Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton Vital Stats

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Release date 2007

Duration 119 min

Producer(s) George Clooney, Jennifer Fox, Christopher Goode...more

Director(s) Tony Gilroy...more

Writer(s) Tony Gilroy...more

Cast Tom Wilkinson, Michael O'Keefe, Sydney Pollack...more

Genre Crime, Drama, Mystery,

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Michael Clayton Quotes

 Michael Clayton:
Uncle Timmy- and I mean this- on his best day, he was never as tough as you. And I'm not talking about crying or the drugs. I'm talking about in his heart. You understand me?
Henry Clayton:
Okay.
Michael Clayton:
Big Tim... Uncle Boss... all his charming bullshit. And I know you love him. And I know why. But when you see him like this, you don't have to be afraid, because it's not how it's gonna be for you. You're not gonna be one of those people who goes through life wondering why shit keeps falling out of the sky around them. You have some real steel in you, Henry. Inside. I see it every time I look at you. I see it right now. [tries to smile]
Michael Clayton:
I don't know where the hell you got it from, but you got it.
 

 Marty Bach:
[on a cell phone conversation] Marty Bach, how can I help you?
Bridget Klein:
Marty, hi. It's Bridget Klein. Look, we're going with a story tomorrow about a settlement in the U-North defoliant case. Do you want to comment?
Marty Bach:
The case you're referring to is now as it has been for the last six years: Pending and unresolved. Until such time as our client has their day in court, and the plantiffs come to their senses and drop the suit, I'll have nothing of value to tell you.
Bridget Klein:
Come on Marty, you're closing the U-North case, you're settling it, I know that. Okay? I know you're up there with like 600 people jamming this thing through.
Marty Bach:
Well, here's what I know: Your deadline was twenty minutes ago. So either you're fishing for a story, or you're trying to get out of writing a retraction. In either case I wish you the best of luck. [he hangs up]
Marty Bach:
Where the fuck is Karen Crowder?
 

 Henry Clayton:
What?
Michael Clayton:
Your uncle Timmy, and I mean this, on his best day, is never as tough as you. I'm not talking about crying or drugs or anything like that. I'm talking about in his heart. In his heart. Do you understand me? And all this charming bullshit. This Big Tim, Uncle Boss bullshit... and I know you love him and I know why... but when you see him like that you don't have to worry... because that's not how it's going to be for you. You're not going to be one of these people who goes through life wondering why shit keeps falling out of the sky around them. I know that. I know it. OK? [Henry nods]
Michael Clayton:
I see it every time I look at you. I see it right now. I don't know where you got it from, but you got it. OK?
Michael Clayton:
[phone rings] Hold on...
 

 
[first lines]
Arthur Edens:
Michael. Dear Michael. Of course it's you, who else could they send, who else could be trusted? I... I know it's a long way and you're ready to go to work... all I'm saying is wait, just wait, just-just-just... please hear me out because this is not an episode, relapse, fuck-up, it's... I'm begging you Michael. I'm begging you. Try and make believe this is not just madness because this is not just madness. Two weeks ago I came out of the building, okay, I'm running across Sixth Avenue, there's a car waiting, I got exactly 38 minutes to get to the airport and I'm dictating. There's this, this panicked associate sprinting along beside me, scribbling in a notepad, and suddenly she starts screaming, and I realize we're standing in the middle of the street, the light's changed, there's this wall of traffic, serious traffic speeding towards us, and I... I-I freeze, I can't move, and I'm suddenly consumed with the overwhelming sensation that I'm covered with some sort of film. It's in my hair, my face... it's like a glaze... like a... a coating, and... at first I thought, oh my god, I know what this is, this is some sort of amniotic - embryonic - fluid. I'm drenched in afterbirth, I've-I've breached the chrysalis, I've been reborn. But then the traffic, the stampede, the cars, the trucks, the horns, the screaming and I'm thinking no-no-no-no, reset, this is not rebirth, this is some kind of giddy illusion of renewal that happens in the final moment before death. And then I realize no-no-no, this is completely wrong because I look back at the building and I had the most stunning moment of clarity. I... I... I... I realized Michael, that I had emerged not from the doors of Kenner, Bach, and Ledeen, not through the portals of our vast and powerful law firm, but from the asshole of an organism whose sole function is to excrete the... the-the-the poison, the ammo, the defoliant necessary for other, larger, more powerful organisms to destroy the miracle of humanity. And that I had been coated in this patina of shit for the best part of my life. The stench of it and the stain of it would in all likelihood take the rest of my life to undo. And you know what I did? I took a deep cleansing breath and I set that notion aside. I tabled it. I said to myself as clear as this may be, as potent a feeling as this is, as true a thing as I believe that I have witnessed today, it must wait. It must stand the test of time. And Michael, the time is now.
 


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