Person of Interest (TV Series)

Deus Ex Machina (2014)

Leslie Odom Jr.: Peter Collier

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Quotes 

• Harold Finch : It had to be a closed system. It was the only way to protect people's rights.

  Peter Collier : You expect us to believe you gave one thought about people's rights as you were building the government a weapon of mass surveillance?

  Harold Finch : It's not a weapon.

  Peter Collier : What else would you call it?

  Harold Finch : I would call it the best I could do.

  Peter Collier : And it never occurred to you the damage this thing could do, the lives it could destroy?

  Harold Finch : It occurred to me on day one, Mr. Collier, and every day since. If you're asking me if I feel at ease with what I've created, or whether it was the right or the wrong thing to do, I honestly don't know. But I designed the machine in part because I was worried, and I remain worried, about what someone else might build someone who wasn't worried.

  [looks at Greer] 

• Harold Finch : Stop. I can help you. The questions you're asking, I know the answers.

  Peter Collier : Really? How do you know?

  Harold Finch : Because I built it.

  Peter Collier : You built it? One man is responsible for the most invasive surveillance technology in the world?

  Harold Finch : I'm good with computers.

• Control : Where you were when Flight 77 hit the Pentagon? Because I was inside it. I carried out the wounded. I covered up bodies. and I have spent every day since putting bullets in the people responsible and in anyone else who even thinks that they can do that to our country again. You want to shoot me because I had to tap a phone calls, read a few e-mails, then you go right ahead. But you'd better turn that gun on yourself next, Mr. Collier, because you have broken just as many laws, and the only difference is I didn't wrap myself up in the American flag and try to convince people I was a hero.

  Peter Collier : I believe you love your country. I believe that when you started, people thought what you were doing made a lot of sense. But it's gone too far and it has to stop.

• Peter Collier : Senator, you've denied any knowledge of Northern Lights, yet your name appears in these documents some 37 times.

  Senator Ross Garrison : Maybe you shouldn't believe everything you read on the Internet.

• Peter Collier : What is Research? I have here more than 300 pages documenting illegal wiretaps, interrogations, and assassinations carried out by Northern Lights all using information from something called Research, and all from one two-week period. Now, no bureaucracy moves that fast, so let me rephrase the question. Is Research an automated system? Is it a machine?

  Control : As a sworn officer of the US government, I can neither confirm nor deny anything pertaining to this matter, and I will say the same damn thing to every other question until the moment you put that gun to my head and pull the trigger.

• Peter Collier : Sooner or later, the truth will come out.

  John Greer : To quote Benjamin Franklin, "Three may keep a secret, as long as two of them are dead".

  [Collier is shot. Gunmen turns to Finch] 

  John Greer : I'm glad that you've lived long enough to see the dawn of the new world you created, Harold, but the time has come for your god and mine to do battle, and regrettably, our paths diverge here.

• Peter Collier : Welcome to your trial, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the trial of the United States government. Court is now in session.

  Sameen Shaw : [Watching video]  Anyone else want to shoot this guy?

  George Hersh : Little bit.

• Harold Finch : I'm willing to tell you whatever you want to know, but only if you agree to spare the lives of everyone else in this courtroom.

  Peter Collier : Well, before we release anybody, we need to hear your testimony first.

  Harold Finch : [Harold walks to the stand]  On September the 12th, 2001, I began coding in a complex surveillance system that would be known by many code names over the years, although I always just called it the machine.

• Peter Collier : Mr. Rivera, what is Northern Lights?

  Manuel Rivera : I had nothing to do with that.

  Peter Collier : Really? The Intelligence Advisor to the President had nothing to do with a secret intelligence program? People would like to submit exhibits A1 through A46, classified documents detailing the secret operations of Northern Lights. Care to guess how many of these documents bear your signature?

  Manuel Rivera : Who do you think you are?

  Peter Collier : Are you or are you not part of a vast sustained criminal conspiracy...

  Manuel Rivera : Who the hell are you?

  Peter Collier : ...to spy on every woman, man, and child in the US.

  Manuel Rivera : [shouting over Collier]  You have no power, and the only criminal here is you, and your terrorist organization!

  [Collier shoots him] 

  Peter Collier : So who's ready to tell the truth and nothing but the truth?

• Harold Finch : By the time we turned it over to the government in 2009, the machine had helped stop 54 terrorist attacks, saving an estimated 4,000 lives. I don't know how many it's saved since.

  Peter Collier : So even though Northern Lights was shut down, your machine was still operational. Where is it now?

  Harold Finch : I'm afraid not even I know that.

  Peter Collier : Do you have access to it? Can we turn it off?

  Harold Finch : You have nothing to fear from my system, Mr. Collier, I assure you.

  Peter Collier : You'll forgive me if I don't take you at your word.

  Harold Finch : The machine's only output is a number. That's all the government ever gets, just a nudge to say, there's something you should look at here, and that's up to us to figure that out.

  Peter Collier : So it brands people as suspects, guilty until proven innocent!

  Harold Finch : No, not my intention.

  Peter Collier : THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!

• Peter Collier : Go ahead and kill me. Damage is already done. Everyone in the world heard the testimony in that courtroom tonight.

  John Greer : Mr. Collier, who do you think makes the equipment that you used to transmit? Your trial was broadcast to a single office on the other side of town where a handful of computers led you to believe that the whole world was watching. It's high time you and I had a talk about the true nature of Vigilance.

  Peter Collier : You don't know anything about us.

  John Greer : Oh, I know a great deal more than you think. After all, tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. You didn't really believe this was a democracy, did you? Your grassroots movement has been meticulously planned from the beginning. In fact, I recruited you myself.

  Harold Finch : Decima created Vigilance? Why?

  John Greer : our machine did its job too well. I had remind Senator Garrison and his ilk of just how bad things could be. And what better way to remind them than a fresh atrocity on American soil?

  Peter Collier : What atrocity? In all our dealings, we never killed one innocent person.

  John Greer : [Ominous]  Not until now.

• Senator Ross Garrison : I told you, I had nothing to do with the development of Northern Lights. Damn thing was up and running when I was read in. I just got stuck with cleaning up the mess.

  Peter Collier : Hardly seems fair that your life should be in danger for someone else's misdeeds. So if you're not the guy, who is?

  [Garrison tries, and fails, to avoid glancing at Control] 

  Peter Collier : It never was a guy that was in control, was it? You may step down, Senator. You care to join us, ma'am?

  John Greer : [Whispers to Harold]  Well, this should be fun.

• Peter Collier : We need to adjust our sights.

  Madison : Our sights?

  Peter Collier : This is an information war. We need to go after the people who control it, abuse it, destroy people's lives, and answer to no one.

  Adams : Now you're talking. What do you have in mind?

  Peter Collier : A statement. Someone who represents everything that's wrong with an unchecked Orwellian state. And we put them in the crosshairs, and we teach them a lesson no one will forget.