Extreme Measures

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Extreme Measures
original film poster
Directed by	Michael Apted
Produced by	Elizabeth Hurley
Written by	Tony Gilroy
Starring	Hugh Grant Gene Hackman
Music by	Danny Elfman
Cinematography	John Bailey
Editing by	Rick Shaine
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	September 27, 1996
Running time	118 min.
Language	English
Budget	$38 Million (USD)
IMDb profile

For the DS9 episode see Extreme Measures (DS9 episode).

Extreme Measures is a 1996 thriller film about the ethics of how far we are willing to go, and how much we are willing to sacrifice, in order to cure the world's ills.

Tagline: Not all surgery is intended to cure.

[edit] Primary cast

• Hugh Grant .... Dr. Guy Luthan
• Gene Hackman .... Dr. Lawrence Myrick
• Sarah Jessica Parker .... Jodie Trammel
• David Morse .... FBI Agent Frank Hare
• Bill Nunn .... Det. Bob Burke
• John Toles-Bey .... Bobby
• Paul Guilfoyle .... Dr. Jeffrey Manko
• Debra Monk .... Dr. Judith Gruszynski

[edit] Plot

Dr. Guy Luthan (Hugh Grant) is a New York emergency room doctor who one night comes across a strange patient: a homeless man who has a wristband from a hospital he's not familiar with, mentioning a drug he's never heard of, and with strange symptoms, including a wildly fluctuating heart rate. When the patient dies on him, Guy attempts to follow up and find out more about the patient - only to find that the body and all records have disappeared, and he's told by his superiors to drop the case.

As he continues trying to find out what happened, his personal and professional life get suddenly sidetracked. He's accused of having cocaine in his apartment, and thus loses his job and virtually all of his friends. In desperation, he manages to get the help of some homeless men, who lead him to a place where homeless people congregate. These people are among the ones where the homeless man Guy originally treated. Through them, he's led to an organization, led by Dr. Myrick (Hackman) who are performing experiments on live humans, in an attempt to find a cure for paralysis.

[edit] Quotes

Quotes:

• Dr. Lawrence Myrick: "People die everyday. And for what? For nothing. What do we do? What do *you* do? You take care of the ones you think you can save. Good doctors do the correct thing. Great doctors have the guts to do the right thing. Your father had those guts."
• Dr. Guy Luthan:' Those men upstairs, maybe there isn't much point to their lives. Maybe they are doing a great thing for the world. Maybe they are heroes. But they didn't choose to be. You chose for them. And you can't do that, because you're a doctor, and you took an oath. I don't care if you find a cure for every disease on the planet! You tortured and murdered those men upstairs, and that makes you a disgrace to your profession!