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Quotes - I
In
the Line of Fire
Hunter: Was that you shooting?
Leary: Yes.
Hunter: That's a cool gun you got there. Could I see it? Shit, that's light!
What's it made of?
Leary: Composite. Like plastic.
Hunter: Mind if I give
it a little dance?
[Leary shrugs. The hunter shoots a duck.]
Hunter: That
is great! That is really really great! You wouldn't want to sell it would you?
Leary: No, I need it.
Hunter: For what?
Leary: To assasinate the president.
[Hunters laugh.]
Hunter: Now what do you want to do that for, mister?
Leary: Why'd you kill that bird, asshole?
Leary:
The irony is so thick you could choke on it.
Horrigan: There's no fuckin'
irony.
Leary: Think about it Frank. The same government that trained me to
kill trained you to protect. And now you're trying to kill me while up on that
rooftop I protected you.
Sam
Campagna: Frank, The President sent his limo for you.
Lilly Raines: Well,
that's the least he could do.
Frank Horrigan: Good, I love public transportation.
Mitch
Leary: I have a rendezvous with death, and so does the President, and so do you
if you get too close.
Frank Horrigan: You have a rendezvous with my ass, motherfucker!
Al
D'Andrea: I don't know, maybe I'm... maybe I'm just wrong for the job.
Frank
Horrigan: You're a good man, Al. You'll make a good agent.
Al D'Andrea: How
do you know? This is the longest conversation we've ever had.
Frank Horrigan:
I know things about people.
[Leary
makes the first of a series of taunting phone calls]
Frank Horrigan: McCrawley?
Mitch Leary: Why not call me Booth?
Frank Horrigan: Why not Oswald?
Mitch
Leary: Because Booth had flair, panache -- a leap to the stage after he shot Lincoln.
Mitch
Leary: What's kept you in the game all these years?
Frank Horrigan: Why don't
we get together and have a drink? We could talk about that.
Mitch Leary: Oh,
I'd love to, but I think the less you know about me the better.
Frank Horrigan:
Oh, why?
Mitch Leary: Because I'm planning to kill the President.
Frank
Horrigan: Oh, now you shouldn't have gone and said that. It's a federal offense
to threaten the President. You could go to jail, even if you don't mean it.
Mitch
Leary: I mean it all right. John F. Kennedy said all someone needs is a willingness
to trade his life for the President's, right?
Frank Horrigan: That's right.
Mitch Leary: I'm willing.
Lilly
Raines: What makes you think he'll call again?
Frank Horrigan: Oh, he'll call
again. He's got, uh, "panache."
Lilly Raines: Panache?
Frank
Horrigan: Yeah, it means flamboyance.
Lilly Raines: Mm, I know what it means.
Frank Horrigan: Really? I had to look it up.
Mitch
Leary: What did happen to you that day? Only one agent reacted to the gunfire,
and you were closer to Kennedy than he was. You must have looked up at the window
of the Texas Book Depository, but you didn't react. Late at night, when the demons
come, do you see the rifle coming out of that window, or do you see Kennedy's
head being blown apart? If you'd reacted to that first shot, could you have gotten
there in time to stop the big bullet? And if you had -- that could've been your
head being blown apart. Do you wish you'd succeeded, Frank? Or is life too precious?
[Lilly's
wearing an evening dress]
Lilly Raines: What are you looking at?
Frank
Horrigan: I was just wondering where you hide your firearm. Don't tell me, let
me guess.
Frank
Horrigan: I've never worked with a female agent before. How many are there?
Lilly
Raines: About 125.
Frank Horrigan: Mm. Pure window dressing.
Lilly Raines:
Excuse me?
Frank Horrigan: Window dressing. About 125 out of a little over
2,000. They have you all around so that the President can look good to his feminist
voters.
Lilly Raines: Do you make an effort to be obnoxious, or is it a gift?
Frank Horrigan: It's a gift. Let's face it, half the things we do are window
dressing. Take running alongside that limousine: it'd take an anti-tank missile
to put a dent in that damn thing. There we are, out for show, trying to make the
President look more presidential.
Frank
Horrigan: How's the First Lady? She ask about me?
Lilly Raines: Have you gotten
to know them yet?
Frank Horrigan: Well, I normally prefer not to get to know
the people I'm protecting.
Lilly Raines: Oh, yeah? Why's that?
Frank Horrigan:
Well, you never know. You might decide they're not worth taking a bullet for.
Frank
Horrigan: So you had an affair with an agent, and it came out badly.
Lilly
Raines: He wasn't an agent.
Frank Horrigan: But he left you because you wouldn't
quit your job. You were broken-hearted.
Lilly Raines: I left him, Frank, because
I wouldn't quit my job for him. And it did break my heart.
Frank Horrigan:
You vowed never again to ever let a man come between you and your career.
Lilly
Raines: No...
Frank Horrigan: Except... now you're in love with me, and it
screws your little head up.
Lilly Raines: Frank, blow your nose.
[(he
has a cold)]
Lilly Raines: Here.
Frank Horrigan: Sorry. What were to happen
if I, uh, gave up my job for you?
Lilly Raines: Why would you do that?
Frank
Horrigan: Well, maybe I vowed to never again let my career come between me and
a woman.
Mitch
Leary: Watching the President, I--I couldn't help wondering why a man like you
would risk his life to save a man like that. You have such a strange job -- I
can't decide if it's heroic or absurd.
Frank Horrigan: Now, why would a man
like you want to risk his life to kill a man like that?
Mitch Leary: Don't
you have a psychological profile on me yet?
Frank Horrigan: I don't put a
lot of stock in them.
Mitch Leary: Nor do I. A man's actions don't equal the
sum of his psychological parts. Doesn't work that way.
Frank Horrigan: Just
how does it work?
Mitch Leary: It doesn't work, Frank. God doesn't punish
the wicked and reward the righteous. Everyone dies. Some die because they deserve
to; others die simply because they come from Minneapolis. It's random and it's
meaningless.
Frank Horrigan: Well, if none of this means anything... why kill
the President?
Mitch Leary: To punctuate the dreariness.
Mitch
Leary: There's no cause left worth fighting for, Frank. All we have is the game.
I'm on offense, you're on defense.
Frank Horrigan: Well, when do we start
playing the game?
Mitch Leary: The clock's ticking, Frank.
Al
D'Andrea: You okay?
Frank Horrigan: No, I'm not okay. I'm sick, I'm tired,
and I'm armed too, so be careful.
Al D'Andrea: You're also maybe a genius.
Frank Horrigan: Huh -- not to be recognized in this lifetime.
Frank
Horrigan: What do you know about the guy?
Walter Wickland: Well, d'you see
this wheelchair? Mitch bought it for me. Cost over $1,000. See this?
[holds
up gun]
Al D'Andrea: Whoa, whoa, take it easy now...
Walter Wickland:
This is in case he ever comes back.
Frank
Horrigan: I know who you are -- Leary.
Mitch Leary: I'm glad, Frank. Friends
should be able to call each other by name.
Frank Horrigan: We're not friends.
Mitch Leary: Sure we are.
Frank Horrigan: I've seen what you do to friends.
Mitch Leary: What's that supposed to mean?
Frank Horrigan: You slit your
friend's throat.
Mitch Leary: You talked to Coppinger, Frank?
Frank Horrigan:
Yeah, that's right.
Mitch Leary: Did you delouse? The man's a professional
liar.
Frank Horrigan: I saw the photos.
Mitch Leary: No, you saw what
he wanted you to see, Frank.
Frank Horrigan: I saw a picture of, uh, your
friend lying on the floor with his throat cut.
Mitch Leary: What you didn't
see, Frank, what you couldn't possibly know, is: they sent my best friend -- my
comrade in arms -- to my home to kill me!
Frank
Horrigan: What to do you see when you're in the dark, and the demons come?
Mitch
Leary: I see you, Frank. I see you standing over the grave of another dead president.
Frank Horrigan: That's not going to happen. I'm onto you.
Mitch Leary:
Forget it, Frank. I am willing to trade my life for his. I am smart, and I am
willing, and that is all it takes. That president is coming home from California
in a box.
Frank Horrigan: Where in California?
Mitch Leary: Uh, the address?
Come on, Frank. I'll keep you in the game, but I'm not going to throw it for you.
Frank
Horrigan: You're looking at a living legend, Lilly. The only active agent who
ever lost a president.
Frank
Horrigan: The number of that San Diego office?
Agent Chavez: Uh, 619-UKELELE.
Frank Horrigan: Ukulele?
Agent Chavez: That's how I remember it, you know,
7 numbers, 7 letters? You just push U-K-E-L-E-L-E. Easy.
Frank Horrigan: Uh,
wait a minute, isn't "ukulele" spelled U-K-U-?
Agent Chavez: I dunno...
but the phone number's U-K-E-L-E-L-E.
[Frank
watches Lilly leave from the Lincoln Memorial]
Frank Horrigan: If she looks
back, it means she's interested. Come on, give me a look back now. Just give me
that smug expression and be on your way.
[Lilly looks back]
Frank Horrigan:
Well, Abe? Damn... wish I could have been there for you, pal.
Mitch
Leary: Do you know how easily I could kill you, Frank? Do you know how many times
I watched you go in and out of that bar? You are still alive because I have allowed
you to live so you show me some GOD DAMN RESPECT!
Mitch
Leary: Frank, you of all people, I want you to understand because we both USED
to think this country was a very special place--
Frank Horrigan: You don't
know what I used to think!
Mitch Leary: Oh, but you know about me? Do you
have any idea what I've done for God and country? Some pretty FUCKING HORRIBLE
things!! I don't even remember who I was before they sunk their claws into me!!
Frank Horrigan: They made you into a real monster, right?
Mitch Leary:
That's right and now they want to destroy me because we can't have monsters roaming
the quiet countryside, now can we?
[On
the phone]
Mitch Leary: Trying to trace me, Frank?
Frank Horrigan: Heh,
now why didn't I think of that?
Mitch Leary: You did, or you're not the adversary
I'd hoped for.
[in
the elevator]
Frank Horrigan: Ok, now what?
Mitch Leary: Do you believe
in the nobility of suicide?
Frank Horrigan: No. But if you wanna blow your
goddamn head off, go ahead, be my guest.
Mitch Leary: Nicely put, Frank, but
I don't want to leave this miserable world alone.
C.I.A.
Agent David Coppinger (uncredited): Leary's what we'd call a Wetboy.
Al D'Andrea:
What's that mean?
Frank Horrigan: Leary's an assassin.
C.I.A. Agent David
Coppinger (uncredited): In his case, that's putting it too gently. He's more like
a predator.
Mendoza:
What do you think I aught to do here, Frank?
Frank Horrigan: Make sure the
body doesn't wash up on shore.
Mendoza: I want you to pop him for me, ok?
See I think maybe you're with him.
Frank Horrigan: Look, you came to me remember?
Mendoza: So pop him, show me I'm an asshole.
Frank Horrigan: I'm just
a business man.
Mendoza: So pop him. And let's do some business.
Frank
Horrigan: Well, the secretaries get prettier and prettier.
Lilly Raines: And
the field agents get older and older.
Sam Campagna: Lilly's an agent, Frank.
Frank Horrigan: I knew that. I just wanted to see if she had a sense of humor.
Leary:
do you have what it takes to take a bullet or is life too precious?
Frank:
well i'll be thinkin' about that when i'm pissin' on your grave.
Leary:
Sorry, I wasn't aiming at you.