Enemy of the State (1998) - Quotes

The Last Refuge of Privacy

Taglines: The only privacy left is inside of your head.

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Surveillance and Trust in Modern Society

Taglines: In God we trust. The rest we monitor.

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Paranoia or Reality: A Question of Safety

Taglines: It's not paranoia if they're really after you.

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The Complexity of Surveillance and Oversight

Congressman Sam Albert: [on TV] We knew that we had to monitor our enemies. We've also come to realize that we need to monitor the people who are monitoring them...

Carla Dean: Well who's gonna monitor the monitors of the monitors?

Robert Clayton Dean: I wouldn't mind doing a little... "monitoring" myself.

Carla: Yes, and you've got lots and lots of... "monitoring" to do.

Eric Dean: Are you guys talking about sex?

Robert: [surprised with Carla] Boy!

Eric: Oh no, it's time for dinner.

Robert: Get in there and eat your dinner, no more hanging with Dylan.

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Negotiating for the Video Tape

Thomas Brian Reynolds: What will it take for us to walk out of here with that video tape?

Boss Paulie Pintero: The end of the world.

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The Cost of Protecting One's Life

Edward "Brill" Lyle: You're the threat now. Just like I was.

Robert Clayton Dean: Threat to whom? To them?

Lyle: No. To your family, your friends, everybody you know, everybody you meet. That's why I went away and didn't come back. You've got to go away, Robert.

Dean: No, I don't think so. This is my life, I worked hard for it and I want it back. I grew up without a father, I know what that is. And I will not allow my family to go through that.

Kid at Nearby Table: Mommy, I want to go home.

Lyle: Want to take a poke at me? Come on.

Dean: I don't hit senior citizens.

Lyle: [cat cuddles up; [w:guerrilla warfare|guerrilla warfare] Come here, Babe. Come here, come on. In ] they taught us to use our weaknesses as strengths.

Dean: Such as?

Lyle: Well, if they're big and you're small, then you're mobile and they're slow. You're hidden and they're exposed. You only fight battles you know you can win. That's the way the Vietcong did it. You capture their weapons and you use them against them the next time. That way they're supplying you. You grow stronger as they grow weaker.

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Consequences of a Simple Phone Call

Robert Clayton Dean: What the hell just happened?

Edward "Brill" Lyle: I blew up the building.

Dean: Why?

Lyle: Because you made a phone call!

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Surveillance and Technology in Modern Society

Edward "Brill" Lyle: The government's been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the forties. They've infected everything. They get into your bank statements, computer files, email, listen to your phone calls...

Robert Clayton Dean: My wife's been saying that for years.

Lyle: [analyzes disk] Every wire, every airwave. The more technology used, the easier it is for them to keep tabs on you. It's a brave new world out there. At least it'd better be. There it goes. It's some kind of simple encryption.

Dean: Oh, conspiracy theorists of the world, unite.

Lyle: [[w:Fort George G. Meade|Fort Meade] It's more than a theory with me. I'm a former conspirer. I used to work for the NSA. I was a communication analyst. Listen to international calls, calls from foreign nationalists. That GPS tracking device we found in your cellular telephone? I designed one of the first models in that series. ] has 18 acres of mainframe computers underground. You're talking on the phone and you use the word, "bomb," "president," "Allah," any of a hundred keywords, the computer recognizes it, automatically records it, red flags it for analysis; that was twenty years ago. You know the Hubble Telescope that looks up to the stars? They've got over a hundred spy satellites looking down at us. That's classified. In the old days, we actually had to tap a wire into your phone line. Now calls bouncin around on satellite, they snatch right out of the air.

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Unseen Threats and Personal Stakes

Edward "Brill" Lyle: You have something they want!

Dean: I don't have anything!

Lyle: Maybe you do and you don't know it! You stay away from Rachel and you stay away from me, you come near either one of us, I'm gonna kill you. Get rid of your watch.

Dean: My wife gave me this for our anniversary.

Lyle: [as he walks off] Then keep it. Stay off the phone!

Uncertainty and paranoia in questioning identity

Edward "Brill" Lyle: Is this about me? Do they know me?

Robert Clayton Dean: Who's them?

Lyle: Do they know me??

Dean: [emotionally charged] I don't know what you're talking about!

Lyle: You're either very smart or incredibly stupid.

Unconventional Shopping Choices and Self-Expression

Robert Clayton Dean: I was shopping for some lingerie. That's still legal, isn't it?

David Pratt: Were you buying that for your wife?

Dean: No, I was picking something up for myself, I do a little cross dressing on the weekends. You know, you'd be surprised how a nice pair of edible panties can make a guy feel sexy.

Fighting for Peace in a Volatile World

Thomas Reynolds: [to Edward Lyle] You won the war. Now we're fighting the peace. It's a lot more volatile. Now we've got ten million crackpots out there with sniper scopes, sarin gas and C-4. Ten-year-olds go on the Net, downloading encryption we can barely break, not to mention instructions on how to make a low-yield nuclear device. Privacy's been dead for 30 years because we can't risk it. The only privacy that's left is the inside of your head. Maybe that's enough. You think we're the enemy of democracy, you and I? I think we're democracy's last hope. There's always going to be power.

Perceptions of Slurs and Identity

Robert Clayton Dean: [explaining himself to Mr Pintero's lieutenant when a new article tags him and Pintero] Actually, I believe the slur "shyster" is generally reserved for Jewish attorneys. I believe the proper slur for someone like myself would be "eggplant".