Traffic (2000)

Michael Douglas: Robert Wakefield

Photos 

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Quotes 

• General Ralph Landry : You know, when Khruschev was forced out, he sat down and wrote two letters and gave them to his successor. He said - "When you get yourself into a situation you can't get out of, open the first letter, and you'll be safe. When you get yourself into another situation you can't get out of, open the second letter". Well, soon enough, this guy found himself into a tight place, so he opened the first letter. Which said - "Blame everything on me". So he blames the old man, it worked like a charm. He got himself into a second situation he couldn't get out of, he opened the second letter. It said - "Sit down, and write two letters".

  Robert Wakefield : [laughs]  Yep.

• Caroline Wakefield : What's Washington like?

  Robert Wakefield : What's Washington like? Well its like Calcutta, surrounded by beggars. The only difference is the beggars in Washington wear fifteen hundred dollar suits and they don't say please or thank you.

• Robert Wakefield : If there is a war on drugs, then many of our family members are the enemy. And I don't know how you wage war on your own family.

• Robert Wakefield : I can't believe you brought my daughter to this place.

  Seth Abrahams : Woah. Why don't you just back the fuck up, man. "To this place"? What is that shit? Ok, right now, all over this great nation of ours, 'hundred thousand white people from the suburbs are cruisin' around downtown asking every black person they see "You got any drugs? You know where I can score some drugs?" *Think* about the effect that that has on the psyche of a black person, on their possibilities. I... God I guarantee you bring a hundred thousand black people into your neighborhood, into fuckin' Indian Hills, and they're asking every white person they see "You got any drugs? You know where I can score some drugs?", within a *day* everyone would be selling. Your friends. Their kids. Here's why: it's an unbeatable market force man. It's a three-hundred percent markup value. You can go out on the street and make five-hundred dollars in two hours, come back and do whatever you want to do with the rest of your day and, I'm sorry, you're telling me that... you're telling me that white people would still be going to law school?

• Robert Wakefield : Look, we need to take down either of these cartels: either Juarez or Tijuana. Not because they're a symbol but... hell, they are a symbol! But because we need to send a message! When Carlos Ayala hires Michael Addler as his legal defense, I send Ben Williams down to San Diego as a prosecutor, why? Because it's a symbol. It's a symbol that we are sending the best! It's a message that we're going after their top guys.

• Robert Wakefield : What are your policies towards treatment of addiction?

  General Salazar : Treatment of addiction? Addicts treat themselves. They overdose and then there's one less to worry about.

• [last lines] 

  Robert Wakefield : My name is Robert. And my wife, Barbara and I are here to support our daughter Caroline. And we're here to listen.

• Robert Wakefield : Well you've done a fine job, General. The Office of National Drug Control Policy is in better shape than when you found it.

  General Ralph Landry : I'm not sure I made the slightest difference. I tried. I really did.

• Lawyer Rodman : This informant, paid by police, using taxpayer dollars to continue his felony drug habit was the link that allowed police to raid a private farm. A working farm where honest Americans make their living. Now, the government in its haste has hired an army of criminals whose alligiance to the truth is at best questionable.

  Robert Wakefield : Mr. Rodman, it's a shame that your client didn't use as much sense in choosing what he planted as he did in choosing his attorney. But lately the only variation I'm hearing in your argument is the name of your client. Now, you can stand here all day and argue the ins and outs of Illinois v. Gates, but you're not gonna convince me that our government has not sanctioned the use of anonymous informants. Furthermore there is no sacred protection of property rights in our country. You grow marijuana on your farm, be it an ounce or an acre of plants, that farm can be seized, and that farm can be sold.

• Robert Wakefield : Open the god damn door!

  Caroline Wakefield : One minute.

• [Robert Wakefield has offered the drug dealer a bribe for information about his missing daughter] 

  Drug Dealer : Who in the FUCK do you think you are? Where the fuck do you think you are, and why the fuck don't I just put your ass in a dumpster?

  Robert Wakefield : [Shaking, scared]  ... I... I got money...

  Drug Dealer : [Infuriated]  I got money!

  Robert Wakefield : I've got a thousand dollars in my pocket; it's for you.

  Drug Dealer : If I want your money man, I will TAKE your money!

• Barbara Wakefield : You might want to pencil a little face time with your daughter.

  Robert Wakefield : Barbara.

  Barbara Wakefield : Because I'm at the edge of my capabilities, Robert.

• Caroline Wakefield : Fuck you. I wasn't doing anything. You're like the Gestapo.

  Robert Wakefield : Well, fuck you.

• Teacher : May I help, you sir? Excuse me!

  Robert Wakefield : Seth has to be excused. He's going on a field trip.

• Robert Wakefield : Where are they? Where the hell are the drugs? Where are they?

  Caroline Wakefield : Fuck you!

• Robert Wakefield : Just tell me where my daughter is.

  Drug Dealer : [to Seth]  Don't do this shit again.

  Seth Abrahams : [to Robert]  Don't do this vigilante thing.

• Chief of Staff : Anything else?

  Robert Wakefield : No, Sir.

• Caroline Wakefield : Will we get invited to the White House?

  Robert Wakefield : I don't know about that, honey.