InAlienable (2007)

Erick Avari: Howard Ellis

Quotes 

• [Amanda is visiting Ellis, an eccentric attorney] 

  Howard Ellis : I know there're aliens out there. At least, I'm pretty sure there're aliens out there. I mean, how else would you explain Andy Kaufman or Jim Carrey?

• Howard Ellis : Why would the FBI guy...

  Amanda Mayfield : I don't know! He was doing his job, you know. Maybe, maybe he just wasn't happy about it. Not that it matters, anyway. Because you think I'm making this up.

  [She gets up and walks toward the door] 

  Howard Ellis : It's an impossible case.

  Amanda Mayfield : I know.

  Howard Ellis : Impossible. I'll take it!

• [after seeing the footage of Eric playing with Benjamin] 

  Howard Ellis : It's not a fake. It's a real life alien. My first fucking alien!

  [He bursts into laughter] 

  Howard Ellis : I knew it! I knew it, I knew it!

• Amanda Mayfield : [alarmed]  Who are you calling?

  Howard Ellis : The first line of defense is to keep the government from doing anything to Benjamin. The way to do that is to go public with this. Put it out there for everyone to see and freeze the Feds in their tracks. The Society of Alternative Explanations, they have an uncanny way of arousing media interest.

• [Howard and Amanda are in a restaurant with Crystal Barry and the Blue Skinned Woman. He hands two DVDs to Crystal] 

  Howard Ellis : So, view the DVDs, upload them to the Internet, link to every science fiction and science fact site there is. We need to get the word out.

  Crystal Barry : Telepathically? Or a letter-writing campaign?

  Howard Ellis : I think we'll stay with the letter-writing. I want 20,000 letters to Amnesty International and the Council on Human Rights.

  [to Amanda] 

  Howard Ellis : If we go to the Justice Department, they'll just freeze us out.

  Crystal Barry : What about the Earthling press?

  Howard Ellis : Avoid the tabloids at all costs. Especially The World, The Globe, and that rag, The Star.

  Crystal Barry : The New York Times?

  Howard Ellis : Uh-huh.

  Crystal Barry : The Rolling Stone? Wall Street Journal?

  Blue Skinned Woman : [in a very New York, non-alien dialect]  Unhhh. I work for The Wall Street Journal!

• Howard Ellis : The United States government is holding Benjamin without good cause and is going to have to defend its actions. Even an alien has inalienable rights. I filed a writ!

• Judge Deville : I have a writ of habeas corpus. Who speaks for the petitioner?

  Howard Ellis : Howard Ellis, your Honor, for the petitioner.

  Judge Deville : Jesus. And who speaks for the respondant?

  Attorney Barry : Victoria Barry, Deputy Attorney General on behalf of the United States. Your Honor, the government objects to this entire proceeding and moves that this petition be dismissed.

  Judge Deville : On what grounds?

  Attorney Barry : The court lacks jurisdiction.

  Judge Deville : Why is that?

  Attorney Barry : The petitioner is an alien, your Honor.

  Judge Deville : I know that.

  Attorney Barry : From another planet.

  Judge Deville : They usually are.

  Howard Ellis : Not from another planet, your Honor: the child was born here!

  Judge Deville : I know that!

  Howard Ellis : To a human father.

  Attorney Barry : We don't know that!

• Howard Ellis : [making opening remarks on the second day of trial]  The government will argue that Benjamin is so unnatural an occurrence, so abnormal, despite the presence of human DNA, that he has no birthright and, in fact, belongs to no one. True, Benjamin is different. So is a Down Syndrome baby or a child born with a genius IQ. Would anyone dare suggest that the United States government has the right to detain, to conduct experiments on, and deprive a child the love and comfort of a parent just because he's different? What does that sound like to you, your Honor? Do I have to click my boots to make the point?

• [Amanda is on the stand in the courtroom] 

  Howard Ellis : Dr. Mayfield, what is the nature of your relationship with Eric Norris?

  Amanda Mayfield : We're colleagues.

  Howard Ellis : Anything else?

  Amanda Mayfield : We were lovers.

  Howard Ellis : To the best of your knowledge, does he have any other lovers?

  Amanda Mayfield : No. In fact, he explained to me that before our relationship, he'd been celibate for many years.

  Howard Ellis : [Ellis turns around to address Barry]  Would you care to object to that as hearsay, Miss Barry?

  Attorney Barry : No. But I wouldn't boast about it, either.

• [Speaking to a witness on the stand] 

  Howard Ellis : What is your profession, sir?

  Professor Randolph Barnett : I was the Carmack Whitehouse Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University.

  Howard Ellis : The petitioner maintains that the United States government is holding Benjamin without cause. This flies in the face of habeas corpus, does it not?

  Professor Randolph Barnett : Well, habeas corpus is the most important safeguard of personal freedom we have against arbitrary state action; and for all practical purposes, it's a hundred times more important than constitutional guarantees of individual liberty.

  Howard Ellis : Now, it's been determined by scientists - employed by the federal government - that approximately 12 percent of the genetic material found in Benjamin is mirrored in the DNA of Dr. Eric Norris. Now, in your expert opinion, sir, would this qualify the subject in question to the rights and privileges of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights, including the writ of habeas corpus?

  Professor Randolph Barnett : Well, when I was younger, considerably younger, people's rights in some states in this country were determined by what percentage of his genetic inheritance was white and what percentage was of another race. An octaroon, for example, is a person whose blood is one-eighth African American. And it was a crime for such a person to vote or to marry someone who was black. And that racist law was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1967.

  Howard Ellis : Do you see any difference, sir, in restricting the rights of a person who is one-eighth black and denying the writ of habeas corpus to Benjamin because he is one-eighth human blood?

  Professor Randolph Barnett : I do not.

• [Shilling is on the witness stand] 

  Shilling : Dr. Norris lost his wife and son in an automobile accident eight years ago. He's never been able to let that go.

  Attorney Barry : In what way, sir?

  Shilling : He's a sullen, detached man, with very few friends.

  Howard Ellis : Objection, your Honor!

  Judge Deville : Overrruled.

  Attorney Barry : And yet you've kept him on all these years. Why is that?

  Shilling : Well, actually, those are probably good qualities to have in a research scientist.