Swordfish

"You know what the problem with Hollywood is? They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit. Now I'm not some grungy wannabe filmmaker that's searching for existentialism through a haze of bong smoke or something. No, it's easy to pick apart bad acting, short-sighted directing, and a purely moronic stringing together of words that many of the studios term as "prose". No, I'm talking about the lack of realism. Realism; not a pervasive element in today's modern American cinematic vision. Take Dog Day Afternoon, for example. Arguably Pacino's best work, short of Scarface and Godfather Part 1, of course. Masterpiece of directing, easily Lumet's best. The cinematography, the acting, the screenplay, all top-notch. But... they didn't push the envelope. Now what if in Dog Day, Sonny REALLY wanted to get away with it? What if - now here's the tricky part - what if he started killing hostages right away? No mercy, no quarter. "Meet our demands or the pretty blonde in the bellbottoms gets it the back of the head." Bam, splat! What, still no bus? Come on! How many innocent victims splattered across a window would it take to have the city reverse its policy on hostage situations? And this is 1976; there's no CNN, there's no CNBC, there's no internet! Now fast forward to today, present time, same situation. How quickly would the modern media make a frenzy over this? In a matter of hours, it'd be biggest story from Boston to Budapest! Ten hostages die, twenty, thirty; bam bam, right after another, all caught in high-def, computer-enhanced, color corrected. You can practically taste the brain matter. All for what? A bus, a plane? A couple of million dollars that's federally insured? I don't think so. Just a thought. I mean, it's not within the realm of conventional cinema... but what if?"

"I have been told that the best crackers in the world can do this under 60 minutes but unfortunately I need someone who can do this under 60 seconds."

"It's kinda like masturbation without the payoff."

"Stanley: Nothing is impossible."

"Axel Torvalds: He exists in a world beyond your world. What we only fantasize, he does. He lives a life where nothing is beyond him. But you know what? It's all a facade. For all his charm and charisma, his wealth, his expensive toys... he's a driven, unflinching, calculating machine. He takes what he wants, when he wants... and disappears."

"Ginger: Surprised that a girl with an IQ over seventy can give you a hard on?"

"Log on. Hack in. Go anywhere. Steal everything."

"Once you know the password you can go anywhere."

"Log In. Log Out. Leg It!"

"Password Accepted"

"Log On. Hack In. Go Anywhere. Get Everything."

"John Travolta — Gabriel Shear"

"Hugh Jackman — Stanley Jobson"

"Halle Berry — Ginger Knowles"

"Don Cheadle — Agent J.T. Roberts"

"Sam Shepard — Senator James Reisman"

"Vinnie Jones — Marco"