Daily Dialogue — March 13, 2016
RICK: That’s the car?
LOU: That’s the car.
RICK: No shit? You think there’s a reward?
LOU: There is a reward.
RICK: How much?
LOU: 50,000.
RICK: Do I get any of it?
LOU: I just gave you a raise.
RICK: That’s salary, I’m talking about a bonus.
LOU: Bonuses come at the end of the year.
LOU staring across the street … clock clicking 8:48 PM and
RICK: So we gonna call it in?
LOU: We’re going to wait.
RICK: For what?
LOU: First we want to make sure he’s actually inside. Then we want to find a more interesting place to film the arrest.
RICK: Where?
LOU: Anywhere we want. What we’re going to do is we’re going to wait for him to leave and then we’re going to follow him. When he reaches what would be considered a better or more populated neighborhood we’ll report his location to the police. He’s a violent, wanted criminal. I have to believe that he’s not going to just peacefully surrender.
RICK: Okay, I want more money. A lot more.
LOU: What makes a job desirable isn’t just the dollar amount attached to it, Rick. You’re on the ground floor of a growing business. Your reward is a career.
RICK: Fuck that. You’re talking about some fucked up shit and you’re asking me, you just expect me to be part of it.
LOU: I can’t make people do things, Rick. You have a choice to do this and I have a choice if you don’t.
RICK: You threatening to fire me? Hey, I got something too. Not calling criminals in, waiting for ’em to start shit so you can film it, that’s against the fucking law. The cops would be majorly interested no fucking doubt. I want more money.
LOU: We can reopen negotiations, Rick, but remember that when it comes to your work reputation you can’t un-ring the bell.
RICK: I want half of whatever we make tonight.
LOU: How did you arrive at that number?
RICK: There’s two of us sitting here. 50–50.
LOU: I’ll counter at 10,000.
RICK: You don’t set the numbers on this. I want half.
LOU: If you’re saying I can’t negotiate then I guess I have to give it to you.
RICK: Alright then. Now I feel good about it.
LOU: You never understood that, that’s been the problem. You gotta bring people in, man. I’m serious. You gotta talk to ’em like they’re human beings. I’m saying this to help you, dude, for the future. ’Cause you got a seriously weird ass way of looking at shit. You know you do. I mean you know what your trouble is? You don’t fucking understand people.
LOU: staring at him … listening … com-chatter beat …
RICK: Now I’m gonna take a nap. We can do shifts. See, now we’re working together.
— Nightcrawler (2014), written by Dan Gilroy
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Argument. Today’s suggestion by Gisela Wehrl.
Trivia: Director and screenwriter Dan Gilroy on the impetus for the film: “I think to some degree it’s certainly an indictment of local television news, but I’d like to cast a wider net in the sense that all of us really watch these images. I would hope that maybe a viewer would take it further and maybe go, ‘Why do I watch these images and how many of these images do I want to put into my own spirit?’”
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Gisela: “This argument characterizes both characters, especially the protagonist, Lou. There have already two more negotiation scenes between the two of them (that‘s the second one). Lou has always won, he tries to stick to his strategy. But now he looses this argument, Rick has learnt. And it’s also a great foreshadow of the later events.