The Torturer (2008)

Andrew W. Walker: Rick

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  [to his hooded and bound prisoner] 

  Rick : Don't move, hajji.

  [Rick zipties his prisoner's legs to the back of the chair] 

  Rick : What's... your... name?

• Doc : So, how did that make you feel?

  Rick : You don't *feel* anything.

  Doc : You didn't feel anything?

  Rick : No.

  Doc : You felt nothing.

  Rick : I felt nothing during the interrogation.

  Doc : During the interrogation?

  Rick : I centered myself. I compartmentalized. I felt calm and relaxed.

  Doc : Calm and relaxed. So you did feel something.

  Rick : No.

  Doc : How do you feel now?

  [the sound of a door closing causes Rick to quickly look behind him] 

  Rick : Followed.

• Doc : There's a checklist for coping with pain. Did you know that?

  Rick : But I'm not in pain.

  Doc : No?

  Rick : No. It's more like boredom.

  Doc : In what way?

  Rick : Like movies are boring. Music is boring. Sex is boring. My life is boring. Like this conversation we're having right now is boring!

  Doc : Then why are you here?

  Rick : You know why - orders... because of what happened.

  Doc : What *happened*?

  Rick : Nothing! Nothing happened. Strictly by the book.

• Doc : Did it disturb you that you had to interrogate a woman?

  Rick : I told you, Doc, I was just doin' my job - getting information. I derived no pleasure, nor did I feel any emphany toward the subject in Iraq.

  Doc : But, Rick, none of this happened in Iraq.

• [showing the prisoner a photograph of a Geiger counter] 

  Rick : Do you recognize this?

  Ayesha : Yes.

  Rick : Was this device in your possession when you were arrested?

  Ayesha : How would I know if I've been arrested? Have I been arrested or have I been kidnapped? Someone put a bag over my head and I woke up in this place. If I am under arrest, I know my rights. Under Article 11 of the new Iraqi constitution, I have the right to legal defense at all stages of investigation.and trial. I demand to speak to my lawyer.

  Rick : Ayesha, you have to understand the extraterritorial nature of your criminal activities. First of all, you've been rendered to foreign soil. You are no longer in Iraq.

  Ayesha : What do you mean I'm not in Iraq?

  Rick : You fall under President Bush's Detainee Treatment Act which means you are being held as an unlawful enemy combatant. You have no rights.

• [Rick has bound Ayesha to a chair, filled a bucket with water and has started throwing it in her face] 

  Ayesha : Are you really in the military?

  Rick : I never said I was in the military.

  Ayesha : Who are you? Just some psycho who likes to rape and torture women?

  Rick : I promise you... that's one thing you're going to find out.

• Doc : I just want to help you become a productive member of society again, Rick. That's why I'm here - to help you through this awkwardness.

  Rick : Awkwardness? Cold sweats, nightmares, drinking myself to sleep?

  Doc : We can get through this. All I want you to tell me is the truth.

  Rick : The truth. You want the truth. The truth was in her eyes. The truth is, I wanted her. The truth is, I made her hate me. The truth is, there was a strength in her that I admired. The truth is, she was committed to her ideals. The truth is, what I did to her makes me a bad person. THE TRUTH IS, I WAS ORDERED TO ABUSE HER!

• [Rick places Ayesha's head in a plastic bag] 

  Rick : There's a bomb set to go off in a major American city! Which city?

  Ayesha : No! What are you doing? NO!

  Rick : I am utilizing the force to which I am legally entitled!

  [Rick begins to waterboard Ayesha] 

• [reflecting on his torture of Ayesha during interrogation] 

  Rick : Still it doesn't seem right.

  Ayesha : She was a terrorist, Rick.

  Rick : But does it make it *right*?

  Ayesha : It makes it excusable.

• Rick : So the ends justify the means.

  Doc : Always.

• Rick : You see, there are two victims to every torture, Doctor. The victim, and my conscious screaming at me to tell you the one thing that you refuse to understand. If torture is the only way you can win your war on terror, then you've already lost.

• Rick : Now, we field agents often run into problems not covered in your intricate and detailed briefings. What do you do when the source doesn't actually have the information you seek? When do you know that they don't know? How do you know the unknowable?

• Rick : The real torture is what's happening inside of me. The real torture is my brain screaming, "What did you do to those people? What did you do to yourself? What did you get in exchange for your soul!"

• Rick : Real torture doesn't stop, Doctor - not really. Not for me... but for you,we can make an exception.

• [to Doc, whose head is covered with a clear plastic bag while tied to a chair and gagged] 

  Rick : And how does this make you feel?

  [Rick writes something on Doc's legal pad and then shows her he has drawn a huge smiley face] 

• Rick : You need to go.

  Ayesha : You should come.

  Rick : It's Stockholm Syndrome. You don't feel anything. You don't get forgiven for what I've done.

  Ayesha : God can forgive anyone for anything. That's what makes him God.

• [after brutally interrogating the prisoner, Rick removed Ayesha's hood to see the woman he had been demanding answers from had been tightly gagged the entire time] 

  Doc : Did it disturb you to find out to find out the subject was gagged?

  Rick : No. Of course not.

  Doc : How did you expect her to answer with a gag in her mouth?

  Rick : You're missing the point entirely. The gag was part of the plan.

  Doc : The subject you were attempting to interrogate was gagged... intentionally? What *was* the plan?

  Rick : I intended to create a state of cognitive disodence.