Appaloosa Quotes

[after a shoot-out]

Everett Hitch: That was quick.

Virgil Cole: Yeah, everybody could shoot.

Everett Hitch: [narrating] Like my father, I'd been West Point, and I was good at soldiering. But soldiering didn't allow for much expansion of the soul. So after the War Between the States and a year of fighting Indians, I turned in my commission and rode away to see how much I could expand it. First time I met Virgil Cole was when I and my eight-gauge backed him up in a showdown he was having with some drunken mountain men. Virgil asked me right there on the spot if I'd care to partner up with him and his peacekeeping business. Which is why I was with him now, and why I still carry the eight-gauge. We'd been keeping the peace together for the last dozen years or so. And as we looked down on a town called Appaloosa, I had no reason to doubt we'd be doing just that for the foreseeable future.

Everett Hitch: But life has a way of making the foreseeable that which never happens, and the unforeseeable that which your life becomes.

Vince: You shoot him, you think we're just gonna ride away?

Virgil Cole: Nope.

Vince: We'll kill you and Hitch.

Virgil Cole: You'll try.

Vince: You're willing to die to keep us from taking him?

Virgil Cole: Sure.

Vince: Hitch, you willing to die, too?

Virgil Cole: Of course he's willing to die. You think we do this kind of work because we're scared to die? You.

Vince: Me?

Virgil Cole: You afraid to die?

Vince: I ain't afraid.

Virgil Cole: Good, because you go first. And that boy with the red scarf goes next. You go on home, Vince. You go on home. Go on. Too many people die if you don't.

Randall Bragg: I told you you'd never hang me, Cole.

Virgil Cole: Never ain't here yet.

Allison French: I'm sorry, Virgil.

Virgil Cole: [Everett stands to leave] Stay here, Everett.

Allison French: I'm sorry. I was so alone, and Bragg... Well, Ring protected me and so did his brother.

Virgil Cole: You fuck Mackie, too?

Allison French: No. It was Ring. He was in charge. I just did what I had to do.

Virgil Cole: Everett... Ring kills me, do you think she'll go off with him?

Everett Hitch: [after a long, thoughtful pause] I think Allie needs to be with a man.

Allison French: You're a bastard! Don't listen to him. He tried to put his hands on me when I showed him our house.

Everett Hitch: No, Virgil. I did not.

Virgil Cole: No, Allie. Everett didn't do that.

Allison French: You believe him over me?

Virgil Cole: That's correct.

Allison French: Aren't either of you afraid?

Virgil Cole: Afraid?

Allison French: That you might get killed.

Virgil Cole: Oh, I don't know, Allie. Guess I don't think about it so much.

Allison French: Well, I'm afraid. But I'm afraid all the time.

Virgil Cole: Of what?

Allison French: Everything.

Virgil Cole: Like what? Hmm?

Allison French: Like being alone. Like being with the wrong man. Not having any money, a place to live.

Virgil Cole: I'll look out for you.

Allison French: For how long?

Virgil Cole: For as long as you need.

Everett Hitch: You calling Virgil crazy?

Phil Olson: Yes. No. Uh...

Everett Hitch: Well, if you think a man makes a living as a gun-hand isn't crazy...

Phil Olson: *You're* not crazy.

Everett Hitch: Maybe, maybe not. Whatever I am, I'm not Virgil Cole.

Randall Bragg: Mr. Everett Hitch. You a drinking man, Everett?

Virgil Cole: Not so much.

Randall Bragg: Hard to like a man who doesn't drink a little.

Virgil Cole: But not impossible.

[first lines]

Marshall Jack Bell: [arriving on horse] Randall, I'm afraid I gotta take two of your boys back into town with me.

Randall Bragg: [standing with his gang] You're outside your jurisdiction, marshal. And you're trespassing on my land.

Marshall Jack Bell: They murdered that fellow from Chicago, and then they raped and killed his wife. I'm taking 'em in.

Randall Bragg: No. I can't spare them.

Marshall Jack Bell: [after a long survey of Bragg's men] Them two on the end. Cut them out.

Marshall Jack Bell: [then to his balking man] Do like I tell you.

Randall Bragg: [as soon as his deputy makes a move, he shoots each law man off his horse]

Virgil Cole: There's a set of bylaws posted right outside the door here of this very saloon. Your boys do like the bylaws say, everything will be muy bueno.

Randall Bragg: And if they don't?

Virgil Cole: I arrest them.

Randall Bragg: And if they don't go along?

Virgil Cole: I shoot them. Or Mr. Hitch does. That's the law.

Randall Bragg: *Your* law.

Virgil Cole: The same thing.

Randall Bragg: Hm. Maybe you aren't good enough. Don't be so sure you're quicker than me.

Virgil Cole: So far I've been quick enough.

Virgil Cole: Well, Dean, go back to Mr. Bragg and report that we ain't too frightened.

Dean: Mr. Bragg ain't gonna like that you hit me.

Virgil Cole: I don't guess you liked it all that much yourself, Dean.

Dean: You're damn right.

Virgil Cole: So you and Mr. Bragg can commi... What word am I trying for?

Everett Hitch: "Commiserate?"

Virgil Cole: You and Mr. Bragg can commiserate each other.

Everett Hitch: Virgil always tells the truth.

Allison French: Oh, nobody *always* tells the truth.

Virgil Cole: Why not?

Allison French: Well, they... For heaven's sake, Virgil, they just don't.

Virgil Cole: Always thought the truth was simpler. Tell a man what you mean.

Allison French: And a woman?

Virgil Cole: A woman?

Allison French: That's what I said.

Virgil Cole: Well, Allie, I don't really remember ever telling a woman anything.

Allison French: Virgil Cole...

[laughs]

Virgil Cole: What?

Allison French: Are you telling me that you've never had a woman?

Virgil Cole: Well, hell, Allie, I don't think that's something I should be discussing with you.

Allison French: But have you?

Virgil Cole: Well, of course I have.

Allison French: And did you never tell them anything?

Virgil Cole: Mostly, we just did what we were there to do.

Allison French: Which was what?

Virgil Cole: We won't talk about this anymore.

Allison French: Oh, Virgil. I was just funning you.

Virgil Cole: I didn't enjoy it.

Randall Bragg: You'll never hang me, Cole.

Virgil Cole: Never's a long time, Mr. Bragg.

Virgil Cole: [showing him fabric samples] Tell her she can pick whichever one she likes. You know, I'm kind of partial to this one here, but look. Look at that. You can see right through it.

Everett Hitch: Kind of small for curtains, aren't they?

Judge Callison: Mr. Whitfield, do you own a horse?

Joe Whittfield: Yes. Yes, sir.

Judge Callison: Well, son, I suggest while the bees are in the butter you get on your horse and ride. Ride and don't look back.

Judge Callison: Now! Ride hard, boy. Ride hard.

Virgil Cole: Everett, we've been together now a while. Can't exactly say how long, but long. Ain't anybody I'd rather do this work with. You're as good as anybody I've seen, except maybe the Shelton boys and me. The reason you ain't as good as the Sheltons or me ain't got nothing to do with steady or fast or fortuitous. The reason the above-named folks are better than you is because you got feelings.

Everett Hitch: Well, hell, Virgil, everybody's got feelings.

Virgil Cole: Feelings get you killed.

Everett Hitch: You got feelings about Allie, don't you?

Virgil Cole: I cared about Allie in town, and I'll care about her when I get her back. But right now there's something running, and we're trying to catch it.

Virgil Cole: I never met a woman like her. Mostly I've been with whores and that squaw lady I told you about. She speaks well and dresses fine, and she's good-looking. She can play the piano, and she cooks good, and she's very clean. Chews her food nice. But it appears she'll fuck anything ain't gelded.

Everett Hitch: I'm not certain that's quite right.

Virgil Cole: What do you think's right?

Everett Hitch: I think she wants to be with the boss stallion.

Virgil Cole: There's only one stallion in a herd.

Everett Hitch: At a time.

Allison French: I am mortified that you saw me with no clothes on.

Everett Hitch: Oh, Allie, it was an incomparable pleasure.

Everett Hitch: [to Cole] I ever ask you for anything? Well, I'm asking you now. Just leave it alone.

Everett Hitch: [facing-down Bragg] Just once, Virgil. One favor.

[last lines]

Everett Hitch: [narrating] I figured I'd saved Virgil's career as a lawman and given him another chance with Allie. At least for the foreseeable future. As for the unforeseeable, well, it was out there waiting for me. I headed straight into the setting sun and rode west at an easy pace. It was gonna be a long ride, and there was no reason to hurry.