Syriana (2005)

Actors: Jamey Sheridan (actor), Mark Strong (actor), Christopher Plummer (actor), David Clennon (actor), David Michie (actor), Nadim Sawalha (actor), William Hurt (actor), Nicky Henson (actor), Peter Gerety (actor), George Clooney (actor), Matt Damon (actor), Chris Cooper (actor), Tim Blake Nelson (actor), Viola Davis (actress), Jeffrey Wright (actor),

Plot: A missile disappears in Iran, but the CIA has other problems: the heir to an Emirate gives an oil contract to China, cutting out a US company that promptly fires its immigrant workers and merges with a small firm that has landed a Kazakhstani oil contract. The Department of Justice suspects bribery, and the oil company's law firm finds a scapegoat. The CIA also needs one when its plot to kill the Emir-apparent fails. Agent Bob Barnes, the fall guy, sorts out the double cross. An American economist parlays the death of his son into a contract to advise the sheik the CIA wants dead. The jobless Pakistanis join a fundamentalist group. All roads start and end in the oil fields.

Keywords: african-american, al-fresco-restaurant, alcoholism, arab, arms-dealer, assassin, assassination, award-ceremony, bacon, barbecue-grill
Genres: Drama, Thriller,
Taglines: Everything is connected

Quotes:

Prince Nasir Al-Subaai: Americans love to drill holes in other people's countries.

Prince Nasir Al-Subaai: What are they thinking, my brother and these American lawyers?::Bryan Woodman: What are they thinking? They're thinking that it's running out. It's running out... and ninety percent of what's left is in the Middle East. This is a fight to the death.

Danny Dalton: Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Yale thinks he's gonna run this up the flagpole? Make a name for himself? Maybe get elected some two-bit congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here? No, I tell you. No, sir! Corruption charges! Corruption? Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around in here instead of fighting over scraps of meat out in the streets. Corruption is why we win.

Bob Barnes: If anything happens to me or my family, an accident, an accusation, anything, then first your son will disappear, his body will never be found. Then your wife. Her body will never be found either. This is guaranteed. Then, whatever is the most dangerous thing you do in your life, it might be flying in a small plane, it might be walking to the bank, you will be killed. Do you understand what I'm saying? I want you to acknowledge that you do understand so that we're clear and there won't be any mistakes.::Dean Whiting: Beirut rules, Mr. Barnes?

Bob Barnes: I want you to take him from his hotel, drug him, put him in the front of a car, and run a truck into it at 50 mph.

Bryan Woodman: But what do you need a financial advisor for? Twenty years ago you had the highest Gross National Product in the world, now you're tied with Albania. Your second largest export is secondhand goods, closely followed by dates which you're losing five cents a pound on... You know what the business community thinks of you? They think that a hundred years ago you were living in tents out here in the desert chopping each other's heads off and that's where you'll be in another hundred years, so, yes, on behalf of my firm I accept your money.

Bryan Woodman: Do you understand what that means, it's like someone put a giant ATM on our front lawn.::Julie Woodman: Here's a question. How do you think it looks to profit off the death of your six year old?

Dean Whiting: In this town, you're innocent until you're investigated.

Bryan Woodman: Great. How much for my other kid?

Bob Barnes: Innocent until investigated? That's nice. It's got a nice ring to it. Bet you've worn some miles on old sayings like that. Gives the listener the sense of the law being written as it's spoken.