"Let me get this straight. You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands, and your plan is to blackmail this person? [beat]... Good luck!"
— Lucius Fox, The Dark Knight
Pitt: Congressman Daggat is about to retire from the blackmail game. He doesn't have the talent for it. He wouldn't last ten minutes against a tried and true professional.
Daggat: Like yourself?
Pitt: No, like my father.
Daggat: Like yourself?
Pitt: No, like my father.
— Dirk Pitt Adventures: Vixen 03
Only the thing about blackmail it doesn't work does it, if everyone knows the secret.
— Carla Conner, Coronation Street
Callie: (smiling smugly) So, here's the deal. I don't have a curfew anymore. And any Ubers into the city are gonna be no-questions-asked, or else I'll tell Dad (whispers) about your new boyfriend.
Shauna: Honey, um... have you ever heard of mutually assured destruction?
Callie: I basically invented it.
Shauna: Oh. (chuckles) Okay, great. So let's chase down exactly what you're proposing. First of all, do you have any idea how much divorce lawyers cost? We're talking $500, $600 an hour. So, there's about 12,000 bucks in your college fund right now... And, yes, I do wish that number sounded less pathetic... But regardless, you can kiss it goodbye. And speaking of that curfew that you're so eager to be free from? Get ready to have a different kind of cramp on your weekends, because there is no one lonelier than a recent divorcé. You will be spending your Friday nights in your dad's sad little apartment, eating cold pizza on the sofa you know he cries into. And after a few months of that, just when you start to think, "Oh, okay, Dad's taking a little bit better care of himself now," get ready. Because that is when he is gonna come to you for dating advice, which I don't doubt you'll be able to give him, because most of those girls will be about your age. But, hey, you're the one holding the trump card here.
Shauna: Honey, um... have you ever heard of mutually assured destruction?
Callie: I basically invented it.
Shauna: Oh. (chuckles) Okay, great. So let's chase down exactly what you're proposing. First of all, do you have any idea how much divorce lawyers cost? We're talking $500, $600 an hour. So, there's about 12,000 bucks in your college fund right now... And, yes, I do wish that number sounded less pathetic... But regardless, you can kiss it goodbye. And speaking of that curfew that you're so eager to be free from? Get ready to have a different kind of cramp on your weekends, because there is no one lonelier than a recent divorcé. You will be spending your Friday nights in your dad's sad little apartment, eating cold pizza on the sofa you know he cries into. And after a few months of that, just when you start to think, "Oh, okay, Dad's taking a little bit better care of himself now," get ready. Because that is when he is gonna come to you for dating advice, which I don't doubt you'll be able to give him, because most of those girls will be about your age. But, hey, you're the one holding the trump card here.
"Okay, so a little less than eight years from now I was being blackmailed. Someone was going to use my secret to make themselves more important, to make themselves famous. I refused to be blackmailed by her so I went to a close friend and asked her to tell my story to the world. For about five minutes it was great. I was embraced by everyone. Then the nightmare started. The blackmailer took a different route and managed to make me into public enemy number one such that I was now being hunted by the government and several private parties. I'd made a huge mistake."
— Clark Kent, New Beginnings (Smallville)
Jara: I warn you, Kara—
Kara: Warn me? One word of this to the commission and they'll yank your license!
Kara: Warn me? One word of this to the commission and they'll yank your license!
"Before blackmailing a murderer, I will keep in mind that this person has killed his way out of a previous problem."
Grace Mallory: Here's what we do have, Bob—
Robert Singer: Oh, let me guess. A tape of me fucking my kids' nanny at her daughter's quinceañera? Release it. Please. I'm begging you. A plum gig at Fox and this shithole in my rearview? Sounds dreamy.
Robert Singer: Oh, let me guess. A tape of me fucking my kids' nanny at her daughter's quinceañera? Release it. Please. I'm begging you. A plum gig at Fox and this shithole in my rearview? Sounds dreamy.
