Marshall Mann quotes from In Plain Sight

Marshall

How does a civilian get clearance to shoot a video for a top secret government agency?

The same as any other independent contractor: a long and tedious vetting process. You'd be amazed at some of the things I've been privy to, but as secretive as the CIA and the rest of them are, nobody's as tight-lipped as you people.

Mary

That's because we actually keep our secrets secret. The CIA clans have more leaks than a men's room at Oktoberfest.

Mary

[Watches Eleanor pour a cup of coffee] What's in that?

Eleanor

Coffee.

Mary

Yeah, right. [Pours it in a potted plant]

Marshall

She's got you spooked, doesn't she?

Mary

A little bit.

Marshall

It's fun to watch.

Marshall

I'm not giving you the name of the first girl I had sex with.

Mary

Why? Is it because you're a virgin?

Marshall

No, because you'd track her down, call her up, and make her tell you all about it.

Mary

So? I told you mine!

Marshall

Neil Armstrong was not your first.

Mary

Technically, no, but who can ever remember that other guy's name?

Marshall

Do you care that Stan is two hours late for work and unreachable?

Mary

Of course I care! This is how I cope. Come on. You know I won't stop until I get what I want.

Marshall

Oh, God. Fine. Katinka Magnúsdóttir. Tenth grade foreign exchange student from Iceland.

Mary

Katinka?! Excellent!

Marshall

Tell her I said hi.

Mary

How do you spell Magnúsdóttir?

Marshall

The usual way.

Mary

Jesus, Mary and Joseph. There's like a thousand K. Magnúsdóttir's. I swear to God, if that's not her real name...

Mary

[hums while using the telephone]

Marshall

Save that number. It seems to make you happy.

Mary

Hold music. It's from a play I did in high school. I know, hard to believe. While most kids were experimenting with drugs, I was experimenting with musicals. Just as harmful.

Eleanor

How about a toast? [to Mary, at her office engagement party]

Marshall

Excellent idea. Okay. Here's to the best friend I've ever had. Could ever hope to have. A girl for whom no man will ever be good enough. I hope you know that I love you and I wish for you nothing but a lifetime of happiness.

Marshall

And they say romance is dead. Ninety-year-old billionaire weds flight attendant, twenty-three. Gee, I wonder how they met?

Mary

In an airplane.

Marshall

[sarcastically] Did you read this already?

Mary

Think you'll ever get married?

Marshall

If the right flight attendant comes along, who knows.

Mary

If you ever did take that plunge, not that I'd wish that hell on any woman, think you'd tell the missus about the job?

Marshall

No.

Mary

That's it? No diffuse and flowery philosophical treatise with footnotes?

Marshall

Runs contrary to WITSEC regs.

Mary

Heaven forbid we run contrary.

Marshall

You're not thinking about --

Mary

[rummages through sauces on diner counter] Hot sauce. Gotta be looking right at it.

Marshall

You already told him.

Mary

Found it!

Marshall

Without consulting me?

Mary

You know, I was going to, and then I remembered it's none of your God damned business.

Marshall

Are you kidding?

Mary

[scoffs] I don't think so.

Marshall

By telling Raph what you do, you've told him what I do, and I wasn't quite ready to share that information with your future husband.

Mary

You're serious?

Marshall

Hey, look at this. The drugstore security camera is coming around.

Mary

[looks at video of a hooded man] Oh, good. The unabomber.

Marshall

That's what the clerk said.

Mary

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess he didn't pay with credit.

Marshall

Cash. Speaking of which.

Mary

What?

Marshall

Watch.

Mary

Brand new bills.

Marshall

If they're as new as they look, the Treasury could tell us what bank they came from based on serial numbers.

Mary

If they came from an ATM transaction, the bank can give us a name. God, don't you love big brother.

Marshall

Treasury tracked the bills to New Mexico Savings & Loan. They're pulling the ATM transaction now.

You could have told me who owned the car.

Marshall

No, I couldn't. It's against the rules.

What is wrong with you two?

Mary

We've been trying to get pregnant. The strain's getting to him.

Marshall

[fake laughs]

This is why I don't have a partner.

Mary

Look, Phillip, I've been doing this a while, and I've seen people come into this program and fight like crazy to hang on to their old lives, and I've seen people who couldn't wait to be someone else just to throw away their past. But at the end of the day, you are who you are.

Marshall

A wise man once said, and the truth shall set you free.

Marshall

I know why you told Raphael your big secret: to paint yourself into a corner. Afraid you might back out from marrying him, you told him, so now you have to make it work.

Mary

Congratulations, Matlock. You've keenly observed that I'm somewhat relationship phobic, and yet the conclusion you've drawn couldn't be more off the mark. Marshall, I've spent my entire working life with career criminals: liars, thieves and sociopaths, each of whom knows what I do for a living. And I refuse to accept the notion that these miscreants are somehow more trustworthy than the man I'm going to marry.

Mary

Cheer up. Life sucks, we're all going to die, embrace it! [Notices Stan in a meeting with some people in their conference room] What's with the confab?

Marshall

Well, the bald one is Stan. Otherwise, not a clue.

[shouting at her CIA contact in the witness room, as Mary, Marshall and Eleanor listen in] You're sadly mistaken if you think I'm going to sit on the sidelines watching my country's revolution on CNN, while you people install your whole, self serving puppet regime!

Mary

We still do that?

Marshall

Yeah. The sad thing is we don't even use real puppets anymore, just socks with buttons sewn on.

Marshall

It was a bad neighborhood; a bad situation from the get go. The witness should never have been allowed to move there. Mary should never have been put in that position: managing a witness over whom she had no authority!

Stan

I know; I know. I shouldn't have allowed it.

Marshall

I should have stayed; I saw what was going on there. It just -- didn't occur to me.

Stan

Why would it? It's Mary. She's like -- [sighs] I don't know.

Marshall

I know.

Stan

Fierce, you know? Like she's always gonna be the toughest dog in a fight.

Marshall

Boxers call it "the air of invincibility".

Stan

That's exactly it.

Marshall

All great fighters have it.

Stan

Yeah.

Marshall

Right up until the minute they're beaten. [dissolves into sobs again]

I didn't do nothing. I didn't shoot your girl.

Marshall

Nobody here thinks you did.

Then how come I'm still here? What d'you want?

Marshall

I wanna know -- what you dream about.

Huh?

Marshall

I saw you on your porch, yesterday, running your crew, doing -- what I imagine you do pretty much every day and I was just curious: when you go to sleep at night, do you dream of other places? Doing something else? Or do you dream about sitting on your porch, running your crew?

Huh? You need to get to the point.

Marshall

The point is: everybody here knows you're too smart to shoot a cop for no good reason, and that nothing happens on that street without your knowing about it.

What's that gotta do with dreams?

Marshall

Well, this kind of thing is gonna be really bad for your business, and if there were some other place you dreamed of... or something you always wanted to be...

What? You're gonna wave your magic wand and tomorrow I'm on a beach in Hawaii?

Marshall

No, but I have friends who make that sort of thing happen all the time. All we need from you is the right information. Would you like to be in Hawaii tomorrow? With a new name? Whole new life. I can have a US Attorney in here in five minutes making that happen. Just tell me who the shooter is, and how to find him.

Sa es que, cabron? We're born where we're born. We is what we is, and that's that. I ain't going nowhere, and I ain't telling you nothing.

Marshall

Liar liar status?

Mary

Pants fully on fire.