Léon: The Professional Quotes

Léon: Mathilda, don't you ever do that again, or I'll break your head. Got that?

Mathilda: Okay

Léon: I don't work like that. It's not professional. There is rules.

Mathilda: Okay

Léon: And stop saying "okay" all the time, Okay?

Mathilda: Okay.

Léon: Good.

Léon: You need some time to grow up a little.

Mathilda: I finished growing up, Léon. I just get older.

Léon: For me it's the opposite. I'm old enough. I need time to grow up.

Mathilda: Is life always this hard, or is it just when you're a kid?

Léon: Always like this.

Stansfield: I like these calm little moments before the storm. It reminds me of Beethoven. Can you hear it? It's like when you put your head to the grass and you can hear the growin' and you can hear the insects. Do you like Beethoven?

Malky: I couldn't really say.

Mathilda: Leon, what exactly do you do for a living?

Léon: Cleaner.

Mathilda: You mean you're a hit man?

Léon: [reluctantly] Yeah.

Mathilda: Cool.

Mathilda: Do you "clean" anyone?

Léon: No women, no kids, that's the rules.

Mathilda: How much would it cost to hire someone to get those dirtbags who killed my brother?

Léon: Five grand a head.

Mathilda: Wow. How about this: I work for you; in exchange, you teach me how to clean. Hmmm? What do you think? I'll clean your place, I'll do the shopping, I'll even wash your clothes. Is it a deal?

Mathilda: I've decided what to do with my life. I wanna be a cleaner.

Léon: You wanna be a cleaner?

[passes her a gun and bullets]

Léon: Here, take it. It's a goodbye gift. Go clean. But not with me. I work alone, understand? Alone.

Mathilda: Bonnie and Clyde didn't work alone. Thelma and Louise didn't work alone. And they were the best.

Mathilda: You killed my brother.

Stansfield: I'm sorry. And you want to join him?

Mathilda: No.

Stansfield: It's always the same thing. It's when you start to become really afraid of death that you learn to appreciate life. Do you like life, sweetheart?

Mathilda: Yes.

Stansfield: That's good, because I take no pleasure in taking life if it's from a person who doesn't care about it.

Tony: Check it. Make sure it's the right thing.

Léon: I trust you.

Tony: One thing has nothin' to do with the other - remember that Léon.

Léon: I will.

Stansfield: Bring me everyone.

3rd Stansfield man: What do you mean "everyone"?

Stansfield: EVERYONE!

[to receptionist after being asked about her father (Leon)]

Mathilda: He's not my father. He's my lover.

Léon: Stansfield?

Stansfield: At your service.

Léon: [handing him something] This is from... Mathilda.

Stansfield: [sees that it's a pin for a grenade] Shit.

Stansfield: [catching Mathilda in the bathroom with food bags] Special delivery huh... Let me guess... Chinese? Thai, maybe? Ahh, I've got it. Italian food

[pops a pill and pulls out a gun]

Stansfield: What's your name angel...

[Mathilda answers]

Stansfield: ... Mathilda, I want you to put the sack on the floor... good... Now, I want you to tell me everything you know about Italian food, and don't forget the name of the chef who fixed it for me.

Mathilda: Nobody sent me.I do business for myself.

Stansfield: Ahh... so this is... something... personal?... What filthy peice of... shit... did I do now?

Mathilda: You killed my brother.

Stansfield: I have a lot of respect for your business, Tony. When you've killed for us in the past we've always been satisfied. And that's exactly why today is going to be very, very hard for me. I hope you'll excuse my mood.

[Shows a crime scene photo]

Stansfield: My man was killed, right here, on your turf. And the chinks tell me that the hit man was kind of the... Italian type. So we figured that, uh, Tony might know something.

[Tony motions to speak]

Stansfield: Wait - there's more. You're gonna love this. A few hours later, a little twelve-year-old girl comes to my office armed to the teeth, with the firm intention of sending me straight to the morgue. And do you know who came and got her in the middle of the afternoon right there in my building? The very... same... Italian hit man.

[Beat]

Stansfield: I'm dying to meet him.

Orphanage Headmistress: Now tell me what happened to you.

Mathilda: OK. My family they got shot down by D.E.A. officers because of a drug problem. I left with the greatest guy on earth. He was a hitman, the best in town, but he died this morning. And if you don't help me, I'll be dead by tonight.

Mathilda: Leon, I think I'm kinda falling in love with you.

[Leon chokes on his milk]

Mathilda: It's the first time for me, you know?

Léon: [wiping himself off] How do you know it's love if you've never been in love before?

Mathilda: 'Cause I feel it.

Léon: Where?

Mathilda: [stoking her stomach] In my stomach. It's all warm. I always had a knot there and now... it's gone.

Léon: Mathilda, I'm glad you don't have a stomach ache any more. I don't think it means anything.

Léon: I took a hit. I need a hand now. I know she's young, but she learns fast. Kids need to be shaped into something right?

Tony: Yeah, I know. I taught you that. But ain't there an age limit?

Léon: She's 18.

Tony: Oh, really?

Mathilda: There's no doorbell.

Léon: So knock on the door.

Mathilda: How are we getting out of here now?

Léon: Leave it to me. We're checking out.

Mathilda: I don't wanna lose you, Leon.

Léon: You're not going to lose me. You've given me a taste for life. I wanna be happy. Sleep in a bed, have roots. And you'll never be alone again, Mathilda. Please, go now, baby, go. Calm down, I'll meet you at Tony's in an hour, I love you, now go, go now.

Malky: It's cops outside, we better go.

Stansfield: It's the cops outside... we better go.

Cigarette Kid: Know her?

The Kids: No.

[he is having sex with his wife in the restroom, Mathilda opens the door]

Mathilda's Father: Shut the goddamn door!

Léon: Tony... All the money I make, that you keep for me...

Tony: You need some money?

Léon: No, just curious... Because, I've been working a long time... And I havent done anything with my... I thought maybe someday I could

[uncomfortable]

Léon: use it.

Tony: [Figuring him out] You met a woman.

Stansfield: You don't like Beethoven. You don't know what you're missing. Overtures like that get my... juices flowing. So powerful. But after his openings, to be honest, he does tend to get a little fucking boring. That's why I stopped!

[laughs and sighs]

Stansfield: Toss the apartment.

Stansfield: You're a Mozart fan. I love him too. I looooove Mozart! He was Austrian you know? But for this kind of work,

[imitates playing the piano]

Stansfield: he's a little bit light. So I tend to go for the heavier guys. Check out Brahms. He's good too.

1st Stansfield man: [finds pizza among Matilda's guns] Lunch.

2nd Stansfield man: Careful Blood. Might be poisoned.

1st Stansfield man: No, no anchovies on this.

Malky: Hey Stan, Stan! What are doing? He's dead!

Stansfield: But he ruined my suit.

1st Stansfield man: He was a pro, he was fast, he fucking came out of nowhere.

[Boom]

1st Stansfield man: shoots the chinamen dead in two seconds

Malky: Easy man I am a cop

1st Stansfield man: Then turns around and says something to Malky like

Léon: No women, no kids.

[boom]

Pauly: C'mon, asshole! C'mon faggot. C'mon, gun trick.

Léon: Hey, what about the ring trick, you've heard that one?

Pauly: Ring trick? C'mon, asshole. I'm waiting. Show it to me, motherfucker!

Léon: Revenge is not a good thing, it's better to forget.

Mathilda: Forget? After I've seen the outline of my brother's body on the floor, you expect me to forget? I wanna kill those sons of bitches, and blow their fucking heads off!

Old Lady: [investigating the noise] What's happening out there?

Malky: All right, ma'am, go away, DEA. Police.

Old Lady: Why don't you leave that poor family alone?

Malky: [to Stansfield] It's all right, everything's al right. Just calm down.

Stansfield: I am calm.

[loads his gun, looks at old lady]

Stansfield: I'm calm.

Old Lady: Why don't you leave them alone?

Stansfield: [shoots the window next to her] He said, "Go back inside".

Mathilda: How old were you when you made your first hit?

Léon: Nineteen.

Mathilda: Beat you!

Swat Chief: [speaking to Stansfield through radio] Alpha team, final position, ready to go.

Stansfield: Be careful.

Swat Chief: [speaking to Stansfield through radio] Alpha team, man down, man down.

Stansfield: I told you.

[first lines]

Tony: Allora, come stai, Leone?

Léon: Bene.

[Tony puts out his cigarette in an ashtray]

Tony: OK. OK. Let's talk business.

[last lines]

Mathilda: I think we'll be OK here, Leon.

Mathilda: [Mathilda, crying about her brother's murder and her stepmother] I was more of a mother to him than thaat goddamn pig ever was!

Léon: Hey, don't talk like that about pigs. They're usually much nicer than people.

Mathilda: But they smell like shit.

Léon: Not true. As a matter of fact, right now I have one in my kitchen that's very clean and smells very nice.

Mathilda: You don't have a pig in your kitchen.

Léon: Yes, I do.

Mathilda: I was just in there and I didn't see any goddamned pig.

Léon: Don't move. I'll get him.

[Leon goes into the kitchen]

Léon: Piggy? Piggy? Where are you?

Léon: [Oinking noises are heard in the kitchen] Oink, oimk! Ah, there you are.

Léon: [More oinking, then a pig pot holder sticks its 'head' around the corner] Hi, Mathilda.

Mathilda: [She smiles] Hi, piggy.

Léon: Sorry about your father.

Mathilda: If somebody didn't do it one day or another, I probably would have done it myself.

Mathilda: [about Russian roulette] If I win, you keep me with you for life.

Léon: And if you lose?

Mathilda: Go shopping alone, like before.

Mathilda: [opens rubbing alcohol over drug stash]

Léon: What are you doing?

Mathilda: You said no women, no kids. Who do you think this is gonna kill, junkies and monkeys?

Mathilda: Sleep well?

Léon: I never really sleep well. Got one eye open, always.

Mathilda: Yeah, I forgot. You know, I never saw someone with one eye open snore so much.

Léon: There was someone a long time ago. Before I came to the States. Her father didn't want her to see me. She was from a very respectable family. Mine was, you know, not so respectable. Her dad went nuts every time she'd take off to see me.

Mathilda: But she still snuck off to see you, right?

Léon: Right.

Mathilda: You see, nothing can stop love, Léon.

Fatman: [on radio] Yeah, what?

Tonto: This is Tonto downstairs. There's a guy who wants to talk to you.

Fatman: What's he look like?

Tonto: [Leon holds gun to his face] Serious.

Léon: Tell him I'm coming up.

Tonto: He's coming up.

[Leon shoots him in the face]

Fatman: Somebody's coming up. Somebody serious!

Tony: Leon asked me to help you out if, uh... if something happened, and I think something happened. Right? He put aside a little cash for you, so what I'm suggesting is that, uh, seein' as how you're still so young, I should hold the money for you, you know, until you're older; like a bank, you know, except, uh, it's better than a bank 'cause, you know, banks always get knocked off. No one knocks off old Tony. But it's... it's your money. And in the meantime, all you gotta do is come here every once in a while, and I'll dish it out so's you can have a little fun, okay? Here. Here's a hundred bucks to start with.

Mathilda: Can't I get a job instead?

Tony: A job? What the hell can you do?

Mathilda: I can clean.

Tony: I ain't got no work for a 12-year-old kid, so get it out of your god damn head! It's over! The game's over! Leon's dead! You hear me?

[she cries]

Tony: Come on. Come on, you think I ain't hurtin', too? But he's dead. And you're gonna forget all this craziness and get your little ass back to school. Capisce? Now take this money and get the hell outta here. And don't let me see your face 'til next month, 'cause something tells me I'm about to lose my famous kind streak.

Mathilda: My parents... d-died in a car accident four weeks ago. It was terrible.

Orphanage Headmistress: You know, we didn't have the time to get to know one another when you first came here, but I want you to know that I'm not the kind of woman who'd let down a child, whatever her situation, whatever her mistake. So I'm going to help you and do my best to welcome you here again. But on one condition: you have to stop lying to me, Mathilda. I want you to take a chance and trust me.

Malky: In June, we gave you the dope, it tests 100% pure. Now it's July, we pick up the dope, and it tests 90% pure. Now, somewhere between June and July, 10% turned to cut!

Mathilda's Father: I don't know. It's none of my business. I'm just a holder. You give me the stuff, I hold the stuff. That's all I know!

Malky: Hey, look, you know, I'm-I'm trying to help you out here.

[indicating Stansfield]

Malky: But, you know, if you're gonna be a hardass about it, I gotta disturb him. And let me tell you, when he's into his music, he hates bein' disturbed.

Mathilda's Father: I'm telling you the truth.

Malky: I hope so, because he's got a talent for sniffing out a lie; it's scary. It's almost like a sixth sense. Now, are you gonna change your tune, or I gotta bust into his?

Malky: I'm sorry. H-He said he didn't cut the dope.

Stansfield: Oh.

[turning to face Mathilda's father, he starts sniffing him]

Stansfield: [satisfied] Of course he didn't. Mm. Just do me a favor. Find out who did, by tomorrow. Noon.