Top 30 Quotes From Frank Horrigan

C.I.A. Agent David Coppinger: Leary is what we nowadays call a wet boy.
Al: [in Leary's home] What's a wet boy, Frank?
Frank: Leary's an assassin.
Al: Oh, Jesus.
C.I.A. Agent David Coppinger: In Leary's case, that's putting it too gently. He's more like a predator.

Mitch: [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: Now, why would a man like you want to risk his life to kill a man like that?
Mitch: Don't you have a psychological profile on me yet?
Frank: I don't put a lot of stock in them.
Mitch: Nor do I. A man's actions don't equal the sum of his psychological parts. Doesn't work that way.
Frank: Just how does it work?
Mitch: 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: Well, if none of this means anything... why kill the President?
Mitch: To punctuate the dreariness.

Al: You okay?
Frank: [in his apartment] No, I'm not okay. I'm sick, I'm tired, and I'm armed too, so be careful.
Al: You're also maybe a genius.
Frank: Huh - not to be recognized in this lifetime.

Mitch: [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: You don't know what I used to think!
Mitch: 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: They made you into a real monster, right?
Mitch: That's right and now they want to destroy me because we can't have monsters roaming the quiet countryside, now can we?

Frank: The number of that San Diego office?
Agent: [while dropping him off at the airport] Uh, 619-UKELELE.
Frank: Ukulele?
Agent: That's how I remember it, you know, 7 numbers, 7 letters? You just push U-K-E-L-E-L-E. Easy.
Frank: Uh, wait a minute, isn't "ukulele" spelled U-K-U-?
Agent: I dunno... but the phone number's U-K-E-L-E-L-E.

Sam: [at the airport being greeted by Sam and sourounded by reporters] Frank, the President sent his limo for you.
Lilly: Well, that's the least he could do.
Frank: Good. I love public transportation.

Mitch: [over the phone] What's kept you in the game all these years?
Frank: Why don't we get together and have a drink? We could talk about that.
Mitch: Oh, I'd love to, but I think the less you know about me the better.
Frank: Oh, why?
Mitch: Because I'm planning to kill the President.
Frank: 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: 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: That's right.
Mitch: I'm willing.

Frank: [after someone called the paramedics by playing a prank on him] Okay, who's the joker?
Lilly: It may not have been a joke, you were looking kind of peaked out there.
Frank: Well, when I find out who it was, I'm gonna pay him back in spades.
Lilly: What makes you think it was a *him*?
[walks away]

Frank: [while on duty] How's the First Lady? She ask about me?
Lilly: Have you gotten to know them yet?
Frank: Well, I normally prefer not to get to know the people I'm protecting.
Lilly: Oh, yeah? Why's that?
Frank: Well, you never know. You might decide they're not worth taking a bullet for.

[assassination attempt botched, Leary takes Horrigan hostage onto a hotel elevator]
Mitch: [removing facial disguise] So, you have the guts, Frank. You took the bullet.
Frank: [holding his chest] I think you broke my damn ribs.
Mitch: Sorry, I wasn't aiming at you.

[Leary makes the first of a series of taunting phone calls]
Frank: McCrawley?
Mitch: Why not call me Booth?
Frank: Why not Oswald?
Mitch: Because Booth had flair, panache - a leap to the stage after he shot Lincoln.

Frank: You're looking at a living legend, Lilly. The only active agent who ever lost a president.

Mitch: 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.

Frank: [over the phone] What to do you see when you're in the dark, and the demons come?
Mitch: I see you, Frank. I see you standing over the grave of another dead president.
Frank: That's not going to happen. I'm onto you.
Mitch: 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: Where in California?
Mitch: Uh, the address? Come on, Frank. I'll keep you in the game, but I'm not going to throw it for you.

Harry: [in a conference room] The election's in three weeks. You're asking me to commit political suicide.
Sam: I'm asking you to stay out of California.
Harry: If this guy's so smart, he's not gonna come out and tell you where he's gonna make an attempt.
Frank: I don't think he'd lie to me.
Harry: 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: Then we'll have to change our procedures. Move him around in unmarked cars. Uh... frisk everyone within fifty yards.
Harry: Frisk people going into $10,000 a plate dinners? You're overreacting again, Horrigan.
Frank: If I don't overreact, the president's dead.

Frank: [while sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial] If she looks back, that means she's interested. Come on now give me a little look, a little glance back. Give me a small look and be on your way!

[Clothes and weapons drop to the floor as Horrigan and Lilly prepare to make love; a phone call interrupts them and she leaves]
Frank: Ah, Lilly... damn. Now I gotta put all that shit back on. God damn it.

Frank: [to Lily in the President's hotel suite] 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. Whether there was one weapon, or whether there was five. None of that's meant too much to me. But Leary... he questioned whether I had the guts to take that fatal bullet. God, that was a beautiful day. The sun was out, been raining all morning, the air was... First shot sounded like a firecracker. I looked over, I saw him, I could tell he was hit. I don't know why I didn't react. I should have reacted. I should have been running flat-out. I just couldn't believe it. If only I'd reacted, I could have taken that shot. And that would have been alright with me.

[Frank watches Lilly leave from the Lincoln Memorial]
Frank: 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: Well, Abe? Damn... wish I could have been there for you, pal.

Frank: [over the phone] I know who you are - Leary.
Mitch: I'm glad, Frank. Friends should be able to call each other by name.
Frank: We're not friends.
Mitch: Sure we are.
Frank: I've seen what you do to friends.
Mitch: What's that supposed to mean?
Frank: You slit your friend's throat.
Mitch: You talked to Coppinger, Frank?
Frank: Yeah, that's right.
Mitch: Did you delouse? The man's a professional liar.
Frank: I saw the photos.
Mitch: No, you saw what he wanted you to see, Frank.
Frank: I saw a picture of, uh, your friend lying on the floor with his throat cut.
Mitch: 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: [in a conference room] Well, the secretaries get prettier and prettier.
Lilly: And the field agents get older and older.
Sam: Lilly's an agent, Frank.
Frank: I knew that. I just wanted to see if she had a sense of humor.

Lilly: [in a conference room] What makes you think he'll call again?
Frank: Oh, he'll call again. He's got, uh, "panache."
Lilly: Panache?
Frank: Yeah, it means flamboyance.
Lilly: Mm, I know what it means.
Frank: Really? I had to look it up.

Mitch: [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: Well, when do we start playing the game?
Mitch: The clock's ticking, Frank.

Frank: [while sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial] I've never worked with a female agent before. How many are there?
Lilly: About 125.
Frank: Mm. Pure window dressing.
Lilly: Excuse me?
Frank: 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: Do you make an effort to be obnoxious, or is it a gift?
Frank: 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.

Al: [while driving in his car] I don't know, maybe I'm... maybe I'm just wrong for the job.
Frank: You're a good man, Al. You'll make a good agent.
Al: How do you know? This is the longest conversation we've ever had.
Frank: I know things about people.

Frank: [over the phone] I want you to give yourself up.
Mitch: So I can live a long and fruitful life?
Frank: Oh, we can work something out.
Mitch: [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: You have a rendezvous with my ass, motherfucker!

[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: Go ahead and shoot, dammit.
Lilly: They can't see inside. If they fire, you'll be hit.
Mitch: I want you to thank me first, Frank.
Frank: Shut up and shoot.
Lilly: All right, Frank.
Mitch: All right, Frank.
Lilly: Shooters, stand by to fire. Wait for my command.
Mitch: [cocks gun] Sleep well, my friend.
Frank: Just one thing: aim high.
Mitch: What?
Lilly: Aim high.
Frank: Now!
Mitch: [sees the microphone and realizes Horrigan has been talking to Raines] You bastard!
Lilly: Fire.
[glass is shattered by gunfire. Leary is forced to duck, giving Horrigan an opportunity to grapple with him]

Frank: [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: [smiling] Do you want to save me, Frank?
Frank: To be frank and honest with you, no. But it's my job.

Mitch: [over the phone] The irony is so thick you could choke on it.
Frank: There's no fuckin' irony, Mitch.
Mitch: 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.

Frank: [while on board Air Force One] So you had an affair with an agent, and it came out badly.
Lilly: He wasn't an agent.
Frank: But he left you because you wouldn't quit your job. You were broken-hearted.
Lilly: I left him, Frank, because I wouldn't quit my job for him. And it did break my heart.
Frank: You vowed never again to ever let a man come between you and your career.
Lilly: No...
Frank: Except... now you're in love with me, and it screws your little head up.
Lilly: Frank, blow your nose. Here.
Frank: Sorry. What were to happen if I, uh, gave up my job for you?
Lilly: Why would you do that?
Frank: Well, maybe I vowed to never again let my career come between me and a woman.