Well, maybe it's not too late. You know, Van Gogh was thirty before he started to paint.
Jimmy : No kiddin'?
Joe Turner : There's no mayonnaise on Dr. Lappe. On the other hand, Mozart was three when he started to play the piano, and he was composing at six.
Jimmy : Fast starter. 'S probably better.
Joe Turner : Well, I don't know. Van Gogh never sold a painting in a whole lifetime. Mozart died a pauper.
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Joe Turner : Maybe there's another CIA, inside the CIA.
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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?
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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.
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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]
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Joe Turner : I need your car.
Kathy : It's called grand theft. You don't want to get in trouble with the police.
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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.
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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!
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Higgins : It didn't have to end this way.
Joe Turner : Of course it did.
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Dr. Lappe : We have people to service these machines.
Joe Turner : These things are really pretty simple - they just look complicated.
Dr. Lappe : Mr. Turner, I wonder if you're entirely happy here.
Joe Turner : Within obvious limits, yes sir.
Dr. Lappe : Obvious limits?
Joe Turner : It bothers me that I can't tell people what I do.
Dr. Lappe : Why is it taking you so long to accept that?
Joe Turner : Well, I actually trust a few people. That's a problem.
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Joe Turner : I come here to get sick, like everybody else.
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Higgins : You're about to be a very lonely man... it didn't have to end this way.
Joe Turner : Of course it did!
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Joe Turner : Question: Is there an intelligence network, undetected by CIA, linking certain Arabic-speaking countries with Dutch and Spanish-speaking?
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Joe Turner : You're not telling the truth.
Kathy : What do you mean?
Joe 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...
Joe Turner : You take pictures. Beautiful pictures. But, of empty streets and trees with no leaves. November.
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Joe Turner : How come you haven't asked me to untie your hands?
Kathy : How much do you want?
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Kathy : I believe what you told me.
Joe Turner : No, you don't. I don't know if l do.
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Joe Turner : I work for the CIA.
Kathy : Oh, Jesus. Your assignment for today was to go out and kidnap a girl?
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Janice : Hey, where'd you get that thing about the ice? Dashiell Hammett?
Joe Turner : Dick Tracy.
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Kathy : Oh! You bully! Don't tie me up! Come on, please! This is - unfair!
Joe Turner : I know.
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Joe Turner : Listen, people are trying to kill me!
Kathy : Who?
Joe 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?
Joe Turner : Here.
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Joe Turner : I'm not going into any alley with you or anybody. And fuck The WalI Street Journal!
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Joe Turner : What time is it? What time is it?
Kathy : It's news time.
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Joe Turner : Raggedy Ann has cotton tits.
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Joe Turner : Come here.
Kathy : No, please. Please don't.
Joe Turner : Lie down - against the wall. Put this arm behind you, and keep it there. Now you listen to me. I am tired. I've got to close my eyes for a while. I can't think straight. If you try and move or climb off the bed - I'll know it - I'll feel it. And I promise you I'll hurt you.
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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.
