Name: Sneakers
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Crime
Released: 1992-09-09
Duration: 125 min
Rating: 6.9
Cast: Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix

Sneakers

Desires for Connection Amid Financial Realities

Bishop Carl?

Carl I'd like to have a deep relationship with a beautiful woman who melts from the very first time our eyes meet.

[breathing from helium]

Bishop We're not getting paid that much, Carl.

Carl Well, you know, someone like Liz.

Bishop We're definitely not getting paid that much.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Sneakers

The Dangers of Trusting Others

Taglines To trust can be murder.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Sneakers

The Power of Money and Its Consequences

Cosmo What's wrong with this country, Marty? Money. You taught me that. Evil defense contractors had it, noble causes did not. Politicians are bought and sold like so much chattel. Our problems multiply. Pollution, crime, drugs, poverty, disease, hunger, despair; we throw gobs of money at them! The problems always get worse. Why is that? Because money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it.

Bishop I agree. Now who did you say you were working for?

Cosmo Oh, that's just my day job.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Sneakers

Prison Insights on Organized Crime

Cosmo There I was in prison, and one day I helped some nice older gentlemen make some free telephone calls. They turned out to be... let us say, good family men.

Bishop Organized crime?

Cosmo Ha, don't kid yourself. It's not that organized.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Sneakers

Conflict Between Loyalty and Betrayal

Cosmo I cannot kill my friend. Kill my friend.

[to his henchmen]

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Sneakers

Political Party's Financial Crisis Unveiled

TV Anchorman In a surprise announcement, the Republican National Committee has revealed it is bankrupt. A spokesman for the party said they had plenty of money in their accounts last week, but today they just don't know where the money has gone. But not everybody is going begging. Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the United Negro College Fund announced record earnings this week, due mostly to large, anonymous donations.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Sneakers

Secrets of Identity and Authority in Sneakers

Buddy Wallace And then, there's Martin Bishop... He doesn't seem to have a past.

[looks at a folder while Martin has a blank stare. Wallace turns the folder to show it has no papers]

Bishop I'm sorry, but I don't work for the government.

[Walks away]

Dick Gordon We do. ].

[Shows a card; [w:National Security Agency|National Security Agency]

Bishop Ah. You're the guys I hear breathing on the other end of my phone.

Gordon No, that's the FBI. We're not chartered for domestic surveillance.

Bishop Oh, I see. You just overthrow governments. Set up friendly dictators.

Gordon No, that's the CIA. We protect our government's communications, we try to break the other fella's codes. We're the good guys, Marty.

Bishop Gee, I can't tell you what a relief that is...Dick.

Gordon Change your mind, call us at this number... Mr. Brice.

[gives Bishop a folded piece of paper]

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Sneakers

Concealed technology and conspiracy theories discussed

Mother Okay, boss, this LTX-71 concealable mike is part of the same system that NASA used when they faked the Apollo Moon landings. They had the astronauts broadcast around the world from a sound stage at ] in ]. So it worked for them, shouldn't give us too many problems.

[[w:Norton Air Force Base|Norton Air Force Base; [w:San Bernardino, California|San Bernadino, California]

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Sneakers

Perception Shapes Financial Stability and Behavior

Cosmo In prison I learned that everything in this world, including money, operates not on reality...

Bishop ...but the perception of reality.

Cosmo Posit: people think a bank might be financially shaky.

Bishop Consequence: people start to withdraw their money.

Cosmo Result: pretty soon it is financially shaky.

Bishop Conclusion: you can make banks fail.

Cosmo Bzzt. I've already done that. Maybe you've heard about a few? Think bigger.

Bishop Stock market?

Cosmo Yes.

Bishop Currency market?

Cosmo Yes.

Bishop Commodities market?

Cosmo Yes.

Bishop Small countries?

Cosmo With luck, I might even be able to crash the whole damned system. Destroy all records of ownership. Think of it, Marty. No more rich people, no more poor people, everybody's the same, isn't that what we said we always wanted?

Bishop Cos, you haven't gone crazy on me, have you?

Cosmo Who else is going to change the world, Marty? ]?

[[w:Greenpeace|Greenpeace]

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Sneakers

Breakthrough in Cryptography Explained

Liz Oh, my God.

[upon seeing the data for the Air Traffic Control System]

Mother How is this possible?

Whistler Cryptography systems are based on mathematical problems so complex they cannot be solved without a key.

Liz Jannek must have figured out a way to solve those problems without the key and he hard-wired it into that chip.

Crease Turn it off.

Whistler Anybody want to crash some passenger jets?

Crease I said turn it off.

Bishop Turn it off!

[shuts down computer]

Carl So, it's a code-breaker.

[contemplates]

Bishop No, it's The code-breaker. No more secrets.

[leaves]

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Sneakers

The Allure and Burden of Power

Cosmo You could have had the power.

Bishop I don't want it.

Cosmo Don't you know the places we can go with this?

Bishop Yeah, I do. There's nobody there.

Cosmo Exactly! The world isn't run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money, it's run by little ones and zeroes, little bits of data. It's all just electrons.

Bishop I don't care.

[walks away]

Cosmo I don't expect other people to understand this but I do expect you to understand this. We started this journey together.

Bishop It wasn't a journey, Cos. It was a prank.

Cosmo There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!

Bishop If I were you, I'd destroy that thing.

Cosmo Don't go. Don't go.

[aims at Bish's head as he prepares to go down the ladder]

Bishop You do what you have to do, Cos, but if you want to stop me, you'll have to pull the trigger. You.

[leaves]

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Sneakers

Unexpected Heroes in Unlikely Roles

Taglines A burglar, a spy, a fugitive, a delinquent, a hacker, and a piano teacher... and these are the good guys.

Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.

Sneakers

Miscommunication and Tension Among Characters

Crease Don't tell me you can't do it because I know you can. And don't tell me you won't do it because I've got to have it. I need to know, and I need to know now.

Mother Guys, that federal building's been scheduled for demolition since August. Housed the ] and Department of Agriculture. Been vacant for a month.

[[w:Federal Trade Commission|Federal Trade Commission]

Carl The NSA never had an office in San Francisco. Their West Coast operations are out of Los Angeles.

[checks out the Yellow Pages]

Crease Oh, God. Yeah, thanks. Jannek's grant is from the NSA. How could you be so goddamn stupid?!? Two guys show up, say they're government, and you just buy it.

[shocked; hangs up; throws phone in disgust; to Marty]

Whistler They probably were government - just not ours.

[everybody looks at him]

Bishop Everybody pack up whatever you can. This place isn't safe.

[gets revolver]

Mother What are you doing?

Bishop I'm going to a concert.

Sneakers

Divided Motivations in a High-Stakes Situation

Bishop The probable level of security is very low. But if you guys don't want to take that chance just to keep me out of jail, fine, I understand, I'll do it.

Whistler Well, Bish, I can't speak for the other guys, but I'm in it for the money, I don't care if you go to jail.

Carl Me neither. I'm in.

Mother Uh... could we maybe just go back to the "they might kill us" part?

Bishop Mother, if I thought that was likely to happen, I wouldn't bring this to you. But there is a risk.

Whistler And it pays $175,000!

Mother I'm in.

Crease You guys will be chalk outlines without me. All right, what do we need?

Sneakers

A Request for Personal Connection

Bishop Carl?

Carl The, uh, young lady with the Uzi, is she single?

[to Bernard Abbot]

Bishop Uh, you know, Carl. Carl, this is the brass ring. Now you've got to think bigger thoughts.

[sets Carl aside]

Carl I just want her telephone number, that's all. Please?

Bishop Hey Abby, how about a lunch? You can chaperon.

Bernard Abbot No, I will not do this.

[Male NSA agents smirk]

Bishop Hey, Abby, Abby, come on, now the FBI'd give him twins-

Abbot NO!

NSA Agent Mary Wait a second. You can have anything you want, and you're asking for my phone number?

Carl Yes.

NSA Agent Mary 273-9164. Area code 415.

Carl Thanks. I'm Carl.

[offers hand]

NSA Agent Mary I'm Mary.

[smiles while shaking Carl's hand]

Abbot I'm going to be sick. Are we done here?

Bishop Not yet. Whistler?

Whistler I want peace on earth and good will toward man.

Abbot Oh, this is ridiculous.

Bishop He's serious.

Whistler I want peace on earth and goodwill toward men.

Abbot We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.

Bishop You're just gonna have to try.

Abbot All right, I'll see what I can do.

Whistler Thank you very much. That's all I ask.

Sneakers

Clarifying the Fate of a Character

Crease Now what are you saying, the ] killed ]?

[[w:National Security Agency|NSA; [John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]

Mother No, they shot him but they didn't kill him. He's still alive.

Sneakers

The Consequences of Revealing Secrets

Taglines We could tell you what it's about. But then, of course, we'd have to kill you.

Sneakers Quotes

find it. watch it.