Milner quotes from Utopia

Ian

What difference does it make who Mr. Rabbit is?

Milner

There's a story about how he got his name. He was in bed with a criminal underworld in Kwang Dong. But he was playing everyone off against each other. The Russians, CIA, the gangs. So the Americans got fed up, and they let a particularly nasty crime boss know that he was their man. The boss found him, dragged him off the street--right through the middle of a busy office block. They tortured him, and as a lesson to others, the boss carved his own name into this man's stomach. "Rabbit." Ever seen the Chinese character for "rabbit," Ian? Lots of lines, lots of cuts. Somehow he managed to get free and, despite being unarmed, he killed everyone in that room. Then he went back through the office block and killed everyone who'd seen him. By the time he was finished, 265 people on three continents had lost their lives and not a single living person knew his identity. That's who Mr. Rabbit is. He is the beating heart of all this. And if we can find his identity, it ends and you go home.

Milner

You lost the manuscript.

Ian

How do you know?

Milner

I'm a spy. It's sort of the point of what I do.

Milner

What's wrong with curing malaria? Well wouldn't you want to make the world a better place?

Phillip

Let me explain something to you. The sun throws a certain amount of energy onto this planet. We turn it into food, clothing, shelter, etc. It supports an amount of us, and it took 30,000 years for that amount to become one billion. Then we found a way to use ancient sunlight, sunlight trapped in oil and coal. We started to live off that. What happened? In just 130 years, our population doubled. The next billion took thirty years. The fourth billion has taken just 14. So here's the question. What do you think is going to happen when that oil and coal runs out in, say, a hundred years? When there's ten billion living on a planet that can support only one?

Milner

I think we're going to tear each other apart.

Phillip

At last, someone with an ounce of fucking brain. Malaria? The only disease that needs curing is us.

Milner

What do you see when you see me?

Wilson

I see... someone who's killed thousands. Who murders, tortures, executes innocent children without hesitation. That's what I see.

Milner

And do you think I wanted that? Do you think I wanted to be Mr. Rabbit? You're capable of more than you know, Wilson, believe me.

Milner

Are you asking me, "Am I a killer", Michael? Yes, I am. I didn't want to be. It's just the way it turned out. Like Churchill or Lincoln.

Michael

Or Hitler.