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?

Hunter:
Sh*t, that's light! What's it made of?

Leary:
Composite. Like plastic.

Hunter:
Mind if I give it a little dance?

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 assassinate the president.

Hunter:
Now what do you want to do that for, mister?

Leary:
Why'd you kill that bird, a**hole?

Leary:
The irony is so thick you could choke on it.

Horrigan:
There's no f***in' 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, motherf***er!

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.

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 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. 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:
Do you want to save me, Frank?

Frank Horrigan:
No, but it's my job.

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?

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 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.

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 F***ING 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?

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.

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:
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:
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 a**hole.

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.

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:
You know, for years now I've listened to all these idiots on barstools, with their pet theories on Dallas. How it was the Cubans, or the CIA, or the white supremacists, or the Mob. About whether there was one weapon, or whether there was five. None of that's meant much to me. But Leary... he questioned whether I had the guts to take that fatal bullet.

Leary:
Your average American businessman... looks at a product, a marketing scheme, what have you...and he sees the length and width of it. The Japanese see the depth, the long-term effect. We look at the next fiscal quarter. The Japanese look at the next quarter of a century. Try to get our people to understand that John, huh?

Mitch Leary:
[on phone] Frank?

Frank Horrigan:
Yeah?

Mitch Leary:
Frank Horrigan, the Secret Service agent?

Frank Horrigan:
Yeah, what'd I win?

Mitch Leary:
My God, that really was you in my apartment this afternoon!

Frank Horrigan:
[turns off stereo] 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.

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

Frank Horrigan:
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 protesters. 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 sh*t 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.

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 F***ING 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?

Frank Horrigan:
What 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:
I want you to give yourself up.

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

Frank Horrigan:
We can work something out.

Mitch Leary:
F*** you. Don't f***ing lie to me. 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, motherf***er!

Mitch Leary:
Frank. Do you know how easily I could kill you, Frank? Do you know how many times I've watched you go in and out of that apartment? You're alive because I have allowed you to live. So you show me some goddamn respect!

[Frank is arguing with the Chief of Staff after a false alarm]

Harry Sargent:
The president came off looking like a coward on national television.

Frank Horrigan:
I thought he came off all right. You're the one that came off looking like a damn coward.

Harry Sargent:
This is a just a joke to you?

Frank Horrigan:
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:
You call me Harry one more time, you'll be busting counterfeiters in Alaska! You keep him away from the president, away from the White House, and you sure as hell better keep him away from me!

Bill Watts:
Don't talk to the White House Chief of Staff like that.

Frank Horrigan:
I don't work for him.

Bill Watts:
No, you work for me. At least you did. You're off my detail.

Lilly Raines:
[after a false alarm] 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. F***.

Mitch Leary:
So, you have the guts, Frank. You took the bullet.

Frank Horrigan:
I broke my damn ribs.

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

...

Mitch Leary:
A bulletproof vest is cheating a bit. Otherwise, you played a good game.

Frank Horrigan:
It's no game, Leary. I was doing my job. What are we gonna do now?

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, except I don't want to leave this miserable world alone.

Frank Horrigan:
Take my hand. If you don't, you'll die.

Mitch Leary:
You want to save me, Frank?

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

[Mitch has taken Frank to an elevator]

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, except I don't want to leave this miserable world alone.

Lilly Raines:
West tower, do you have a shot?

Sniper:
Negative, too dark. Target unclear.

Leary:
It's better to die with a friend, don't you think Frank?

Horrigan:
A friend? You're a damn killer, you sick bastard.

Leary:
Don't talk to me like that! I saved your life. You owe me.

Horrigan:
I don't owe you sh*t.

Leary:
I was always honest and fair with you.

Horrigan:
Go ahead and shoot. Go ahead. [the other agents hear him on the ground floor]

Agent Chavez:
It's Frank. [to people reacting at the audio] Quiet! Quiet!

Horrigan:
Come on, dammit.

Raines:
Frank are you talking to me?

Horrigan:
[trying to keep talking to Leary] Well, what are you waiting for?

Leary:
What am I waiting for? I'm waiting for you to show me some goddamn gratitude. [aims pistol as Horrigan moves back] Without me, you'd still just be another sad-eyed, piano-playing drunk. I brought you into this game. I let you keep up with me. I made you a goddamn hero today.

Horrigan:
You didn't make me anything.

Leary:
I redeemed your pathetic, shitty life.

Horrigan:
I just did my job. You're the one with the f***ing pathetic life. Go ahead and shoot, dammit.

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

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

Horrigan:
Shut up and shoot.

Raines:
All right, Frank.

Leary:
[kneels to him] All right, Frank.

Raines:
Shooters, standby to fire. Wait for my command.

Leary:
Sleep well, my friend.

Horrigan:
Just one thing: Aim high.

Leary:
What?

Raines:
Aim high.

Horrigan:
NOW!

Raines:
Fire!

Leary:
[finally sees that Horrigan was on the radio the whole time] You bastard! [snipers shoot]

Mitch Leary:
[last words, left on Frank's answering machine] Hello, Frank. By the time you hear this, it'll be over. The President is most likely dead, and so am I. I wonder, Frank, did you kill me? Who won our game? Not that it really matters, for among friends like you and me, it's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game, and now the game is done and it's time to get on with your life. But I worry, that you have no life to get on with Frank. You're a good man, and good men like you and me are destined to travel a lonely road. Goodbye, and good luck.

Frank Horrigan:
[at the Lincoln Memorial] Well, Abe? ...Damn. Wish I could have been there for you, pal.