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You Can't Handle the Truth! - A Few Good Men (7/8) Movie CLIP (1992) HD

You Can't Handle the Truth! - A Few Good Men (7/8) Movie CLIP (1992) HD

Movieclips
0 HN recommenders · discussed 2017–2026
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About this video

The courtroom scene from A Few Good Men in which Col. Jessep, played by Jack Nicholson, shouts 'You can't handle the truth' at Tom Cruise's character.

Why it appears in the archive

Used as a reference or joke about authority figures who think they are above the law, and occasionally about sympathy for the military.

AI-generated summary and labels from the source dataset; verify important details against the video. Source & credits.

From the Hacker News discussion

rayiner · 2026-06 · reference

It's because Americans and many Europeans under the shield of the U.S. military and have never in their lives felt a moment of fear about external threats.[1] They never have to meaningfully confront the central fact of their existence: that they enjoy a vastly disproportionate share of the world's bounty in a way that would be impossible without overwhelming military power. I suspect people living in say Ukraine don't talk like this. [1] As I get older, I'm more sympathetic to Colonel Jessup: [VIDEO] .

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topload · 2017-03 · joke

Thanks! For those who didn't get the joke, I want to point you to this moment of decision in A Few Good Men. (spoiler alert) - [VIDEO]

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octopoc · 2021-03 · joke

To be clear this is a reference to this scene: [VIDEO] edit: it's a scene where this exact conversation is playing out.

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user3939382 · 2023-03 · joke

I can only imagine the people running these organizations share the perspective of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men [VIDEO] They believe they are the law, not that they're subservient to it.

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