Dark Waters Best Quotes – ‘The system is rigged!’

Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, Bill Pullman

OUR RATING: ★★★½

Story:

Bio-drama directed by Todd Haynes. Based on a true story which follows corporate defense attorney, Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), who uncovers a dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths, and chemical company DuPont, and how he risks everything to reveal the truth to the public.

Our Favorite Quote:

Best Quotes

[after a farmer, Wilbur Tennant, interrupts Rob’s meeting at his law firm]
Wilbur Tennant: They call it a landfill. A dump’s what it is. They told my brother and me no chemicals, just trash, but we ain’t stupid. Made them videotapes myself. All the proof you need. They’re poisoning the creek, killing my animals.
Rob Bilott: I’m in the middle of a meeting.
Wilbur Tennant: So I want a lawyer. Every damn one in Parkersburg too yellow to take my case.

Wilbur Tennant: They’re all scared sh*tless of DuPont. Well, I ain’t scared of nobody.
Rob Bilott: Okay. Kathleen is my paralegal. She’s going to give you a directory of lawyers.
Wilbur Tennant: That’s why I called your grandma.
Rob Bilott: What?
Wilbur Tennant: My neighbor tells me, “Call Alma White. Her grandson’s some fancy environment lawyer down in Cincinnati.”
Rob Bilott: Sir, I am a corporate defense attorney.
Wilbur Tennant: So?
Rob Bilott: I defend chemical companies.
Wilbur Tennant: Well, now you can defend me.

Rob Bilott: I can offer you a referral, but I’m just, I just don’t see how I can be of any help to you.
Wilbur Tennant: You can start by watching them tapes, for one thing.
Jim Tennant: Oh, let’s go, Earl.
Rob Bilott: I’m sorry. I wish you all the luck.
Wilbur Tennant: Don’t need your damn luck, boy. I need your help.

[after Rob visits the Tennants farm and Wilbur shows Rob the river water his cows drink from]
Rob Bilott: What am I looking for?
Wilbur Tennant: You blind, boy? Stones as white as the hairs on my head. Bleached. That’s chemicals, I’m telling you. My animals drink this water, cool off in there. Get them bloody welts, them dead eyes. Charge at me, crazy-like. Animals that used to eat out of my own hand.

[referring to his herd of cows]
Wilbur Tennant: In the beginning, I’d bury them, each one. They’re family. It got to be so many, pile them up, set fire to…
[he looks visibly upset]
Rob Bilott: How many did you lose?
Wilbur Tennant: A hundred and ninety.
Rob Bilott: A hundred and ninety cows?
Wilbur Tennant: You tell me nothing’s wrong here.

Wilbur Tennant: My brother Jim, used to dig ditches over at DuPont plant. Got sick, couldn’t do it no more. One day, they come to him, offering to buy his land, right up that holler. They promised no chemicals.
Rob Bilott: And I assume you reached out to DuPont?
Wilbur Tennant: DuPont, the state, the Feds. I called everybody there is, dozens of times. EPA finally comes out here.
Rob Bilott: Oh, they did?
Wilbur Tennant: Well, all for some report.
Rob Bilott: What did it say?
Wilbur Tennant: You think they’re going to show me?

[giving a speech at a function for attorneys]
Phil Donnelly: At DuPont, we’re not producing chemicals for chemicals’ sake. We’re producing them for people’s sake. To make folks’ lives easier, happier, longer. That’s why “better living through chemistry” is not just a slogan at DuPont. It’s our DNA.

[referring to DuPont, after Rob files a small suit so he can get more information]
Wilbur Tennant: Can’t stop making excuses for them, can you?
Rob Bilott: It could be pests. They consulted a vet.
Wilbur Tennant: Whose vet? DuPont?! Look at yourself. Swallowing whole whatever they’ve been feeding you. Can’t tell truth from lie. You even watch them tapes I gave you?
Rob Bilott: Sir, I am trying to help.
Wilbur Tennant: Quiet.
Rob Bilott: [quieter] Trying to help.
Wilbur Tennant: Stop moving.
[one of the cows suddenly goes crazy and Wilbur is forced to shoot it]

[after Rob shows his boss, Tom, Wilbur’s videos]
Tom Terp: So he should hire a local lawyer.
Rob Bilott: None of them will do it. They’re all terrified of DuPont.
Tom Terp: Well, what does that tell you?
Rob Bilott: We know DuPont. They’re going to want to hear if some of their local guys are screwing something up.
Tom Terp: Oh, so they’re going to thank us for suing them?
Rob Bilott: Better us than the EPA.

[referring to helping Wilbur]
Rob Bilott: It’s a small matter for a family friend. I’ll get in, and I’ll get out. Help a guy who needs it.
Tom Terp: Who? The farmer or you?

[during their family barbecue]
Sarah’s Mother: Rob’s missing such a lovely day.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: Law’s a jealous mistress, mom. Means it comes with the territory.

Rob Bilott: Hey, help me out, will you? You’re a run of a mill dump, nothing but trash.
Kim Burke: You sound like my first girlfriend.

Rob Bilott: So, what is killing these cows? It’s not paper and ash.
Kim Burke: Well, maybe it’s human error. They’re dumping something in there they don’t know is toxic.
Rob Bilott: Kim, it’s DuPont. They know more than the EPA does.
Kim Burke: Everyone knows more than the EPA does. Why else would they let us regulate ourselves?

Rob Bilott: I’m saying, what if a company didn’t tell? What if the reason Phil Donnelly agreed to discovery on hazardous is because he knows whatever’s in that landfill isn’t even regulated?
Kim Burke: Okay, now you are sounding like a plaintiff’s attorney.

[after Rob approaches Donnelly at a public function]
Rob Bilott: I think whatever’s causing problems in there isn’t something the EPA regulates, or knows to regulate.
Phil Donnelly: Sorry?
Rob Bilott: I’m seeing things in your documents I don’t understand.
Phil Donnelly: You’re seeing ghosts is what you’re seeing. And, frankly, you’re making an a** of yourself.
Rob Bilott: Okay, then help me out.

Phil Donnelly: You’re on a goddamn fishing expedition. You want to flush your career down the toilet for some cowhand? Be my guest. I’m done helping you.
Rob Bilott: Phil, I need to insist on broadening discovery.
Phil Donnelly: Sue me!
Rob Bilott: I’m already suing you.

[to Rob after Rob’s accused him of hiding the truth]
Phil Donnelly: F**k you! Hick.

[to Rob after his angry encounter with Donnelly at the public function]
Sarah Barlage Bilott: You’re not the only one who’s sacrificed. I just hope you know what you’re doing.

Tom Terp: You know the difference between business and pleasure, right? So why on earth would you engage in business conversations at a public function?
[referring to Donnelly]
Rob Bilott: Tom, he’s hiding something. You saw his reaction.
Tom Terp: Yeah, me and everyone in that room. “Taft in a pi**ing match with DuPont.”
Rob Bilott: I am going to get a court order and force them to tell me everything that’s in that landfill.
Tom Terp: Jesus Christ, now you want to actually take them to court.
Rob Bilott: And I’m going to need local counsel in West Virginia.
Tom Terp: What happened to routine stuff? Get in, get out?
Rob Bilott: Ask Phil Donnelly.
Tom Terp: God!

[DuPont sends Robert hundreds of boxes]
Carla Pfeiffer: What in the world?
Rob Bilott: I guess the joke’s on me.
Carla Pfeiffer: Yeah. No one can go through all this crap, not in a million years.
Rob Bilott: Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re banking on.

[referring to the chemical PFOA, which Rob found in the information sent from DuPont]
Rob Bilott: What if you drank it?
Dr. Gillespie: Drank it? You don’t.
Rob Bilott: But what if you did?
Waitress: Ready to order?
Dr. Gillespie: Yeah, I think I’d like a…
Rob Bilott: Wait. What if you did?
Dr. Gillespie: That’s like saying, “What if I swallowed a tire?” I don’t know. You want to be the guy that finds out?

[as Sarah finds Rob tearing their carpets and going through their pans in the middle of the night]
Sarah Barlage Bilott: Rob, you need to tell me, what in the hell’s going on.
Rob Bilott: We’re being poisoned.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: Rob.
Rob Bilott: What? I mean it. DuPont is knowingly poisoning us.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: You mean the farmer, his land.
Rob Bilott: All of us.
[pause]
Rob Bilott: Please don’t look at me like that. They’re already poisoning the baby.

Sarah Barlage Bilott: Stop it! Just stop it, okay?! Do you hear yourself? You are acting like a crazy person. Tearing up our floor, scaring me half to death. I know it’s my job to support you, but that does not mean you get to come into our home, to our family, and tell me that our unborn child is being poisoned. No!
Rob Bilott: I’m sorry. Can I please explain?
Sarah Barlage Bilott: Explain what?!
Rob Bilott: All of it. And if you still think I’m crazy, I’ll drop it. I swear to God. I swear to you.

[to Sarah; referring to his findings about PFOA]
Rob Bilott: There is a man-made chemical. It was invented during the Manhattan Project. It repelled the elements, especially water. So they used it to make the first ever waterproof coating for tanks. It was indestructible. Then some companies thought, “Hey, why just the battlefield? Why not bring this chemical into American homes?”

Rob Bilott: [to Sarah] DuPont was one of those companies. So they took this chemical, PFOA, they renamed it C-8, and they made their own impenetrable coating, but not for tanks, for pans. They called it Teflon. A shining symbol of American ingenuity, made right here in the USA, in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Rob Bilott: [to Sarah] But right from the start, something wasn’t right. The men and workers who made Teflon were coming down with nausea, fevers. DuPont wanted to know why. So they laced cigarettes with Teflon. They told a group of the workers, “Hey, smoke these.” DuPonters did as they were told. Almost all those men were hospitalized.

[continuing his findings about PFOA to Tom]
Rob Bilott: So DuPont starts digging ditches on the grounds of the Washington Works plant. And in those pits, they dumped thousands of tons of toxic C-8 sludge and dust. One of the men that they hired to dig those ditches, was Wilbur Tennant’s brother Jim.

[continuing his explanation of his findings to Sarah]
Rob Bilott: It wasn’t like DuPont didn’t know that, because they were doing their own tests on rats. Watched their organs balloon. Now the rats are getting cancers. Tested them on pregnant rats and watched them give birth to pups with deformed eyes. So they yanked all the young women off the Teflon line, never told them why.

[continuing his explanation of his findings to Sarah]
Rob Bilott: And Sue Bailey’s job was scrubbing these huge steel vats where they held the liquid C-8. She was pregnant. She gave birth to a baby with one nostril and a deformed eye. So Sue goes to DuPont. She says, “Why did you pull me off the Teflon line? Did C-8 make my baby this way?” “No,” they tell her. Then all of her records from her time at Teflon disappear. One year later, they put all of the women back on Teflon and never say a thing.

[continuing his explanation of his findings to Sarah]
Rob Bilott: DuPont knew everything. They knew that the C-8 they put into the air, and buried into the ground for decades was causing cancers. They knew that their own workers were getting these cancers. They knew that the consumers too were being exposed. And not just in Teflon. In paints, in fabrics, in, uh, raincoats, boots. To this day.

Rob Bilott: [to Donnelly] For forty years, you knew C-8 was poison. You knew the Happy Pan was a ticking time bomb. And you knew exactly why. Because C-8, it stays in us forever. Our bodies are incapable of breaking it down. And knowing all of this, still you did nothing, because doing something, quote, “would essentially put the long-term viability of this product segment on the line,” end quote. You were making too much money.

[referring to DuPont]
Wilbur Tennant: Put them behind bars. Whole damn lot of them, rot in jail.
Rob Bilott: I understand, believe me, but this is a civil case. The most we can hope for is damages.
Wilbur Tennant: Don’t want no money! Whole damn world needs to see what they done!
Rob Bilott: You’re right. They should. And it kills me that they won’t. But that would mean going to trial and proving that C-8 killed your cows. And every scientist, who knows anything about any of this, already works for these chemical companies. That’s not an accident, Earl.

Rob Bilott: Earl, these companies, they have all the money, all the time, and they’ll use it. Trust me, I know, I was one of them.
Wilbur Tennant: You’re still one of them.
Rob Bilott: You can’t be serious. You know what I put on the line here?
Wilbur Tennant: You want a prize? Some medal because, for once in your life, you took the side of the little guy? Sorry, no prize. All you get is your share of this blood money. And you sleep real good tonight.

Wilbur Tennant: It ain’t just my cows that was poisoned. What you think I fed my family on?
Rob Bilott: Wilbur, please! Leave this place! Start over! Give your family a fighting chance!
Wilbur Tennant: Too late for that. We got it, Sandra and me, the cancer. Surprise, surprise.

Sarah Barlage Bilott: I can’t believe a freaking case settlement could shut this up.
Rob Bilott: Have you read their confidentiality agreements?
Sarah Barlage Bilott: You’ve uncovered a threat to the public. This goes beyond lawyering.
Rob Bilott: That’s all I know is lawyering.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: Fine. Then be the lawyer. You know DuPont better than anyone. What haven’t they thought of?

[after Rob sends DuPont documents to the federal government]
Tom Terp: You ever do anything like this again, I will cut your balls off and serve them to DuPont myself. Now get out of here. Good luck in Washington.
Rob Bilott: Thanks, Tom.

[Rob is talking to Parkersburg residents for his class-action suit]
Darlene Kiger: Oh, I was married before Joe, to a chemist at DuPont. Dream job. Paid real well. And the perks. Presents for no reason. We’d get this catalog. Just pick whatever you want. And little stuff. Like he’d bring home this soap, this miracle powder. You put it in the washing machine, or the dishwasher, just wipes stuff clean like you would not believe. One day, he comes home and says, “Can’t bring that stuff home no more.” “Why?” Won’t tell me. Then he’d get sick for weeks. The Teflon flu, the guys would call it. We knew something wasn’t right.

[after DuPont informs Parkersburg residents that non PFOA is in their water]
Rob Bilott: I mean, Jesus! It’s evil, Sarah. It’s f**king evil.
Young Teddy Bilott: What’s fack?
Sarah Barlage Bilott: Perfect. It’s nothing, sweetie. It’s nothing.

[at the law firm partners meeting]
Rob Bilott: That’s how long you have to file suit. One year from the moment you realize your water’s been contaminated. This letter looks like it’s telling people their water is safe. In fact, it’s notifying them that it isn’t. DuPont has started the clock.
David: Smart. We would’ve counseled that.
Rob Bilott: It was sent eleven months ago, the moment they realized we knew. In thirty days, they’re home free.

[at the law firm partners meeting]
James Ross: Rob, you want to flip. You want to take everything that you know, about how chemical companies operate, and turn it against DuPont, like an informant.
Tom Terp: That’s enough.
James Ross: Isn’t that right?
Tom Terp: Okay.
James Ross: Isn’t that right? Isn’t that right?
Rob Bilott: Yes.

[at the law firm partners meeting; referring to Rob]
Tom Terp: Has anyone even read the evidence this man has collected? The willful negligence? The corruption? Read it. And then tell me we should be sitting on our asses!
[bangs the table in anger]
Tom Terp: That’s the reason why Americans hate lawyers. This is the crap that fuels the Ralph Naders of the world. We should want to nail DuPont. All of us should! American business is better than this, gentlemen. And when it’s not, we should hold them to it. That’s how you build faith in the system. We’re always arguing that companies are people. Well, these people have crossed the line! To hell with them!

[as Rob is about to go into court, an ill looking Wilbur is brought in on a wheelchair by his wife]
Wilbur Tennant: Can’t let them shut you down.
Rob Bilott: Oh, I won’t. I promise.
Wilbur Tennant: Whole world needs to know.
Rob Bilott: They will, Earl. They will.

[referring to DuPont; being interviewed by a news reporter outside the courthouse]
Harry Dietzler: Their safety standards thing, that’s all a sham. Thanks to the judge’s decision, we will have our day in court. Because, if the state of West Virginia won’t stop the DuPont corporation from literally poisoning its citizens, then we, the citizens, will stop them ourselves.

[during a deposition]
Rob Bilott: In DuPont’s most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, you state, quote, “Based on over fifty years of industry experience, and extensive scientific study, DuPont believes there is no evidence that PFOA causes any adverse human health effects, or harms the environment.” You signed that legal filing, correct?
Charles Holliday: I don’t recall the exact statement, but that sounds right to me.
Rob Bilott: Are you aware that DuPont has, in its own files, studies dating back to the 1970s that say just the opposite? That PFOA, or C-8, as it’s called, has potentially life threatening effects on human health?
Charles Holliday: I’m not familiar with the exact studies we may have in our files.
Rob Bilott: Then I’ll take you through them.

[going through the evidence at the deposition]
Rob Bilott: Do you see this word here highlighted?
Charles Holliday: Yes.
Rob Bilott: Would you read it for me, please?
Charles Holliday: “Receptors.”
Rob Bilott: Do you know what that word refers to, receptors?
Charles Holliday: Um, in this context, I do not.
Rob Bilott: It means human beings. DuPont refers to the men and women that your company exposed to C-8 as receptors. And in these receptors, your scientists found, quote, “Significantly higher incidents of allergic endocrine and metabolic disorders,” end quote. As well as, quote, “Excess risk of developing liver disease.”

[during the deposition]
Edward Wallace: We’ve gone almost seven hours.
Rob Bilott: Mr. Holliday, you’re aware that, in 1981, 3M notified DuPont that it had conducted studies on rats, and these studies showed that sustained C-8 exposure can cause facial deformities?
Charles Holliday: I’m not aware of a study by 3M.
Rob Bilott: How about DuPont’s own studies that showed the same thing in humans? That’s DuPont’s pregnancy study from 1981. Does that look like a DuPont document to you?
Charles Holliday: It looks to be.
Rob Bilott: Are you aware that DuPont has denied that any such study ever even took place?
Charles Holliday: I’m not familiar with specific statements we’ve made about that.

Rob Bilott: Seven pregnant women, all DuPont employees, all from the Teflon line. Do you see this, here? Quote, “Child, four months, one nostril, eye defect,” end quote.
Charles Holliday: Yes.
Rob Bilott: Two of the seven women, nearly thirty percent, gave birth to babies that had the exact facial deformities that your company already knew about.
Edward Wallace: We’re done here.
[they all get up to leave]
Rob Bilott: Sir.
[shows Holliday a photo of Sue Bailey’s baby]
Rob Bilott: His parents named him Bucky. Bucky Bailey. This is your receptor. Now we’re done.

[after years have gone by with no results from medical monitoring to prove that PFOA causes illness, and Wilbur has died; Rob is eating in a diner with his family when approached by a man]
Man: My brother’s Dale Lamb. You took his blood, said you’d help him.
Rob Bilott: Yeah, I did. We’re working on that. I promise.
Man: He’s dead. Testicular cancer. Left three little boys, younger than yours. But you enjoy your family.

[Joe Kiger calls Rob as his family are harassed]
Joe Kiger: First, they blame us for suing DuPont, and now they hate on us because they ain’t seen nothing from it.
Rob Bilott: I’m sorry, Joe.
Joe Kiger: Well, that ain’t good enough! And they wonder why in the hell it takes four damn years to read a lousy blood sample, and I don’t blame them. We trusted you, Rob. We put our faith in you.

[as they are having breakfast before school]
Tony Bilott: What’s a hooker?
Sarah Barlage Bilott: Where did you learn that?
[referring to Teddy]
Tony Bilott: He told me that Mary Magdalene was a hooker.
[Sarah gives Teddy a disapproving look]
Teddy Bilott: What? She was.
Charles Bilott: You’re supposed to say prostitute.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: And then she found God and became one of Jesus’s most fervent disciples.
Teddy Bilott: See? I was just teaching him the Bible.

[as Rob and his family are under financial strain from him having to take pay cuts]
Sarah Barlage Bilott: Have I ever complained? Say something, for God’s sakes, Rob.
Rob Bilott: No.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: No?
Rob Bilott: No.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: No. Because I knew that you needed something, some connection, something. And so I took it on. But if you want to start accounting, if you want to start with, “Oh, can we afford,” then I don’t know, Rob. Can the boys afford a father who can’t string two words together? Can our marriage afford thirteen years of this? How about it, Rob? You want to talk about it? About our lives? Of course not.

Rob Bilott: Tom, our government is captive to DuPont. This case, it’s the only hope we have. They know that, and they’re trying to make it as expensive as they can to force you to make me stop.
Tom Terp: Just tell me how much longer.
Rob Bilott: I can’t. I wish I could.

[after Tom tells Rob he needs to take another pay cut, Rob collapses and is taken to hospital]
Neurologist: We think your husband’s most likely experienced a TIA, a transient ischemic attack. Blood is briefly cut off to the brain, mimicking the symptoms of a stroke.
Tom Terp: Excuse me. A TIA? This wasn’t short. It kept going on.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: What about poison?
Neurologist: I’m sorry?
Sarah Barlage Bilott: Could someone be be poisoning him?
Neurologist: No, Mrs. Bilott. This is neurological.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: You just said it wasn’t a stroke.
Neurologist: Well, not this time.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: What does that mean?
Neurologist: Well, it means that he needs to never miss his medication, and he needs to reduce all sources of stress in his life.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: He’s under enormous pressure at work.
Neurologist: Well, that needs to change. But he’s a young man. He shouldn’t be having these incidences.

[after Rob has had a minor stroke]
Sarah Barlage Bilott: I need you to stop making him feel like a failure.
Tom Terp: I appreciate the stress that your family must be going through.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: Please, don’t talk to me like I’m the wife. Did Rob ever tell you about, moving around as a kid?
Tom Terp: Um, I, uh…
Sarah Barlage Bilott: Ten times before senior year. No friends, no ties, no… Just him, his sister, his folks. And then I came along, and you came along. And, Taft, it’s not just a job. To him, it’s home. And he was willing to risk all that for a stranger who needed his help. Now, you and I may not know what that is, but it’s not failure.

[after seven years, a doctor from the scientific review calls Rob]
Rob Bilott: Doctor, please, can you, would you just please tell me what’s happened, what’s happening, what you’ve found out?
Dr. Karen Frank: Yes. Yes. You gave us an unprecedented amount of data. The largest epidemiological study in human history. It’s irrefutable. We have linked sustained exposure to C-8 to six categories of serious illness. Kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, preeclampsia, high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis. Three thousand five hundred and thirty-five people in the class already have these diseases. Many more will develop them. Thanks to you, the entire class will be monitored, and those who get sick can seek restitution. You did a good thing here, Mr. Bilott. You did good.
Rob Bilott: Thank you.

[referring to DuPont]
Rob Bilott: They’re tearing up our agreement, rejecting the science panel. They’re going to fight every claim in court. Thousands of claims. People, sick people, they’ll give up. They can’t fight DuPont.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: How can they go back on…?
Rob Bilott: Sarah.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: They can’t go back on everything.
Rob Bilott: Well, they’re a titan of industry. I mean, they can do whatever the hell they want. Nothing else matters.
Sarah Barlage Bilott: They can fight you all they want. It doesn’t take away from what you’ve done.
Rob Bilott: Of course it does. That’s exactly what it does. They want to show the world it’s no use fighting. “Look, everybody, even he can’t crack the maze, and he’s helped build it.” The system is rigged! They want us to think it’ll protect us, but that’s a lie. We protect us. We do. Nobody else. Not the companies, not the scientists, not the government. Us. A farmer with a twelvth grade education told me that. On day one, he knew, and I thought he was crazy. Isn’t that crazy?

[last lines; we see Rob taking one of the claims against DuPont to court]
Judge: So, three thousand five hundred and thirty-five claims. At a rate of four or five cases a year, we can all expect to be here till, well, the year 2890. If we’re lucky. Guess we’d better get started. Mrs. Johnson, is your attorney present?
Rob Bilott: Good morning, Your Honor. Rob Bilott for the plaintiff.
Judge: Oh, still here, huh?
Rob Bilott: Still here.
[we then are told on screen that Rob won his first three settlements, and finally DuPont settled the class action for $670.07 million, also PFOA is believed to be in the blood of every living creature, and thousands of chemicals are still unregulated, but Rob is still fighting]

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