Movie Info
Starring: Miles Teller, Jonah Hill, Ana de Armas, J. B. Blanc, Bradley Cooper
Story: Comedy bio-drama directed and co-written by Todd Phillips, based on the Rolling Stone article by Guy Lawson. War Dogs (2016) follows David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli (Miles Teller and Jonah Hill), two friends in Miami who exploit a government program allowing small businesses to bid on military contracts during the Iraq War. Starting small, they quickly rake in big money but get in over their heads when they land a $300 million deal to arm the Afghan Military, involving them with shady characters, including the US government.
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Top War Dogs Quotes
David Packouz: My name is David Packouz. And I’m an international arms dealer.
David Packouz: What do you know about war? They’ll tell you it’s about patriotism, democracy, or some s**t about the other guy hating our freedom. But you want to know what it’s really about? What do you see? A kid from Arkansas doing his patriotic duty to defend his country? I see a helmet, fire-retardant gloves, body armor and an M16. I see seventeen thousand five hundred dollars. That’s what it costs to outfit one American soldier. Over two million soldiers fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. It cost the American taxpayer 4.5 billion dollars each year just to pay the air conditioning bills for those wars. And that’s what war is really about.
David Packouz: War is an economy. Anybody who tells you otherwise is either in on it or stupid. But I didn’t know that yet.
Efraim Diveroli: I was twenty-two years-old massaging rich dudes in Miami Beach for seventy-five bucks an hour. But I’d had enough. It was time to change s**t up. And I had a big idea.
Efraim Diveroli: You keep supplying the guns, we’ll keep killing the bad guys. God bless you.
David Packouz: I thought you said that you sold like seized weapons to gun nuts on the internet.
Efraim Diveroli: Not anymore. Now I only sell to one gun nut.
David Packouz: Oh, yeah? Which one?
Efraim Diveroli: The US Military, m**herf***er! Want to do a bong hit?
Efraim Diveroli: Everybody’s fighting over the same pie. But they’re ignoring the crumbs. I live on crumbs, like a rat.
David Packouz: I mean, no offense, but I’m against this war. Me and Iz are going to rallies and signing petitions.
Efraim Diveroli: Yeah, dude, I’m against the war too. I f***ing hate Bush. But this isn’t about being pro-war. The war is happening. This is about being pro-money.
Efraim Diveroli: All the money is made between the lines.
Efraim Diveroli: They call guys like us War Dogs. Bottom feeders who make money off of war without every stepping foot on the battlefield. It was meant to be derogatory, but we kind of liked it.
Efraim Diveroli: When does telling the truth ever help anybody?
David Packouz: As far as they’re concerned they’re sending five thousand Berettas to a country they have no issue with. All we have to do is ship the guns from Jordan to Baghdad. It’s called circumvention. Is that legal?
Efraim Diveroli: It’s not illegal. Want to try?
Efraim Diveroli: Jordanian customs seized our Berettas.
David Packouz: What? Why?
Efraim Diveroli: I don’t f***ing know, David! I dropped out of high school before they covered international diplomacy!
Iz: You told me you guys were selling bed sheets.
David Packouz: Yeah. And I also told you that we were selling other stuff too.
Iz: I thought you meant pillows!
Efraim Diveroli: [cutting through the line at a Middle Eastern airport] Sorry. Don’t worry, I have to go first. I’m American.
David Packouz: Do you seriously want to drive to Baghdad?
Efraim Diveroli: David, we’re gun runners. Let’s go run some f***ing guns.
David Packouz: Is this safe, driving to Baghdad?
Marlboro: Yes. Very safe. Fifty-fifty.
David Packouz: Fifty-fifty? What like fifty percent we live, fifty percent we die?
Marlboro: Yes. This is why we drive through night. It is much safer.
David Packouz: How much safer?
Marlboro: Fifty-fifty.
David Packouz: Bro, what the f***!
David Packouz: Six months ago, I was a massage therapist in Miami Beach. And now, here I was, driving a truckload of guns through the Iraqi desert with my best friend from junior high.
Efraim Diveroli: [to David] This is the job. To do business with the people in places the US government can’t do business with directly. It’s as simple as that.
News Anchor: The story tonight that has Pentagon officials scrambling. How did two twenty-something young men land a big Pentagon contract?
Henry Girard: [to David and Efraim] I’m not a bad man, but in a certain situation I have to ask myself, “What would a bad man do?”