Starring: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, Jack Harlow, Ron Perlman
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story: Apple TV+ heist thriller comedy directed by Doug Liman and written by Chuck Maclean and Casey Affleck. The Instigators (2024) centers on reluctant partners Rory (Matt Damon) and Cobby (Casey Affleck), a desperate father and an ex-con thrown together to rob a corrupt politician’s ill-gained earnings. But when the heist goes wrong, they’re chased by police, backward bureaucrats, and vengeful crime bosses. Desperate, they enlist Rory’s therapist (Hong Chau) to join their chaotic escape through the city, forcing them to work together to survive.
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33 Amusing Quotes from The Instigators
Rory: Look, I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. I’m doing all the right things, and I figured out a while back, it’s not going to get better. And so I told myself, “If this is how you still feel in a year, then you could cash in your ticket.”
Mr. Besegai: Each of you are looking at ten percent of about three hundred thousand.
Cobby: What if there’s more?
Mr. Besegai: Then you get more.
Cobby: And what if there’s less?
Mr. Besegai: Then you get less. That’s how a percentage works.
Rory: I need thirty-two thousand four hundred eighty dollars.
Mr. Besegai: Well, I mean, I need a fifteen inch c**k. But I’ll tell you the same thing God told me. “Maybe next time.”
Cobby: This your first job?
Rory: I know what I’m doing.
Cobby: A little late for a career change, ain’t it? What are you sixty?
Scalvo: What the f*** you doing?
Rory: Taking notes.
Scalvo: Taking notes? On a criminal f***ing conspiracy?
Rory: Yeah. It’s a lot of information.
Cobby: You’re giving us a LinkedIn profile on a guy. We’re robbing a restaurant. You’re acting like we’re in The Thomas Crown Affair.
Cobby: Are you all there? Like in your head?
Rory: Are you?
Cobby: No, but I’m aware of that.
Scalvo: Tie them up!
Cobby: We got like six zip ties, genius.
Mayor Miccelli: You know, like the great Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together because if we don’t, we most certainly will hang separate.”
Rory: You just hit a f***ing police car.
Cobby: Yeah, well, they got more.
Rory: Are you sure you know what you’re doing?
Cobby: I’m from Quincy. Hot-wiring cars was a part of the public school curriculum.
Cobby: Hey, do you ever laugh?
Rory: No.
Cobby: Well, you should try it. Life will f*** you up. And a laugh is all you got.
Cobby: The best memory of my whole life is me and my brother sitting on a stoop in a snowstorm. Whole street blanketed, city gone quiet, just listening to the snow fall on snow. It’s like silence, but better.
Rory: You don’t come across as someone who appreciates silence.
Dr. Donna Rivera: If I did what you’re asking, Rory, I would be breaking the law.
Rory: What if I took you hostage? No. I mean, with your permission. Like but then officially, legally, you’d be my hostage, and you have to do what I say.
Mayor Miccelli: I’m f***ed. And if I’m f***ed, you think I’m going to let anybody walk around this city unf***ed?
Mayor Miccelli: Jesus Christ, what the f*** happened to the city of Boston? You can’t find one mf’er to crack a mf’ing safe?
Cobby: [referring to the cops chasing them] Oh, look, our negotiators.
Dr. Donna Rivera: You think this is funny?
Cobby: It’s not not funny.
Dr. Donna Rivera: Rory, you are driving recklessly.
Rory: I’m in the middle of a high-speed car chase.
Dr. Donna Rivera: Think about the progress we were making. Think about the person you wanted to be.
Cobby: What kind of person did you want to be?
Dr. Donna Rivera: Rory, you’re in crisis.
Rory: No, I’m not. The situation is a crisis. I’m fine.
Dr. Donna Rivera: I liked you better when you were crying.
Cobby: How are you a psychiatrist and you make fun of people for crying?
Cobby: You know what? Just drive us off the bridge. Take us all out. I wouldn’t want to be shamed for expressing feelings.
Dr. Donna Rivera: [as they are being chased] Rory, you have to stop. You have to face your problems.
Cobby: Yeah, I’m going to lobby for not stopping the car.
Cobby: If we survive this, would you consider having a cup of coffee with me?
Dr. Donna Rivera: Do not f*** with me.
Cobby: Is that a no?
Dr. Donna Rivera: This man, Mr. Kelly, why wouldn’t he call the cops on you immediately?
Cobby: Because I’m like the son he never had.
Dr. Donna Rivera: Son he never had or never wanted?
Dr. Donna Rivera: I keep healthy boundaries.
Cobby: Oh, yeah. Like running around with a couple lowlifes, pretending to be a hostage?
Dr. Donna Rivera: You’re more comfortable feeling abandoned and alone. When someone tells you the truth, you talk so you don’t have to hear it.
Cobby: You know, I’m starting to understand why so many of your patients shoot themselves.
Rory: She’s our hostage.
Cobby: She’s our psychiatrist.
Dr. Donna Rivera: I’m not your psychiatrist.
Frank Toomey: You’re underpaid.
Dr. Donna Rivera: Yeah. No s**t.
Cobby: It’s a bullet wound.
Rory: There’s no way.
Cobby: What do you think it is? A charley horse?
Rory: You got a rip in your sweatshirt from crawling around on the floor. Here’s a solve for you. A needle and thread. That’s what fixes your problem.
Cobby: Being the only guy who was shot today before, I think I would know.
Cobby: [to Rivera] Alan’s our new hostage, but we don’t like him more than you.
Rory: I don’t want to die.
Dr. Donna Rivera: That took a lot of courage to say that. I’m really proud of you. Yes, Cobby.
Cobby: I also don’t want to die.
Dr. Donna Rivera: That’s good, Cobby.
Attorney Alan Flynn: I don’t want to die.
Cobby: Alan, you’re not a part of this.
Frank Toomey: Are you out of your f***ing minds?
Cobby: We are in treatment. Yeah.
Rory: [after they’re set free] I did laugh.
Cobby: When did you laugh?
Rory: Second time you got shot.
Cobby: I swear to God.