Bridge of Spies (2015) quotes

Cast
Tom Hanks.
Mark Rylance.
Alan Alda.

During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

We need to get off this merry-go-round sir. The next mistake our countries make could be the last one. We need to have the conversation our governments can’t.
– James Donovan

Would it help?
– Rudolf Abel

Everyone will hate me, but at least I’ll lose.
– James Donovan

It doesn’t matter what others think. You know what you did.
– James Donovan

Shostakovich is a great artist.
– Rudolf Abel

You treat us as stooges for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
– Wolfgang Vogel
Can we just call them the Russians and save time?
– James Donovan

We have to have the conversations our governments can’t.
– James Donovan

The death sentence is not a foregone conclusion. Don’t worry.
– James Donovan
I’m not afraid to die, Mr. Donovan. Although, it wouldn’t be my first choice.
– Rudolf Abel

I have a mandate to serve you. Nobody else does. Quite frankly, everybody else has an interest in sending you to the electric chair.
– James Donovan
All right…
– Rudolf Abel
You don’t seem alarmed.
– James Donovan
Would it help?
– Rudolf Abel

You have been charged with three counts and nineteen overt acts. Conspiracy to transmit United States defence and atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, conspiracy to gather secrets, and failing to register as a foreign agent.
– James Donovan
Do many foreign agents register?
– Rudolf Abel

Standing there like that you reminded me of the man that used to come to our house when I was young. My father used to say: “watch this man’. So I did. Every time he came. And never once did he do anything remarkable.
– Rudolf Abel
And I remind you of him?
– James Donovan
This one time, I was at the age of your son, our house was overrun by partisan border guards. Dozens of them. My father was beaten, my mother was beaten, and this man, my father’s friend, he was beaten. And I watched this man. Every time they hit him, he stood back up again. So they hit him harder. Still he got back to his feet. I think because of this they stopped the beating. They let him live. ‘Stoikiy muzhik’. I remember them saying. ”. Which sort of means like uh, ‘standing man’… standing man…
– Rudolf Abel

Well, the boss isn’t always right. But, he’s always the boss.
– Rudolf Abel