Bridge of Spies Monologues

During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.

Well, the boss isn't always right. But, he's always the boss.

Standing there like that you reminded me of the man that used to come to our house when I was young. My father used to say: "watch this man'. So I did. Every time he came. And never once did he do anything remarkable.

This one time, I was at the age of your son, our house was overrun by partisan border guards. Dozens of them. My father was beaten, my mother was beaten, and this man, my father's friend, he was beaten. And I watched this man. Every time they hit him, he stood back up again. So they hit him harder. Still he got back to his feet. I think because of this they stopped the beating. They let him live. "Stoit i muzhik," I remember them saying… "stoit i muzhik." Which sort of means like uh, 'standing man'. Standing man…

I have a mandate to serve you. Nobody else does. Quite frankly, everybody else has an interest in sending you to the electric chair.

You know, I wish people like you would quit saying, 'Aw, come on, counselor'. I didn't like it the first time it happened today. A judge said it to me twice. The more I hear it, the more I don't like it.

My name's Donovan. Irish, both sides. Mother and father. I'm Irish and you're German. But what makes us both Americans? Just one thing. One. Only one. The rule book. We call it the Constitution, and we agree to the rules, and that's what makes us Americans. That's all that makes us Americans. So don't tell me there's no rule book, and don't nod at me like that you son of a bitch.

You have been charged with three counts and nineteen overt acts. Conspiracy to transmit United States defence and atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, conspiracy to gather secrets, and failing to register as a foreign agent.

We need to get off this merry-go-round sir. The next mistake our countries make could be the last one. We need to have the conversation our governments can't.

Let me finish. If your house is insured for $100,000 and a tornado carries it away, it carried away one house. It didn't pick up every stick of furniture and destroy it in a separate incident. If that is what you're saying, well then there is never any limit to our liability, and that is the end of the insurance business. And then, Bob, nobody is safe.

You don't even like Powers. Everybody hates Powers. He didn't kill himself and he let the Commies parade him on television. He's the most hated man in America... after Rudolf Abel... and me.

This is how we do it. The case against you matters. Making them prove it matters. The fiction is: Whether you did it or not doesn't matter. The state has to prove it, that you're a spy.