- Judge Julius Hoffman: And the record should reflect, that defendant Hoffman and I are not related.
- Abbie Hoffman: [sarcastic] Father, no!
- Judge Julius Hoffman: [bangs his gavel] Mr. Hoffman, are you familiar with contempt of court?
- Abbie Hoffman: It's practically a religion for me, sir.
- Lee Weiner: This is the Academy Awards of protests and as far as I'm concerned it's an honor just to be nominated.
- William Kunstler: Do you know why you're on trial here?
- Abbie Hoffman: We carried certain ideas across state lines. Not machine guns or drugs or little girls. Ideas. When we crossed from New York to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Ohio to Illinois, we had certain ideas. And for that, we were gassed, beaten, arrested, and put on trial.
- Abbie Hoffman: In 1861, Lincoln said in his inaugural address: 'When the people shall grow weary of their constitutional right to amend their government, they shall exert their revolutionary right to dismember and overthrow that government.' And if Lincoln had given that speech in Lincoln Park last summer, he'd be put on trial with the rest of us.
- William Kunstler: So, how do you overthrow or dismember, as you say, your government peacefully?
- Abbie Hoffman: In this country, we do it every four years.
- Richard Schultz: Do you have contempt for your government?
- Abbie Hoffman: I think the institutions of our democracy are wonderful things, that right now are populated by some terrible people.
- Richard Schultz: Please answer the question.
- Abbie Hoffman: Tell me again?
- Richard Schultz: Do you have contempt for your government?
- Abbie Hoffman: I'll tell you, Mr. Schultz, it's nothing compared to the contempt my government has for me.
- Reporter Jack: Why won't Bobby Seale let anyone represent him?
- Jerry Rubin: You've posed that question in the form of a lie.
- Reporter Jack: How much is it worth to you? What's your price?
- Abbie Hoffman: To call off the revolution?
- Reporter Jack: What's your price?
- Abbie Hoffman: My life.
- Abbie Hoffman: That's right, we're not goin' to jail because of what we did, we're goin' to jail because of who we are!
- Tom Hayden: What is that?
- Rennie Davis: I've been keeping a list every day. Americans who've been killed since the day we were arrested.
- Tom Hayden: Why?
- Rennie Davis: With the trial starting, it might get easy to forget who this is about.
- William Kunstler: We've dealt with jury tampering, wiretapping, a defendant that was literally gagged, and a judge who's been handing down rulings from the bench that would be considered wrong in Honduras, so I'm a little less interested in the law than I was when this trial began.
- William Kunstler: Maybe you don't want to call it the Conspiracy Office.
- Bernadine: They understand the irony, and appreciate the humour.
- William Kunstler: I wouldn't count on it.
- Bernadine: Most people are smart, Bill.
- William Kunstler: Well, if you believe that, you'll get your heart broken every day of your life.
- Richard Schultz: When you came to Chicago, were you hoping for a confrontation with the police?
- [pause]
- Richard Schultz: I'm concerned you have to think about it.
- Abbie Hoffman: Give me a moment, would you, friend? I've never been on trial for my thoughts before.
- Sondra: You can't give this speech in Chicago!
- Bobby Seale: Fred Hampton wants me there. Plane ticket.
- Sondra: Let Fred give the speech!
- Bobby Seale: Between Hayden and Hoffman there could be 5'000 people. It'd be nice to talk to 5'000 people.
- Sondra: Not while you're in trouble in Connecticut.
- Bobby Seale: Yes, well I'm in trouble - I'm the head of the Black Panthers, Sondra! When the hell am I not gonna be in trouble? Travel bag.
- Sondra: You're going to be in a lot more of it if you stand up and say 'Fry the pigs!'
- Bobby Seale: IF they attack me. You're taking it out of context.
- Sondra: So will every white person in America! Cops won't give a shit about context, and you don't have enough protection in Chicago.
- Bobby Seale: There's no place to be right now but in it.
- Sondra: But 'Fry the pigs'?
- Bobby Seale: IF they attack...
- Sondra: Dr. King...
- Bobby Seale: Is dead! He has a dream? Well now he has a fucking bullet in his head! Martin's dead, Malcom's dead, Medgar's dead, Bobby's dead, Jesus is dead. They tried it peacefully, we're gonna try something else.
- Tom Hayden: Are we using the trial to defend ourselves against very serious charges that could land us in prison for ten years, or to say a pointless "fuck you" to the establishment?
- Jerry Rubin: Fuck you!
- Tom Hayden: That is what I was afraid... Wait, I don't know if you were saying "fuck you" or answering.
- Abbie Hoffman: ...I was also confused.
- Abbie Hoffman: Winning elections, that's the first thing on your wish list? Equality, justice, education, poverty and progress, they're second?
- Tom Hayden: If you don't win elections, it doesn't matter what's second. And it is astonishing to me that someone still has to explain that to you.
- William Kunstler: Of course, because you took that black guy and you made him a sympathetic character.
- Judge Julius Hoffman: Mr. Kunstler, I have lived a a very long time, sir, and you're the first person ever to suggest that I have discriminated against a black man!
- Leonard Weinglass: Then let the record show that I am the second.
- Ramsey Clark: I'm in private practice now, and if John Mitchell wants to cut me in half, he can and he will.
- Tom Hayden: You have to find some... Sir, you have to find some courage now.
- Ramsey Clark: Find some courage? Yeah.
- Tom Hayden: Yes. You have to find some courage, and...
- Leonard Weinglass: [silencing him] Tom.
- Ramsey Clark: [points at Kelly and Ackerman] That's what those two men came to tell me, that if John Mitchell wants to cut me in half, he can and he will. So I wanted them in the room when I said 'When do you want me in court?'
- Howard Ackerman: [standing in surprise] Mr. Clark?
- William Kunstler: I'm sorry?
- Ramsey Clark: Swear me in, Bill.
- Howard Ackerman: It is against the law for you to testify, Ramsey. It is as simple as that.
- Ramsey Clark: It's General Clark. And arrest me or shut the fuck up.
- Ramsey Clark: [turns to Hayden] Found some.
- Detective Deluca: [to Tom] Don't fuckin' move.
- Detective Bell: [also to Tom] On your feet.
- Tom Hayden: Those are two contradictory instructions.
- [after being informed of Fred Hampton's murder]
- Bobby Seale: [to Tom Hayden] You've all got the same father, right? 'Cut your hair, don't be a fag, respect authority, respect America - respect me.' Your life, it's a 'fuck-you' to your father, right? A little?
- Tom Hayden: Maybe.
- Bobby Seale: Maybe. And you can see how that's different from a rope on a tree?
- Tom Hayden: [quietly] Yeah.
- Bobby Seale: Yeah. He was shot in the shoulder first. You can't aim a gun if you've been shot in the shoulder, you can't squeeze the trigger. Second shot was in his head. Fred was executed. Anything else?
- William Kunstler: No.
- [Bobby leaves the room without another word]
- Bernadine: [answering the phone] Conspiracy Office, how can I help you?
- [pause]
- Bernadine: No sir, I am a white woman.
- [pause]
- Bernadine: Yeah, I've slept with several in my life so far, and on balance, I'd have to say yes, it is better, and to tell you the truth, I think that's a big part of what's got you worked up.
- Leonard Weinglass: Hang up the phone.
- Bernadine: It's not even so much that it's bigger, it's just better, you know what I mean?
- Leonard Weinglass: Hang up the phone.
- [she does]
- Leonard Weinglass: Was that a parting gift for Bobby?
- Bernadine: No. That was just for me.
- Abbie Hoffman: This is a political trial that was already decided for us. Ignoring that reality is just weird to me.
- William Kunstler: There are civil trials, and there are criminal trials. There's no such thing as a political trial.
- Abbie Hoffman: [scoffs] Okay...
- Walter Cronkite: A Democratic Convention is about to begin... in a police state. There just doesn't seem to be any other way to say it.
- Abbie Hoffman: A guy once said, "I am come to set a man at variance with his father. And the daughter against her mother." You know who said it? It was Jesus Christ. Matthew 10:34"
- Agent Daphne O'Connor: Jerry, do you know why the French only eat one egg for breakfast?
- Jerry Rubin: No.
- Agent Daphne O'Connor: Because in France, one egg... is un oeuf.
- Richard Schultz: Who started the riots? Was it the protesters or was it the police?
- John Mitchell: The police don't start riots.
- Richard Schultz: They'll have witnesses who say they started this one.
- John Mitchell: And you'll dismantle them, and you'll win, because, Mr. Schultz, that's what's expected of you.
- Abbie Hoffman: You think we were responsible?
- Richard Schultz: I think you got the result you were looking for.
- Abbie Hoffman: So did Nixon.
- Richard Schultz: How about that.
- Abbie Hoffman: [to Dave, Jerry , Rennie, Daphne and their supporters about the crowd behind them] Keep 'em movin'. Dave and I are gonna to stay and make Tom's bail.
- Rennie Davis: [shouting to the crowd] Back to the park.
- Abbie Hoffman: [quietly to Dave] I don't carry money, do you?
- David Dellinger: I do. I'm a grown man.
- [last lines]
- Crowd: [voice over, shouting] "The whole world is watching."
- Lee Weiner: Think it's possible that there were seven protesters in Chicago last summer leading 10,000 undercover cops in protest?
- Rennie Davis: You don't send a woman to, to ensorcel me...
- Abbie Hoffman: What?
- Rennie Davis: It means "to enchant"!
- Abbie Hoffman: Oh.
- Rennie Davis: ...only to have her crush my soul!
- Richard Schultz: How long did you two know each other?
- Rennie Davis: Ninety-three hours. Could have been a lifetime.
- Richard Schultz: For a fruit fly. Enjoy your weekend.
- Rennie Davis: Is... is that even ethical? Aren't there ethics rules?
- Abbie Hoffman: Did she engage with you sexually?
- Rennie Davis: We were taking it slow.
- [first lines]
- Lyndon B. Johnson: I have today ordered to Vietnam the Airmobile Division, and certain other forces which will raise our fighting strength from seventy-five thousand to one hundred twenty-five thousand men almost immediately. This will make it necessary to increase our active fighting forces by raising the monthly draft call from seventeen thousand to thirty-five thousand.
- David Dellinger: I've organized 100 protests. This one will be no different in that it almost certainly won't work.
- Jerry Rubin: [shouting at the police] You're pigs! Your children are pigs!
- Rennie Davis: We should leave their children out of it.
- Jerry Rubin: ...you're right, I know, you're right.
- Tom Hayden: Is that Jerry?
- Rennie Davis: [on the phone] Yeah.
- Tom Hayden: Tell him to tell Abbie we're going to Chicago to end the war and not to fuck around.
- Rennie Davis: [into the phone] Tom says to tell Abbie that we're going to Chicago to end the war and not to fuck around.
- Jerry Rubin: Hayden says we're going to Chicago to end the war and not to fuck around.
- Abbie Hoffman: Tell Hayden that I went to Brandeis and I can do both.
- Jerry Rubin: Did they manipulate the jury pool? How come there's no one that looks like me?
- William Kunstler: Okay raise your hands if any of you have ever shown up for jury duty.
- [pause]
- William Kunstler: No? Then shut the fuck up.
- Fred Hampton: Bobby's life is at stake, and you guys are playing to the crowd?
- Tom Hayden: Thank you...
- Fred Hampton: Shut up!
- William Kunstler: Your friends shouldn't sit together. The jury's not going to like that.
- Bobby Seale: This isn't my jury, and if they don't like it...
- Fred Hampton: No, he's right.
- [to the group of Panthers]
- Fred Hampton: Spread out, okay? In pairs.
- William Kunstler: And Fred?
- [Gestures to head]
- Bobby Seale: No, they're dressed just fine.
- Fred Hampton: It's alright.
- [to Panthers, sarcastically]
- Fred Hampton: And take your very scary hats off.
- Judge Julius Hoffman: Would the defense like to cross examine the witness?
- Bobby Seale: Yes. I'm sittin' here saying that I would like to cross examine the witness.
- Judge Julius Hoffman: Only lawyers can address a witness.
- Bobby Seale: My lawyer is Charles Garry.
- Judge Julius Hoffman: I'm tired of hearing that.
- Bobby Seale: Couldn't care less what you're tired of.
- Judge Julius Hoffman: What did you say?
- Bobby Seale: [Stands up, louder] I said it would be impossible for me to care any less what you are tired of, and I demand to cross examine the witness.
- Leonard Weinglass: Abbie's smarter than you think he is.
- Tom Hayden: Cows are smarter than I think he is.