Good Will Hunting (1997)

Bruce Hunter: NSA Agent

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Quotes 

• [exterior view of nondescript multi-floored office building] 

  Will : [cut to interior recruitment office]  So why do you think I should work for the National Security Agency?

  NSA Agent : [complacently]  Well, you'd be working on the cutting edge. You'd be exposed to the kind of technology you wouldn't see anywhere else, because we've classified it. Superstring theory, chaos math, advanced algorithms.

  Will : [succinctly]  Code breaking.

  NSA Agent : [evasively]  That's one aspect of what we do.

  Will : [confrontationally]  Oh, come on. That is what you do. You guys handle 80% of the intelligence workload. You're seven times the size of the C.I.A.

  NSA Agent : [smugly]  We don't like to brag about that, Will, but you're exactly right. So the way I see it, the question isn't: "Why should you work for the N.S.A.?" The question is: "Why shouldn't you?"

  Will : Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.?

  [chuckles] 

  Will : That's a tough one, but I'll take a shot. Say I'm workin' at the N.S.A. and somebody puts a code on my desk. Something no one else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. I'm real happy with myself because I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army...

  Will : [cut to Sean's office as Will recites the recruitment interview]  in North Africa or Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels are hidin'. Fifteen hundred people that I never met, never had no problem with, get killed.

  Will : Now the politicians are saying, "Send in the Marines to secure the area," 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there gettin' shot, just like it wasn't them when their number got called 'cause they were in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie over there takin' shrapnel in the ass. He comes back to find the plant he used to work at... got exported to the country he got back from, and the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job... 'cause he'll work for 15¢ a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place... was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. Of course, the oil companies used a skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain't helpin' my buddy at $2.50 a gallon. They're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil, of course. Maybe they even took the liberty to hire an alcoholic skipper, who likes to drink martinis and fuckin' play slalom with the icebergs. It ain't too long till he hits one, spills the oil... and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic.

  Will : So now my buddy's out of work, he can't afford to drive, so he's walkin' to the fuckin' job interviews... which sucks because the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. Meanwhile, he's starvin', 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat, the only blue plate special they're servin'... is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State.

  Will : [indignantly]  So what did I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure, fuck it. While I'm at it, why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard?

  Will : [deadpan]  I can be elected president.

  Sean : You feel like you're alone?

  Will : [incredulously]  What?