Capt. Ray Tower, USN Quotes in Missing (1982)

U.S. Ambassador: We're not involved, Mr Horman. Our position has been completely neutral.

Ed Horman: That is a bald face lie, sir. How can you say a thing like that when you have army colonels, you have naval engineers, they're all over Viña Del Mar!

U.S. Ambassador: Please sit down. Look, it's very obvious you're harbouring some misconception regarding our role here.

Ed Horman: What is your role here? Besides inducing a regime that murders thousands of human beings?

U.S. Ambassador: Let's level with each other, sir. If you hadn't been personally involved in this unfortunate incident, you'd be sitting at home complacent and more or less oblivious to all of this. This mission is pledged to protect American interests, our interests.

Ed Horman: Well, they're not mine.

U.S. Ambassador: There are over three thousand US firms doing business down here. And those are American interests. In other words, your interests. I am concerned with the preservation of a way of life.

Capt. Ray Tower, USN: And a damned good one.

Ed Horman: [Staring out the window] Maybe that's why there's nobody out there.

U.S. Ambassador: You can't have it both ways.

Capt. Ray Tower, USN: I don't know what happened to your kid, Ed. But I understand he was a bit of a snoop. Poked his nose around in a lot of dangerous places where he didn't really belong. Now, suppose I went up to your town, New York, and I started messing around with the Mafia. I wind up dead in the East River. And my wife or my father complains to the police because they didn't protect me. They really wouldn't have much of a case, would they? You play with fire, you get burned.

Capt. Ray Tower, USN: You gotta learn to stay ahead of the power curve, kid.