The Next Three Days Quotes

Damon Pennington: No prison in the world is airtight. Each one has a key. You just have to find it.

John Brennan: How do you do that?

Damon Pennington: A lot of looking. Especially at things that break up the daily routine. Guards get comfortable doing the same thing day in, day out. Something happens, that's when they make mistakes. But when you see it, you have to be ready. You have to have the entire plan already in place even before you know how you're gonna get out of jail. Escaping's easy. The hardest part is staying free.

Damon Pennington: From the time they make the call, the police can have the center of the city sealed tight in fifteen minutes.

John Brennan: How can they be so exact?

Damon Pennington: After 9/11, Homeland Security made every city have a lockdown plan. Downtown Pittsburgh, Philly, Boston, Minneapolis, fifteen minutes. They can do D.C. in under ten. Within 35 minutes, they can have cops at every tollboth on the interstate and be running rolling stops on the secondary roads. They won't have your photograph yet, but they will have your description.

John Brennan: What if you can't get out? 35 minutes is not a lot of time.

Damon Pennington: Then surrender. Because they will shoot you on sight, along with anyone else you're with.

[first lines]

David: Please, get me to a hospital. I can't breathe. I...

Erit: Don't apologize, it's genetics. Women are always competing with each other. That's why you're having problems with your boss.

Lara Brennan: Because she's a woman...

Erit: Exactly. Women should work under men, men under women. That's it.

John Brennan: What about men under men?

Erit: That's fine too, I mean they can deal with it.

Lara Brennan: Can you do me a favor?

John Brennan: I don't know, I'm kind of busy.

Lara Brennan: I need you to run for governor.

John Brennan: I can do that.

Lara Brennan: You can change this rule about no conjugal visits, 'cause I don't think I can last another 20 years.

Damon Pennington: But before you do anything, you have to ask yourself if you can do it. Can you forget about ever seeing your parents again? Can you kill a guard? Leave your kid at a gas station? Push some nice old lady to the ground just because she gets between you and the door? Because to do this thing, that's who you have to become. And if you can't, don't start, 'cause you'll just get someone killed.

John Brennan: How did you get caught?

Damon Pennington: I gave myself up. I couldn't take wondering when someone was gonna come through the bedroom door.

Mike: What do you need?

John Brennan: Passports, driver's license, a social security number that'll take a credit check.

Mike: $3,700.

John Brennan: That's too much.

Mike: It is if you never get them.

[last lines]

Detective Collero: You really thought you were going to find it...

John Brennan: So, the life in times of Don Quixote, what is it about?

Female College Student: That someone's belief in virtue is more important than virtue itself?

John Brennan: Yes... that's in the there. But what is it about? Could it be how rational thought destroys your soul? Could it be about the triumph of irrationality and the power that is in that? You know, we spend a lot of time trying to organize the world. We build clocks and calendars and we try to predict the weather. But what part of our life is truly under our control? What if we choose to exist purely in a reality of our own making? Does that render us insane? And if it does, isn't that better than a life of despair?

Lieutenant Nabulsi: What kind of criminal drives a Prius?

Sergeant Harris: A socially responsible one?

Mike: You were supposed to leave.

John Brennan: I need them.

Mike: You notice that guy was a cop?

John Brennan: Which guy?

Mike: The one with the red light in his back window.

[John feels ridiculous. Mike hands him the documents]

Mike: Just give me the money.

[John hands him the envelope of money. Mike checks it]

Mike: You want this too much. You're going to fuck it up.

[Mike speeds off. The second rider gives John a look and follows. John looks over the passports with their new names]

Lara Brennan: You know, you never even asked me if I did it... if I murdered her.

John Brennan: Because I know you didn't.

Lara Brennan: Well, you'd be wrong.

Lara Brennan: [Picks up the phone angrily] What?

John Brennan: Just shut up. I don't care what you say... or how you say it. I know who you are. I know what you're capable of. And I promise you... this will not be your life.

[Hangs up the phone]

Lara Brennan: Why didn't you tell me?

John Brennan: You would've stopped me.

Lara Brennan: Uh!

Lieutenant Nabulsi: Go wider... Send their photos to every train station... bus station... and airports in a 300 mile radius

Detective Collero: So Ohio... Maryland... West Virginia... New York... New Jersey... Virginia... Michigan... Kentucky... and Indiana

[Nabulsi gives Collero a dumb look]

Lieutenant Nabulsi: You know what direction they're going in... smart ass

Lara Brennan: You took the wrong turn. John, the zoo's behind us. You took the wrong turn. Babe, what are you doing?

John Brennan: She'll call my parents.

Lara Brennan: What?

John Brennan: They'll look after him, and I'll figure out a way of getting him to us.

Lara Brennan: Are you out of your mind?

John Brennan: I tried! There's no more time. Any second now, there's gonna be a roadblock ahead of us. It might be there now. If we don't get out now, we don't get out. I'll find a way of getting him to us, all right? I'll find a way.

Lieutenant Nabulsi: What do we have?

Sergeant Harris: A freaking miracle. A meth lab in the basement, the house still standing. Should be just a crater.

Alex: You're wasting some good shit there.

John Brennan: Yeah, good shit. High alcohol content.

[he tears off a piece of pizza box and lights it with the stovetop]

Alex: What... what are you gonna do? You gonna burn me out?

John Brennan: Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do.

David: Jesus Christ.

Alex: This is a meth lab, you idiot!

John Brennan: No. It was.

Detective Collero: So, we arrested his wife and now we're gonna charge the man with vomiting.

Detective Quinn: He's selling the house. Already has a buyer.

Detective Collero: In this market? Lucky man. Can we possibly go do police work now?

Detective Quinn: [sarcastic] I don't know how you managed to stay single this long.

John Brennan: It's a course that investigates what drives men to be free, no matter the cost.

Damon Pennington: Some other teacher have dibs on "Papillon"?

John Brennan: You escaped from jail seven times.

Damon Pennington: What do you wanna know?

John Brennan: How you escaped when no one else could.

Damon Pennington: Balls, and a little luck.

Damon Pennington: You have to know where you're gonna go and how you're gonna get there. You have to know how they plan to catch you, where and when.

John Brennan: Well, how the hell are you supposed to know that?

Damon Pennington: You pay off someone who knows. And a lot depends on if the prison is in the country or the city.

John Brennan: City.

Damon Pennington: Where are you from?

John Brennan: Pittsburgh.

Damon Pennington: Pittsburgh's tough. So many bridges and tunnels they can block off.

Damon Pennington: Stay far away from the train and bus stations. Forget the local airports. Leave from another state. Second, identity. It's easy to find fake papers. Harder to find ones that'll get you through an airport. You'll need a passport, a driver's license, and a Social Security number. If you have to rent a car, find a place that'll take a cash deposit. They'll still run a credit check, so use a real person's name on the ID. Third, destination. You'll want somewhere that doesn't attract American tourists. Think Yemen and you get the idea. And money; you'll need a truckload of it. Everything's expensive; hotels, travel, information.

John Brennan: How much?

Damon Pennington: Enough to last at least five, six years. You run out of money, you run out of friends.

John Brennan: What happens if we find the woman who was leaving the parking lot?

Meyer Fisk: The PCRA has been rejected. No new evidence can be submitted. Not anymore.

John Brennan: It was a robbery.

Meyer Fisk: And if they had used her credit card, we could have argued that. I-I'm sorry. John... this sucks.

John Brennan: Okay. That's that. All we have now is the Supreme Court, right?

Meyer Fisk: John, in the last thirty years, the Supreme Court has not heard one murder case. No decent lawyer would even file the pleadings.

John Brennan: So all I have to do is find an... an indecent one. That shouldn't be too hard.

Meyer Fisk: I need you to look at the evidence and forget that Lara's your wife.

John Brennan: I've seen the evidence, Meyer.

Meyer Fisk: I'm not saying judge her innocent or guilty, I'm just saying look at it. Her co-worker sees her leaving the scene. The victim's blood is on her clothes. Her fingerprints are on the murder weapon.

John Brennan: And then we went out to dinner. How do you do that if just killed somebody? That would make her a psychopath.

Meyer Fisk: And the fight...

John Brennan: Is Lara a psychopath, Meyer?

Meyer Fisk: The fight in the office?

John Brennan: Everyone fights with their boss.

Meyer Fisk: But this one ended up dead.

John Brennan: So what you're saying is that you never believed in her innocence.

Meyer Fisk: How can you say that?

John Brennan: Well, what are you saying?

Meyer Fisk: I'm saying that it no longer matters what we believe! Lara is not getting out! And you have no idea how much I hate to say that.

John Brennan: [leaving dinner with his brother and sister-in-law] She's completely full of herself.

Lara Brennan: Don't try and agree with me now.

John Brennan: I don't even think she's a member of the dental profession.

Lara Brennan: Shut up.

John Brennan: She probably can't even spell "anesthesiologist". The woman's a complete fraud.

Lara Brennan: We went to her office party, you idiot.

John Brennan: Uh-huh. And I believe she hit on me that night, as well.

Lara Brennan: You are completely delusional. She didn't even hit on you in there. I just don't like her.

John Brennan: I understand your point of view. I really do. I agree with you. Somebody who looks like that should not be allowed anywhere near oral surgery.

Lara Brennan: You are an asshole.

John Brennan: I mean, you're sitting in the chair, you're trying to stay calm, and you got them things hanging in your face.