Syriana Page #3

Synopsis: American oil companies Connex and smaller Killen are undergoing a merger, the new company named Connex-Killen. The move is in response to Connex losing a number of oil fields in the Persian Gulf region as Prince Nasir Al-Subaai, his country's foreign minister, and the oldest son of the Emir and thus the heir apparent to the throne, signed a contract with the Chinese instead. As Killen somehow managed to get the contract for the oil fields in Kazahkstan, the merger would give Connex-Killen additional control of the industry in the Middle East. Connex's retained law firm, headed by Dean Whiting, assigns Bennett Holiday to demonstrate to the US Department of Justice that due diligence has been done to allow the merger to proceed i.e. that the merger would not break any antitrust regulations. The US government is unhappy with Prince Nasir's decision to award the contract to the Chinese, and in combination with issues around illegal weapons, the CIA assigns field agent Bob Barnes, who has e
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Director(s): Stephen Gaghan
Production: Warner Bros. Pictures
  Won 1 Oscar. Another 13 wins & 28 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.9
Metacritic:
76
Rotten Tomatoes:
72%
R
Year:
2005
128 min
$50,800,000
Website
842 Views


- Get a doctor!

- Is anybody a doctor?

Do something! Help us!

I hear phrases thrown around like

"the corrupting influence of money"...

Washington, DC

... or "the evil influence

of dollars in politics"...

... when more money was spent

on the syndication rights...

... to the Seinfeld television program...

... than on the whole of

the last presidential election.

Last election cycle,

I spent $300,000.

I have pictures of myself with the

president that I use all over the world.

I didn't make this coffee for you.

People don 't know Danny Dalton, but

they know the president of the U. S...

... and they see that I know

the president of the United States.

- In a free society...

- Making it for me.

... the one written into law...

You...

...it's the people, individually...

...I'm making oatmeal.

...and organized into committees...

- Then you sleep.

... not the U.S. Government,

who decide the issues....

You look like sh*t.

... of a political campaign.

In our country, we don 't...

... stuff dollars into ballot boxes.

- What we do...

- You working?

...is turn money into votes.

- I had trouble at work.

The ability of a candidate...

There's beer in my fridge,

so you don't die of the DTs.

Please don't smoke in my house.

- Meaning, not so loosely translated,

that money is speech.

And, last time I heard, speech in the

United States of America is protected.

You can 't limit my advocacy

just because it works.

I have a sovereign, inalienable right

to petition my government.

And why is it some dirty little secret...

... that it's in America 's interest

to do business overseas?

Two of my wife's kids were deported

from this country.

You know why?

Because they didn't have work.

You don't have to pay me.

Give me something to do.

Then decide.

I'm sorry. I already have a

long list for that job too.

And if you want to work

in this country...

...learn the language.

Learn Arabic!

Foreign workers' compound

The Persian Gulf

Why are they running?

Maybe the small one...

...committed a crime or something.

They gave us french fries

at the Islamic school.

Close the door, Papa.

His sister has a thing for you.

His sister has a big ass.

Of course, at the Islamic school you

don't have to worry about that.

And lamb. We got skewers of lamb.

I like lamb.

Have your identification card ready.

No talking in line.

Have your identification card ready.

No talking in line.

I can't remember it this hot.

Old man, you don't want to talk here.

Stop talking.

Tough guy.

What's your name?

What's your name?!

Johnny.

Mommy!

Mommy!

- Hey, hey, hey.

- Mommy.

Come here, bear. Come here.

You okay?

I wanna look out the window.

You wanna look out the window?

Come on.

I spy a bird.

Well, if on Monday,

Iran refuses the IAEA inspectors...

... you can look to crude prices

to spike yet again.

Right. Well, it's not exactly a secret

that Iran will refuse snap inspections.

Okay, Rebecca. Thank you.

Go home.

It was a stupid f***ing question, Henry.

The prince's man called again.

I'm just telling him.

U.S. Department of Justice

Washington, DC

Hey, how bad is it?

When a Volvo dealer says that...

Okay. You're honorable, decent guys.

Right.

My wife and our narrow driveway...

- How the hell are you?

- Well, you know, can't complain.

That's not good, kiddo.

That's suffering quietly.

Married? Kids?

There is no way a company like Killen...

...pulled off a deal like this

without paying somebody off.

Why don't you tell me what you have

so I can respond.

I used to think there was

something wrong here.

Now I know there's

something wrong here.

Either you don't find anything,

because you don't know how to look...

...or you do and they carve you out

and light you on fire.

That's gotta be the play here, right?

Bennett Holiday.

Sydney Hewitt's new boy.

How many of those have I seen?

Six? Seven?

They're all gone.

He's still Sydney-f***ing-Hewitt.

Fourteen-11.

Match point.

I think they've got someone

inside the deal.

Someone they can squeeze.

You mean like an informant?

Yes, sir, like an informant. Just my

opinion, based on their overconfidence.

Match point.

Thank you.

You know, if people in oil deals...

...talked to U.S. Attorneys,

there'd be no oil business. Dean.

Bennett Holiday, you know Dean

Whiting, founding partner of our firm.

- Good to see you, sir.

- How are you?

We've been discussing

the Connex-Killen merger situation.

Will they get approval?

Hell of a large company if they do.

I mean, client.

Well, the Tengiz field,

Killen's largest asset...

...is being looked into pretty heavily

by the U.S. Attorney's office.

Well, Bennett, as they say in the Bible:

"There are many, many ways

to light Europe."

Yeah, well, there's an arrow

on the ceiling pointing towards Mecca.

The Binladin Group

air-conditioned Mecca.

It was a huge project.

They made billions and billions.

All the women are dressed in black

from head to toe...

... walking 5 feet behind the men.

It's 125.

Literally, 125 and humid.

When I walked out of the airport,

it was like a wall fell on me.

The men are all wearing white sheets.

And they're spotless white sheets.

I don 't really understand that.

They kind of say:

"It's hot and I don 't have to work."

I don 't understand how

you could do anything in that.

I'd like to see these guys play baseball.

Are you okay?

You sound strange.

No, I'm fine.

They will try to disguise the difference...

...to make Muslims who speak

about religion...

...appear to be fanatics

or backward people.

They will tell us the dispute is over

economic resources...

...or military domination.

If we believe that,

we play right into their hands...

...with only ourselves to blame.

It is not possible...

...to bridge the divide

between human nature...

...and modern life through free trade.

Impossible.

The divine and the worldly

are but a single concept.

The Koran.

No separation of religion and state.

The Koran.

Instead of kings legislating

and slaves obeying...

...the Koran.

The pain of modern life

cannot be cured by...

...deregulation...

...privatization...

...economic reform...

...or lower taxes.

The pain of living in the modern world...

...will never be solved

by a liberal society.

Liberal societies have failed.

Christian theology has failed.

The West has failed.

This was a birthday and graduation

present a couple years ago.

Cap d'Antibes, France

What happened was,

I was about to graduate from Oxford...

...and my mother had a horse

in the Royal Ascot race, right?

The horse won...

...that same day that I was graduating.

And my trust fund matured.

So that tops any birthday present that

any of you have bought for me tonight.

Capitalism cannot exist without waste.

We should write thank-you notes

to Mr. Whiting and the U.S. A...

...for producing one-quarter

of the world's garbage...

...and one-quarter of the demand.

You're certainly welcome.

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Stephen Gaghan

Stephen Gaghan (born May 6, 1965) is an American screenwriter and director. He is noted for writing the screenplay for Steven Soderbergh's film Traffic, based on a Channel 4 series, for which he won the Academy Award, as well as Syriana which he wrote and directed. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "Syriana" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/syriana_19272>.

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