In Network, Howard Beale says he is “mad as hell.”
The declaration comes during Beale's on-air denunciation of the television industry and social conditions. He urges viewers to open their windows and shout that they will not accept the situation, turning a news broadcast into a mass expression of anger.
Sidney Lumet directed the 1976 film from a screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky. Peter Finch played Beale, an aging news anchor whose breakdown is exploited by the network after it discovers that his outbursts attract large audiences.
The full line is usually remembered as “I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!” The requested answer is the word completing “mad as,” while “hell” is also the key word in the film's repeated slogan and title-like catchphrase.