The Gauntlet Quotes

[repeated line]

Ben Shockley: Nag, nag, nag.

[calmly speaking like a stewardess to the passengers of the hijacked bus, as she is holding a gun]

Gus Mally: Sorry for this inconvience, ladies and gentlemen, but at this time, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave the bus. Please be sure and take all your belongings with you and I promise arrangements will be made for your continued journey as quickly as possable.

[Passengers stare at her dumbfounded]

Gus Mally: Well?

[waves gun and shouts]

Gus Mally: HAUL ASS!

Ben Shockley: How's our Assistant D.A. these days?

Josephson: Shit! He couldn't convict Hitler.

Gus Mally: You cheap shot, gutless bastard! You really get off roughing up girls, don't you? Big man! Big 45 caliber fruit!

Ben Shockley: That's me!

Gus Mally: Ben Shockley don't you die on me Open those Fucking eyes

[Shockley rolls his eyes and opens them]

Ben Shockley: Nag, Nag, Nag!

Ben Shockley: [to the prone female inmate feigning sleep] Hit the deck, Mally.

[to the warden]

Ben Shockley: Did she have anything to eat?

Jail Matron: Just a cup of coffee this morning.

Ben Shockley: [inspecting the empty mug] Yeah. Looks like she smoked a few cigarettes and put the ashes in the coffee.

[the girl lifts up her head to look at him]

Ben Shockley: Old army trick. She wanted to look sick.

Gus Mally: [jumps up from the bunk, tries darting away, is caught] Let me go! They're gonna kill me! I want a fucking lawyer!

[he slaps her, she falls back onto the bunk, looking up at him ruefully]

Gus Mally: Terrific! My life on the line and they send me an on-the-ropes bum!

Ben Shockley: What kind of record she have?

Jail Matron: Hooker.

Ben Shockley: [to the girl] You see, we got a problem, you and me. We don't like each other very much, but we have to take a trip together. Now you can come along peacefully or you can be a pain in the ass. But I'm warning ya, you mess around and I'll put the cuffs on you. You talk dirty, I gag ya, if you run, I'll shoot you. My name is Shockley, and we've got a plane to catch. Let's go.

Constable: [in the car, he's driving, Ben's in front, she's in the back seat, with him leering at her in the mirror] You mind if I ask you a question? How many times a month you spread your legs?

Ben Shockley: Just drive the car, will you?

Constable: See now, I got me a chance to learn something, colonel. I mean, as long as I got to chaffeur the little strumpet, you don't mind if a country boy picks up a little education, do you?

[smirks]

Constable: I... I got this here buddy, he had the idea one time to open up a string of whorehouses and advertise like them fried chicken places. "Finger lickin' good!"

[snorting laugh]

Constable: How's it work with your kind? You go to some kind of special school or something?

Gus Mally: [coolly] I have a B.A. from Finch College.

Constable: That where you learned to give head?

Ben Shockley: Will you shut up, for Chrissake?

Constable: Hey now, colonel, you come to the strumpet's rescue? I bet you had some ideas of getting some gash yourself. Maybe you already had a taste of it, huh? Ain't nothing like a slice of the damp, is there?

Ben Shockley: Jesus.

Constable: You can't fool ol' Deke, I seen you zipping your fly-...

Ben Shockley: [pointing the gun at him menacingly] Will you shut up!

Gus Mally: [calmly] It's all right, let him talk.

Constable: Were you going to shoot a fellow officer, colonel? What'll you tell them back home? That I was insulting your whore?

[Ben grimaces]

Constable: Gmmph!

[to Gus]

Constable: Looks like you done lost your hero-boy.

Gus Mally: [coolly] I can take care of myself.

Constable: I bet you can at that. Let's just me and you have a little talk, huh? Did you ever go down on another little girl? Ever have it done to you? I mean, whores just don't make it with guys. They'll make it with anybody with the cash, right? Bet you do. Bet I'd like to watch you too. Yes, ma'am. I'd really dig watching you. Them little ol' melons all pink and tight. That little ass a-humping and a-jerking around.

[Ben looks at him askew]

Constable: Them long legs all jacked up juicy-like. I'll bet it don't take much to get you all wet and hot to trot, does it?

[smirks]

Constable: Hey, come on, talk to me, I wanna know what it's like being a whore.

Gus Mally: Actually, I always thought it was rather like being a cop.

Constable: You did?

[dirty laugh]

Gus Mally: Yeah. Not unlike being on the take at two dozen bars in downtown Vegas. Taking money from some politician every time you peel his drunken kid's Cadillac off a telephone pole.

[toying with a cigarette]

Gus Mally: Strong-arming the Chicanos in the barrio on Saturday night. Busting kids for smoking grass then taking a kickback from the heroin dealers. Or those occasions where you do bust a pusher and skim the haul when you've made the collar. Sell what you skim to your dope addict buddies on the force.

Constable: [laughs] She's sure on to all our tricks, ain't she?

Gus Mally: As I see it, the only difference between you and me is that when I quit work, I take a long hot bath and I'm as clean as the day I was born. But a cop, especially a flunkie like you, when the sheriff whistles, you squat. And what he does to you rots your brain. No amount of water on earth can get you clean again.

Constable: [to Ben] You're going to sit there and take that kinda crap?

Ben Shockley: [vague grin] You were the one who wanted her to talk.

Gus Mally: I know you don't like women like me. We're a bit aggressive. We frighten you. But that's only because you got filth in your brain. And I'm afraid the only way you'll clean it out is to put a bullet through it.

[leaning over towards him]

Gus Mally: And does your wife know you masturbate?

[causes him to yell in dismay and lose control of the car, almost smashing into a truck]

Ben Shockley: [holding the gun against the driver's head] You've had your chat!

[fed up with him]

Ben Shockley: Now drive!

[Ben and Gus look at each other in a new light, sharing bonding looks]

Gus Mally: Shockley...?

Ben Shockley: Yeah?

Gus Mally: What's gonna happen at the border?

Ben Shockley: We'll pick up an escort to take us to Phoenix.

Gus Mally: Who?

Ben Shockley: Police. Arizona police.

Gus Mally: How do you know?

Ben Shockley: Because I asked for 'em.

Gus Mally: Did you call the same person you telephoned from the house?

[looks worried, brushes through her hair with her hand]

Ben Shockley: Yeah.

Gus Mally: Well, when I saw you back there in the culvert, you said you'd been set up.

Ben Shockley: It seemed that way at the time.

Gus Mally: What's changed since then?

Ben Shockley: [at a loss] What are you trying to say?

Gus Mally: That somebody's trying to kill me. And since you're along, you're a target too. That car that blew up, and those two guys who shot at us, now that could've been the Mob, but back at the house there, those were cops outside, and somehow they got the wrong message. Now maybe it was a legitimate mistake, maybe not, but if it wasn't, who would have given them the wrong message?

Ben Shockley: How would I know? It wouldn't be my guys, not the guys on my own force, for Chrissakes!

Gus Mally: You're probably right, but... I mean, let's just say that there's a chance you're wrong. Just one chance in a thousand.

[this strikes home with Ben]

Gus Mally: The state line is a pretty lonely place to find out.

Constable: You hear what she said about your own people? You going to sit there and take that shit?

Ben Shockley: How far is the state line?

Constable: About ten miles.

Gus Mally: Shockley... I really do have a college degree.

[throws her hair back, as the car passes through hilly country]

Ben Shockley: [at loggerheads with her as usual] Shut up.

Gus Mally: Never seen a cop feeling sorry for himself before. Mind if I watch?

Ben Shockley: For 2c and a stick of gum, I'd kick the shit out of you.

Gus Mally: Oh, whatever gets you off, butch.

Ben Shockley: After I was through, where would I leave the $20?

Gus Mally: I don't want your money, Shockley. I love you for your mind.

Ben Shockley: [slaps her brutally, gets kicked securely right between his legs, gasping, lunging at her] You son of - -

[she yelps, darts off]

Gus Mally: [coming back while he is bent over forward] Sorry. Just had to jog your thinking.

[while he's still recovering:]

Gus Mally: You're a loser, Shockley. I'm splitting.

[he pulls the gun on her]

Gus Mally: You wouldn't shoot a woman in the back, would you? How would that look on your stinking record?

Ben Shockley: Now I get the big case and I'm picked to go down with it.

Gus Mally: You don't have to. Neither of us does. Nobody is forcing you to go back to Phoenix. Look, we could go to Canada or Mexico. Anywhere!

Ben Shockley: [sarcastically] Sure. And live like kings.

Gus Mally: I've got some money. Look, I've got my checkbook. $5000 back in Vegas.

Ben Shockley: And when that runs out?

Gus Mally: Look, let's then take the money and buy a pickup truck. An old sedan, or something unobtrusive, for God's sake. We'll take the back roads, we'll turn ourselves in to some precinct station. Anything but City Hall! We'll ask for protective custody. Talk to the D.A.

Ben Shockley: That's exactly what I want you to do.

Gus Mally: Well, what about you?

Ben Shockley: Me, I am going in.

Gus Mally: Why?

Ben Shockley: We both know why Blakelock picked me for the job. I'm gonna prove he's wrong.

Gus Mally: Then I'm going with you.

Ben Shockley: Uh-uh. You're not my prisoner anymore. You can go wherever you want. You get your money, you can take off. This is strictly between me and Blakelock.

Gus Mally: Look, you said yourself you didn't think the whole thing would work.

Ben Shockley: At least someone'll know I tried.

Gus Mally: Who, Blakelock?

Ben Shockley: No, me.

Gus Mally: [in cell] You found out I was right, didn't you?

Ben Shockley: [opening cell door, entering] I didn't find out dick. All I know is there is a horse named Mally No Show in the 10th race at Santa Anita, and the way the odds are going up, somebody's betting she's going to drop dead at the starting gate.

Gus Mally: That's right! And this is the gate right here! Don't you see? They're saying we don't have a chance!

Ben Shockley: For all I know, there is a horse, it's just a coincidence.

Gus Mally: [scoffs impatiently] It's not a coincidence! For Chrissakes, Shockley, there isn't any 10th race at Anita!

[he scowls at her]

Paramedic Driver: [two medics arrive] The wagon's outside.

Ben Shockley: What about that horse?

Paramedic: 75 to one. Sounds like a real nag.

Gus Mally: [frantic] Look, go back home. Leave me be. Call it off. Please!

Ben Shockley: We're splitting right now.

[to the paramedics]

Ben Shockley: Look, one of you call Hertz or Avis, I don't care which one. Get me a car. Have them leave it somewhere inbetween here and the airport. Leave the keys in and I'll pay for it when I get her on the plane.

[to her:]

Ben Shockley: If, and I say if, what you're saying is true, then somebody's betting I can't do my job. Well, they're full of shit!

Gus Mally: You are - - These people laying these odds will chew you up and spit you out! You're fucking crazy! I'm not going anywhere with you!

[retreats back to the bunk bed, looking into his steely unsympathetic eyes tearfully]

Ben Shockley: [driving the ambulance] Come here!

[panicky, she scurries up from the back]

Ben Shockley: Take this!

[holds out the service revolver to her]

Gus Mally: What's that?

Ben Shockley: It's a gun, take it!

Gus Mally: Well, I don't want it!

Ben Shockley: Take it!

[she takes it]

Ben Shockley: Anybody comes up behind us, shoot 'em!

Gus Mally: You gotta be kidding!

[frazzled]

Gus Mally: Where the hell are you going?

Ben Shockley: Take a less popular way to the airport.

Gus Mally: After what happened back there? Jesus, they'll be waiting for us at the airport!

Ben Shockley: By the time they sift through that wreckage, we'll be in Phoenix!

Gus Mally: [the ambulance is tailed by a suspicious black car, but, unaware, she has her own ideas] Pull over!

[the gun pointed at him]

Ben Shockley: [unperturbed] I'm going 50 miles an hour. Until you pull that trigger, I'm headed at the airport.

Gus Mally: I mean it! I swear to Christ if you don't stop this thing I'm gonna shoot you!

[a shot is suddenly fired at them from the tailing car, through the back of the ambulance, then another]

Gus Mally: What's that?

Ben Shockley: They're shooting at us!

[another shot]

Ben Shockley: Shoot at 'em!

Gus Mally: Stop this thing! It's the police!

Ben Shockley: It's not the police! Shoot at 'em!

Gus Mally: I can't!

Ben Shockley: [looking back annoyed] You were ready to shoot at me, dammit!

Ben Shockley: This bike stays with me. You three can take a hike.

Biker: Hey man. This is our choppers, Charlie.

Ben Shockley: This is my gun, Clyde.