Tony Gilroy是《魔鬼代言人》的编剧，据他自己在《Michael Clayton》(2007) 的导评中说，他是在给《魔鬼代言人》的导演做故事研究的时候，才对法庭的“厨房”操作产生了非常高的兴趣。所谓“法庭厨房”就是法庭幕后的灰暗区域，当然也就是魔鬼出没最多的地方。自从《魔鬼代言人》以来，Tony Gilroy参与制作的所有电影几乎都和人类被魔鬼蒙蔽有关，包括《Michael Clayton》(2007)，《夜行者》（2014）以及《纸牌屋》（是的，好莱坞是个很小的地方。）。
Michael. Dear Michael. Of course it's you, who else could they send, who else could be trusted? I... I know it's a long way and you're ready to go to work... all I'm saying is wait, just wait, just-just-just... please hear me out because this is not an episode, relapse, fuck-up, it's... I'm begging you Michael. I'm begging you. Try and make believe this is not just madness because this is not just madness. Two weeks ago I came out of the building, okay, I'm running across Sixth Avenue, there's a car waiting, I got exactly 38 minutes to get to the airport and I'm dictating. There's this, this panicked associate sprinting along beside me, scribbling in a notepad, and suddenly she starts screaming, and I realize we're standing in the middle of the street, the light's changed, there's this wall of traffic, serious traffic speeding towards us, and I... I-I freeze, I can't move, and I'm suddenly consumed with the overwhelming sensation that I'm covered with some sort of film. It's in my hair, my face... it's like a glaze... like a... a coating, and... at first I thought, oh my god, I know what this is, this is some sort of amniotic - embryonic - fluid. I'm drenched in afterbirth, I've-I've breached the chrysalis, I've been reborn. But then the traffic, the stampede, the cars, the trucks, the horns, the screaming and I'm thinking no-no-no-no, reset, this is not rebirth, this is some kind of giddy illusion of renewal that happens in the final moment before death. And then I realize no-no-no, this is completely wrong because I look back at the building and I had the most stunning moment of clarity. I... I... I... I realized Michael, that I had emerged not from the doors of Kenner, Bach, and Ledeen, not through the portals of our vast and powerful law firm, but from the asshole of an organism whose sole function is to excrete the... the-the-the poison, the ammo, the defoliant necessary for other, larger, more powerful organisms to destroy the miracle of humanity. And that I had been coated in this patina of shit for the best part of my life. The stench of it and the stain of it would in all likelihood take the rest of my life to undo. And you know what I did? I took a deep cleansing breath and I set that notion aside. I tabled it. I said to myself as clear as this may be, as potent a feeling as this is, as true a thing as I believe that I have witnessed today, it must wait. It must stand the test of time. And Michael, the time is now.
I look up and Marty's standing in my office with a bottle of champagne - he tells me we just hit thirty thousand billable hours on U-North and he wants to celebrate. An hour later, I'm in a whorehouse in Chelsea and two Lithuanian redheads are taking turns sucking on my cock. I'm laying there, I'm trying not to come, I'm trying to make it last, right? So I start doing the math - thirty thousand hours, what is that? Twenty-four times thirty - seven hundred twenty hours in a month, eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours per year...Wait! Because it's YEARS! It's lives! And the numbers are making me dizzy, and now I'm not just trying not to come, I'm trying not to THINK! But I can't stop. Is that me? Am I just some freak organism that's been put here to eat and sleep and spend my days defending this one horrific chain of carcinogenic molecules? Is this my place? Is that it, Michael? Is that my grail? Two Lithuanian mouths on my cock? Is that the correct choice to the multiple choice of me?
这是《Michael Clayton》(2007) 中的疯狂开场独白。这是Tom Wilkinson一生中最伟大的表演，也是我听到过的最让人大彻大悟的胡言乱语。讲的是一个律师事务所的头牌律师被自己的良心所谴责，最后“变疯”，被他代表的客户，一个超级农业公司谋杀的故事。这个故事里讲到了两种疯狂，一种是被魔鬼缠身的疯狂，另一种是意识到自己被魔鬼缠身想要挣脱的疯狂，而男主角就是夹在这两种疯狂之间的普通人。
头牌律师的疯狂是第二种疯狂。但是在他“变疯”以后，说的话句句真切，但是大多数人已经听不懂了。当然其实大多数人内心深处还是听得懂的，特别是小孩子，因为他们的心还是相对纯净的。
超级农业公司所代表是第一种疯狂，她想要除掉所有侵犯其利益的人。当她在下了谋杀令之后在厕所里挣扎痛苦的样子，在她知道自己的罪行暴露后禁不住不断打颤崩溃的时候，我们明显能看出魔鬼的作为，也相信这是导演给演员说戏的时候一定会讲到的：“就好像你被魔鬼附身了一样去表演就好了。” Tilda Swinton非常擅长演魔鬼，她在《雪国列车》（2013）和《玉子》（2016）等等中演的都是魔鬼。
Now I like you, Nina. And I look forward to our time together. But you have to understand, fifteen thousand isn't all that I want. From here on, starting now, I want my work to be credited by the anchors and on a burn. The name of my company is Video Production News, a professional news-gathering service. That's how it should be read and that's how it should be said. I also want to go to the next rung and meet your team, and the station manager, and the director, and the anchors, and start developing my own personal relationships. I'd like to start meeting them this morning. You'll take me around, you'll introduce me as the owner and president of Video Production News, and remind them of some of my many other stories. I'm not done. I also want to stop our discussion over prices. This will save time. So when I say that a particular number is my lowest price, that's my lowest price and you can be assured that I arrived at whatever that number very carefully. Now, when I say that I want these things, I mean that I want them and I don't want to have to ask again. And the last thing that I want, Nina, is for you to do the things that I ask you to do when we're alone together in your apartment, NOT LIKE THE LAST TIME. So, I'll tell you what. I have the van crash on Moorpark tonight. It was a couple of stringers actually. That could lead by itself on an average night. I'd be willing to throw that in for free. So what do you say, do we have a deal?
Tony Gilroy的《夜行者》（Nightcrawler 2014）也是讲一个无所事事的年轻人被魔鬼附身的故事的。男主角原来是个小偷，但是在他发现有一个专门拍事故现场视频再卖给电视台的行当以后就一发不可收拾。他用偷来的自行车换来了摄像机和警察频道监听器，雇了一个无家可归的人做“实习生”，到处寻找血腥的事故现场，牟取暴利。当他越来越大胆地不择手段的时候，他就做得越来越成功。这部电影的最大新意在于，虽然他除了拥有一辆破车，一部摄像机和一个助手以外一无所有。但是他的每句话讲的都好像他是一个跨国公司的老板。虽然关于乔布斯的电影拍了不少，但是我认为，最能体现出乔布斯精神的，恰恰是这部和乔布斯看上去丝毫无关的电影。
Congratulations. Congratulations. Your selection by Video Production News is evidence of the hiring committees recognition of your employment history, and your unique personal qualities. It is my hope that through hard work and commitment you will move through the intern program and continue to pursue your career goals as full-time employees of Video Production News. I can tell you from experience that the surest way up the ladder is to listen carefully, and follow my orders. You may be confused at times, and other times unsure. But remember, I will never ask you to do anything that I wouldn't do myself.
《夜行者》非常发人深省。他让我们意识到所谓的创业精神其实就是魔鬼倡导的精神，而那些所谓的跨国公司的精神虽然表面上十分正能量，但是其实是十分黑暗的。就像这个皮包公司没有资格去剥削员工，冠冕堂皇做很多无理的事一样，跨国公司同样也没有资格做。所以这部电影就让我们开始怀疑很多跨国公司的行为：比如不付给实习生工资，不择手段地生产廉价的商品，肆意抬高价格。他们能这么做是因为我们大众过分相信大公司所以从来不去怀疑他们的所作所为。但是其实公司越大，其中魔鬼的作为就越多。好比富士康的跳楼事件就明显有魔鬼的作为。
这就让我想起Matt Damon主演的《应许之地》（Promised Land 2012）就是讲的能源公司被魔鬼操纵的故事。故事里能源公司为了达到他们获得居民的土地的开采权，同时唱黑脸和白脸给居民下套。男主人公是能源公司的职员，他的工作就是说服居民把自己的土地卖掉。他一开始确实相信居民应该这么做，因为卖掉土地做可以改变居民的命运，而且这样他也就可以晋升经理了。但是虽然居民短期内能改变自己的生活，但是钱有一天是会花完的，美好的环境是永久的。如果没了环境，有再多的钱，我们都一无所有了。我们人类为了短期的经济利益而毁了别人毁了自己的将来就是受了魔鬼的蛊惑。
后来好不容易出现了一个环境保护主义者。他开始和主人公作对，说服了一些居民拒绝卖掉自己的土地。但是当男主角发现环境保护者出示的环境破坏的证据都是假的时候，所有的人都唾弃这个环境保护者而一蜂拥地都把自己的土地都卖了。但是最后最邪门的是这个环境保护主义者其实是能源公司派来唱黑脸的，他才是一个不折不扣的魔鬼的化身。你看，我们大家被魔鬼操纵是多么容易。西安大学的大学生药家鑫就是这样被大众舆论害死的：当大家都相信了张显的谎话，以为药家鑫的家庭势力显赫的时候，大家的愤怒就泯灭了大家的人性。魔鬼总是藏在正义善良地背后轻松地去背叛上帝，所以我们第一意识想要干的事情往往是受到了魔鬼操纵的结果。就像最近大家都听信了一面之词就开始谴责一个被自己朋友救下的女孩子，这种仗着自己的正义感去作恶的行为都是受了魔鬼的蛊惑。
最后没想到Tony Gilroy参加了终极魔鬼故事《纸牌屋》的制作。那么Underwood是不是魔鬼呢？表面上这个问题的答案是不容置疑的。但是其实答案却正好相反。
这个问题的回答又要提起《搏击俱乐部》了。《搏击俱乐部》和《纸牌屋》是两个理念上一样的David Fincher作品：这两部剧都是主人公直接面对观众讲故事的。所以这两部剧里的主人公做的事情本质上都是做给观众看的，而并不是完全为了剧情的推进，或达到主人公自己的目的。所以很多人都在问Underwood到底是为了什么？
上帝一直都处在弱势，从来没能和人类说上话，因为人类都在翻箱倒柜地全世界地到处找上帝，没想到上帝就在自己的心中。而在这个寻找的过程中，却被魔鬼误入歧途。就连上帝派来的儿子耶稣也被魔鬼所用，写的圣经最后都变成了魔鬼的教科书。魔鬼的最大才能就是伪装成上帝，一直在利用人类的各种弱点让其远离上帝。所以我们几乎所有的正能量的文化宣传其实都是魔鬼的作为，而上帝却不知如何是好。
但是现在上帝终于也学会了魔鬼伪装的才能。他伪装成魔鬼给我们上演了《纸牌屋》。他一边在扮演魔鬼的角色，一边还在给我们解说魔鬼的动机和运作原则。所以虽然Underwood扮演的是一个魔鬼的角色，但是他其实是真正的上帝。这是上帝在面对面地对我们说，“你看，如果我是魔鬼，我就会这样干。”
虽然我们是在看魔鬼的演出，但是我们却看出了自己的影子。“难道我们真的都这么坏么？”我们不禁问自己。这样的自我反省对我们的成长是很有帮助的。但是要是观众看了这样的“厚黑学”要是学坏了怎么办呢？Underwood和普通坏人最大的区别是他知道自己在做什么，他做坏事的时候知道自己在做坏事，也不会用谎话去骗自己说自己是好人。他知道自己做的一切都是为了生存。而大部分坏人都不知道自己是坏人，还以为自己很正义。所以就是观众学坏，他们也知道自己学的是“厚黑学”。这样对道貌岸然的人的潜意识是一种攻击，他们慢慢地会开始意识到自己原来是个坏人。
其实做坏事并不是最大的恶，最大的恶是虚伪。所以最后强调一下，大家千万不要被表面现象所蒙蔽。并不是看上去的好人就能上天堂，表面上的坏人就会下地狱。我们这个世界往往是黑白颠倒的，而真正重要的是我们是否对自己真诚。
不管怎样，《纸牌屋》是上帝征服世界的革命性的进步，他终于学会了魔鬼的把戏，把自己伪装成魔鬼，让大家看清世界的真相。
