In the Line of Fire Quotes

Hunter: [in the woods near a pond] Was that you shooting?

Mitch Leary: Yes.

Hunter: What the hell kind of gun is that?

Mitch Leary: Something I made.

Hunter: No kidding? You made it? Guess it beats paying for it, huh? Can I see it?

Mitch Leary: Yeah.

Hunter: Shit, it's light. What's it made of?

Mitch Leary: It's composite, like plastic.

Hunter: Pretty neat. You, uh, you mind if I give her a little dance?

Mitch Leary: Not at all.

[the hunter shoots a duck]

Hunter: That is great! That is really great! You, uh, wouldn't be interested in selling her, would ya?

Mitch Leary: No, I need it.

Hunter: For what?

Mitch Leary: To assassinate the president.

[the hunters laugh]

Hunter: What would you wanna do that for, mister?

Mitch Leary: Why did you kill that bird, asshole?

[proceeds to nonchalantly kill both of the hunters with his gun]

Mitch Leary: [over the phone] The irony is so thick you could choke on it.

Frank Horrigan: There's no fuckin' irony, Mitch.

Mitch Leary: Think, Frank. Think. The same government that trained me to kill trained you to protect. Yet now you want to kill me while up on that roof I protected you. They're gonna write books about us, Frank.

Sam Campagna: [at the airport being greeted by Sam and sourounded by reporters] 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.

Frank Horrigan: [over the phone] I want you to give yourself up.

Mitch Leary: So I can live a long and fruitful life?

Frank Horrigan: Oh, we can work something out.

Mitch Leary: [laughs] Jesus, Frank, don't fucking lie to me. I have a rendezvous with death, and so does the President, and so do you, Frank, if you get too close to me.

Frank Horrigan: You have a rendezvous with my ass, motherfucker!

Al D'Andrea: [while driving in his car] 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: [over the phone] 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: [in a conference room] 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.

[Lilly's wearing an evening dress,during dinner at the French embassy]

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: [while sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial] 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: [while on duty] 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: [while on board Air Force One] 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. 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.

Frank Horrigan: [Leary is hanging from an elevator alongside a hotel building. Horrigan offers his hand to him] Take my hand. If you don't, you'll die.

Mitch Leary: [smiling] Do you want to save me, Frank?

Frank Horrigan: To be frank and honest with you, no. But it's my job.

Mitch Leary: [over the phone] 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: [over the phone] 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: [in his apartment] 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: [in his work shop] 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: [over the phone] 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: [over the phone] 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: Fuck you 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 fucking 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: The number of that San Diego office?

Agent Chavez: [while dropping him off at the airport] 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: [speaking to Horrigan on the phone] 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 apartment? You are still alive because I have allowed you to live so you show me some GODDAMN RESPECT!

[slams phone down]

Mitch Leary: [over the phone] 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: Okay, now what?

Mitch Leary: [while holding him hostage] 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: Leary is what we nowadays call a wet boy.

Al D'Andrea: [in Leary's home] What's a wet boy, Frank?

Frank Horrigan: Leary's an assassin.

Al D'Andrea: Oh, Jesus.

C.I.A. Agent David Coppinger: In Leary's case, that's putting it too gently. He's more like a predator.

Mendoza: [as Al is tied up and gagged on his boat] What do you think I ought 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: [in a conference room] 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.

Mitch Leary: Do you have what it takes to take a bullet, or is life too precious?

Frank Horrigan: Well, I'll be thinkin' about that when I'm pissin' on your grave.

[assassination attempt botched, Leary takes Horrigan hostage onto a hotel elevator]

Mitch Leary: [removing facial disguise] So, you have the guts, Frank. You took the bullet.

Frank Horrigan: [holding his chest] I think you broke my damn ribs.

Mitch Leary: Sorry, I wasn't aiming at you.

Lilly Raines: I heard you and Nixon didn't get along.

Frank Horrigan: [in the hotel bar while playing the piano] Now, that's not true. His chief of staff, though, that was a different story. I remember one time, he wanted me to go out and get rid of some anti-war protestors. I said no, talking about the Bill of Rights and so on. And he says, "look, when I'm talking to you, I am the President." I said, "The President? That's funny, you look more like a sack of shit in a cheap suit to me, sir!"

Lilly Raines: [laughs] Well, I like the "sir." It's a classy touch.

Frank Horrigan: I thought so.

[last lines while sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial]

Frank Horrigan: I'll bet you that brown pigeon down there flies off before the white one.

Lilly Raines: How do you know?

Frank Horrigan: I know things about pigeons, Lilly.

Frank Horrigan: [after someone called the paramedics by playing a prank on him] Okay, who's the joker?

Lilly Raines: It may not have been a joke, you were looking kind of peaked out there.

Frank Horrigan: Well, when I find out who it was, I'm gonna pay him back in spades.

Lilly Raines: What makes you think it was a *him*?

[walks away]

Harry Sargent: [Frank is arguing with the Chief of Staff] This a just a big joke to you, Horrigan?

Frank Horrigan: [in a conference room] No, *you're* a joke to me, Harry! You have no idea what we do around here!

Bill Watts: That's enough, Horrigan!

Harry Sargent: By God, if you call me Harry once more, you'll be busting counterfeiters in Alaska!

[first lines]

Al D'Andrea: [running late while driving in his car] Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, Frank, thank God. Thank God. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.

[second phone call]

Mitch Leary: I was worried about you with the motorcade today. You looked like you were going to faint. You really should get into shape for that type of job.

[about 15 minutes later into the film when the Secret Service is looking through the park]

Mitch Leary: [sees Frank exhuasted through binocoluars and mutters] I told you to get into shape.

Mitch Leary: [Horrigan is hanging from a roof] Take my hand, Frank. Take it. If you don't, you'll die.

[Horrigan does so and then pulls his gun out]

Mitch Leary: You're gonna shoot me, Frank, after I saved your life? The only way to save the president is to shoot me. Are you willing to trade your life for his, or is life too precious?

[after saving the president]

Reporter at Dulles Intl. Airport: Why are you retiring from the Secret Service?

Frank Horrigan: Well, because I hate desk work and I'm too old to go running along the limousines, and thanks to you people plastering my picture up everywhere I'm no good for undercover work.

Lilly Raines: [while on board Air Force One] The President was humiliated.

Frank Horrigan: He's alive, isn't he?

Lilly Raines: Yeah, well, we're here to safeguard his dignity as well.

Frank Horrigan: I'm not paid for that.

Lilly Raines: What about the time Kennedy's girlfriend was caught in the White House and you said she was with you?

Frank Horrigan: Don't you go believing every rumor someone tells you.

Lilly Raines: Frank, Wilder told me the whole story. About how you were suspended a month without pay. I'd say that was safeguarding his dignity.

Frank Horrigan: That was different. *He* was different.

Lilly Raines: Maybe you were different.

Frank Horrigan: I was different. The whole damn country was different. Everything would be different right now too if I'd been half as a paranoid as I am today. Fuck.

[Horrigan and Leary are in a glass elevator. Sharpshooters are in place to take out Leary but can't see the target because the lights in the elevator are out. Horrigan is on the floor while Leary is standing over him and pointing a gun at him. Unbeknownst to Leary, Horrigan has a microphone concealed in his hand and is transmitting]

Frank Horrigan: Go ahead and shoot, dammit.

Lilly Raines: They can't see inside. If they fire, you'll be hit.

Mitch Leary: I want you to thank me first, Frank.

Frank Horrigan: Shut up and shoot.

Lilly Raines: All right, Frank.

Mitch Leary: All right, Frank.

Lilly Raines: Shooters, stand by to fire. Wait for my command.

Mitch Leary: [cocks gun] Sleep well, my friend.

Frank Horrigan: Just one thing: aim high.

Mitch Leary: What?

Lilly Raines: Aim high.

Frank Horrigan: Now!

Mitch Leary: [sees the microphone and realizes Horrigan has been talking to Raines] You bastard!

Lilly Raines: Fire.

[glass is shattered by gunfire. Leary is forced to duck, giving Horrigan an opportunity to grapple with him]

Harry Sargent: [in a conference room] The election's in three weeks. You're asking me to commit political suicide.

Sam Campagna: I'm asking you to stay out of California.

Harry Sargent: If this guy's so smart, he's not gonna come out and tell you where he's gonna make an attempt.

Frank Horrigan: I don't think he'd lie to me.

Harry Sargent: Well, isn't that sweet? You've become that close, have you? Look, people, California is the key to the whole damn race. We've narrowed the gap to five points. We can't let up now.

Frank Horrigan: Then we'll have to change our procedures. Move him around in unmarked cars. Uh... frisk everyone within fifty yards.

Harry Sargent: Frisk people going into $10,000 a plate dinners? You're overreacting again, Horrigan.

Frank Horrigan: If I don't overreact, the president's dead.

[Clothes and weapons drop to the floor as Horrigan and Lilly prepare to make love; a phone call interrupts them and she leaves]

Frank Horrigan: Ah, Lilly... damn. Now I gotta put all that shit back on. God damn it.

Mendoza: [talking to Horrigan] There's just one problem, Frank. You know this guy Al? He keeps asking me questions about my counterfeiter. He asked me to many questions. My instinct tells me when there's something wrong, and there's something wrong here, Frank, so I had him followed.

[Started to walk away, then turned back around]

Mendoza: He's a fucking Secret Service agent, Frank.