Operation Mincemeat (2021)

Ian Fleming: In any story, if it's a good story, there is that which is seen and that which is hidden. This is especially true in stories of war...

Ewen Montagu: ... But the real tribute tonight goes to Iris, my brilliant wife, who in the morning, sails to less troubled shores with our nestlings in tow. Iris is wiser than Solomon, stronger than Samson and more patient than Job... She has to be. She's married to me.

Ewen Montagu: Why do you call Godfrey "M"?
Ian Fleming: Because I called my mother "M." The most terrifying, most impossible, most demanding creature I've ever known.

Ewen Montagu: The plan will work if we make it work.

Ewen Montagu: Well, what say we start with the easy part and find ourselves a corpse?

Charles Cholmondeley: If you could point me to a girl who would give us her photograph...
Jean Leslie: But what would her photograph be used for?
Charles Cholmondeley: Well, I'm afraid that's classified. But, erm, by donating her image, she'd be involved in and on the ground floor of a significant operation.
Jean Leslie: Operation Trojan Horse?
Charles Cholmondeley: It's been renamed. Something less obvious. Operation Mincemeat.
Jean Leslie: Due to the dead body.
Charles Cholmondeley: You surmised that rather quickly.

Winston Churchill: You would put the fate of one Russian spy over tens of thousands in Sicily?
Admiral Godfrey: With respect, Prime Minister, I'm trying to look at the bigger picture. Russia may be our ally at the moment, but she was until recently in a pact with Germany. I believe she will soon be our enemy again.

Winston Churchill: This is the problem when one is dealing with spooks. You do see it? The corkscrew thinking required to manage spies sometimes twists one too many turns until one finds oneself charging forward while at the same time looking out of one's own arse.
Admiral Godfrey: I assume you're referring to me.
Winston Churchill: Russia is tomorrow's war. The Nazis are expecting a deception. Which means that our effort must be unbelievable enough to make it believable. The plan is risky. It's also highly implausible. Meaning that all the reasons it shouldn't work are the same reasons the Germans might believe it's true. So when can it be ready?
Admiral Godfrey: Er... Immediately?
Winston Churchill: Correct.

Ewen Montagu: As you just heard, Miss Michael, the prime minister has approved the plan to make your brother a hero.
Charles Cholmondeley: We do understand that this is the most enormous sacrifice. But his service... he can save literally thousands, tens of thousands of lives.

Ewen Montagu: My life is complicated. It's not an excuse or a defence or anything, really. Only to say...

Ewen Montagu: The fate of the free world dependent on a corpse in a donkey cart.

Hester Leggett: Every marriage has its difficulties and disappointments. Haven't we all had our hearts broken over the years?

Ewen Montagu: I don't need you to remind me of my sins. I only wonder how you reconcile yourself with yours.

Admiral Godfrey: If it were up to me, I would postpone Sicily and have you drawn and quartered.
Ewen Montagu: No doubt the prime minister has been informed? What does he want to do?
Admiral Godfrey: The prime minister does not want to postpone Sicily. I pray we can all live with the consequences.

Charles Cholmondeley: I may vomit.
Ewen Montagu: I may vomit with you.

Ewen Montagu: Every, er, piece of intelligence says that the Nazis are waiting for us in Greece. And every piece of intelligence may be the greatest deception the Nazis have ever played against us.
Charles Cholmondeley: Why do you think Churchill still believes this can work?
Ewen Montagu: Because he has to.

Ewen Montagu: In God's name, Fleming, what are you writing?
Ian Fleming: Spy story.

—
+ Quotes on the IMDb
+ Soundtracks