The Sum of All Fears (2002)

James Cromwell: President Fowler

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Quotes 

• President Robert Fowler : [during the White House correspondents dinner]  My beautiful wife, Julie, is from New Jersey. 15 electoral votes... and is, as you know, half Jewish. So we'll take Florida's 25 electoral votes and divide by 2. My daughter, Jeanie, is expecting her first child. If it's a girl, she will be named Virginia. 13 electoral votes. In fact, even if it's a boy, he'll be named Virginia. She reminds me that I have publicly acknowledged that as a young Marine officer in Vietnam, I did, on a handful of occasions, smoke marijuana.

  [pause] 

  President Robert Fowler : California. 54 electoral votes.

• President Fowler : We gotta update these fire drills, Billy. I mean, if the shit ever hits the fan, I'm not going underground. This place is a goddamn tomb down there!

  Bill Cabot : We've also gotta choose someone else to face off against besides the Russians all the time.

  President Fowler : Really? Let's see. Who else has 27,000 nukes for us to worry about?

  Bill Cabot : It's the guy with one I'm worried about.

• President Fowler : And don't underestimate Zorkin, pal. Between his economy, crime, Chechnya...

  Cabot : His liver.

  President Fowler : What's left of it. How is he, by the way?

  Cabot : He's got a press conference scheduled for this afternoon. So at least we know he can sit up.

• [over the Hot Line, after the carrier attack] 

  President Nemerov : [in Russian]  I ordered no such attack. You must not respond to this action until we have investigated all possibilities.

  President Fowler : Like you did in Chechnya? Mr. President, who is in control of your armed forces?

  President Nemerov : [in Russian]  You dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. You dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. Do not lecture me on Chechnya!

• [aboard the command plane] 

  Owens : Are you advocating we launch a first strike...

  Becker : [shouts]  It is not a first strike! There's already been a first strike! And a second! Don't you get it?

  Owens : No! I don't get it! I don't understand why we have to nuke them, for God's sake!

  [shouts] 

  Owens : It's not reasonable!

  President Fowler : Sidney, goddamnit! They practically sank an aircraft carrier! Their missile silos are hot! We're getting nothing but bullshit from Nemerov! And let's not forget how this thing started, OK? They tried to kill *me*, remember! So don't fucking tell me to be reasonable!

• Revell : We've got activity on the Hot Line.

  President Fowler : They had their chance.

  Revell : No, no. Someone's talking *to* the Kremlin.

• Revell : At approximately 0600 Moscow time, the Russians launched a massive artillery strike against Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. The shells contained an experimental chemical weapon known as the Novichok binary nerve agent. Saturation, you can see it on those infrared sat photos, took 20 minutes. After which, every man, woman, and child inside a radius of roughly 12 miles was rendered helpless by symptoms approximating acute, late-stage cerebral palsy.

  Secretary of State Sidney Owens : Oh, my god.

  President Robert Fowler : How many dead?

  Bill Cabot : Best guess... 80%.

  Becker : Which means Nemerov just launched the most massive attack in the history of chemical warfare.

  President Robert Fowler : Let's talk response.

  Secretary of State Sidney Owens : Worst thing we could do is nothing.

  Becker : I agree. If we let him get away with chemical weapons, what's next? Biological, nuclear?

  President Robert Fowler : Okay. Short of gassing the Kremlin, what's the strongest response we can make?

  Secretary of State Sidney Owens : We send in peacekeepers.

  Becker : Chechnya's not sovereign.

  Secretary of State Sidney Owens : Look, they requested recognition, so we recognize them. Not full diplomatic recognition; provisional. That may get the Chechens to request emergency international assistance, and we send in peacekeepers.

  President Robert Fowler : How do you get 'em in there?

  General Lasseter : The fastest way would be to fly 'em in from Turkey.

  Becker : Over Armenian airspace?

  Revell : To screw Russia, they won't complain.

• Becker : Now, they could have launched a cruise missile. DSP sats might not have picked it up.

  Secretary of State Sidney Owens : Now, just a minute. We don't know that this is Russia.

  President Robert Fowler : But we don't know it's not.

  Revell : Look, if they were sending us a message like "stay out of Chechnya," the whole point would be for us to know it was them. Not to sneak one in.

  Becker : Except that they could inspire the kind of dithering and confusion that we're going through right now.

• Secretary of State Sidney Owens : We've come up with another alternative.

  Becker : We'll counterforce. A conventional attack on the Russian air base where the carrier attack originated.

  Secretary of State Sidney Owens : It's what we're looking for. A measured respones.

  Admiral Pollack : Non-nuclear.

  President Robert Fowler : Is it strong enough?

  Admiral Pollack : Smart bombs and F-16s. Pretty God damn strong.

  President Robert Fowler : Can't afford for them to see us as weak. They've gotta know we have the guts to... take it to the next level.

  Admiral Pollack : I think they'll get that message.

  President Robert Fowler : Hit 'em.

• President Robert Fowler : This can't be happening.

• [arriving at the airfield] 

  Revell : Mr. President, are you all right?

  President Fowler : Jesus, Gene, how the hell do you think I am? How many casualties?

  Revell : We don't know.

  President Fowler : Cabot said it was Russian, how the hell did they get it in?

  Revell : We don't know. Radar didn't pick it up, so it wasn't a missile.

  President Fowler : Well... how is Cabot, is he all right?

  Revell : I don't know!

  President Fowler : [shouts]  Then what do you know?

  Revell : [shouts]  I don't know, all right! I don't know!

  President Fowler : All right, Gene, all right...

  Revell : [shouts]  I don't know, for Christ's sake!

• President Robert Fowler : [Becker passes out]  Get a doctor in here!

  General Lasseter : But Mr. President...

  President Robert Fowler : I said get a doctor!

  General Lasseter : [to the Military Aide carrying the nuclear football]  Colonel! Bring me the launch codes.

• Jack Ryan : Mr. President, conventional wisdom would suggest that Nemerov is playing the traditional Russian role: be aggressive, flex your muscles, dare the world to stop you. But Nemerov isn't conventional.

  Revell : He walks like a hard-liner. He talks like a hard-liner.

  Jack Ryan : Yes, but with all due respect, I don't think he is one.

  Becker : He just gassed the capital of another country, Doctor. With all due respect, you're wrong.

  Jack Ryan : [drowned out by chattering in the room]  What if he didn't order the attack?

  [louder] 

  Jack Ryan : What if Nemerov didn't order the attack? What if it was a, uh-uh... rogue general or a splinter military unit frustrated they couldn't get the rest of the rebels out of the city?

  President Robert Fowler : Have you any reason to believe he didn't order it, or are you just floating this?

  Bill Cabot : [quietly]  You don't know.

  Jack Ryan : I don't think he did it, sir. I-I would... I would bet he didn't do it.

• President Robert Fowler : Get President Zorkin on the Hot Line.

  Bill Cabot : Zorkin is missing, sir. We have reports of a coup in Moscow. General Bulgakov is calling the shots now.

  President Robert Fowler : Who the hell is Bulgakov?

  Bill Cabot : The asshole who wanted to use nukes in Chechnya.

• Admiral Pollack : Sir, we've got another launch, this one from Alyesk, central Russia.

  President Robert Fowler : I don't believe it. What the hell is in Alyesk?

  Bill Cabot : SS-18 ICBMs. Probable targets, New York, Washington, here.

  President Robert Fowler : How good is this ceiling?

  Bill Cabot : Anything but a direct hit.

• President Robert Fowler : [getting evacuated from a football game]  What the hell is going on?

  Secret Service Agent : Sir, please stay down.

  Bill Cabot : Some Russian scientists have been working on a bomb. Nuclear. It arrived in Baltimore this morning.

  President Robert Fowler : Get those people out of the stadium.

  Secret Service Agent : We're on it! Stay down!

• President Robert Fowler : [during an argument after arriving aboard the E-4B airborne command post]  This is too much goddamn bullshit! And not enough fact.

• President Robert Fowler : Showtime!