Soylent Green (1973)
Quotes
Sol: [Thorn is seeing the beautiful images shown in Sol's euthanasia chamber] Can you see it?
Det. Thorn: [choked up] Yes...
Sol: Isn't it beautiful?
Det. Thorn: Oh, yes...
Sol: I told you.
Det. Thorn: [humbly] How could I know? How could I... how could I ever imagine?
New Tenant: How old are you?
Shirl: Twenty-one.
New Tenant: Charles said you were twenty-four.
Shirl: That makes us both liars.
[last lines]
Det. Thorn: Ocean's dying, plankton's dying... it's people. *Soylent Green is made out of people.* They're making our food out of people. Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!
Hatcher: I promise, Tiger. I promise. I'll tell the Exchange.
Det. Thorn: You tell everybody. Listen to me, Hatcher. You've gotta tell them! Soylent Green is people! We've gotta stop them somehow!
Det. Thorn: I know, Sol, you've told me a hundred times before. People were better, the world was better...
Sol: Ah, people were always lousy... But there was a world, once.
[Thorn chuckles]
Sol: I was there, I can prove it! When I was a kid, you could buy meat anywhere! Eggs they had, real butter! Not this... crap!
Gilbert: [hesitating before killing Simonson] Uh... they told me to uh... to say that they were sorry, but that you had become... unreliable.
Simonson: That's true.
Gilbert: They can't risk, uh... catastrophe, they say.
Simonson: They're right.
Gilbert: Then, uh... this is right?
Simonson: No, not right... Necessary.
Gilbert: To who?
Simonson: To... God.
Hatcher: And what about the furniture?
Det. Thorn: [motions to chest] Like grapefruit.
Hatcher: [chuckles] You never saw a grapefruit.
Det. Thorn: You never saw her.
Sol: There was a world, once, you punk.
Det. Thorn: Yes, so you keep telling me.
Sol: I was there. I can prove it.
Det. Thorn: I know, I know. When you were young, people were better.
Sol: Aw, nuts. People were always rotten. But the world 'was' beautiful.
[Announcer doing a commercial announcement before Gov. Santini's interview]
Richard: ...is brought to you by Soylent red and Soylent yellow, high energy vegetable concentrates, and new, delicious, Soylent green. The miracle food of high-energy plankton gathered from the oceans of the world.
Hatcher: What's the story with the Simonson homicide?
Det. Thorn: It was carefully set up to make it look like he was killed after he caught some punk burglarizing his apartment.
Hatcher: What do you think it was?
Det. Thorn: It was an assassination. A well-planned assassination.
Hatcher: You know this for a fact?
Det. Thorn: Four reasons. One: the alarm system in the building was out of order for the first time in two years. Two: the bodyguard who was supposed to be protecting him was conveniently out shopping. Three: the punk that broke into the apartment didn't take anything. And four: the punk who killed Simonson was no punk because he used a meat hook instead of a gun to make it look like a punk.
Hatcher: Well, if the punk didn't take anything from the apartment, what did you take?
Det. Thorn: Everything I could lay my hands on.
Sol: [after reading the Soylent report] Good God!
Exchange Leader: What God, Mr. Roth? Where will we find him?
Sol: Perhaps at home...
[with resignation]
Sol: Yes, at home.
Det. Thorn: Would you believe bodyguards are buying strawberries for 150 D's a jar?
Martha Phillips: I should've offered you something, Mr. Thorn.
Det. Thorn: If I'd had the time, I would've asked for it.
[Shirl tells Thorn that she's getting a new tenant]
Det. Thorn: He'll like you. You're a helluva piece of furniture.
Shirl: Don't talk to me like that. Please.
Det. Thorn: OK.
Det. Thorn: [Det. Thorn takes a cigarette from one of the furniture girls at the party and smokes it] You know if I had the money, I'd smoke two or three of these every day.
Sol: [through the audio system] I've lived too long.
Det. Thorn: No.
Sol: I love you, Thorn.
Det. Thorn: [tearfully] I love you, Sol.
Det. Thorn: Turn the air conditioning way up!
Shirl: Way up! We'll make it as cold as winter used to be!
Sol: You know, when I was a kid, food was food. Before our scientific magicians poisoned the water, polluted the soil, decimated plant and animal life.
Det. Thorn: [inquiring about her incinerator] Used it lately?
Martha Phillips: It doesn't work.
Det. Thorn: What does?
State Security Chief Donovan: Do you have the words straight?
Gilbert: You know, I won't understand them if I live to be a hundred.
State Security Chief Donovan: You won't.
Det. Thorn: There's nothing I can do for you furniture - I got nothing to give.
Sol: [seeing the steak that Thorn has brought home, breaking down in tears] How did we come to this?
Sol: I don't know why I bother!
Det. Thorn: Because it's your job. Besides, you love me.
Hatcher: So, you finally made it. Do you know what time it is?
Det. Thorn: You tell me. You're the only one here who has a wristwatch.
Hatcher: I can't. The damn thing won't run.
Det. Thorn: Who bought you?
Hatcher: You're bought as soon as they pay you a salary.
Sol: Why, in my day, you could buy meat anywhere! Eggs they had, real butter! Fresh lettuce in the stores.
Det. Thorn: I know, Sol, you told me before.
Det. Thorn: You know, there are 20 million guys out of work in Manhattan alone just waiting for my job.
Det. Thorn: I'm getting pretty sick of you.
Sol: Yes, but you love me.
[first lines]
Voice over PA: First stage removal. First stage removal. Streets prohibited to non-permits in one hour. Streets prohibited to non-permits in one hour.
Det. Thorn: You know what, Lieutenant.
Hatcher: What?
Det. Thorn: [tossing back Hatcher's wristwatch] I think it really is broken this time.
Kulozik: They're running out of the damn Green again!
Det. Thorn: Geez, those idiots!
Kulozik: Somebody fouled up on the transport again.
Det. Thorn: This crowd will blow.
Kulozik: I know. I've got the scoops standing by two blocks away but... I don't know if they can even handle this crowd.
Det. Thorn: When are you going to make the announcement?
Kulozik: As soon as I get the nerve. About five minutes. Pass it on.
Det. Thorn: I will.
State Security Chief Donovan: I am here to inform you sir, that the board has decided to resolve the Simonson case.
Gov. Santini: But I thought it was resolved. I ordered the investigation to be shut down right away.
State Security Chief Donovan: I know, but the police officer in charge of the investigation refuses to close the case.
Gov. Santini: Oh, I see.
State Security Chief Donovan: Maybe it's because we went to church yesterday.
Gov. Santini: What does that mean?
State Security Chief Donovan: It was Simonson's church. My associate told me that the cop spoke nearly 20 minutes with the priest.
Gov. Santini: So?
State Security Chief Donovan: It was the same priest who heard Simonson's confession the day before he died.
Gov. Santini: I don't want to hear any more about it. I can't hear any more! Contact all of your associates and then some, Donovan. Just do what you have to do.
