Quotes from Sneakers (1992)

Posted January 20, 2008 at 3:20 PM   

A while back a friend reminded me of this great movie. I had seen it back in the '90s when it came out, but hadn't seen it since. So last year I requested it from my sister as a Christmas gift. Santa was good to me and I and watched it over the holiday break. The movie was still just as great - this is one of the first real hacker-intrigue movies. The plot is decent, but what makes the movie are the motley crew of characters including Robert Redford's character (Marty), a blind guy (Whistler), a conspiracy theorist (Mother), and an uptight concert pianist (Liz) who is Marty's old flame. They are all quite hilarious, but a high point in the movie comes when they are searching through a computer engineer's household trash to see how they can infiltrate Playtronics corporate headquarters to steal a top-secret decoding box. They find a piece of mail:

    "Dear Compudater: Welcome to the world of automated compatibility."

    "He's a computer dater. - I love it. Let's get him a date."

So they convince Liz to go on a faux date with the unsuspecting engineer (who fits the Hollywood 'geek' stereotype to a tee).

Towards the climax of the movie, she's found out . . .

Werner:    "Well, everything seems to be in order."
Cosmo:     "Does it?"

Werner:   "Yes, sir."
Cosmo:    "Very sorry to have troubled you, miss."

Liz:          "Not as sorry as I am."

Cosmo:     "Werner."
Bish(?):    "They're letting her go."
Cosmo:     "We'll call you a cab. - Thank you."
Liz:           "This is my last computer date."
Cosmo:     "Wait. A computer matched HER with HIM? I don't think so!"
 

And at the very end of the movie, each of Marty's crew is getting favors from the NSA official in return for handing over the decrypter box:

Bernard Abbott, NSA:  "Are we done here? - Not yet. Whistler?"
Whistler:                     "I want peace on earth and goodwill toward men."
Bernard Abbott:          "This is ridiculous."

Martin Bishop:            "He's serious."
Whistler:                    "I want peace on earth and goodwill toward men."
Bernard Abbott:         "We are the United States Government. We don't do that sort of thing."
Martin Bishop:            "You're just gonna have to try."

Whistler:                   "Thank you very much, that's all I ask."

If only it were that easy!

Full Sneakers Script and more quotes (IMDB).

Here are some other movie quotes that I came across recently.

"It means fasten your seat belt Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye-bye." --- Cypher in The Matrix

"No! Try not! . . . Do! . . . or do not . . . there is not try.” --- Jedi Master Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." --- Jedi Master Yoda in Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace