The Sum of All Fears (2002)
Philip Baker Hall: Defense Secretary Becker
Photos
Quotes
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[aboard the command plane]
Owens : Are you advocating we launch a first strike...
Becker : [shouts] It is not a first strike! There's already been a first strike! And a second! Don't you get it?
Owens : No! I don't get it! I don't understand why we have to nuke them, for God's sake!
[shouts]
Owens : It's not reasonable!
President Fowler : Sidney, goddamnit! They practically sank an aircraft carrier! Their missile silos are hot! We're getting nothing but bullshit from Nemerov! And let's not forget how this thing started, OK? They tried to kill *me*, remember! So don't fucking tell me to be reasonable!
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Revell : At approximately 0600 Moscow time, the Russians launched a massive artillery strike against Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. The shells contained an experimental chemical weapon known as the Novichok binary nerve agent. Saturation, you can see it on those infrared sat photos, took 20 minutes. After which, every man, woman, and child inside a radius of roughly 12 miles was rendered helpless by symptoms approximating acute, late-stage cerebral palsy.
Secretary of State Sidney Owens : Oh, my god.
President Robert Fowler : How many dead?
Bill Cabot : Best guess... 80%.
Becker : Which means Nemerov just launched the most massive attack in the history of chemical warfare.
President Robert Fowler : Let's talk response.
Secretary of State Sidney Owens : Worst thing we could do is nothing.
Becker : I agree. If we let him get away with chemical weapons, what's next? Biological, nuclear?
President Robert Fowler : Okay. Short of gassing the Kremlin, what's the strongest response we can make?
Secretary of State Sidney Owens : We send in peacekeepers.
Becker : Chechnya's not sovereign.
Secretary of State Sidney Owens : Look, they requested recognition, so we recognize them. Not full diplomatic recognition; provisional. That may get the Chechens to request emergency international assistance, and we send in peacekeepers.
President Robert Fowler : How do you get 'em in there?
General Lasseter : The fastest way would be to fly 'em in from Turkey.
Becker : Over Armenian airspace?
Revell : To screw Russia, they won't complain.
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Becker : Now, they could have launched a cruise missile. DSP sats might not have picked it up.
Secretary of State Sidney Owens : Now, just a minute. We don't know that this is Russia.
President Robert Fowler : But we don't know it's not.
Revell : Look, if they were sending us a message like "stay out of Chechnya," the whole point would be for us to know it was them. Not to sneak one in.
Becker : Except that they could inspire the kind of dithering and confusion that we're going through right now.
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Secretary of State Sidney Owens : We've come up with another alternative.
Becker : We'll counterforce. A conventional attack on the Russian air base where the carrier attack originated.
Secretary of State Sidney Owens : It's what we're looking for. A measured respones.
Admiral Pollack : Non-nuclear.
President Robert Fowler : Is it strong enough?
Admiral Pollack : Smart bombs and F-16s. Pretty God damn strong.
President Robert Fowler : Can't afford for them to see us as weak. They've gotta know we have the guts to... take it to the next level.
Admiral Pollack : I think they'll get that message.
President Robert Fowler : Hit 'em.
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Jack Ryan : Mr. President, conventional wisdom would suggest that Nemerov is playing the traditional Russian role: be aggressive, flex your muscles, dare the world to stop you. But Nemerov isn't conventional.
Revell : He walks like a hard-liner. He talks like a hard-liner.
Jack Ryan : Yes, but with all due respect, I don't think he is one.
Becker : He just gassed the capital of another country, Doctor. With all due respect, you're wrong.
Jack Ryan : [drowned out by chattering in the room] What if he didn't order the attack?
[louder]
Jack Ryan : What if Nemerov didn't order the attack? What if it was a, uh-uh... rogue general or a splinter military unit frustrated they couldn't get the rest of the rebels out of the city?
President Robert Fowler : Have you any reason to believe he didn't order it, or are you just floating this?
Bill Cabot : [quietly] You don't know.
Jack Ryan : I don't think he did it, sir. I-I would... I would bet he didn't do it.
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President Nemerov : [hearing Fowler's statement after the bomb attack] He's fishing. Send our reply.
Becker : [on Air Force One] Whoa! That was a little fast.
NAOC Hotline Operator : "Please accept the deepest sympathies of the Russian people. If it was deliberate, this is a crime without precedent. What madman would do such a thing? And for what purpose? You must believe that Russia had nothing to do with this infamous act."
Becker : It's canned. They prepared that in advance.
