Concussion (2015) quotes

Director
Peter Landesman.

Cast
Will Smith.
Alec Baldwin.
Albert Brooks.

In Pittsburgh, accomplished pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu uncovers the truth about brain damage in football players who suffer repeated concussions in the course of normal play.

Need is not weak. Need is need… You have to be the best version of yourself. If you don’t know what that is you pick something and fake it.
– Dr. Bennet Omalu

I can’t tell what you are more afraid of: what you will find or what you won’t.
– Prema Mutiso

The NFL owns a day of the week. The same day the Church used to own. Now it’s theirs.
– Dr. Cyril Wecht

Do you know why you’re not back in Nigeria?
– Dr. Cyril Wecht
Yes, because I remind you of you.
– Dr. Bennet Omalu
Only less handsome. Sit down.
– Dr. Cyril Wecht

What if they show up here with a warrant?
– Dr. Cyril Wecht
On suspicion of what? Science?
– Dr. Bennet Omalu

I solved the problem. All they have to do is put on the side of the helmet, “The Surgeon General has determined that playing football is hazardous to your health.”
– Dr. Bennet Omalu
You got to put it on *both* sides of the helmet.
– Dr. Cyril Wecht

I had a revelation tonight. This body was made for dancing.
– Dr. Bennet Omalu

If you don’t speak for the dead, who will? You are of the Igbo tribe, Bennet. When you have the truth, the thing you are told you cannot do is the thing you must do. Embrace that, and nothing created by man can bring you down.
– Prema Mutiso

All of these animals have shock absorbers built into their bodies. The woodpecker’s tongue extends through the back of the mouth out of the nostril, encircling the entire cranium. It is the anatomical equivalent of a safety belt for its brain. Human beings? Not a single piece of our anatomy protects us from those types of collisions. A human being will get concussed at sixty G’s. A common head-to-head contact on a football field? One hundred G’s. God did not intend for us to play football.
– Dr. Bennet Omalu

When you have truth, the thing you are told you cannot do is the thing you must do. Embrace that!
– Prema Mutiso

I think you’ll be an American hero.
– Dr. Cyril Wecht
I’m not even American.
– Dr. Bennet Omalu
Better. That’s *very* American!
– Dr. Cyril Wecht

Bennett, listen to me. Do you know that I chose to fake?
– Prema Mutiso
You.
– Prema Mutiso

By my calculations, Mike Webster has sustained more than 70,000 blows to his head.
– Dr. Bennet Omalu

I just kept sending them back out there.
– Dr. Julian Bailes
What the hell were you thinking?
– Dr. Cyril Wecht
You’ve got to be a part of it. You’ve got to be on the sidelines with them to understand. Whatever it takes to keep them in the game, to keep the whole thing going. Tape, needles, Vicodin, Toradol, Lidocaine, Percocet, Lexapro, Zoloft… have I left anything out? It’s tires and oil. Just mechanics trying to keep the cars on the racetrack.
– Dr. Julian Bailes
Yeah, well, it’s not medicine. I don’t know what it is.
– Dr. Cyril Wecht
It’s business.
– Dr. Julian Bailes

Your name means “If you know, you must tell.”
– Prema Mutiso

How much has it cost you so far?
– Dr. Cyril Wecht
$20,000.
– Dr. Bennet Omalu
20?
– Dr. Cyril Wecht
I save. Everything.
– Dr. Bennet Omalu
Really? How un-American.
– Dr. Cyril Wecht

Ever met the great DeKosky before? Expect two minutes, tops.
– Dr. Ron Hamilton