A Most Wanted Man (2014)

Philip Seymour Hoffman: Günther Bachmann

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Quotes 

• Günther Bachmann : [Puts a pen in Brue's pocket]  It's just an ordinary pen. Looks like a pen, writes like a pen, and listens like a pen.

• Günther Bachmann : You're looking at me, at us, but we don't exist, not legally, not officially, because German intelligence needs a job to be done that German law won't let it do, so me and my people, we stay small. We stay on the streets. We make the weather. Our sources don't come to us. We find them. We become their friends, their brothers, their fathers, their lovers if we have to. When they're ours, and only then, we direct them at bigger targets. It takes a minnow to catch a barracuda, a barracuda to catch a shark.

• Martha Sullivan : Maybe, if you could define for us, what you think the long term objective would be? What are we trying to achieve?

  Günther Bachmann : To make the world safer place. Isn't that enough?

• Martha Sullivan : Men who trusted you died. And that stays with you always.

  Günther Bachmann : And all that damage we leave behind. All those lives. All those empty rooms. What were they in vain for? You have asked yourself that question? Why we do what we do?

  Martha Sullivan : Mm-hmm, sometimes. But I always come up to same answer.

  Günther Bachmann : And what is it?

  Martha Sullivan : To make the world safer place. Isn't that enough?

• Günther Bachmann : Hamburg is one of the great ports of the world, Tommy. For centuries, it opened its arms to every foreigner who washed up on its shores. Now, since 9/11, the eyes of every dark skinned man - we see someone that wants to kill us. The problem is, some of them do. The question is whether Issa Karpov is one of them.

• Günther Bachmann : You're too old for her, Tommy. We both are. See her. Love her. But, you'll never get her. Not even with all that black money you've got tucked away in your bank vaults.

• Günther Bachmann : Hello Tommy.

  Tommy Brue : And you are?

  Günther Bachmann : My name is Bachmann. I head an anti-terror unit. Not many people know about and even less like.

• Martha Sullivan : What happened in Beirut?

  Günther Bachmann : You know what happened in Beirut. My networks were blown.

  Martha Sullivan : So, Hamburg's a punishment?

  Günther Bachmann : It depends on whether you like Hamburg.

• Jamal : I-I can't do this anymore. Someone's going to find out. I can feel it. I'm freightened. They are looking at me. All of them. I'm done. It's over. I'm not your spy. I am student. You cannot make me do this.

  Günther Bachmann : I never made you do anything, Jamal. And I never will. You know that. When we first met, you remember what we talked about? You remember that? Family. The future. Most of us don't get to choose. But, you did. You made the right choice. It's not easy. But, there's no going back - for any of us. We can't undo what's done.

• Günther Bachmann : Have you ever seen blood on the street?

• [last lines] 

  Günther Bachmann : Fuuuuck! Fuuuuuck!

• Tommy Brue : I am not doing this for you!

  Günther Bachmann : Whatever it takes, Tommy.

• Jamal : You are forcing me to betray my own father?

  Günther Bachmann : You are not betraying him. You are saving him. That is an act of love.

• Günther Bachmann : Go where? Go where?

• Martha Sullivan : Please work with us on this one, Gunther.

  Günther Bachmann : I don't trust you.

  Martha Sullivan : Old habits die hard.

  Günther Bachmann : That's what I'm worried about.

  Martha Sullivan : I was talking about yours.

  Günther Bachmann : Have a nice day.

  Martha Sullivan : [Icily]  You too.

• Martha Sullivan : Gnther Bachmann? Martha Sullivan. US Embassy, Berlin. I know you by reputation, of course.

  Günther Bachmann : That can't be good.

  Martha Sullivan : Men with good reputations usually aren't much use to me.

  Günther Bachmann : What about women? This is my colleague Irna Frey.